Day Two in Normandy

Day two began at the museum in Saint Mere Eglise.  It was cold and raining so being inside kept us out of the rain.  The children quite enjoyed this museum as there were gliders to go in and simulations of all sorts.  After the museum we walked across to the church, the one where a paratrooper landed accidentally and was hung on the steeple.

The little movie they had on Ronald Reagan kind of made me teary eyed.  What a magnificent president!

Utah Beach was up next, and cold, windy weather did not stop the children from having fun collecting shells.  We ate lunch at Le Roosevelt which is right there on the beach.

 After a quick stop in Brecourt Manor where Dick Winters captured the guns, we went to St. Marie du Monte Church and saw bullet holes in the walls and in the confessional.

St. Angoville au Plain Church, our next stop, was an extremely tiny church that you could call a chapel.  I was extraordinarily touched by the story of the two medics that saved 70 soldiers (from both sides) by turning this into a mini hospital.  And just like in St. Marie du Monte chose to leave the bullet holes, the parishioners here chose to leave the stains so they would never forget.

Brian, my dad, and Genna got out for another stop to see a viking ship and a landing craft, but some of us were just too tired at this point.  Traveling isn't so much a vacation; it's hard work.  

We ended up deciding to squeeze in the Bayou Tapestry at the end of this day even though we were exhausted.  We had originally planned to do it the next day, but Kate convinced us it was a quick stop and would be way out of our way the next day when it was right by where we dropped her off at her car.  My parents decided to stay in the van with Drew and Judah because my dad had already seen it and they were just tuckered out. 

After that we picked up pizzas at the grocery store and went to the house to clean the kids up good and have a little more relaxing evening.  At least that had been the plan, but it was after 7pm when we got back and started cooking the pizzas and getting showers going.  We had lots of late nights, but luckily Mimi and Papa Boat were around to help keep the kids happy despite their exhaustion.

Day One in Normandy

We made a decision to go with a guide for this part of the trip even though having a personal tour guide for the day isn't cheap because we wanted the kids to get more out of it.  A beach is just a beach until you've heard all the history and seen the pictures of D-day on that very beach.  Brian met a lady when he was doing the Bastogne walk in December, and he set up our guide and our itinerary.  Normally, she drives you around for this, but since we were 10 people in a 12 passenger van we drove her around in our van.

Her name is Kate and she was really an excellent guide.  You can tell she has a real passion for the history of World War II.  She showed us all kinds of places and told us countless stories about everything we saw.  In addition to all that, she was our navigator and our meal planner.  She called ahead to restaurants to pre-order sandwiches the first day to save time and made reservations the second day for a pretty quick lunch.  Lunchtime has really been known to take a big chunk away from sightseeing in Europe because the meals are served slow here and always cooked up fresh.  The amount of time that saved really helped us get more out of our days with her.  If you are making a trip to Normandy, France I wholeheartedly recommend her.   Email her at katell.pape@orange.fr 

Before this trip, I had my older three kids read some books on WW II.

D-Day: The Invasion of Normandy (YA adaptation) Rick Atkinson

We Were Heroes:  The Journal of Scott Pendelton Collins by Walter Dean Myers

Invasion by Walter Dean Myers (Disclaimer:  Hannah was the only one I let read this because it turned out to have some pretty rough language in it and a couple other references to immorality that she found.)

The Lacemaker and the Princess by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley (I couldn't find this book in our library, so I have no idea if it's a good one or not.  It was on my list though.)

Then after we got back from our trip, the three big kids and the adults all watched The Longest Day over three nights after the little ones went to bed.  It was a much more interesting movie for me and the children when we could see all the places we were at just the week before.  I am hoping it really sealed in our minds some of these events and facts.

Our first stop was a quick one at the German Cemetery.  It was really sad to learn about how this cemetery came to be and is maintained.  I'll give you a hint, it's not the French taking care of this cemetery.

Then we moved on to Point du Huc where the kids really enjoyed the bomb craters.  It was great to actually see what kind of landscape the Americans had to overcome and how important this site was to the whole plan and ultimately to taking back Europe from Nazi control.

