Paris, Versailles, and Experiencing Normandy

Paris was wonderful.  The French have generally been friendly and kind people.  And we've really enjoyed the delicious pastries and breads at the boulangeries.  Bread is such a big thing here in France--people walk around with fresh baguettes everywhere.  Our favourite has been the chocolate croissant-type pastry. 

We bit the bullet and decided to take transit in Paris--their transit system is amazing!  You are never more than a few hundred meters away from a subway station, and they're so easy to figure out.  We went everywhere on it. 

One thing we've noticed there is their sidewalks are littered with dog poo mines.  Often they've been stepped in and you can see the trail of dog poo coming from it.  We refer to the avoidance of the poo like a game of dodgeball, or dodge-poo if you will.  They seem to pop out of nowhere and you have to use quick reflexes to avoid stepping in it!

One more thing...Colin and I were sitting at a Park taking advantage of the free internet last Wednesday when we heard the city's air raid sirens go off!  We were about to run and duck for cover before we noticed that no one else around us were panicking.  Turns out the city of Paris tests their sirens on the first Wednesday of each month, which are now used for natural disasters or hazardous material spills.  Phew for us, but what a horrifying sound that must have been back when they were actually used for air raids!

We took a day-trip out to Versailles before we left Paris for Normandy (Bayeux, to be exact).  Versailles was just breathtaking, but Normandy has left us speechless.  Why such an important part of history like the Second World War is not taught in school is such a shame to us.  We're told that we have to remember the soldiers who died for us so that we could be free, but we've never been taught why they had to die and why our freedom was at stake.  Colin and I have learned so much from our trip--starting from Berlin about the Nazi Regime, to Normandy where Allied forces began to break down Nazi occupation of France. 

Since coming to Normandy, we quickly realized how little we know about our history, and why we are able to live free in what we know of the world today.  We didn't even know our Prime Minister was W.L. Mackenzie King during that time!  How many people know who that guy is on our $5 bill??  Experiencing the actual beaches the Americans, Canadians, and British troops landed on has been so humbling.  You cannot even begin to understand what the troops must have had to go through during D-Day and the months that followed until you've been here...and even then...

We are so much more appreciative of what we have and are so thankful we have not had to endure such hardship--thanks to those who have fought and died for us and to those who are still doing so now.

On our train to Normandy from Paris, we met an older man, Jean, who was on his way home from a trip to Montreal.  It turned out he actually lives about 20 mins from where we were going to in Bayeux.  He was wonderful to us and offered to take us around Bayeux to see the sights.  We exchanged numbers and he asked us to give him a call.  We weren't so sure at the beginning, but we're glad we did.  He's a really nice man, just looking to meet new people and make new friends.  He took us around to some sights we wouldn't have known about on our own, and brought us (well, more for Colin) to see their local firehall.  We went out to his favourite Chinese restaurant for dinner and he wouldn't let us pay.  He even offered up his house for a week if and when we decide to come back to Bayeux!  I got his mailing address because it looks like we're going to have to send him a nice Christmas present.  Wish we would have remembered to get a picture with him.

Wow, time really has flown by.  We are heading back to London tomorrow for our last few nights before we go home!  Until next time....

The cute little alley to our Paris apartment.

Apartment #18 with the blue door

Kitchen, looking into the living area

Living area looking into the kitchen below and bedroom above



 

Of course we had to get one in front of the Eiffel Tower





Up close



Jim Morrison's grave at Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris

The grave of Oscar Wilde, covered in  lipstick

The only restaurant we ate at in Paris where we had a taste of authentic French cuisine

Foie gras with fig confit

Escargot in garlic butter sauce

St-Jacques with fresh creme on rice

Beef tartar

Outside the Louvre

All the hype, and this was it...a small, dark painting behind a glass encasement, roped off with security reinforcements. 

 

Venus



Michelangelo's The Slave



The entrance to the Palace of Versailles

Part of the grounds at the Palace of Versailles....endless and breathtaking.

 

Palace of Versailles



There was a Takashi Murakami exhibit at the Palace of Versailles...interesting sculptures.



See those craters?  They were made by the bombs the Allied forces dropped on the Germans about an hour before the first landings.  Pointe-du-Hoc was completely riddled with them.  About 1.2 million tons of bombs were dropped on this area alone.

 

Self explanatory...(where the Americans landed on June 6, 1944)



American Cemetery on Omaha Beach



Canadian Cemetery near Courseulles-Sur-Mer