A Long Weekend in Normandy

Jacob had a four day weekend this past week (well sort of, he had Tuesday off for All Saints day so we figured might as well take Monday off and make it a long weekend!) so we planned to take a trip down to the Normandy region of France. The weekend did not start off great as I was sick...AGAIN!! I woke up about 3 AM Friday morning throwing up and was miserable the entire day! Jacob had this bug earlier in the week so luckily I knew it would only last about 24 hours. I sent him off to his work Christmas/Fall party that evening alone...boo :o(...in hopes that I would wake up Saturday morning feeling better and ready to head off on our journey...and I did...well, mostly better anyway.

So we piled our car full and headed out on the 5 hour drive. I know no one wants to hear this and trust me I know how lucky we are to be taking all these amazing adventures in Europe, but I still need to say it...traveling is hard...and stressful...especially with a little one in tow. At times I feel like all the preparation and work that goes in to it is really not even worth it...I probably would have never even written that after our Italy trip, but these last few trips Jacob and I both have just been a little run down and at wits end by the time it's all over. He's tired of driving all the time...and I'm tired of trying to entertain a 1 year old from the front seat. Anyway...I guess I needed to just get that out there...so you don't think our life it all glitz and glamour all the time :o) And now...back to the trip...

We headed to our hotel in Caen, France. We ended up staying at the Mercure hotel...another great online deal that included breakfast. Ideally we would have stayed in Honfleur or one of the other small fishing towns along the coast, but we booked too late and apparently there was not a room left in any of the towns! And Caen actually turned out to be quite charming...here are some pictures from it.

We arrived around 4:30 PM so just ended up settling in for the night and saved our site seeing for the next day. The next morning we were up early and headed off to visit Mont Saint Michel! This is a beautiful Abbey located on an island of sorts...well it's an island when the tide is in anyway. According to the website the tide would be in at 9:30 AM and PM that day. I was sort of hoping to see it with the water surrounding it, but with those times it just wasn't possible since it was a little over an hour from our hotel. When we arrived you can see why this is such a tourist attraction...even from far away it's quite impressive!

And even more so from up close...

Unfortunately once we got inside the grand walls of it though our enthusiasm diminished. I'm not sure if it was because it was a holiday or if it's always this way, but the place was completely PACKED!! You could hardly move with all the crowds. And when we finally made it up to the Abbey there was a line as far as the eye could see to get a peak inside! So we opted to just admire it from the outside and head back to our car.

Check out the shot of the car lot from inside the small village. You can see how even the parking lot will be covered by the tide. Signs along the way even warned as much!! And apparently we were the only ones that didn't know rain boots would be a great accessory on this visit...as the water soaked lots were mostly a muddy mess!

I would definitely recommend a trip to Mont Saint Michel if you are ever in the area, but try and do it in the off season or atleast on a weekday...when hopefully the crowds are a little less of an issue.

On to the next day...Halloween...we got an early start (thank you Autumn) and we headed off to Omaha beach...where the American troops landed back in 1944. It was crazy...when we arrived there was NO one there! It was about 9 AM and we basically had the beach to ourselves...except for a few walkers and joggers...oh and some men riding in these crazy contraptions connected to horses.

There were a few nice monuments, but really it mostly looked like any other beach. It's hard to imagine the tragedy and the blood, sweat, and tears that were shed her not all that long ago. It definitely made you proud to be an American standing on such precious ground. After the beach, we headed up to the American Memorial Cemetery. There was a very nice museum at the cemetery that we wandered through (Admission was free). Jacob and I were both very impressed with the cemetery and the museum and how well everything was kept up. Again...we were proud to be able to visit such a historic site. We kept expecting to hear more people speaking English here, but really we felt like the only ones. It was nice to have all the movies and information in English first for a change though :o)







Then after some much needed lunch we headed off for the apple orchards to taste some of the local specialty...apple cider...along the "Route de Cider." As is typical in Europe though, we had trouble finding the places and roads we were looking for...but we did get to drive through some beautiful French countryside and did manage to taste and buy some cider along the way :o)

Look at all the apples in the picture below!

Oh and I finally got to see my beautiful fall leaves...the drive down was stunning...it was the perfect fall weekend to be driving all over France!



The next morning we packed up the car again and headed home...and it's nice to be home...especially since the sun is shining here in Brussels. It feels like fall has finally arrived!

To see all the pictures from Normandy, click here.