Bayeux and Mont St. Michel

The adventure continues in France! We're feeling better after a good night's sleep, so we have enthusiasm for the excitement ahead. We spent a lot of time on the bus today, going from Bayeux to Mont St. Michel with stops in between to Arromanches and Pointe du Hoc to see the World War 2 museums.

The bus rides are a good time to relax before our touring excitement.  The rides usually last anywhere from one to two hours, and our bus driver is terrific.  He also plays cool French music through the speakers.

At Bayeux, we got the obligatory group shot.  The tapestry is amazing.  Can you imagine that it's existed for over 10 centuries.  It's incredible to think that you're looking at something that's over 1000 years old.  Of course, they don't allow photography, and the tapestry is in a dark room for protection.  We learned all about it through our audio guides that they gave us before the tour started. 

The emotional part of the trip was visiting the American cemetary for World War 2.  It was such a somber experience seeing the white crosses and star of Davids for the soldiers who had died.  I found one cross for a soldier who died on June 15, 1944 -- 67 years ago today.  So sad, and yet he gave his life in the pursuit of justice and freedom.  So moving.

After visiting Pointe du Hoc, the site of a famous American Ranger battle in which 225 men fought to gain control of the cliffs overlooking the beaches before D-Day (only 90 men survived the battle, but they won), we got on the bus again to head to Mont St. Michel.  We divided into three groups -- the Central girls are in one hotel, and the South Group and the Beloit, Wisconsin group is in another.  We had to wait a little bit before we got to our rooms.  Then we had to climb 5 flights of winding stairs with our heavy luggage (no elevator!) to get to our rooms.  We were tired, for sure!