Catching Up: Normandy & D Day Beaches

I'll be the first to admit that I've gotten embarrassingly far behind with blogging. The irony of traveling in Europe is that the more interesting things you do, the less time you have to write about them, as it turns out. So today I'm going to try to track back to over a month ago (don't worry, I kept a journal so I'm not totally making everything up), when we went to Normandy, the D Day beaches, and Paris!

To kick off our 23-day travel adventure, we got on a bus headed to Bayeux, France. This is where the famous Bayeux Tapestry is kept, a 230-foot long tapestry recording the Norman conquest of England, and the battles between William the Conqueror and Harold, King of England. It was amazing to walk through and listen to the story being told along with the visual accompaniment; it's an incredibly complicated story that was not only depicted well, but also incredibly preserved.

Afterwards, we went to the Notre Dame of Bayeux, which is a gorgeous Gothic church. Since it's not tourist season yet, it was pretty empty, which was really nice - it's a very different atmosphere from the Notre Dame in Paris.

We had the most amazing dinner of galettes, savory crepes that are famous in the northern part of France, and the next day we headed to the D Day beaches.

 Here's one of the structures that we saw around the beaches - I think it was constructed as a defensive structure.

This is the original beach that the Americans landed on - now people come here as a beach vacation, which is really strange to consider, but it is a beautiful beach.

 To prove my point, here's Taylor and me by a waterfall-y thing on the beaches - it was treacherous trying to get to, but worth it for sure (my hand on my knee is covering up a grass stain from slipping on the rocks... oops).

 After the beaches, we headed to the American cemetery, which is one of the most impressive things I've ever seen. It's impossibly huge, and it's crazy to think that so many people lost their lives here because Normandy today is so tranquil. Dave Mackaman also spoke to us about his father, who was involved in the transport of troops to D Day, and the effect the war had on him, which was so powerful. I think it's easy to forget how much war can affect people - it's not just a matter of who died and who survived; there's a lot more to consider about the mentality of people who live through wars. At the cemetery, we went just as the fog was rolling in, which added a much more profound effect to the day.

 After the beaches, we went to another site that has craters remaining from the bombs and artillery used during the war - these craters are massive, and it's even after years of peace. I can't imagine what it must have been like during the war.
Also, as a fun fact, those guys in the picture are in training for the British Air Force - they were there on holiday to visit the beaches, and I thought it was kind of eerie to get a picture of them at the top of one of these craters.

Finally, our last stop was the German cemetery in Normandy - it was so different from the American cemetery. It was a lot more subdued and simplistic, and apparently most of the soldiers mentioned here were actually brought back to Germany and not buried in France. I also thought it was interesting that while the American government pays for the upkeep of the American memorials, the German cemetery is funded by private donations only.

Okay, that's all for Normandy! Next up, Paris.

En Suisse!

This weekend, I made my first venture out of the EU and into Switzerland! I didn't get my passport stamped (which I thought was weird) but I have enough Swiss chocolate to prove I actually went there (but no promises on making it last). Anthony (who came to visit the Abbey last week too!) and I got a 7:30am train (ouch) and spent the day traveling the French/Swiss countryside until we arrived in Lucerne, Switzerland.

In all honesty, Lucerne is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been, and definitely one of the most random. I was first surprised by how much German was spoken there -- luckily, Anthony managed to get us around without too much trouble. The accent of Swiss German is different than "real" German though, and they also throw French words into their vocabulary: they say "merci" for thank you and "pardon" for excuse me, which is really odd.

The first day we were there, we just wandered the city -- we went up to the "old town" section of Lucerne across its famed "Covered Bridge" and to an old wall that was used as protection for the city against invaders. Behind the wall was a huge park that had bison (yes, like buffalo) for no apparent reason. We kept walking into a residential neighborhood and found llamas (yes, really) in what looked like someone's backyard. It was bizarre but I loved it.

Bison!

Yep, those are llamas.

A view of the wall from down below.

For dinner, we realized just how expensive food was in Switzerland, so we went to a little Thai takeout place with the hopes of saving some money. While we were there, a girl came in to pick up an order, walked over to us, and asked if we liked chocolate. Naturally, we said yes, and she pulled out a Lindt chocolate bar and gave us this chocolate and said "I just wanted to make someone happy today." She most definitely did :)

The next day, we tried to find a little bakery to get breakfast at and wound up in the middle of an open air market, where we ended up getting some kind of traditional Swiss pastries -- I'm not entirely sure what they were, but they were delicious.

