My So Called Parisian Life: Normandy and Mont Saint Michel

This weekend we went to Normandy and Mont Saint Michel. It was about a 2.5 hour bus ride from Paris. There was 90 kids that went from my program so we had two big coach buses. The tour guide on our bus though didn't really speak English that well and she was clearly reading off a sheet but at one point she just gave up and was like it's too hard for me to speak English and then she finished in French... Our first stop was to the Caen Military Museum. It had stuff from pre and post World War II. After that we went to the Normandy American Cemetery at Omaha Beach. Because the weather was so crappy though, we didn't actually get to go down to the beach which was a bummer. The cemetery was really interesting though. There were thousands and thousands of crosses and Jewish stars marking the graves. It was definitely a sobering experience. After that we went to Pointe du Hoc which was one of the attack spots during the war. The whole field was filled with holes where the bombs had hit. The weather finally cleared up and it was absolutely gorgeous!! The water was so clear and blue. There was this rock out in the water that for some reason I really liked. Why? I have no idea.

Once we left Pointe du Hoc our program director said we were going straight to the hotel but instead we made a surprise pit stop at a cider distillery! The region is famous for the apples and the cider. We got a mini tour of the factory and then had a tasting. I really liked the sweet cider. It was so good! After that we really went to the hotel. We were pretty exhausted by the time we got there. The hotel was awesomeeeeee. Comfy beds, a hot shower, lights that are actually bright. We went out for a quick bite to eat at an Italian place around the corner. So we get there, and the waiter was being really obnoxious. He knew we were having trouble understanding him so he kept switching back and forth between French and Italian. Then we went back to the hotel. We were joking though saying how we are such grandma's. It was a Saturday night, and we were in bed by 10:15 watching BBC world news (finally an english station!). I think we were probably both asleep by 10:45.

The next morning we went down for breakfast then walked around a little farmers market which was really cute. After that we all loaded back on the bus and drove for I think two hours before we got to Mont Saint Michel. The weather was so so so crappy when we got there. So where the bus parked to where we got on the tram to bring us up to Mont Saint Michel was about a mile and a half walk. It wouldn't have been so bad if it wasn't raining and the wind wasn't as strong. But we get to the tram and up to the monastery which is absolutely gorgeous. We had another tour guide take us around which was really nice. It was a lot of stairs and cobble stones. We were in one of the rooms and the tour guide was like, so this is the new building, it's from the 13th century. New building? Really? There was a courtyard that we walked through which was really green and pretty and all of a sudden it started torrential downpour, like actual sheets of rain, which then turned to hail. I took a few pictures then we went back inside. When we looked out again 5 minutes later there was not a cloud in the sky. The weirdest weather ever. Once the tour was over we had about half an hour for lunch. I was hellbent on getting some fries so we found a place and my little heart was happy. When we walked back down to the meeting point, the wind was so strong I thought one of the lanterns was going to go flying off. It was just crazy. After we all met up, we started walking back to the tram and it was even harder because the wind was so much stronger! People were blowing everywhere and getting tossed around. Never have I experienced anything like that. It was just insane. Once we finally got back on the bus it was 4 and a half hours back to Paris. I slept for a little bit but once we started getting closer to the city I was just so antsy that I just wanted to get off.