On Monday, we started the second leg of our Spring Break trip in France. We drove along the northern coast of Belgium and into France. This region of France, called Hauts-de-France, is one that we’ve never been to before and didn’t know much about. Well, this region didn’t look like any pictures of France we have seen before. It was so industrialized; tons of factories, power plants, shipping ports, and lots of haze. It was really surprising.
Our first stop was Dunkerque, the location of the Dunkerque evacuation at the beginning of World War II. The museum is located in an old bunker, very close to the beach. Being so close to the water, we noticed that we were able to take a break from the diesel smell in the air for the first time in a couple of hours.
The museum was really well done and its staff were so passionate about telling the story of Operation Dynamo. One of the docents was the cutest little old French man, who wanted to make sure we didn’t leave with any questions unanswered.
After the museum, we went out to the beach, where they had a long breakwater that could be walked along. We really enjoyed breathing in the fresh air and despite it being chilly, it was a beautiful day.
There is a monument to the Evacuation on the breakwater. We took the pictures below and as we continued our walk, my uncle texted us a picture of him and my grandfather in the exact same spot. It was funny because he didn’t know that we were there at the time but had guessed we were heading that way.
Our next stop was Calais. It wasn’t too far and I had read about its history as the last British outpost in France. Hundreds of years ago, England ruled parts of northern France. The territory dwindled and dwindled until Henry VIII finally lost Calais in the 1500s. It was called the “jewel in England’s crown” so of course, I was interested. Well, all we can say is the previous ‘jewel’ was no longer, and Calais is just a port town that can most likely be skipped.
Our final stop of the day was Lille, which was a little further inland. The city is a mini-Paris, but also a university town. We stayed in a Moxy hotel for the first time and it was pretty interesting. It was decorated in a ‘hispter’ style and indeed, there were lots of hipsters, or ‘bobos’ as the French call them, just hanging out in the lobby and courtyard taking advantage of the free wifi. It was actually pretty cool. After a rest, we headed out on a walk. Most of the sites within Lille are within a small city center so we covered everything quickly. It has a really nice pedestrian zone with a ton of restaurants. The kids chose Thai food and surprisingly, none of the four family members had any complaints, which is a big win for us. Lille was a nice stop, but I think it would be a hard time to find things to fill up a whole day there.
Our first stop on Tuesday was Amiens. Northern France is known for having the largest gothic cathedrals in France. Amiens’ Cathedral, aka Notre-Dame d’Amiens, is mostly known for being one of the fastest -built cathedrals (less than 100 years! gasp!) and the site of several royal marriages during the middle ages. Its also well known for its stained glass windows, although some were destroyed during both World Wars.
We found a KFC in Amiens for lunch and then got back on the road. Amiens was a nice stop, but again, not enough to do there to fill a day . The second and final stop of the day was Rouen. Now, this is a place I wish we had spent more time. The city has its own giant gothic cathedral, also called Notre-Dame, a huge pedestrian-only zone, a river front along the Seine, and an astrological clock among other things.
It seems that everywhere we’ve been since coming to Germany, we hear about how rare astrological clocks are, but this will be the fourth one we’ve come across and its started to become a running joke.
Matt and I wanted to go out to the dinner but the kids were begging to stay in the hotel. We found the same Thai restaurant as the night before, in Rouen, picked them up some take out and dropped them back off. Of course, Brooklyn and Matt had to stop for ice cream on the way back. Somehow, Matt was still able to pull his appetite together for dinner out in town.
We stayed in an awesome Marriot hotel, the Bourgtheroulde. It is a 15th century mansion converted into a hotel and spa. It was a weeknight, so we were able to stay here for pennies! Despite that, they still rolled out the red carpet for us; they valeted our car, carried our luggage for us, gave us a huge, top-floor suite, and brought us lots of gifts after check-in. Seriously wish we had more time in this place!
Wednesday, the weather really started to take a turn for the worst. When we left Germany, it had been in the 60s and the forecast was calling for more of that and sun for the foreseeable future. However, by Wednesday, a huge cold weather pocket moved over pretty much all of Europe. We even had friends visiting Mallorca complaining about the same bad weather.
Our first stop of the day was the Cliffs of Etretat, which is France’s version of the Cliffs of Dover and supposed to be gorgeous on a sunny day which makes the water look Caribbean-blue. Despite the wind and rain, it was still really pretty. We are already making plans to get back in nicer weather; hopefully we can pair it with another stop in Rouen.
Next stop was Honfleur, and old medieval port town. Its no longer as important as Le Havre, across the river, which has taken its business, But, its still a cute harbor town, that reminded us of Annapolis. We walked around the harbor and a French woman even came up to us and asked if she could take our picture. She got one shot and voila! It was perfect!
When driving out of town and looking for lunch, we passed an American-Western themed restaurant, Oncle Scott’s, and had to stop to see what the French vision of America looks like. Turns out ‘Oncle Scott’ is actually from Nashville and opened several of these restaurants after he moved to France. Surprisingly, this place was packed with French people, eating burgers and ribs while sipping wine and espresso. A few things on the menu caught our eye…
After Oncle Scott’s we drove on to Caen in Normandy. Caen is home to the Caen Memorial to Peace, one of the largest World War II museums. We spent a few hours in here covering the whole thing; Ryan made sure we didn’t miss an inch.
