Normandy, the northwestern-most of France's 13 European regions, is to World War II tourism what
is to World War I tourism. But as with World War I, there's very little our travel blog can add to anyone's knowledge about World War II
we visited. And as with
Normandy has more for visitors to consider than the blood spilt in the first half of the 20th Century.
Driving In France
We left Amiens after shoe-horning our little rental box car out of the world's smallest Enterprise rental car lot and headed for lunch in the port town of Honfleur. Our morning entertainment was learning about the French autoroute system.
Most of France's autoroute or "A" roads are privately operated toll roads; the ones we traveled were well signed and maintained. The toll booths take credit cards and our rough calculation was that each "A" road kilometer cost us about 10 Euro cents. The "A" roads have (mostly, frequent enough) food / gasoline / restroom stops that are very large, well stocked and clean. Many highway stops include a sit-down café operated by the Pauls restaurant chain. And even though, as a francophone friend told us, Pauls are called "the Subway Sandwich of France" we found the baguette sandwiches at Pauls waaaay better. Pauls also serves good coffee and nice mid-morning / mid-afternoon pastries. Just in case, you know . . .
As we approached Honfleur we began to see half-timber houses. We were in Normandy!
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Normandy Street Scene
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Honfleur and the Route of the Abbeys
And then we were in Honfleur -- a charming/cutesy port town on the Seine estuary which became a favorite place for early Impressionist painters to -- well, paint. It's now a place where people from all over the world come and take pictures, drink wine and eat lunch. Which is what we did.
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The Port of Honfleur --
Restaurants Under Umbrellas (Right) -- More Than Full!
Note The Scary, Narrow Entrance To The Port -- Best To Arrive
Via Motorcycle - See Crowds Of Those (Also Right)
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But as we fortunately remembered after our harborside lunch: in most crowded, charming/cutesy places there are almost always less crowded, equally charming and less cutesy places only a few streets away from the Main Scene. We enjoyed a walk in Honfleur.
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Church of Saint Leonard, Honfleur
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From Honfleur Bryce chauffeured us along the Route of the Abbeys which follows the Seine inland towards Rouen. This drive is recommended by the travel writer, Rick Steves. We agree. An Aside: Among the ways to distinguish U.S. independent travelers from Canadian independent travelers in Europe: Canadians almost always sport a maple leaf somewhere (a pin, a scarf, a backpack patch) and U.S. travelers will frequently drop Rick Steves's name, as in "well, Rick suggests . . . ").
We stopped at the one of "Rick's" essential stops -- the Abbey of Jumieges.
Jumieges was founded in 654 and operated as a Benedictine abbey (with time off for a Viking sacking and a 15th Century English invasion) until religious orders were dissolved during the French Revolution. The abbey property was appropriated by the government and sold to a private party for use as a stone quarry. What remains today is a lovely and haunting memorial to that shift of power and real estate.
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Brenda and Bryce -
Think They're Related? |
Within the park is a mansion built in the 17th Century to house the abbots of Jumieges (an "abbatial") which now is home to a small museum that is worth a visit.
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| Three Saint Peters -- Abbatial of Jumieges |
Rouen
From the abbey it is only a short drive to the city of Rouen, capital of the Normandy Region. Our stop for the night was a hotel in the Ibis chain -- a chain of just fine, clean, adequately equipped and often centrally located hotels. Fatigue drove us to interact with "real locals" by dining in a nearby shopping mall restaurant. So French!
The next morning we left our luggage at the hotel and set off to visit Rouen's old town and Notre Dame Cathedral. We had no idea it was the morning of Rouen's Seine Marathon - or that the route of the marathon was between where we were and where we wanted to be.
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We Know You've Been Training For Months But . . ..
Could You Just Stop A Sec And Let Us Through?
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Fortunately there was a Pauls on our side of the marathon route; coffee and pastry - once again living like locals (except for not being able to order without some pointing). Eventually the end-of-marathon stragglers were slow enough that we were able to get across the street and walk to the cathedral.
Rouen's Notre Dame Cathedral is a Gothic spectacular. No wonder Monet painted it 30-ish times.
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As Rebuilt After WWII
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The marathon wasn't our only tourist timing glitch - it was Sunday and Mass was in full swing by the time we arrived. We hovered at the entrance for a while, took a few discrete long-distance pictures and left.
We wandered through the old town.
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| The Palais de Justice - Also Rebuilt Post-WWII |
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Fortunately This Store Was Also Closed On Sunday!
Absolutely NO Room For A Stuffed Peacock
Or Giant Shell In Our Luggage
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Half-Timber Houses --
Is This What Is Meant By "Just Lean In"? |
Our next agenda item was to see the Bayeux Tapestry before we checked into our night's accommodation -- so we had to move on; no time for Joan of Arc or the other many things to learn about / see / experience in Rouen. Our take-away? Half of a day is not enough for Rouen.
