Normandy, et al.

The first weekend my parents were here (March 28-30) we headed off to Normandy, France. Both Eric and my Dad are big history buffs, and my Dad is especially interested in military history, so the Normandy invasion beaches were the desired destination. One of the AWCA members recommended we stay at a really neat castle, which is now a B&B, called La Ducrie (The Duke's House). If you go to the website there are good pictures and the history of the whole place. But basically, it was built in 1437 for Louis XI, who would later become King of France. After Louis XI was "finished" with the house (which I guess means grew tired of it and gave it to someone else), it became the home of the senior tax collector of the region who was also a duke, and thus it was given the name "La Ducrie".

Here are a few pictures of La Ducrie (there are better ones one their website):



They have beautiful black swans swimming in the moat around the castle. Apparently black swans are quite rare:

And there are black sheep too:

All of us outside La Ducrie:

When we arrived we met the owners, Joe & Vivienne. They are from England, but moved to France several years ago, bought La Ducrie, and renovated it so it could operated as a B&B. They were very sweet and Vivienne gave us a tour of the house. Eric and I stayed in La Salle de Monnaie, which I suppose means the "money room", because in the corner of our room was a little doorway which revealed a passageway to one of the towers, and in the passageway there is a covered hole in the floor where the taxes were hidden until they could be transported to the Treasury.

A picture of La Salle de Monnaie:
And the door to our room.... I think I hit my head on the doorframe several times that weekend:

And here's the passageway to the tower. If you look on the ground, you can kind of see the plywood covering the pit where the taxes were stored.
Vivienne also told us another cool story about this little room. I hope I remembered it correctly. Anyway, during WWII, La Ducrie was caught in the crosshairs of a battle. There were two sisters living here who were petrified when they heard the approaching troops. I can't remember what happened to one of the sisters, but I know the other one hid down in the pit for several days. The shooting had long stopped, but the woman was too scared to come out so she stayed hidden even longer. Until finally she heard more voices and knew they weren't speaking French or German. She figured she'd die if she stayed down there any longer (she had run out of the food stores she brought down there with her) so she took a chance and came out. Imagine the surprise on those American soldiers' faces when out comes this lone scared, dirty, starving woman! And I think she was just glad they weren't German. Anyway, neat story.

Another neat find in La Ducrie was this Angel, painted in the 1500s, which graced the back of the door of the room my parents were staying in:


We arrived just before dinnertime on Friday night and, after our tour of the castle and some time to freshen up, joined Joe and Vivienne in the bar for a few drinks. We enjoyed a lovely 4-course dinner prepared by Vivienne (app, main, dessert, and of course, fromage). The conversation was interesting and fun and the wine flowed for several hours. In the end it was just Eric, me and Vivienne!

Here's Vivienne:
And Joe:

Joe also gives tours of the Normandy area and was kind enough to recommend a path for our adventures the next day. We followed his advice and all decided it was a really nice order in which to explore everything. Thanks, Joe!

Saturday morning we headed out after our filling breakfast à la Joe. Our first stop was Sainte Mère Église, where the American 82nd & 101st Airborne Divisions mistakenly landed. I think they were supposed to parachute into the countryside surrounding Sainte Mère Église, but instead fell right into the center of the city. In fact, one paratrooper's chute actually got caught on the steeple of the town church and he subsequently got shot in the foot. He feigned death for hours until he could be cut down. I think his name was John Steele. There's still a memorial on the church in the form of a "dummy" paratrooper hanging from his 'chute strings.

Here's a picture of the church:
And a close-up of the 'memorial':

There's a great museum in Sainte Mère Église that gives the details of the 82nd & 101st drops. Inside the museum is one of the planes from which the men jumped:

Here's us outside the museum:

After Sainte Mère Église we drove along Utah Beach. This portion of the beach is still pretty untouched - no museums, houses, etc. Just the beach. It seems so peaceful now that it's hard to imagine the chaos and bloodshed that occurred here on June 6, 1944:


The concrete gun implacements that the Germans constructed as part of their preparation for the defense are still there today:

My cute Dad taking a pensive stroll along Utah Beach:

And my cute Mom up on a hill overlooking the beach:
And this time with my cute Dad with my cute Mom:


There was another really good museum further down on Utah Beach with a memorial as well. Here's a short video I took. It was extremely windy that day so just know you'll be hearing that wind on the video.


Utah Beach from Melanyann Garvin on Vimeo.


Going east along the French coast, we next came to Omaha Beach. The cliff you see in this picture (in the distance) is called Pointe du Hoc. This is where the 2nd Ranger Battalion scaled up the cliff to disable German guns threatening Utah & Omaha Beaches.


A view down Omaha Beach with a bit of the monument of the National Guard troops who served in the war:
Further down Omaha Beach you come to the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial. This was our last stop for the day and a very sobering experience. There is a very informative museum in the visitor's center and then you can walk through the cemetery. We arrived late in the day and didn't have as much time as we would have liked to wander around, but we did get to visit the museum and see the cemeteries closest to the front. The graves seemed unending, and we could only see 2 of the 10 gravesites. The grounds and memorial are really beautiful and peacefully situated on a hill overlooking Omaha Beach. Here is the view of the beach as you walk along the Northern side of the cemetery:
And the 4 of us:



A short video for you of the cemetery. We were there at 5:30pm (closing time) so you can hear the bells in the background. Remember, it was windy, so adjust your volume.


In the Cemetary at the Normandy Memorial from Melanyann Garvin on Vimeo.

Here are a few more pictures of the Memorial and Cemetery:




It was getting to be dinner time when we left the beaches so we stopped in Bayeux for dinner. Our restaurant of choice wasn't open for another hour so we enjoyed a drink in a nearby bar. This is fairly irrelevant except to set up the following picture. I had to laugh each time my dad ordered a coffee and received a teeny, little cup filled with espresso. By the end of the trip he knew to order Cafe Americano if he wanted a "regular" coffee, but until then he had to drink his very strong, mini-coffee out of the little cups:


We had a lovely, traditionally French dinner at Le Pommier:

Sunday morning we said our goodbyes to Joe and Vivienne and headed out in search of Mass. We didn't think we were going to be lucky until we heard churchbells nearby when we stopped in Caen. And, thus, my Mom was able to attend her first mass in French at the beautifully old Saint Étienne de Caen:

Following mass we started our 5 hour ride home, and along the way stopped in Rouen. This city is best known for being the place where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake. It also is the home of a magnificent cathedral made famous by Monet's numerous interpretations of it.
Here is the Notre Dame Cathedral in Rouen:
Random factoid: This cathedral was the tallest building in the world from 1876 - 1880.

And Monet's version:


On our walk from the cathedral to the Place du Vieux Marche (where poor Joan was burned) we passed under the Gros-Horloge. The clock on this Gothic belfry was built in the late 1300s and is still running today!

This tall cross was erected on the spot where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake on May 30, 1431. There is also a modern church with her namesake behind the cross.
After our stop in Rouen, we finished our trip home. It was a great weekend, packed very full. I think the neatest part was knowing that this was a place my Dad had read about, thought about, watched movies about, but never thought he'd actually see in person. As a soldier and war veteran, I'm sure it touched him in ways I can't even imagine, and it was really cool to be a part of that.

One last picture to leave you guys with:

Thanks for reading...............