France – Mont St. Michel and Normandy

Hello faithful readers! I know it’s been a long time (like a month) since my last update. Here’s a quick run-down of the last month’s events. Chris and I spent a week in Spain, followed by a week learning how to surf in Peniche, Portugal. Chris was significantly more successful in this endeavor than I was. I got a really great wetsuit tan and more bruises than I could count, but it was still fun! I promise you’ll be getting pictures and stories from that trip as soon as I finish with our time in France.

Two days after we got home, Chris left for pre-deployment training in Texas. The newly-promoted Captain Bahrij is sweating it out Army-style for the next few weeks before he heads over to Afghanistan for six months. This is deployment number three for our family; hard to believe, since we haven’t even been in the Air Force for four years. It always takes me some time to find a new routine after he leaves, but I think I’ve got it figured out now. I’m back to writing; hopefully, on a fairly regular basis.

Thank you for your patience. If you’ve forgotten where we were in our travels, go back and re-read the last post.

France – Mont St. Michel and Normandy

Four hours and one stop for gas later, we arrived at the beautiful island of Mont St. Michel. Here’s the short history: The Abbey of Mont St. Michel was built in 708 AD by the Catholic Church. Pilgrims and tourists have been visiting ever since. Over time, a small village rose up below the Abbey, defensive walls were built around the village, and a causeway was constructed to make travel to the island slightly less dangerous. Tides in the Bay of Mont St. Michel rise over 50 ft each day and can travel at speeds up to 12 mph (that’s fast for water). The parking lots near the island are covered at high tide each day, so don’t be late getting back to your car – yikes! Okay, enough history, back to our visit.

We started at the Biscuiterie de la Baie du Mont St. Michel (long name for a bakery that makes really tasty cookies) for a lunch of cookies and apple cider. Super-nutritious, I know. The parking lot was supposed to have great views of the island of Mont St. Michel, and it did not disappoint. Our next stop was to indulge the river engineer in me. The causeway built to connect the island to the mainland in the late 1800’s caused the area around the island to silt in, making the term “island” less than accurate. A project is underway to remove the causeway and return the area around the island to its natural condition. A small building on the mainland is home to a very in-depth exhibit explaining the project. Unfortunately for me, it was all in French. It was probably a good thing, though. If it was in English I would have spent all day reading.

Next, we drove down the infamous causeway, parked our car in the “don’t be late” lot, and walked up to the city gates. We looked in, saw how many people were crammed into the streets, and decided a walk around the island was a better plan. We arrived at low-ish tide, so we had no problem making it completely around the island. This turned out to be the best part of our visit. The landscape was beautiful and we got to see views of Abbey most people never even know exist. Eventually, though, we decided we should brave the crowds to see the Abbey itself.

Our awesome guide book (Rick Steves again) gave us three options for walking up the hill to the Abbey. We opted to follow along the top of the City walls, hoping it would be less crowded than the main street through the village. After quite a bit of climbing (and living on our island I am no stranger to climbing steep roads), we arrived at the entrance to the Abbey. From an engineer’s perspective, the fact that any buildings at all were able to stand on the top of the steep rocky island was pretty impressive. However, compared to most of the cathedrals we have and would see, the interior of the Abbey was pretty run-of-the-mill. The monks’ courtyard was the best part of the tour due mostly to the amazing view of the surrounding bay. Chris also enjoyed the giant hamster wheel used to haul supplies up to the Abbey. Yes, a real, working, people-powered hamster wheel.

Chris insisted on walking back down the hill through all the tourists, much to my slightly ochlophobic dismay. It wasn’t really that bad and we did get to stop for our first French crepes. Crepes with strawberry jelly became a favorite of Chris’ before we left France. Good thing the family recipe for “big pancakes” made it into my cook book when I left home!

We made it back to our car well before it ended up under water and spent another two hours driving through the French countryside to the town of Bayeux (see the map for our routes). For anyone who is wondering exactly what the French countryside looks like… it looks like someone took a bunch of cute little New England towns and dropped them into the middle of Iowa. We checked into a three-room bed and breakfast (if I haven’t said this before, B&B’s are the way to travel; hands down, the best!) before venturing out into the town for some dinner. Between the B&B and our eventual restaurant choice, we passed by the Bayeux cathedral but weren’t able to go in as there was a Mass going on inside.

