To enrich our French experience we went to Normandy for a change of scenery.
We drove to Bayeux to see the
Bayeux Tapestry! I was expecting to see a more traditional tapestry, but this looked more like an embroidered cloth cartoon strip of the events leading up to the Norman Conquest. I wasn't able to take pictures of it, but the tapestry was super interesting and the facial expressions on some of the character's faces were worth a good chuckle, I would definitely recommend seeing it if you're ever in the neighborhood.
Bayeux was so beautiful!
We then drove to Les Plages du D
ébarquement (D-Day Beaches/ Omaha beach) to see the
Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial. It was so beautiful and solemn to see the tomb stones stretching on seemingly for miles and the memorial did a very good job at using pathos and making the war a very personal thing. By that I mean they (whoever put together the memorial) focused on heroic acts of individuals and made sure to portray the soldiers who died as people instead of just a bunch of numbers. This made the whole experience of visiting the cemetery much more memorable and evoked a feeling of patriotism and desire for peace...which I am assuming the planning committee of the memorial was going for?
We then went to Collville-sur-Mer and saw some old bunkers and cannons. It was very eerie to stand in the bunkers and have the un-avoidable thought: "I wonder how many people died while standing in the exact same spot I'm in?"
However, even with those reminders of tragedy, the weather was lovely, there was a nice sea breeze, and the surrounding fields were beautiful. Life comes and goes. If I were a poet or an exceptional writer with lots of time to paint a detailed verbal picture I'd write an inspiring contemplation of life and death at those bunkers, how the past, present, and future meet at one point--the the present viewer--under a sunny sky and the fields full of wildflowers and butterflies (later when my grand essay would be analyzed by an English class I'd get extra awesomeness points for including the butterflies in my description because they're often used in literature as a
symbol for a departed soul).
Puis, we went to Rouen where
Joan of Arc was burned at the steak and where we were staying the night. Coincidentally, we had *stake for dinner...
...it was great!
Dessert was a puff-pastery with apple and cream! Yummy!
At this great restaurant:
*Yes, I do actually know the difference between these words...I just felt like bein' goofy.
No comments:
Post a Comment