Normandy - time for reflection, gratitude & Mt. St. Michel

June 14 & 15

Combining two days again because I’m trying to catch up and one of the sites we saw overlapped both days.  Haven’t had a minute of rest the past few days.

I love my country and have been to many of the famous historical sites throughout the United States, but I have found the place where I am the most proud to be an American is at the American Military Cemetery that overlooks Omaha Beach in Normandy, France.  They have a short video in the visitor’s center that uses letters and interview with survivors and family that tells the story of five American service men who are buried at the cemetery.  I cannot go to that cemetery without thinking of the Lincoln’s line from the Gettysburg Address,  “The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.”  This is truly hallowed ground and a very powerful and moving place to visit. 

After paying our respects at the cemetery, we stopped and had crepes for lunch and then went to visit Pointe du Hoc.  Here, the 2^nd and 5^th Ranger battalions scaled the cliffs in order to control the strategic high point between Utah and Omaha beaches.  With pillboxes and bomb craters still in place, it is a sobering lesson of the sacrifice of the “greatest generation”. 

From there, we headed south to the fortified medieval island, abbey and town of Mont Saint Michel which depending on the tide is alternately either an island reached by a causeway or rock outcropping surrounded by sand with dangerous patches of quicksand.  We checked into our favorite AirBnb so far in a converted French gîte (loosely translated to a cottage).  It was the largest and most comfortable place we have stayed so far. 

On our host’s recommendation, we went to visit Mt. St. Michel at night after it go dark and were rewarded with free parking, few people in walled city and amazing views of the lit up fortifications both from the outside looking in and the inside looking out.  The next day, we came back to Mt. St. Michel to take the tour of the abbey and explore the island and city a little more. 

If anyone ever has a chance to go to France but does not have a lot of time to spend there, I would highly recommend skipping Paris (which is nice but crowded) and seeing the sites we saw in Bayeux, D-Day beaches and cemetery and Mont Saint Michel – this can all be done in a few days, and is much more powerful and impressive in my opinion than the more famous sites in the large cities. 

I made a small error in calculation, and I thought we had a 4-hour drive that night down to Carcassonne, but in reality with traffic, it was well over 8 hours.  We got in a little before 1 am, but we were able to check into our budget Ibis hotel rooms – same company as Formule 1, but the rooms are slightly bigger and each has its own bathroom and shower. 

We’re getting toward the end of our own Tour de France.