The next morning, we started our tour of the WWII sights in Normandy bright and sort-of early. When someone else tells you what time breakfast is served, you have no choice but to go with it. We finished our homemade bread with homemade apple jelly and our huge cups of coffee served in earthenware mugs, and hit the road. Our first stop was Arromanches, the location of the Port Winston Artificial Harbor. Artificial harbor, you say? Why, yes. The Allied forces that landed in Normandy actually built two artificial harbors. They were made from old ships that were sailed from England and then sunk, huge concrete vaults hauled to the site and sunk (notice a theme here), and miles of portable steel bridges. Within six days of the landing, the harbors were more-or-less fully functional, unloading supplies, vehicles, and more. The harbor built at Omaha beach only lasted 12 days, so the one constructed at Arromanches became the main supply point for the Allied invasion of France. Who knew there was so much engineering in history! My question is where was this harbor when I was learning about WWII in school? While in Arromanches, we also toured the D-Day Landing Museum – home to working models of the artificial harbor and information on the landing operations undertaken by each of the Allied countries participating in D-Day.

The next stop on the tour was the Longues-sur-Mer gun battery. It was on our way to this site that we noticed how well marked the D-Day sights are as you travel along the tiny country roads. The French in this region take their history seriously, and have done a spectacular job providing a comprehensive look at D-Day and the Allied invasion. In a quiet grass field off of one of the previously mentioned country roads, four German artillery bunkers keep watch over a section Omaha beach. These bunkers house huge guns that were capable of hitting targets miles off shore. The guns are still in place, and the bunkers are open to enter. It was eerie standing the bunkers, looking at the small rooms where the German soldiers slept, and trying to imagine how loud it would have been in the concrete rooms when the gun was fired. Destroying these bunkers, and the thousands of others like them, was key to defeating the Germans in France.

Stop number two for the day was the WWII Normandy American Cemetery. Positioned solemnly over Omaha beach, this cemetery is the definition of hallowed ground. Chris commented as we were leaving that he never really understood what people were talking about when they said that, but as soon as we entered the cemetery, he got it. Over 9,000 marble crosses and Stars of David line up in perfect rows, not a blade of grass out of place (thanks to specially designed lawn mowers), paying silent tribute to the soldiers who fought to free France. The markers show the names, units, home states, and dates of death of each person – dog tag numbers are carved into the backs of the markers near the ground. We walked up and down row after row of crosses, reading names, and trying to absorb the enormity of the history contained in this one location. Once we had covered the entire cemetery, we ventured into the chapel before ending our tour at the visitors’ center. The basement of the center gives information about the Allied preparations for the Normandy invasion, including interviews with Allied commanders and soldiers, and a detailed timeline of the months leading up to D-Day.

The contrast in attitude between the cemetery and our next stop, Omaha beach itself, was marked. Outside the confines of the memorials and cemeteries, life in Normandy has carried on for over 65 years, just as it did for thousands of years before D-Day. Families were gathered on the beach, eating picnic lunches, playing soccer, and walking their dogs. Some sections of the D-Day beaches have even been developed into resort hotels. It was odd, as an American who views Normandy through the context of our county’s only historical encounter with the area, to see people carrying on with their lives so seemingly unaware of what is all around them. But, then isn’t that what the Allies were trying to do in Normandy, return life and peace to the French (and the rest of Europe)? Eventually, we decided to embrace the locals’ attitude, and we spent some time walking through the waves (so cold!!) and enjoying the sunshine before heading to our next stop.

The Pointe du Hoc Ranger Monument, the most heavily bombed location in the days leading up to D-Day, was our final stop of the day. Destroying the German bunkers in this location was considered essential to the entire D-Day operation. The landscape surrounding the mostly-destroyed bunkers consists almost entirely of bomb craters now covered in grass and wildflowers (yet another example of how time marches on). A huge stone dagger driven through the top of one of the German bunkers is a memorial to the 300 Army Rangers who scaled the cliffs at Pointe du Hoc on D-Day to secure this important point for the Allies.

Feeling we had absorbed all the D-Day history we could handle in one day, we drove back to Bayeux, said goodbye to our rental car, and found ourselves some much-needed dinner.