May Madness: Europe Trip Part 12: Second day in Bayeux, Normandy

June 30, Friday

I'm so grateful we were able to go to Bayeux. It's a beautiful town and we had so much fun. We did pretty well this morning getting ready and leaving when we wanted to. Emily and I got up at 6 AM and we went to breakfast around 7:30 AM. I let Jonny sleep until 7 AM. Breakfast was really good and I enjoyed the eggs and croissants and yogurt. It was included so that was nice. The little café seating area they had us in was really cute.

Our goal was to be packed and checking out by 8:15 AM and we did well. It took us a few minutes to get organized because, for instance, Andrew had left his laptop in his backpack and he was just going to set the backpack on top of the suitcase and we suggested he put it in his carry-on which would be locked and have a have an Air Tag on. Plus, I had to still pay. I thought my credit card would be charged automatically but it wasn’t. Anyway, I wasn't thrilled about where we were leaving our suitcases because they were tucked away a little bit but basically anybody could come get them if they wanted. I had luggage locks and Air Tags on all of them so that made me feel a little better, and then Andrew left his backpack there as well. We said a prayer about it and I decided to just trust it and not worry about it and we walked out of the back of the hotel and around the corner and that's where the meeting place was. We saw a few vans there and people milling around and our driver immediately recognized us and asked if we were the May family and I said we were. We sat all the way in the back. The driver still had to go pick up some people at the train station before we started the tour. Our tour guide's name was Pascal and he did a great job. He spoke to us pretty much every time we were in the car. It was a nice big white van and there were 19 people. He had a microphone and he would talk to us through the speakers in the van as we drove from one place to another. Whenever we stopped, he would usually have a lesson to tell us. He took us to our first spot at the east part of Omaha beach.

From the beach, we could see the cemetery up on the hill. Michael thought we were going to be able to walk up there but it was closed. Pascal gave us a lesson about Omaha beach. We walked around for a little bit and got a couple family pictures. We went back to the van and it was so weird because a mom from one of the other families was sitting in our spot. I don't know why she was just sitting there. We were clearly all sitting together as a family so it was really rude. I almost said something but after that we always made sure we got to our spots and it wasn't a problem again. The ride to the cemetery was super short since it was just up the hill. The cemetery had restrooms there and they had actual drinking fountains, which was shocking. We hadn’t seen any drinking fountains in Europe. Pascal walked us over to the cemetery and let us explore for a little bit. He gave us a little bit of information about a few of the significant people who were buried there and gave us some stats and things. Apparently, there was a set of twin brothers. There was another set of brothers and a teenage boy did the research to find a match between them. Daniel and I walked down to the little chapel building and there was a group of people doing some kind of eulogy there. One of the guys came over and shushed our guide so he talked to us more quietly. I couldn't understand why they would be doing that kind of ceremony now, but Michael said that maybe it could be a spouse who wants to be buried with a loved one who's buried there. Pascal announced to us after that that the only people who can be very there are ones who actually died at the battle of Normandy. So, who knows what that group was doing.

On the way to the chapel

The chapel was cool and there was a cool mosaic on the ceiling.

We walked back to the monument and I took a few pictures.

It was almost time to go, but Daniel and I wanted to walk over to the lookout point where you could see the beach. Then we had to race back to the van. We thought we were going to be late and we were racing over there only to find out we were the first ones on the bus. Throughout the whole day, the other people seemed to treat our meeting times as suggestions and give us less time for other things. It was pretty frustrating. As we were driving, he was pretty good at explaining things to us that we were passing by, and sometimes he pulled over for a minute and explained something to us. For instance, we pulled over to the side of the road to see the monument and said it was the first American cemetery in France. There was a man who had died in battle and the government told the widow that he was missing even though they knew where he was. They had only been married for six weeks. He died because he was trying to prevent his plane from crashing into other people and killing them. The government messed it up somehow and didn't tell her for about 60 years. She never remarried.

Next, we went to Pointe du Hoc. I thought it was really interesting to see the bunkers and we were able to walk into a few of them.