Bayeux Tapestry
Fans of fabric arts or graphic novels will be awed by the Bayeux Tapestry. We do not have our own pictures - they are not allowed - but you can get an idea of how fabulous it is
by taking a look at the museum's website.
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Courtesy Of The Museum's Website
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Our random take-aways are:
- The Bayeux Tapestry is long - 70 meters (230 feet) - and incredibly detailed.
- It's not a tapestry, but embroidery.
- It tells a rip-roaring action story - friendship, quicksand, betrayal, a Channel crossing, war, rearing horses -- a king!
- Harold Godwinson was a bit of a snake (at least according to this history as written by the Normans).
- Even as Guillaume became William I of England he remained the Duke of Normandy, and thus technically a vassal of Henry, King of France. Awkward.
- The fact that the Bayeux Tapestry has survived since the 11th Century is astounding (think of World War II as just one challenge).
- Seeing this exhibit late in the day and during the off-season is the way to go - we were able to walk back behind the viewing line and rejoin it in order to view the embroidery a second time.
Major take-away: Anyone who has a chance to see the Bayeux Tapestry / Embroidery should. It's not your grandmother's embroidery.
Arromanches-les-Bains
Our accommodation was a farmhouse outside of the town of Arromanche-les-Bains run by M. and Mme. Sebine and their daughter -- and recommended by Rick.
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The Sabine Farm Courtyard --
Guests Stay In The Wing To The Right |
The muddy boots outside of the family's home and the coming and going of men in work clothes confirmed for us that the Sabine farm is a working farm. The family provides breakfast, but no other meals so after we checked in we set off for the nearby town of Arromanches looking for food.
In addition to dinner we found an amazing view of left-overs from the D-Day Invasion. We had read that Arromanches was the site of an important temporary heavy equipment harbor within the Gold Beach landing zone -- but we didn't expect to see so many of the "temporary" harbor parts remaining.
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Tiny People -- Putting The Left-Over Harbor Parts In Perspective
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The fact that so much remains after 75 years -- and that the remains are so huge -- brought the organizational mastery of D-Day into sharp focus.
The next day we visited the heavily advertised Arromanche 360 "circular cinema" -- in large part because we thought it would offer a place to sit down and rest our feet while being spoon-fed information. Check as to the spoon-feeding, but not so much for sitting down; viewers of the 360 degree cinema have to stand. It was an interesting presentation if you happen to be in Arromanche, but don't go there just for Arromanche 360.
Juno Beach
From the farmhouse we drove to Juno Beach, the D-Day landing area assigned to the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division. Historians report that only the Americans at Omaha Beach faced stronger resistance.
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| Juno Beach |
Our tour was organized through the
Juno Beach Center, a private non-profit organization that owns and operates a museum and Juno Park, an area that includes remnants of some gun emplacements which were part of the Nazi regime's formidable "Atlantic Wall". Our guide was a young Canadian university history major who had taken one of the center's seven month long student guide positions. He was very knowledgeable and enthusiastic about his subject.
The Juno Beach Center operates a museum dedicated to Canada's contribution to the Allied war effort. There are numerous plaques and memorials honoring those who served at Juno Beach:
There's also information about Canadians who served in less obvious ways:
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| They Who Knit, Also Serve |
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By Molly Lamb Bobak, Official War Artist
(Of Canada's 28 Official War Artists, The Only Female) |
Also among the Canadians honored at the museum are those who served behind enemy lines after training at the first center for secret agents established in North America at Whitby, Ontario -- STS 103, also known as Camp X.
Caens Memorial Museum
Our last World War II related tourist activity was a visit to the Caens Memorial Museum. Friends' advice had put this on our agenda, and we were very happy that they talked us into visiting it.
The museum provides exhaustive information about D-Day and the war in Normandy as well as the Vichy French collaboration with the Nazi-led genocide of Jews and Romany people. This travel blog can add little to anyone's knowledge about those well-documented World War II events and atrocities so we will leave that to better informed and qualified writers and historians. Instead, here are a few of our personal "I didn't know that about that" thoughts:
The French Collaboration
A portion of the museum focuses on how World War I and its aftermath led to the French surrender to Nazi Germany and the establishment of the collaborationist Vichy government in southern France. An (extremely) condensed version: France lost 4% of it's pre-war population (military and civilian) during World War I along with large portions of its national infrastructure. After the war the French Third Republic struggled to provide medical care and support to the wounded, rebuild the country's infrastructure and fend off economic collapse threatened due to, in part, the loss of a large portion of its male workforce.
All while vehemently opposing the country's growing Communist Party.
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Donate Your Work To Save Europe
From Bolshevism (!)
(As Slave Labor For The Nazis . . . ) |
The anti-communist / pro-Nazi Vichy government was not universally supported, of course.