Genevieve is posing with a plaque recognizing Rudder, an Aggie, and his successful service and leadership at Point du Huc.

Next up was Omaha Beach.  The kids looked for pieces left from WW II.  They found a couple of metal pieces that they hope are from armor or weapons, but who knows.  Drew kept a stone from the craters at Pointe du Huc and a stone from here.  I wrote in permanent marker on them so he could put them into his rock collection.

After the beach we went to pick up and eat our sandwiches that Kate had pre-ordered for us.  Then we went to the American WW II Cemetery.  There you can find the graves of men who have since gained fame through Hollywood, like the brothers from Saving Private Ryan, Theodore Roosevelt Jr., and then other Purple Heart soldiers.  At the end of this, it started pouring down rain on us and we were caught quite unprepared with our rain jackets in the van.

The last stop of the day was at Longues-sur-mer, a German battery with guns still inside the fortifications.  It had stopped raining and was muddy with a side of a rainbow.

We ate dinner at a restaurant that Kate recommended to us.

Lisieux (a Stop on the Way to Normandy)

My parents arrived at the beginning of March and just a few days afterward we packed up and started the long drive to Normandy, France.  The day after they got here, my dad started having back spasms that were pretty debilitating.  We consulted a few friends of ours that are doctors and the consensus was that the best plan would be to buy a TENS unit that gives electrical impulses to the nerves and helps with the pain.  We drove straight to an Apoteka (a pharmacy) and bought one.  They are not cheap, but several days later, we were happy with the results when we finally figured out how to work it.

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We decided to go to Mass on Saturday evening for the vigil in Lisieux due to the fact that we had a scheduled tour guide all day on Sunday.  So we knew there was a vigil Mass at the cathedral in Lisieux at 6pm.  We had to try to plan around that and still drive the rest of the way to our Gite (a frenchy French word for a farm house you rent) that same night when it was another 1.5 hours farther.  This timing created a problem for our time in Lisieux.

My dad's back was still pretty bad at this point and so he decided after seeing the amount of steps up to the cathedral alone that he'd hang out in the van for the afternoon.  We first went in to confirm the Mass time since we have learned to never trust the websites in Europe.  Then we looked at the cathedral and made our way to the convent where ST. Therese of Lisieux's relics were.  There was adoration there.  We stayed there a bit and then looked in the shop briefly, picking up a small statue of Mary as she appeared to St. Therese.   Then Judah had another emergency potty need which really threw us off our schedule because all of the public bathrooms all being locked after 4pm.

After taking care of that issue there was just not enough time for even trying to get over to the basilica.  We just went back to the cathedral and got ready for Mass.  Mass was held in a small chapel all the way in the back of the cathedral behind the main altar.  The church was really cold inside, much colder than outside which was sunny and "spring-like" to us.  The back chapel had light heaters on the wall, so that must be why they held a vigil Mass in such a small space.

During Mass there was a little boy with his parents across the aisle and up a few rows from us.  I was happy to see a young toddler at Mass because that is somewhat rare in Europe.  I noticed he had a ball and remember thinking that that was a risky move in church with such a young boy.  During the homily he started throwing it down the aisle and running to get it and throwing it back down towards the altar and running to get it.  This goes on throughout Mass.  As Mass was coming to a close, during a nun's announcement (in French, I had no idea what it was about) the boy threw the ball down the aisle again and ran to get it.  My mom motioned to me that the little boy left the chapel area.  He had gone down the stairs and could no longer be seen.  His parents never turned around.  I put Bobby down and went to check on the boy.  He was nearly halfway down the huge cathedral.  There was a boy, maybe Isaac's age, who was trying unsuccessfully to talk him in to coming back.  I just went over ad picked him up and brought him back.  I talked to him gently and just held him in the back of the cathedral.  At some point the older boy came back and took him from me and took him back to his parents.  But it was a pretty strange occurrence altogether.  My mom told me later that the dad turned around and saw me holding his son and just turned back towards the altar unbothered.  Odd.

After Mass, we went to about 6 different restaurants that were all closed.  We had to settle for Doner kebabs on the go.  We got to our Gite super late and went to bed.