Vacation 2011 - Part 1

Well, here it is.  A long overdue wrap-up of our trip to Europe. 

It all started early the morning of May 20th.  We overcame some annoying flight delays and made it to Miami.  We met Steven there and boarded the plane for Paris.  The flight was uneventful, which is a good thing when it comes to transatlantic travel.  We landed at CDG on Saturday morning and picked up our rental car.

 
Why yes, that is a Mercedes.  In Europe, this is probably the equivalent of a Toyota Yaris.  No matter - it drove just fine and got great mileage.  After making our way out of CDG, we soon discovered that the European maps that had been downloaded onto Steven's Garmin were bootleg, and therefore complete crap.  We were lost in a seedy section of northern Paris.  Thanks to the Michelin map of Europe (backup plan), we finally righted ourselves and hit the road to Normandy. We made it to our hotel, and it was nap time.  We barely awoke in enough time for dinner at Le Petit Normand.  It was delicious, and a good start to the trip. 

On Sunday, we set out to see Le Mont St Michel.  It was a nice drive over there from Bayeux, and we were able to enjoy some beautiful views of the French countryside.  As we got closer to this famous island, the traffic picked up and we suddenly realized what the fuss was all about.  Wow! is all we could muster. We got there at just the right time.  We slowly made our way up to the cathedral, and did the tour. Many, many pictures were taken. It was a great experience for all three of us.  As we were leaving, buses full of Japanese tourists were decending.

On the way back to Bayeux, we made a stopover in the seaside village of Granville.  It was nice, but it seems this is the place were the French go to get away from all the tourists.  We stuck out like a sore thumb.  We enjoyed some great seafood, and made our way to St Mere Eglise for a sneak peak of our WWII tour the next day.  We also had to go and see Omaha beach in advance.  So glad that we did.

On Monday, Jeremiah and Steven took the full tour.  I was laid up in the bed with food poisoning.  Lovely! They took enough pictures and had enough stories for me that I felt like I was there.  In fact, before we headed out for Part 2 of our trip on Tuesday, they took me back to the American Cemetery that overlooks the beach.  It is a beautiful and sad place.  It is overwhelming to think what all of these men did for us and for the world.  They are/were truly the Greatest Generation.