Greetings from Normandy. Left La Baule on Tuesday and came up here to
Normandy, to a small town called Bayeux, just north of Caen. Beautiful
town, lovely hotel. Spent the first day wandering the streets, getting a
feel for the place. Apart from being right in the middle of the D-day
landing area, Bayeux has a history which stretches back for centuries.
All the way back to the 10th century. The Bayeux cathedral
was built in 1077, and is one of the biggest churches we have come
across (possible even bigger than Notre Dame in Paris). It really is a
magnificent structure.

The weather is quite a bit
colder here than in the south. Didn't get above 8 degrees all day, and
windy, and raining. Still, if we allowed the weather to dictate our trip
we would have stayed in Spain. Gave us a good excuse to frequent the
cafes and bars. As if we needed an excuse for that, LOL. Spotted a few
promising restaurants to try for dinner - if they're open tonight that
is. Seems to be an ongoing problem with these smaller places. Don't know
if it's a sign of the economic downturn over here, or if it's just the
time of the year - but a lot of places seem to be closed during the
week. Have to search high and low sometimes for somewhere to eat.

Went to the Musee de Tapissarie.
It houses a 70m long tapestry which tells the story of how William the
Conqueror started the Norman conquest England, culminating in the battle
of Hastings where he defeated Harold and proclaimed himself King of
England (told you there was more to this place than just the D-day
landings). The tapestry is quite amazing - the detail is so vivid and
comprehensive you almost don't need the audio commentary which goes with
it.

Today we did the touristy thing - tour of the D-day landing sights.
The weather seemed appropriate for such a solemn excursion - black
thunderheads rolling in, gale force winds sweeping across the hills,
bitterly cold rain. Still, on we went. First stop was a place called
Vierville-sur-Mer, The beginning of Omaha beach. Its difficult to get a
sense of the battles fought here. The area has been built over with
urban developments. Apart from the plaques around the place, there
doesn't appear to be any context to associate it with war. Further along
the coast you get to Pointe Du Hoc,
where the American Ranger division stormed the cliffs. Huge craters
pockmarked the ground, remnants of the severe shelling the area
suffered. There were bombed out German concrete bunkers and gun
emplacements. Looked like the field of battle hadn't been touched since
it happened. It was quite eerie to realize that hundreds of men lost
their lives here.

Heading east along the coast we came to a fishing town called Port-en-Bessin.
The harbour was full of fishing boats, large and small - must have been
over 50 of them. While we were sitting in a cafe having some lunch we
had a birdseye view of them as they were leaving the port, heading out
to sea. One by one they slid past our window, navigating the narrow
channel out of the harbour. It took well over an hour for all of them to
pass by. Quite an impressive sight. Then we wandered down to the fish
market on the wharf where we watched a couple of fishmongers getting
scallops ready for the market. The way they flashed their razor sharp
knives around, you wouldn't want to meet one in a grumpy mood in a dark
alley.

At this time of the year all the D-day
museums are closed for the winter, so we just toured the coast by car,
taking in the villages, and reading a commemorative plaque here and
there. We did stop in at the American War Cemetery
- very impressive. Apart from thousands of grave markers, there is a
memorial with a mural describing the landings, as well as a map of
operations. Gives a great overview of the scale of operations that took
place here.

So, despite the atrocious weather, we
thoroughly enjoyed the days excursion. As well as the places where much
of the 20th century was shaped, we saw some lovely villages, tasted some
wonderful food, and witnessed a small window of what life is like in
this region. All up, most satisfactory.