Finally, we made it to our last stop of the day, Bayeax. This was going to be our stop for three nights in a row and was such a welcome change from moving day after day. We also needed to wash clothes as several of us were wearing our last clean ones. We quickly got the first load of laundry started, went out for pizza, then spent the rest of the evening rotating clothes around drying racks and radiators to dry out.
Thursday was our “D-Day Day.” We started out early at some intact German pillboxes near Bayeaux. The machine guns, while now disabled are still there and you can climb in and out of them. You could even see where one gun had received a direct hit from a ship on D-Day. To be honest, I found it pretty creepy to be running in and out of same bunker hallways that were previously used by soldiers. The weather was also so bad, it was now down in the 40s with a super strong wind that was making it rain sideways. Luckily, this meant that there was hardly anyone out and we had a lot of places to ourselves and we were able to run back to the car once we got too cold.
After the pillboxes, we made our way to Omaha Beach. My grandfather’s ship was posted here during the invasion and it was an emotional visit. The rain was really kicking up and the sea was rough so it felt like it was bringing us to the day. After seeing the memorial, we stopped at the Omaha Beach Museum to see more artifacts from the day. They also had a great movie on the mission at this particular beach.
Our next stop was the Normandy American Cemetery.
We also stopped the German War Cemetery. It is a great reminder that many people lost their lives here. One thing that really struck me was that so many in the German Cemetary were 17, 18, or 19 years old. This would have made them 12, 13, and 14 when the war started in 1939. A lot of these people were just kids.
Our next stop was Pointe du Hoc. 225 army rangers scaled these cliffs to capture a huge cache of machine guns. By the end of the two day battle, only about 90 men were still fit for duty following 75 casualties and the remaining injured. It was so windy that we couldn’t even hear each other speaking, I can’t imagine trying to climb these cliffs and wage warfare here.
Our last stop was Arromanches, site of Mulberry Harbor. The harbor was built in the days following D-Day as the allies had no port in which to land their ships to bring tanks, vehicles, and supplies to shore. It was built by purposely sinking ships in a semi circle to create a breakwater. A floating bridge was built to reach the ships bringing in supplies. The ships sunk to build the breakwater are all mostly still there. It was originally intended to be dismantled but was instead left as a memorial to the importance Arromanches played in 1944.
Friday we got back in the car and drove about an hour and a half east to Mont St. Michel. This monastery was built in the 800s after a monk saw a vision of Michael, the archangel, telling him to build a monastery on the rock. The Monastery now sits on its peak, with a self sustaining city surrounding it at the base. Because of the tides, it is an island at high tide, and surrounded by mud flats during low tide. Before the modern day causeway was built, pilgrims would have to time their visits with the tide. It comes in very quick and as it’s coming in, the mud almost turns into quick sand.
We made it all the way to the top and toured the monastery. As a treat, we caught a monk doing their chants inside the church.
We made it back down the Mount and made the drive back to Bayeux, in every form of weather: sun, rain, sun, wind, snow, sleet, hail, and more sun. The weather could not decide what it wanted to be this week.
When we got back to Bayeux, we went and saw the Bayeux Tapestry. It is 230 feet long and was made sometime around 1100 to tell the story of the Battle of Hastings. It’s coming up on its 1000 year anniversary. There is an audio guide that takes you through the story. But, one of the things I liked the most were a couple of wine splotches that I assume were left from some medieval monks. I’m a history nerd so it was a given that I would enjoy this, but I was happy to hear both Matt and the kids says that it “wasn’t as boring as they expected.”
The food in Normandy was amazing and we partook in the ‘Four C’s’ of Normandy cuisine: creme, cider, Camembert cheese, and Calvados cognac. We added a C: Creme brûlée and ate lots of that too.
For three days, we made our base in Bayeux. It is an adorable town that looks like inspiration for Beauty and Beast. It was full of Americans. We were pretty surprised by this at first since it’s just a little town in Northern France but it does make sense that Americans would stay here while checking out Normandy, like we were doing.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention how much of a treat it was to just drive through the French countryside. It was so pretty and picturesque; the cottages, the fields, the farms. I didn’t take a lot of pictures because I was trying to enjoy it but I got a few.
On Saturday, we packed up the Airbnb and headed south to Paris. We had time to spare, so we made a last-minute decision to stop in Giverny, the final home of Claude Monet. We toured his house and gardens, and got to see the famous lily pond and bridge that was the inspiration for many of his paintings.
We finally made it to Paris! Matt got to drive the circle around the Arc de Triumphe, one of the craziness intersections in Europe, and he drove us across the Pont d’Lena which leads up to the Eiffel Tower.
We walked around Champs de Mars to see the Eiffel Tower, which is mostly covered by scaffolding. Actually, most of central Paris was covered by it. I guess they are getting everything beautiful for the Olympics in 2024. I also have to mention it was freezing! Paris was definitely in bloom but it was barely in the 40s and we had not packed anything but spring jackets. We bought some sweatshirts and hats, and put on basically anything we could in in the car, which for me was three different jackets.
We had dinner and then did a sunset cruise on the Seine. It was cold but we loved every minute.
Sunday morning, we packed up and headed home. We passed so many Americans on the road; you can tell by the model of the car and license plates. Seems like it was a popular idea to go to France for Spring Break. We made it home to fresh snow, and we even had time to go grocery shopping, which was definitely weird having spent the morning in Paris.
Gilcrests Abroad 