Sunday, July 6, 2008

Normandy and Mont St. Michel

Wow. That's all I can think of to describe our visits to the Normandy beaches, WWII Museum and Sept. 11 museum. The beaches were not only breathtakingly beautiful, but also sobering to know how many people died exactly where you are standing. The Sept. 11 museum had everything from part of the memorial fence that surrounded ground zero to the spare uniform a flight attendant had left at home when she went to work that day. There were also two TVs- one playing the French newscast as they reported what was happening and one playing Bush's address to American on Sept. 20.

Mont St. Michel is the second most popular place to visit in France (next to....the Eiffel Tower of course!) and is a huge "castle" built almost on it's own island in the ocean. It has been used for everything from an abbey (we visited on a Sunday and mass was actually happening in the chapel) to a stockade during the Revolution.  

It was about  a  4-hour drive through beautiful countryside (paysage) with stone houses, hedge rows, crops and lots of sheep and cows. Check out pictures tomorrow on the flickr link!

3 comments:

1st Parental Unit said...

Sounds like a lot more fun than Lake Perry. We've been watching The Tour. Is there much press there on it?

dreama said...

How are your other two French classes going? Are they taught completely in French?

Emily said...

Hello! It is pretty darn fun- Perry is fun too though! Their isn't a ton about the tour here. They will be going through Mont St. Michel soon which is where we were yesterday!
My classes are WONDERFUL! I am learning a ton and yes, both are taught completely in French because if she spoke English only 4 of the 18 people would understand. She would also have to speak 6 other languages, so we speak only in French. It helps so much and I am learning a ton.