(Hi everyone - we are home from our trip! We did not have internet access our last 3 days in France. I kept a paper journal, so I'm posting days 8-10 from home.)
We enjoyed our final breakfast at our beloved Chateau du Pintray, packed up, and headed out for our next adventure. We traveled to the region of Normandy, along the Northern coast of France. Normandy is the area of the beaches of the D-Day invasion of German-occupied France by Allied Forces on June 6, 1944.
We traveled by car a total of 4 hours, eating lunch on the way. We enjoyed the beautiful scenery - more sunflowers, wheat fields, Charlais cattle, horses, and little villages along the way.
We arrived in the village of Sainte-Mere-Eglise, which is about 20 miles from the coast. This was one of the sites where paratroopers parachuted into Normandy on D-Day.
From the Wikipedia entry for Sainte-Mere-Eglise:
(Sainte-Mere-Eglise is the site of) a famous incident involved paratrooper John Steele of the 505th PIR, whose parachute caught on the spire of the town church, and could only observe the fighting going on below. He escaped capture by feigning death until the town was taken the next day. The incident was portrayed in the movie The Longest Day.
The village commemorates this event each summer by hanging a parachute from the church steeple. There are paratroopers and parachutes depicted in the stained glass windows of the church. We got lots of pictures.
We then headed to the Memorial and Museum at Utah Beach. Of the 5 beaches of the D-Day Invasion, Utah Beach is the farthest to the west. The kids were happy to run and play on the sand for awhile. The Moores headed on to our accomnodations in Normandy, the Manoir d'Herouville, while the Hoyles toured the Museum. There were lots of interesting exhibits about the invasion.
We then headed on to the Manoir d'Herouville which is just outside of the village of Litteau. The Manoir has a main house (in which John, Caroline, and I share a room), and a tower - just like a fairytale castle. The tower has 3 levels - a main level with a common area and kitchen, a second floor (where Megan, Steve, and Elanor are sleeping), and a third floor with twin beds for the boys. So, Wyatt and Lucas are sleeping on the top floor of a tower! The grounds of the Manoir are beautiful with lush grass, trees, and a pond. There are cows and ducks (that delight the children) and chickens (that chase and delight the children - very entertaining, until they peck your feet!).
After settling in, we headed to Arromanches, a little town on the coast, for dinner. Arromanches is the site of Gold Beach, one of the 5 beaches of the D-Day invasion. We found a lovely restaurant and enjoyed the seafood of the region, including prawns, mussels, scallops and salmon. Icecream all around for dessert.
After dinner, we called it a night. A busy day!
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