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July 15, Paris to Mont St Michel and Arromanches-les-Bains (D-Day Beaches)
Arromanches-Les-Bains, France
July 15, Paris to Mont St Michel and Arromanches-les-Bains (D-Day Beaches)
Well it was now time to say goodbye to Paris. We set off across the city on the metro to the Arc du Triomphe where we had to transfer to a different line and catch another train. When we arrived at the entrance we found a sign saying the line was closed so we had to walk the rest of the way. Luckily it was only a couple of blocks. We picked up the rental car which has a manual transmission. I've only driven a stick-shift a half dozen times before in my life and now, here I am driving around France in one with no real maps and signs in French. I decided to scrap my idea of driving in the huge traffic circle at the Arc du Triomphe. I figured that it just wasn't worth the risk in an unfamiliar rental car especially since I was still trying to learn the gear shifting and we were a bit behind schedule on our itinerary. Getting out of Paris was rather easy, we never got lost and made no wrong turns but then we hit the toll roads. I think it was a total of about 20 Euro ($25 CDN) to go 2 hours down the road! We managed to make our way to Mont Saint Michel with the help of Brenna's navigating and sign reading. We only missed one turn in a traffic circle. The road signage in France is much better than in Britain but the signs are in French so we don't know what some of them say. After having driven in cloudy and occasional rainy conditions, the sun came out for us to enjoy Mont Saint Michel. Mont Saint Michel is yet another abbey, but this one is rather unique. It sits atop a granite outcrop in a tidal flat. At high tide it is surrounded by the sea but at low tide you can walk out on the mud/sand. The first sanctuary was thought to have been built in 708 and by the 10th century it had grown to include a town below. Over the centuries, it continued to grow. Ramparts (walls) were built and it was impregnable during the Hundred Years War. During the Revolution it was used as a prison. As we walked back down through the towns steep walkway, (there are no roads) we stopped at a shop and got some ChiChi's (churro), which is kind of like a 8 inch long donut in the shape of a twizzler licorice. Since it was low tide we walked across the mud on the way back to the car and got our shoes dirty. Now we were on our way up to the D Day beaches of Normandy. We arrived at the hotel, checked in and went across the street to have a burger and fries for supper. After eating we took a drive west to see the American D Day cemetery. When we arrived, (7:30) it was already closed for the evening, so we drove back to our hotel in Arromanches-les-Bains. On the drive, we passed through about a dozen small farming villages. The houses are built of stone and several butt right up against the thin roadway and there are many with beautiful flowers. One good thing about the drive, it gave me lots of opportunity to practice my clutch/gas/gear shifting. I commented to Brenna that I thought I was getting better at driving a manual transmission but you still wouldn't want to be drinking a cup of coffee in the car with me driving! She laughed. Once back at the hotel, we walked along the beach and Atlantic wallwhich is a cement seawall built by the Germans along the Normandy coast as a defence against allied army attacks. Out on the beach are the remains of the Mulberry Harbour. It was a temporary harbour built by the military after the D Day landings to offload supplies for the allied troops that were pushing back the Germans and liberating Normandy. Tomorrow we will visit the D Day sights and cemeteries.
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