Thursday, June 21st (Normandy, France)

We vowed to make it to Normandy today and woke up extra, extra early to do so. Again we battled traffic, but we eventually made it to the site where the Allies invaded Europe during D-Day on June 6th 1944. The beaches are peaceful here (at least in the Utah and Omaha American sectors which have been left undeveloped) and you can really feel the history in the air. The concrete and steel remains of the man-made breakwaters used by docking allied ships are visible offshore while the hills overlooking the beaches are dotted with concrete bunkers housing cannons which made up the Nazi defense line. We watched a movie projected in 360 degrees which made us feel like we were actually in the battle and gave us a brief history lesson of the battle (Jim had watched “The Longest Day” on DVD the night before we picked up Allison and Matt so he could fill in the blanks from the eyes of John Wayne and a young Sean Connery). We walked down to Omaha Beach to look up at the natural obstacles the Americans faced including sea cliffs, pounding surf and sand dunes (not to mention the Nazis shooting at them). We then visited the American Cemetery which is a simple but powerful memorial to those who lost their lives during the invasion with seemingly endless rows of white marble crosses and stars of David. As we arrived it started to downpour so we toured the museum on-site until the weather broke then walked among the headstones and tried to help a woman from Massachusetts try to find her uncle’s grave before heading back to the car.

After touring the battlefield and the cemetery, we decided to head to Rouen for dinner and to check out the Cathedral (as well as the location where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake for heresy). In Rouen, we were greeted by the sound of hundred of bands jamming out at almost every intersection large enough to place a set of drums. It turned out we had stumbled on Rockin’ Rouen 2007 where thousands of degenerate European teenagers had descended on the town to rock out and party till the riot police shut it down (seriously, we saw like 20 cops playing poker in full dress armor). Somehow we lucked out and were able to score ourselves a table right next to the town square where the local radio station had set-up a rave in the shadow of Our Lady of Rouen, a fantastic medieval cathedral which stood out against the skyline. While we sat there we saw a marching drum line, a German hofbrahaus beer band complete with dueling tuba players as well as a number of punk and rock bands. After dinner we walked back to our car taking it all in and then drove home to Paris.