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"Laval To The Post" -- Graffiti Urging The Execution
Of Pierre Laval, Leader of The Vichy Government |
But with the permission of the Nazi regime, the Vichy government managed to retain some civil authority in occupied France and fuller control of unoccupied (southern) France and French Algeria. As such, they controlled the local propaganda machine. This poster, known as "L'Affiche Rouge" or "The Red Poster", identifies certain resistance fighters as foreign criminals -- the Nazi's "usual suspects": Polish and Hungarian Jews and Spanish and Italian Communists.
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"Liberators? Liberation! By The Army of Crime"
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The Soviet Union
There are also exhibits recognizing the losses sustained by the Soviet Union -- losses historically downplayed in North America as a result of the Cold War. Almost 60% of the 5.7 million Soviet prisoners of war lost their lives (yep, around 3.4 million). The Nazi's initial tests of Zyklon B were on Soviet POWs. And when the survivors returned to the Soviet Union, many were re-imprisoned as deserters.
Apparently Stalin also preferred "people who weren't captured"*. *quote: D. Trump
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A Soviet Prisoner Of War
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And Also . . .
Bryce appreciated the exhibit honoring the service of hundreds of -- homing pigeons. He raised pigeons in his youth and has long tried to convert Molly to a pro-pigeon position. She's glad they helped the Allied war effort but still tends to think of them as rats with wings . . .
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| A Pigeon Parachute |
Among all the horror recognized by the museum, one of the saddest is a gas mask created for German toddlers.
Do not miss this museum if you have any interest at all in this period of history.
In a solemn state of mind, we drove on to:
Mont Saint-Michel
Mont Saint-Michel (spelled variously, we learned as Bryce edited this post, as Mont-Saint-Michel or Mont St. Michel!) is the name for:
a tidal island, located about .6 kilometers off the Normandy coast, created by an astonishing 14 meter (46 foot) tidal range;
the town on that island, the location of several small hotels and restaurants and a resident population of about 50 people (some of whom are monks or nuns); and
a former Benedictine abbey (which was also, by times, a prison).
All of which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site -- and one of the most visited sights in France (read: potentially crowded).
Fortunately for Brenda and Molly their travel coordinator extraordinaire (Bryce) had arranged for an overnight stay on Mont Saint-Michel which allowed us not only to see the tidal change and the island at night -- but to be at the abbey early enough to avoid the majority of the crowds.
Travel Tip: Plan ahead (it's popular and small) and stay overnight if you can. We enjoyed our short stay at La Vieille Auberge.
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| Night Comes To Mont Saint-Michel |
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And As Follows . . . The Day
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An Additional Travel Tip: The island can only be reached by foot, a crowded-but-convenient shuttle bus or cute-but-expensive horse-drawn carriage. It's all well explained on
the parking information website. Even the shuttles or carriages travel only from the mainland to the island -- after the drop-off point it's all foot traffic - and all up. [The town is called
Mont (Mount) Saint-Michel, you know?] We planned for this walk by re-packing and leaving as much as we could in the car (taking electronics, jewelry and overnight things with us in two small rolling bags). Yes, we know - large tourist center parking lots often invite opportunity theft. Fortunately for us, the opportunistic thieves took our days off. Another idea we toyed with was to leave our luggage at a previous or future night's accommodation -- but that is difficult to accomplish without backtracking.
The abbey is still a pilgrimage site and many people opt to walk to the abbey. Walkers can either traverse the causeway used by the shuttle buses and carriages or, at low tide, walk across the tidal basin.
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Tides Out! Go, Pilgrims, Go!
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We not only had bags to consider, but we also remembered that Harold (of Bayeux Tapestry fame) - before he betrayed William - had rescued soldiers from the quicksand surrounding Mont Saint-Michel. We decided to learn from history and take the shuttle bus.
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Mont Saint-Michel Top Center
Quicksand, Right |
Because we were staying overnight, we were able to delay our visit to the abbey and spend our first afternoon walking around the little town. It turns out that, beyond the initial off-putting tourist-shop gauntlet, the town is rather charming. We enjoyed watching store keepers lock up for the evening as the majority of the day-trippers departed.
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Brenda and Molly, Pausing For
Reflection (And Breath) |
We also made time for an afternoon cidre (cider) - a Normandy specialty.
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A Well Deserved Cider
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The next morning we checked out, stored our little bags (the hotels have done this before) and walked to the abbey, stopping first to visit the Parochial Church of St. Peter.
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Keys, Peter - Check
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When we reached the abbey we were told all the English language audio guides were taken which seemed odd since it was so early in the morning, but there we were. English language guided tours were available but rather than wait for one we chose to just wander, read Rick's guide -- and just look around.
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Brenda In The Abbey
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And Bryce . . .
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The Mont Saint-Michel visit was a highlight of our trip. It's touristy and crowded and culinarily unexciting -- and oh, yes, painful to the knees -- but well worth all that.
Next: A rest for weary tourists in Brittany!
