Paris
May 7, 2025
So many beautiful buildings! Both outside...
...and inside.
Beautiful storefronts...
...and beautiful parks.
It's impossible to capture the Louvre in one photo.
No explanation what this is.
We scheduled a free walking tour at 10am and were supposed to meet a person in a pink vest. At 10:05, Robin approached this woman to ask if the pink scarf hanging down from her left pocket could possibly be a pink vest. A few more words were exchanged and the woman told Robin that she "disrespected" her by not saying hello before asking a question. She was extremely rude to Robin as the French can be. So Robin told her we wouldn't be going on the tour. As we walked away, two young people approached Robin and exclaimed, "That was SAVAGE the way you were treated!" They had been standing nearby because they were also supposed to go on the walking tour. They decided not to go because of the rudeness of the guide.
So we explored Montmartre on our own. We are in front of the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur de Montmartre.
We should have gone inside the store because of the apparent Porto connection.
The Montmartre merry-go-round, located in Place Saint-Pierre, was built in 1879. It is the oldest carousel in Paris.
Some very realistic street art!
Hanging out in our hotel lobby before Kenny and Anna leave for Belgium.
On the hop-on, hop-off boat on the Seine River.
Since our morning tour was a bust, we had high hopes for our nighttime City of Lights tour in an authentic 1980 Citroen.
First off, there would be no "night" because the sun is still too high in the sky.
Paris fashion is everywhere!
Our second issue was that VE Day was the next day and they were setting up parade routes where Macron would be. So there was no getting near many of the sights. It was also the start of a 4-day holiday weekend.
We sat in traffic quite a bit where people stared and took pictures OF US (because of the car).
These revelers celebrating France's win in a soccer match even did a dance in front of us.
Our guide dropping us off in front of our hotel when it's finally dark. He did the best he could in a difficult situation with so many of the streets being blocked off. Not as poor as the first tour of the day, but not that great.
normandy
May 8, 2025
The train from Paris to Bayeux in Normandy was about 2.5 hours.
We bought bread and cheese beforehand.
Bayeux could not be more charming!
The striped building on the left was the gate entrance to our Airbnb.
The building was from the 1500's.
We loved it! Very traditional with high ceilings and beautiful crown molding.
Our first night's dinner.
Robin and Tom had Fish & Chips and I had French Onion soup.
May 9, 2025
Boarding the shuttle with five others for our D-Day Tour.
Our first stop was Pointe du Hoc where U.S. Army Rangers were assigned to capture and disable the German defense battery.
There are still huge bomb craters that were never filled in.
There are several German bunkers. People used to be able to go on top of this one to see the view, but it's fenced off now because it is collapsing.
The bunkers were bigger inside than I expected.
The Rangers mission was deemed impossible. Of the 225 that arrived on D-Day, seventy-seven were killed and 152 wounded. One look at the cliffs they had to scale to get there, you can see why it was such a difficult mission!
Now we are at Omaha Beach, one of the five D-Day landing beaches. It was a critical part of the Allied invasion on June 6, 1944. It is known for being the most heavily defended and resulted in the highest number of Allied casualties during the landings. The beach is located in the American sector.
Although there are memorials to what happened here...
...it mostly just looks like a quiet, coastal town.
This was the first American cemetery before they moved it to the larger place it is now.
The ABMC maintains all the American Memorials in Normandy.
We are walking now into the American Cemetery.
Situated on a cliff overlooking Omaha Beach, the cemetery covers 172.5 acres and contains the graves of 9,387 American War Dead, most of whom died during the landings and ensuing operations.
The stars shows the Jewish servicemen. The cemetery contains the graves of 45 pairs of brothers (30 of which buried side by side), a father and his son, an uncle and his nephew, 2 pairs of cousins, 3 generals, 4 chaplains, 4 civilians, 4 women, 147 African Americans and 20 Native Americans.
You are not allowed to step on the grass anywhere.
Dwight Eisenhower placed something in a time capsule here that is not to be opened until June 6, 2044.
Back in Bayeux now for these giant sandwiches at this very busy deli.
Exploring Bayeux this afternoon. There were MANY American tourists.
The Notre Dame Cathedral of Bayeux was built in 1077 and is an example of Norman Romanesque and Gothic architecture.
At dinner, our rude waiter was insulted when I asked him to take our photo. I'm sure he purposely made me look like I'm wearing an African headdress!
May 10, 2025
Driving through the French countryside for our all-day tour of Mont Saint-Michel.
We can finally see it in the distance.
Really quite amazing!
After parking, you must take the bus to the walkway and entrance. Because the bus is unable to turn around, the driver can drive from both ends.
Like everywhere we've been, it was CROWDED.
Mont-Saint-Michel is a tidal island and commune that has a population of 29.
We saw tons of barefoot people around the outside. More on that below.
The restaurant at the entrance to Mont Saint-Michel was made famous by a 19-century woman that would cook omelettes using a long handled pan similar to the one that you see above the menu box. If you want an omelette here now, you'll pay between €40 and €80 depending on what you have in it!
The buildings have picture addresses.
The crowds were unbelievable!!
About the people with bare feet - We looked over the wall and could see some of the tour groups that do the 7-hour walk to the mainland.
Our guide explained to us that the guides that escort them have to train for a month to recognize the constantly changing pools of quicksand!
There were SO many sets of stairs and we saw older people struggling to make it.
I'm not sure this is baby Jesus or not... but it looks like he is giving us the middle finger.
This is a wheel that the prisoners walked in to power a conveyor belt to bring supplies to the top.
With these crowds, we were VERY lucky to find a restaurant that could seat us!! Debbie from Houston was also on our tour.
During certain high tides, Mont Saint-Michel can be inaccessible. Not as many people on the return as there were on the way there.
Back in Bayeux for the sunset and our last night in France.