When we've talked about travel to people in our living-and-working-in-the-UK-temporarily community, we've heard from several of them that Normandy was their favorite trip. So naturally, we had to make sure to add that to our destinations while we're living here in Europe! While I wouldn't call it our favorite trip (it's topped by Scotland and Greece) it was amazing and beautiful, and gave us an insight into D-Day (and more history, too) that we didn't really have before.
Day one
We had been planning to take the ferry across the channel to France, but a few days before we left the ferry was cancelled due to a big storm that was coming in. So we quickly had to change plans and book a ticket to travel instead through the chunnel. In some ways we actually prefer the chunnel, and in this case the total travel time ended up being basically the same, but it meant more time in the car. Because of the new timing, we weren't able to do much when we arrived except check in to our Airbnb near Rouen and pick up a late dinner.
Day two
We spent the bulk of our day wandering around Rouen. What interested me most about Rouen was its connections to Joan of Arc. Joan was not from Rouen, but it is where she was taken after being captured by the English, imprisoned, tried, and burned at the stake. There is one tower remaining of the fortress in Rouen, and it has now become known as the Joan of Arc Tower, since this is where she was imprisoned. We also saw the place where she was burned- there is now a church named after her, and in its courtyard there is a simple sign to mark the spot and a statue of her near the church wall. Unfortunately the day were in Rouen, the Joan of Arc museum was closed so we didn't get to visit.
Next up in Rouen we headed for the Gros-Horlage Clock. It is a fourteenth century astronomical clock installed in an arch in town. We were lucky with our timing and were there to see the pictures change.
We also saw the beautiful cathedral and several other beautiful churches. We visited Aitre St Maclou, which has an interesting history but isn't much to look at.
We headed back to the car and went next to the ruins of Jumieges Abbey, which is outside of town by about 30 minutes. We've seen many ruined abbeys and castles in the UK, but we wanted to see this one because it has been described as the most beautiful ruins in France. I don't have much to compare it to in France but it was stunning and we were able to get some great shots of our kids there. While we were there it started raining hard, but only for about 15 minutes and then it cleared up beautifully.
Day three
This was one of my favorite days of the trip (along with day six). Even though it was definitely not warm, I love the beach and I love the amazing cliffs in this part of the world. We started at Fecamp, where we found some trails that gave us great views of the town, beach, and cliffs. We continued on and discovered some old German bunkers, left over from the war. We were able to go inside one of them and climb on top as well. We ate a packed lunch in the car and then took a nice walk on the beach.
The views only got better when we got to Etretat. You know the views must be great when you think that Monet (and other artists!) spent time here painting the cliffs and arches. It was definitely more crowded here though. When you park in the main lot at the beach, you have the option of hiking up to the left or the right. We chose the left, and were rewarded with a view of the largest of the three arches, which isn't visible from town. The kids actually really enjoyed this little hike- it's uphill but not terribly hard and they loved being able to see where we started from the top.
Day four
This was our D-Day day. Our first stop was the Arromanches 360 cinema. I think this was a great place to start because our kids didn't really know anything about D-Day, WWII in general, so this gave them some great context for everything else we saw that day. Honestly, it was also helpful for me since it's been a long time since I took a history class. Near the cinema they also have a memorial that they put in on the 75th anniversary of D-Day and it's pretty neat- viewing the beaches from the perspective of a veteran who was there.
We didn't have time to visit all the beaches, but we were able to get to Omaha and Utah beaches, as well as the American cemetery and the Longues-sur-mer battery. It was all very sobering to think about everything that happened at these places, all the people who fought and died, for freedom.
Day five
We went back to the towns for this day- Caen and Bayeux. In Caen we saw a lot of churches. We saw the grave (tomb? What do you call it when they're under the floor of a church?) of William the Conqueror in the Abbaye aux Hommes and his wife Matilda in the Abbaye aux Dames and got some fresh French pastries from a cute bakery, which we ate as we walked around town.
For the rest of the afternoon we went to Bayeux, where we ate a nice late lunch, visited the cathedral, and saw the famous 1000 year old "tapestry" (it's actually an embroidery), which depicts the story of William the Conqueror and the Norman conquest of England. Unfortunately photos were not allowed so I don't have any to share!
Day six
Mont Saint-Michel! We loved this day. Apparently we had talked about Mont Saint-Michel enough that the kids were really excited to go there. We actually ended up picking the perfect Airbnb and could actually see the mount from one of the upstairs windows! This meant we were close enough to walk (about 10-15 minutes) to the visitors' center, where we could take the free shuttle to the mount without having to deal with parking. The walk was lovely too, along a small farm road next to a sheep field where the little lambs were adorably running and jumping around.
It's definitely a walk to get to the abbey at the top of Mont Saint-Michele but it's so worth it. By the time we got up, walked to the visitors' center, waited for a shuttle, rode to the mount, and started climbing (and shopping), it was just about lunch time! So we stopped halfway up and ate our packed lunch before heading into the abbey.
We just got one audioguide for me, and I shared interesting details as we went along. It's a really interesting place- it was originally an abbey, but was later used as a prison, before becoming the tourist attraction that it is today.
We got some fresh crepes and checked out some of the shops on the mount before catching the shuttle again to leave the mount for dinner. Later Aaron dropped me off to go back and take some pictures of the mount lit up after dark and it was cold, but beautiful.
Day seven
Since we had time before our evening ferry back to England, we decided to check out St Malo after checking out of our Airbnb in the morning. We discovered a "pirate" ship and we all had a blast exploring it. Then we went within the city walls and found a place to get some warm baguette sandwiches for lunch and a few macarons for dessert. Yum. Just all of it, yum.
We walked around town a bit more, found some more macarons, popped into a few shops, walked along the beach, and then the tired toddler convinced us it was time to get back on the road.
When we were about to pass Sainte-Mere-Eglise, we realized we still had about 2 hours to spare, so we took the exit. This was the first town to be liberated by Americans after the D-Day landings. One of the paratroopers got his parachute caught on the spire of the church and had to hang there for hours, pretending to be dead, while the battle between Americans and Nazis raged on below him. He survived the war and became an honorary citizen of the town. A dummy with a parachute still hangs from the church spire now.
Across from the church there is a D-Day museum. We spent the rest of our spare time there, and it was actually a really great museum. They have tablet guides which really helped/distracted the kids as we walked around. We had to skip the video at the end since we ran out of time, but it was a good stop!
We got to Cherbourg in good time for our ferry and off we sailed for home.