After that, we headed to the dying lion monument, which was carved into the side of a mountain to commemorate the 500 Swiss soldiers that died during the French Revolution and it was amazing.

Right next to the carving is a glacier garden museum which was basically a mix of everything you could possibly imagine in a museum: it had glacial formations and a museum with about 3 million scale models of Lucerne over time. On top of the museum was an old Swiss house that we toured, and after that we went through a hall of mirrors with a middle eastern theme (three times), and then we climbed a watchtower to see over the whole city of Lucerne, which was an amazing view.

The hall of mirrors!

These creepy little gnomes were all over. Why? I have no idea.

After that, we kept wandering to the city churches which are very different from French churches: French churches have a lot of ornate carvings and decorations, while Swiss churches are relatively bare but have amazing altar pieces.

We also went to the history museum, which is called Depot and is literally a storage locker-type place of historical artifacts. It had nothing written on the "exhibits" but we got barcode scanners when we walked in, and we scanned barcodes to have the information about certain objects pop up on our devices.

Finally, for dinner that night we tried to find a cheap fondue place and completely failed -- literally nothing in Switzerland (aside from museums) is cheap. However, we had some delicious tomato fondue for our last night in Switzerland.

After a 10 hour train ride the next day (which was just the tiniest bit hectic since this region of France is just getting back from their ski vacations), I was finally back in Pontlevoy -- just in time to write this blog get ready for finals.

I can't wait for Paris Week -- it's coming up fast!

Amboise and Clos Lucé

Unfortunately I seem to have neglected my blog for too long now, so I'm going to publish this relatively outdated post and then I promise I'll post something new about my last weekend in Switzerland -- finals week is this week, and everything seems to have crept up on me really fast! It's crazy to think that we've already been here for over a month and that three of my classes will be over as of Thursday. It's even crazier to think that after that, I'll be traveling Europe for three weeks starting Saturday before I get back to the Abbey. I officially have tickets to Barcelona for my Vision Quest week and I cannot WAIT to go there. I may or may not be a little bit obsessed with Antoni Gaudí's architecture...

Clos Lucé

Anyway, back to the matter at hand. Two weekends ago (I said I was out of date), we went to yet another chateau (believe it or not, they never get old -- honestly). Chateau Amboise belonged to King Francis I, and right next door was the house where Leonardo Da Vinci spent the last few years of his life. Apparently rumor has it that Da Vinci and Francis I were more than friends (if you get my drift...) and they literally had a secret tunnel built between their residences so they could get to each other at all hours (for a glass of wine or something probably... right? :P).

Secret love wine tunnel!

We got to see the bed Da Vinci died in as well as where he's buried, which was so cool. In the basement of Clos Lucé, models of Da Vinci's inventions were also set up on display -- I had no clue he invented so many things (the machine gun and double-hulled boat, for a few examples). We also walked around the gardens surrounding Da Vinci's house, which were kind of stark since it was so cold out, but still pretty cool.

Da Vinci's deathbed

and his grave!

Out in Da Vinci's garden

Interior of Chateau Amboise

Amboise exterior - it was up on top of a hill, so we had a great view of the city!

One of the chairs in Amboise -- apparently the royal court used to travel, so they would take these chairs with them, and the bottom part of the chair doubled as a trunk to take their belongings with them when they would visit other Chateaus!

Some gargoyles outside Amboise

Da Vinci monument in the Amboise gardens

The city of Amboise was also really cute: it was small, but there were plenty of chocolate shops open (and naturally I took full advantage of that).

Okay, that's all for Amboise. Switzerland post coming soon!

Paris je t'aime

Last weekend was the Abbey program's Paris weekend -- a nice preview of what we can expect for Paris week, and needless to say, it's going to be amazing! Paris really speaks for itself: what more can I say about the Eiffel Tower or Notre Dame that hasn't already been said? This was a return visit to Paris for me, but there's always so much to do and more neighborhoods to see. I was thrilled to finally make it to Montmartre (to can-can in front of the Moulin Rouge!) and Sacre Coeur, which was one of the most amazing cathedrals I've ever seen. We were even lucky enough to catch it during Sunday's Lenten Mass, which was incredible. I also had my first memorable experience on the Champs-Élysées, which as it turns out, is a street, not a building (oops... needless to say I was lost for about half an hour looking for a large, historic building, of which there are about six near the
Champs-Élysées metro stop, but I eventually found it!). I also got to see the Eiffel Tower sparkle for the first (several) times, which is nothing short of breathtaking. After dark, the Eiffel Tower is lit up to look like it's sparkling for the first five minutes of every hour, and it's spectacular.