After that, he took us to lunch at a little sandwich and bakery shop. I think it was in Carentan. They didn't speak any English so it was hard to order but we got it figured out. We ate as fast as we could. He said it was about time to go and I asked if we could have five more minutes and he said that was fine. So, we ate a few more bites and then got cleaned up and headed to the van. However, we noticed that all of the other people in our tour group were just sitting around like they had all the time in the world, finishing their food slowly and chatting. I was so frustrated because Michael and the kids wanted me to hurry and I had a hot dish. Michael and the boys ordered sandwiches and Emily got a panini-looking thing and Jonny just wanted crepes but I got crepes that had ham and cheese in it so it was hot and I had to wait for it to cool and it was taking me a while to eat it. The guy said we could eat in the van so I cut it up and then gathered my things and we got in our seats. We were the only ones in the van. Everybody else finally got in the van and we left for the Airborne Museum in Sainte Mere Eglise. That was a really cool museum. They had three different buildings. The third building was especially cool. When you walked in, they had a glass floor and then a diorama below of the battle. They had so many different cool displays. By the time I got to the gift shop, Michael and the kids had already chosen my magnet for me and we went out to meet our guide. He wasn't there yet but he showed up and told us about the little church and pointed out the paratrooper monument hanging down from the side. Actually, Michael had told us about that the minute we got off the van to go to the museum, but Pascal gave us an explanation about it.

Then we got back in the van and headed toward Utah Beach. We took a different path than everybody else to go down to the beach and it was a little difficult but we figured it out. We walked around a little bit and took some pictures. Then we met up with our guide and he gave us another lesson about Utah beach.

On the drive to Utah Beach

We drove past a monument to Richard Winters and I was able to get a quick picture for Michael as we drove by.

Finally, we went to a church in Sainte Marie du Mont that served as a hospital during the war. He told us a story about some Germans that broke in with their guns and nobody could defend themselves because they didn't allow guns in the church. Apparently, the two Germans were scared and they just left and didn't hurt anybody. Another time two soldiers came in with machine guns, but there were two Germans who were patients there who spoke up for the people and the Germans with the guns left and didn't hurt anybody either.

Then we got in the van and headed back to Bayeux. Our tour guide dropped off everybody but us and one other guy at the train station and then drove us back to the meeting point, which is about 100 feet from our hotel. Earlier, I had asked him if he would mind driving us to the train station because we could quickly get our bags and he said that would be fine because it was on his way anyway so that was nice. We ran and got our bags from the hotel. The boys went in first but from what I could see, the lady at the reception desk couldn't care less who took those suitcases so I'm very relieved that nothing happened to them.

We got back in the van and he dropped us off at the train station. There was a train leaving in about 10 minutes and we briefly considered changing our tickets but Emily didn't want to and neither did Daniel so we just waited for our train at 6:30 PM. When he dropped us off, I think it was about 5:20 PM or so. Anyway, we went over to the café by the train station to use the bathroom and we got a couple pizzas, really half-pizzas, and some ice cream bars and sat there and ate everything. Then we headed over to the train station and waited until our train came. The first train came for Caen and we were a little confused but realized that wasn't what we wanted and waited for the next train and got on as quickly as we could.

We were confused because people were in our seats but we told them they were in our seats and they just kind of chuckled and laughed. I thought it was kind of weird, like they thought it was funny they got caught or something. I don't know. Anyway, we had the same configuration as before except all the kids were together and Michael and I were across from two strangers. The train ride went by quickly. I wish that the Wi-Fi had worked or I had some better service or something because I could've gotten a lot done but I at least got my scriptures read and researched some restaurants near the hotel. We got off the train and walked right to the hotel. We checked in and I paid the bill. She got our suitcases out for us and we all went up to our rooms. I had Emily go check the rooms really quickly before I made the payment just to make sure there wasn't anything crazy wrong before I paid. The only the only problem was that one of the rooms has the two beds made up together. I wish that had been a different room because now Michael and I are in room 201 with the king-size bed, supposedly king-size anyway, and the kids are in rooms 205 and 206 across the hall and around the corner. But that's OK, the only other option was to get another room on another floor so we just made do. The rooms are so tiny, but at least you can do more than just turn around in the shower, the elevators work great, and we're only on the second floor. Well, technically the third floor I guess because the floor that you walk in on is floor zero.

Anyway, we dropped off our suitcases in the rooms and went to go find a place to eat. We ended up choosing a pizza restaurant called La Petite Comedie. I got lasagna and it was amazing. Everyone seemed to really like their food. Daniel got the calzone and Andrew got pasta, Emily and Jonny got margherita pizzas, and Michael got another pizza with an egg on it.