Caen, France to Paris

Day 14 - May 24

Entered France at the port of Caen bright and early this morning. A little anxious about the language barrier, so I figured the less I said, the better off I was. My french vocab consisted of bonjour and merci. At least they're friendly words. New bus drivers this morning - yep it takes two to drive a bus of Americans in France, I guess. Not the friendliest guys. They wore suits and sunglasses and were from Morocco. I'd rather have Pat or Derek back. Oh well, it was just for a day.


First stop that Sunday morning (the day before Memorial Day) was to the American Cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer in Normandy. If you saw Saving Private Ryan, this was the scene where the beginning of the movie took place. To further emphasize the meaning of what we were about to see, we watched the first few minutes of the movie. It was hard to keep a dry eye, getting a glimpse of what went on at that beach 65 years ago. So many of us have no idea what sacrifice really means. So many young American men lived it and died for it there on June 6, 1944. The cemetery holds 9,387 graves. 307 are unidentified and 1,557 were never found. There was a big Memorial Day ceremony scheduled and loads of people were there. I kept noticing a lot of French families coming in with bouquets of flowers and thought it was odd. Turns out, they have an association in which local families adopt a soldier and promise to place flowers on the grave at least once a year. Very moving to see that they have not forgotten what was given for their freedom. My heart seemed to hurt at all the loss, and swell with pride at the same time. As the ceremony was starting, we had to leave, but we got to see a flyover as we were walking out. Hard not to be stirred by that.






Drove in toward Paris, with a stop at the Palace at Versailles, famous for being the home of Louis XIV. The fountains there are only turned on Sunday afternoons, so everybody and his brother were there to see it. It was hot as Hades too. Not a lot of shade in this garden either, and again with the noisy pea gravel. The fountains were nice, but after a few, they seemed to impress less and less. History says that these gardens were built out of Louis' insecurity and desire to out do others with his over the top extravagance. Sorry Louie, but pomposity doesn't impress me.






Got to the hotel, hoping to find a cool respite. Yay, our first hotel with AC! Boo, the sign says out of order. We were convinced it never had worked and they just leave the sign up to make it look like they're doing something about it. Oh, well, let's see the city. Had to use the Metro to get anywhere since Paris is a pretty big city. Interesting smells & sounds (karaoke singers on the train begging for tips?) and yep, still hot, even underground. Saw the Eiffel Tower, surrounded by African immigrant souvenir hawkers. Boy were they annoying. "Bling, bling??" No thanks. Two seconds later, another one pops up "Bling, bling?" Ugh...no I really don't need a glow in the dark Eiffel key chain. I think I'll just go back to my hotel oven and baste in my futon while they work on the AC...