Addison in the City: Normandy

This past week, my family and Grammy and Grammpy went to Normandy. It was a really cool place actually. I wasn't really excited to go (I mean I was figuring millions upon millions of museums, but we only went to three, so that was ok!!) but it turned out to be a really fun trip. We took the Eurostar into Lille then rented a seven seater car to go to Bayeux. Well, our seven seater turned out to be exactly that. It sat only seven people and had no trunk. But we also had suitcases. Which presented a problem. But every problem has a solution, so Mom sat with a suitcase between her feet, and Maddy and I sat in the way to small backseat with two suitcases in between us. FOR FOUR HOURS. No lie. My hips were so sore, I could barely walk. I was not in a good mood for the car trip. Then, both the girls were ill, so Mom joined me in the tiny backseat. :) fun! Anyway, the first day we went to see the Bayeux Tapestry. It was actually really interesting! It wrapped around the room it was so big. It's incredible to think that someone made that. Like by hand, without a sewing machine and everything!! It must have taken a lifetime! Then we went to D-Day Museum. To be quite honest, I sped walked through it, so I don't remember much. Except the uniforms. I did stop to look at all the uniforms. Then, the best bit of the day, we went to see some German battery's. Now for all y'all who don't know what a battery is, I shall explain as best I can. I didn't know what a battery was until my dad told me. I figured it was some like electrical charging station for planes or something. But that is not what it is. Basically it was a bunch of guns sitting in little concrete houses. So really, a battery is just an emplacement of heavy artillery. (I think...) Anyway, we got to run through the bunkers and the fields. It was really fun! Then we went down to the beach that the battery overlooked. It wasn't an important beach, but it was my favorite. First off, the cliffs overlooked it, so you could see the different layers of rock and everything. And on the bits of the cliff that wern't so steep, there were little forests growing. The beach was mostly rocky, and since the tide came almost all the way up the beach, there were little tidal pools with sea anemones, shells, and slugs. I touched a sea anemones which was interesting. It felt like jello. The next day we went to the American Cemetery, Omaha Beach, and Pont du Hoc. The cemetery was really sad. There were over 9,000 graves. It's really hard to imagine how many men died fighting for what they believed in. After the cemetery, we headed down to Omaha Beach. Us girls immediately took off our shoes and socks and walked in the surf despite Dad's warning of how miserable we would be when we had to walk around in wet shoes. Thankfully, it was a hot day so our feet dried before we got to the car, so we skipped the misery. Then we went to Pont du Hoc. There were all these bombed out batteries that we climbed through. It was so pretty, it was so weird to think that men died there. It was so peaceful, it seemed like nothing ever happened. And then you saw the bomb craters and destroyed batteries, and it all seemed so real. After Pont du Hoc we ran to grab dinner. I got Normandy Chicken which they are supposedly famous for. But it actually wasn't too delicious. The next day we went to Utah Beach. This time, I soaked my shoes. I was trying to grab a really pretty shell, and a huge wave came and soaked my shoes. So that was no fun. Then we went to Ste. Mere Eglise (pronounced sont mare eglize) where the paratroopers parachuted in. We saw the church where John Steele got tangled and hung there for hours. As far as I know, he did survive though. :) We had a delicious lunch of Croque Monsieurs. And then the next day we headed back home bringing our lovely holiday to a smashing end.