Tuesday, October 04, 2005
Our very own D-Day
For our last adventure in Europe, we launched our own invasion of the beaches of Normandy. This had always been high on Fred's list of places to visit, so naturally we had to wait for him to be able to go along. Given that the trip was a good 6 weeks ago, and we're still in the throes of moving hell, I'm just going to offer a few of my favorite photos and some of the high points.
We stopped at a gas station for lunch on our way into France, and AB chose an entire loaf of French bread for her meal. I never thought she would be able to eat the whole thing, but she did:
We visited the museum at St. Mere Eglise, and as we were leaving, Mike had an especially thoughtful look on his face. "So we were also at war with France?" he asked. Not at all, we assured him. "But we INVADED them!" he insisted. Yes, to liberate them from the Germans. You could almost see the lightbulb pop on over his head. "Wow!" he exclaimed. "I THOUGHT they took a little too much pride in getting their butts kicked."
Of all the beaches, Utah was our favorite. There weren't many people, and it was just very tranquil and beautiful. I took this picture of a horse and buggy along the water's edge.
Mike and Annabelle and I went wading in the shallow water, while Fred held our shoes:
I thought this picture of the kids at Point du Hoc came out especially nice:
This church outside of Omaha Beach was the site of our attempted carjacking. OK, so it really wasn't a carjacking, but it's not as exciting to say that a distracted British tourist climbed into the shotgun seat of our van, thinking he was getting into the driver's seat of his own car. I had hopped out and left my door hanging open while I went to take a picture of the church:
I found myself taking pictures of cars in France, such as this one:
And, of course, I had to take a picture of the big car from Florida parked next to the little French car:
The morning after our visit to the beaches, we found out that we had stumbled into France on the number one busiest tourist weekend of the year and that we would NOT be able to find a hotel room for that evening. We decided to drive out to Mont Saint Michel and then head for home.
We stopped at a roadside french fry stand, where Fred demonstrated the fine art of eating frites with a knife:
Once we got to St. Michel, tourists took pictures of us taking pictures of the kids with the rodents:
Annabelle had made this stinky cheese costume for Stinky. Get it? France. Stinky cheese:
St. Michel was gorgeous, way out of the way but worth every extra mile. We didn't stay for long though, as we knew we would have a long drive back to Germany that night. Fred and I did pose for one shot together though in the parking lot before we started off for home:
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We stopped at a gas station for lunch on our way into France, and AB chose an entire loaf of French bread for her meal. I never thought she would be able to eat the whole thing, but she did:
We visited the museum at St. Mere Eglise, and as we were leaving, Mike had an especially thoughtful look on his face. "So we were also at war with France?" he asked. Not at all, we assured him. "But we INVADED them!" he insisted. Yes, to liberate them from the Germans. You could almost see the lightbulb pop on over his head. "Wow!" he exclaimed. "I THOUGHT they took a little too much pride in getting their butts kicked."
Of all the beaches, Utah was our favorite. There weren't many people, and it was just very tranquil and beautiful. I took this picture of a horse and buggy along the water's edge.
Mike and Annabelle and I went wading in the shallow water, while Fred held our shoes:
I thought this picture of the kids at Point du Hoc came out especially nice:
This church outside of Omaha Beach was the site of our attempted carjacking. OK, so it really wasn't a carjacking, but it's not as exciting to say that a distracted British tourist climbed into the shotgun seat of our van, thinking he was getting into the driver's seat of his own car. I had hopped out and left my door hanging open while I went to take a picture of the church:
I found myself taking pictures of cars in France, such as this one:
And, of course, I had to take a picture of the big car from Florida parked next to the little French car:
The morning after our visit to the beaches, we found out that we had stumbled into France on the number one busiest tourist weekend of the year and that we would NOT be able to find a hotel room for that evening. We decided to drive out to Mont Saint Michel and then head for home.
We stopped at a roadside french fry stand, where Fred demonstrated the fine art of eating frites with a knife:
Once we got to St. Michel, tourists took pictures of us taking pictures of the kids with the rodents:
Annabelle had made this stinky cheese costume for Stinky. Get it? France. Stinky cheese:
St. Michel was gorgeous, way out of the way but worth every extra mile. We didn't stay for long though, as we knew we would have a long drive back to Germany that night. Fred and I did pose for one shot together though in the parking lot before we started off for home:
