One Last Hoorah!

Well once again it has been a full week since I last wrote my blog but it sure has been a crazy week! The beginning of the week I finished off my time at Le Rucher. Tuesday night there was a big, huge storm that came through. It did quite a bit of damage around the place such as break my window in my kitchen, tear off the roof of a storage shed, blew down the tops of trees and branches, and other things. So all day Wednesday was spent picking up after a storm of which my friend and I nicknamed Irene. We ended up taking 8 loads of branches/trees to the dump so you could imagine all the work that was put into that. But as a little reward and as a goodbye, Jeltje prepared a lovely French dinner called Raclette. It is with cheese (of course) and you melt the cheese on a special machine and then pour it over potatoes! Ah it was very delicious and the method of eating this meal was perfect to have great conversation. Then on Thursday around 6 pm I had to say to goodbye to all my lovely friends and now family at Le Rucher. This was very hard considering I enjoyed myself so much there and the team didn’t want me to go! Well they said that I must come back to them and I am praying that I will soon! I have been trying to put down in words what my experience has been at Le Rucher but I just haven’t been able to do it at this moment because I haven’t quite been able to fully comprehend what the last two and half weeks have been to me. All I know is that a lot of things were stirred up and it might be a while till it all settles again. Anyways here are a few photos of Le Rucher and storm “Irene”.

So on Thursday at 6 pm I started my long journey starting at Geneva Airport to Paris Airport by train not plane! I was very excited to pick up my mom on Friday morning. So I took a train to Chambéry and waited there for about 4 hours for the night train that left at midnight. This train was awesome! I got a bed in a cabin all to myself and slept the whole way (it was like a hotel on a train). I got to Paris by 6 in the morning. But Paris is crazy so I didn’t get to the Airport till 8 am. But I successfully met my mom at the airport with a big hug! Here is a photo of my sleeping quarters!

Now it is Friday and my mom and I caught a train to Caen which is in Normandy (northern-ish France). Getting there around two in the afternoon we discovered the beauty of this city. We went to the Men’s Abbey and the Chateau de Ducal. These buildings and a few others were created by William the Conqueror of which the only bone, the femur bone, is buried at the church in Caen. Also I learned that 80% of Caen was destroyed during World War II during Operation Overload so a lot of the buildings were repaired and somewhat new. Here are a few photos of the city.

Then on Saturday we caught the early train to Bayeux which is a small town close to Caen and this is where we were going to start our guided D-Day Tour. We walked into town because we had an hour to kill and saw a beautiful church and grabbed some breakfast at the local Boulangérie. Next thing I knew, we were in the car to begin the tour. First stop, the German Cemetery. First of all, all of the German soldiers who died in Normandy during the three months of battle after D-Day. The tombstones were very simple plaques in the ground and every ten or so graves there was a group of five crosses. All of the stone was a dark black slate which gave a feeling of seriousness to the whole graveyard. After this stop we headed to a village called Saint Maire Eglise. Here is where paratroopers took over the city to cut off an important road for the Germans. You could clearly see in this town how appreciative they are for the American Soldiers who had died here and the ones who had helped liberate them from the Germans. Next we headed to Utah Beach which was the easiest beach to take over during D-Day. American soldiers had to come in on rough sea waters and make their way through obstacles while Germans shooting at them. Sadly, many soldiers had not died from enemy fire but from the conditions of the grounds such as drowning in the Channel and swamps or crash-landing in gliders. After the visit to Utah beach we had lunch in a little port town eating croque-monsieurs and sharing lots of stories. We next went to the Point d’Hoc which is where rangers were supposed to destroy five BIG guns. They were successful but after they made a few mistakes and these mistakes costs them having to defend themselves against the soldiers on their own for three days. This was a group of 250 men who became 90 at the end of the three days. Then we made our way to the most difficult beach to take over that horrible day, Omaha Beach. Again, American soldiers faced the same obstacles but then had after the beach cliffs to come up against. Their mission was to take over the area by controlling the five roads leading to inland through the swamps. After quite a bit of photos and exploring, we drove to the American cemetery. Fun fact, the cemetery actually belongs to the US so I was in America for a few hours yesterday! The contrast between this cemetery and the German was quite different. About 40 % of the soldiers who died during the Normandy Battle were buried there and the other 60 %’s family decided to bring them back to the US. There were quite a bit of soldiers who are still MIA from this battle and these soldiers are listed on a wall. Most of these soldiers were on a boat that sank because of a German attack. It was quite an experience to see this cemetery and to morn for the soldiers who did not make it back home. This concluded our tour so we made it back to Caen, grabbed some food at the grocery store, went back to our hotel to eat, and then went to bed. Here are lots of photos from this never-forgetting day. (WOW, that was a long one!)

So today, Sunday, my mom and I caught a train to Tours which is a bit south of Normandy and located in the Loire Valley. We arrived here around noon and checked into our hotel. Shortly after we were on our way to discover the city. Our first stop was the big Cathédral of Tours which was, I’m not kidding, BIG but all the more beautiful. It was down in the inside because of how old it was but it definitely had its charm and mostly found in all of the stain glass windows. Then we made our way to the old city which consisted of amazing houses and parts of Charlemagne’s Basilica. The Basilica was destroyed during the renaissance except a tower, clock tower, and entrance. This Basilica was huge, probably a city block long and wide. But after it was destroyed, another church was made, the Church dedicated to Saint Martin because his tomb was found nearby. Then we caught the tour train and learned lots of more stuff about Tours. Around 6 we decided to take it easy the rest of the day by just relaxing at the hotel. Here are a few photos.

Tomorrow we are off to go on a tour to see four different castles! And then Tuesday we will be in Paris. Sorry for such a long post this time. I will probably write next when I get back to Montana because I only have two full days left in France and one day of travel back to Montana. AHHHH! I don’t want to leave France but I am super excited to get back home and start this next semester! I hope you all have a great week and I will be seeing some of you very, very soon.