The Canal over by our hostel!

What would this blog be without food pictures? We stopped by the Louvre and I got a Kinderchocolate and cappucino-almond ice cream :)

Speaking of the Louvre...

Some cool graffiti over by the hostel!

Even more graffiti! I wouldn't mind if this showed up in Detroit :)

Super cool glass-outside house

Generic bridge over by our hostel

Not so generic... apparently they were dragging the canal for a body the day we were walking past, so naturally Dr. Mackaman had us take a picture with the diver once he emerged from the water (sans body, thankfully).

More graffiti!

My new favorite aperitif: Chevre Chaud

If this isn't the most gorgeous thing you've seen, I recommend reevaluating.

Hey, there's a police cruiser (still looking for a body!)

Notre Dame! It was the 850th anniversary, which is why there's that weird structure in the bottom left corner -- I guess it was for crowd control, but it didn't make for the best pictures :P

I think we're good enough to do this professionally, right?

Sacre Coeur!

They even had living statues on the hill at Sacre Coeur, which I found rather amusing.

What visit to Paris would be complete without some creme brulee?

Tours and Chenonceau

Since getting to the Abbey, the concept of "down time" has been nonexistent for me, which I usually love, but it's hard to fight through jet lag and jump into eight hour class days. Surprisingly enough, though, I'm actually liking all of the (shudder) liberal arts classes I'm in this semester, since it seems more "real" when I'm literally not more than half an hour from some major historical landmarks.

The Chateau! It looks like it's straight out of Cinderella.

This weekend we went on an excursion to Chateau Chenonceau, which is an amazing Chateau (mansion) built in the late 1400s spanning the River Cher. This mansion was a gift from King Henry II to his mistress, Diane de Poitiers. Apparently, the French have a much more open view towards relationships than most people in the States. Henry II's wife, Catherine de Medici, however, wasn't super thrilled about this, because she'd actually fallen in love with Henry II. After Henry II's sudden death in a jousting match, Catherine kicked Diane out of Chenonceau and redesigned the gardens around the castle to better reflect her personality. We didn't get to see the gardens, but I'm planning to come back in the spring and check them out!

After Catherine died, she passed the mansion to her daughter-in-law, Louise de Lorraine, who was married to Henry III, the third and final king produced by Catherine and Henry II's marriage (they had 11 kids together, three of whom became king). Louise created one of the most interesting rooms in the castle, called the black room. It's exactly as it sounds -- very ornate but at the same time very austere and dark. She created it after her husband's death, and she spent the rest of her life wearing mourning garments and basically sulking in this room. After her death, the Chateau left the hands of the royal family.

After a very rushed tour of Chenonceau, we were off to Tours for the day to shop (finally!) and see the Musee des Beaux Arts.

Only one of those things was actually successful (and it wasn't the shopping). After a good hour of wandering Tours with Dr. Mackaman, we finally asked directions to get to the Musee des Beaux Arts. We spent about an hour at the museum, which had some incredible pieces in it (and an elephant outside that rivals the one at Wayne State's Engineering Library!).

Fritz, the taxidermied elephant outside the Musee des Beaux Arts

Then we explored the cathedral next to the Musee, which was absolutely breathtaking. I'm not usually a sappy art person, but seeing the organ in this cathedral actually took my breath away.

The most amazing organ - I think I was more impressed with this cathedral than I was with Notre Dame, actually.

Stained glass in the chapel - amazing

After another hour of wandering around lost, a few of us got food and asked the man working the sandwich shop for directions. I spent about half an hour speaking only French to figure out how to get back to the main street and our hostel, but now I definitely know how to say "left" (a gauche), "right" (a doit), and "straight" (tout doit)! It was a really stressful day, but we managed to find our way back to the hostel about an hour later, then we went out and got lost... again on our way to the Place de Plumereau, where a lot of university students hang out on the weekend. It was really lively, but I didn't stay too long because I was exhausted (By the end of the day I think we had walked at least 15 miles... ouch). Plus, there's always the option of a return trip now that I know my way around (mostly). And if not, I can ask for directions now!

Place Plumerau!