So its been a few days.
The last day in Paris was about the end of most peoples' attention spans, including my own, and we saw Victor Hugo's house, the museum of Paris, a Picasso museum, another church, etc. But Ezra wanted to go to a Games Workshop store and it was like a time machine. Super cool. They're way into Warhammer here. He was pretty pumped. My one nerdy friend isn't staying for the La Rochelle program though. :( I'm in la Rochelle now, we spent the last few days through Normandy. Our drizzly weather continued, which didn't seem so inappropriate for northern France. We started in Giverny with Monet's gardens, and I know I've raved about these in the past, because they are like stepping into one of his paintings. They are incredible. Many of the flowers were not blooming yet because it has been so cold, but plenty were, and this place has my itch for a garden going like crazy.
Giverny the town itself is quaint and beautiful. Everyone has the little stucco tan house with the perfectly trimmed hedges and window boxes with gorgeous flowers everywhere. There are horses and cows and everythings very pastoral. Acutally this is most of Normandy. Much of it resembles the midwest acutally, lots of farmland and pasture and things, everythings just a bit smaller and a bit flowerier.
We saw the tapisserie de bayeux, which is a ... 70 meter? long tapestry embroidered in the middle ages to recount the battle of Hastings. Its very interesting and quite impressive.
PS- we've got the Richmond groups with us at this point, so our group tripled in size. Yuck. Now we're a tour group on a bus beside all the other big annoying tour groups in buses. And we don't know these kids well yet, so we don't like them. Many of them now have names and faces, so things are improving. One of them crapped on the bus and now we can't use the bathroom. Not impressed about that.
Anyway! So then we went to another church. and another church and another church. they were huge and beautiful and are all starting to run together a bit. Oh I should comment on the Basilica of St Theresa though. It was built in the 50s in a town called Liseaux, and its HUGE and the archetecture is different than all the rest. and the art is all mosaic tiles. All around and up and down and under and everywhere in this place. It is BEAUTIFUL. And Jesus was about to chuck some fireballs at us.
The bus rides aren't too uncomfortable. I'm so into the books I'm reading and my naps that I don't even want to get off to see the sites we're visiting. Its tough though, 2 hour nap, museum. 2 hour nap, garden. etc.
We stayed in Liseaux at a little hotel that was tres cher ($$$) and was so old and cute. We were fed a catered meal of Beef Bourgion, quiche, and chocolate mousse. The waitress dumped my red wine on my lap. So that was kind of a bummer, but noone was hurt. The group went across the street to a small brasserie for drinks, and I was so full that I just stayed for one, but they remained and got pretty roudy with the locals. "High Five" doesn't translate real well.
The next day we went to the beaches at Arromanches. Dreary day again, but definatly aided in the atmosphere of the town. And finally the ocean! Arromanches is right on the edge of Gold beach, and did not see any major action in terms of disembarkment, but was surrounded by it. Omaha is straight south. We went to a museum and got a nice rundown of the building of the artificial port that was the backbone of d-day. --- Oh I had the best pizza in my life- cream, goat cheese, and some prochutto type meat. Strange, but amazing. Anyway, then we wandered a bit within this place that would feel a lot more nostalgic and things if it weren't for all the CRAP people sell. I'm sick of souvenirs. I'm buying post cards (Of course), but gah. All this memoribilia takes over the acutal purpose of the site you're visiting. We also saw some of the german coastal defense guns (super creepy), and the American cemetary.
We stayed in this little bungalows that night, I called them "huts" and got scolded. They were really cute and comfortable. This was at the base of Mont St Michel, a stronghold built on an island mountain surrounded by the most unreal tidal activity. The tide comes in at the speed of "galloping horses", and maybe thats an exaggeration, but apparently some bus driver went for a cup of coffee once and found his bus afloat. So the stronghold is basically impossible to siege. A monestary was the first thing up there, and it became sort of a place of pilgrimmage. The town feels very medieval with narrow streets and little shops and churches everywhere. Its in a Celtic area too so the mysticism isn't just from the church. I took the French tour, and though my french is ok, I would so rather get the whole history down rather than every other word for language sake.
I just ate way too much. Its too good though, and the meals are in courses, so its easy to pace yourself for more food. Its STILL raining, and I'm basically unfamiliar, but I intend to do some jogging. We'll see how my knees feel about that.
