Ten Days - France, Mont St Michel, Worrall Traveler Days (WTRD 6-7), France Day 5-6 of 10

Good Bye Nonante - Off to Mont St Michel with a stop in Bayeux. 

We leave our farmhouse accommodation and our new friend Chantel today after breakfast.  Our first stop is Bayeux to visit what known as a historical tapestry.  In reality the tapestry is really an embroidery of the tale from William the Conquerer's point of view how he became the King of England.

The story is embroidered on  a piece of linen that is nearly 70 meters long and 50 centimeters wide.  Since most of the population was illiterate, the saga was retold in embroidered drawings of how the Duke of Normandy became the King of England. The full story can be found here https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayeux_Tapestry.  It is an intriguing story.

Shortly before noon we headed towards Mont Saint Michel and our new lodgings at a Bed and Breakfast which was a two hour drive away in a small farm village, but close to Mount Saint Michel. It has been another misty day, and as we approach the island is shrouded in a veil of fog.

Our hosts are from Martinique and our new accommodations have a Caribbean feel about them.

We spent a leisurely afternoon catching up on mail and news from home. And then walked a few blocks in to town

Curried Salmon

Lamb Pot

for dinner and to watch the sun set near Mount St. Michel.

Dinner was excellent.  The sunset was beautiful, and somewhere from the AirBnB to the Restaurant, I lost my glasses.  They are not in our room, my person, our car. I had them on prior to leaving for our walk to town.  I think I wore them out the door, took them off somewhere along the way to see better lighting through the camera lens (they darken in the sun), but I usually stick them in my pocket.  Well, not in my pocket, not in our room, not found in the restaurant.  We have retraced steps three times.  It's a mystery!  I should love a mystery....but not this one.  I have a spare pair, but these were my best Rx.  Oh well.

Mont St. Michel, June 13, 2018 - Happy Birthday Abby!

Today is our daughter's birthday.  Happy Birthday Ab.  We miss you.
We are treated to a wonderful breakfast of eggs from chicken nest to frying pan, waffles, flan, yogurt,  fruit, fresh bread, butter and jam, and coffee.

Fortified we decide to walk from our accommodation to the top of the Abbey.  We leave the car and do not drive to the parking lot.  We do not take the free shuttle across the causeway.  We walk and enjoy the bird songs, the fresh morning air and most of all the sun which we see for the first time in several days. 

The tide has gone out and the abbey and cathedral fortress built on an island rock is now surrounded by mud and sand flats....some of it quick sand.  Tourists are advised that if they walk to the abbey not using the causeway to go with a guide who is equipped with ropes in case one starts to sink. 

Depicted in the tapestry we saw yesterday morning, the horses and soldiers from England who  tried to capture the Abbey discovered the hard way that no tide, did not mean an easy ride across the mud flat moat.   Several horses and men stumbled, sank, and died while in battle on these flats. Today, rescue teams standby with a tractor.  We actually saw a maintenance vehicle being pulled from the mud.  School groups and tourist love to go out on the flats and wiggle their toes in the mud.... but not us.

The Abbey was started in 708 AD.  It was added on and modified mostly between the 1000's and 1400's.  Because of it's location, rocky base, and difficult accessibility slowed trial and error construction.  The same characteristics that hindered construction also allowed the structure and its occupants the ability to withstand every attack during the 100 year war.  St. Michel is the patron saint of war...quite fitting.  Modern day soldiers watched over the Abbey.

Bells rang calling worshipers inside for mass.   

We attended the mid-day mass. Flute music and the beautiful voices of the nuns echoed through the church.  We wandered through the different rooms of the Abbey with an English headset.  Enjoy the photos.

The Cloister

The Refrectory

Guest Hall

Another Great Hall Intended for Knights to Meet....but they never did.

One of the most interesting aspects of the monastery was how they brought supplies up the many floors.  From the outside, visitors can see a steep ramp with a heavy rope.  Supplies were loaded on to a sled and pulled up the incline on the outside of the monastery.  A mammoth "hamster wheel" was built that held eight walking men trudging up the sides of the wheel to raise the supply load up the ramp.  Very ingenious.

As the crowds grew heavy,

we ducked into the White Sheep terrace restaurant for a late lunch around 3:30.  I had smoked salmon with cream fresh and chive crepe, and Russ had a rack of lamb.  We felt no guilt with all of the walking and stair climbing we did.  When we returned back at our AirBnB, the Fit bit said we had traveled 16,767 steps, 7.36 miles, expended, 2,407 calories, and had gone up or down 36 flights of stairs.

We leave tomorrow for Camembert for one night and some cheese, then back to Bouffemont, and Paris on Friday.  We are then off to Frankfurt where we will catch a train to Switzerland on Sunday for a week of hiking in the Alps.

All is Well With the Worrall Travel R's, Ardevon, France.

Ten Days - France; D-Day History, Worrall Traveler Day (WTRD 5) June 11, 2018, France Day 4

Lest we forget our history and allow it to be repeated.

Today we spend the entire day visiting the museums, American cemetery, and beaches of Normandy where Allied troops of World War II, landed on June 6, 1944 to either end or succumb to the German takeover of France and Europe.








It is a story of determination, strategy, persistence, planning, competence, communications, engineering, training, courage and sacrifice of soldiers, in the air, on land, and on the water, simultaneous fronts.

Our empathetic emotions are on overload as we trace the steps that led to D-Day and the ultimate 'hell' and blood bath" that took the lives of 3,600+ Americans on Omaha Beach.  We are in awe of those who gave the ultimate sacrifice to liberate Europe, "ensure" democracy, and to bring what they thought would be the beginning of the end to all wars.

Surely there could be no other meglamaniacs like Hitler....until the present day when it seems we may have one in our own country  .  We also feel  a kindled understanding of how ordinary German citizens "allowed"  the atrocities of war and seeming "acceptance" of their leader. They probably had no alternative or courageous representatives to check the unfiltered power of a hell-bent leader.  Hmmm?

We feel their anxiety  having events spiral out of control....where classes of people are demonized, refugees are separated from their children and held in detention centers, free press is called "fake news" and propaganda becomes the 'real news", allies are turned into opponents, democracy and truth are besieged, and our government of "we the people" being usurped by wealth, greed, and corruption.

We empathize with all of the civilians caught up in the tragedies that lead to divisiveness and distrust of friends and neighbors ultimately leading to conflict and war.  And we empathize with soldiers who fight for what they "believe" to be a righteous cause that will ultimately define them through violence and bloodshed as either right or wrong in their beliefs. We are overcome with sadness for then and now, and know that we cannot falter in our persistence of freedom, liberty, and justice for all,  or we will forfeit that for which  our WWII vets so gallantly fought.

When drawn into World War II in 1941, America and Allied troops could see no immediate end to the war.  Churchill understood that the only way to win the war would be to mount a seemingly incredible offensive that would require masterful and strategic collaboration of the allied forces.

Behind Disembarkation Day (D-Day), there was prolonged period of planning and preparation by leaders, military, and the civilian workforce.



A temporary harbor would need to be constructed expediently in enemy held territory to deploy the men, supplies, and armor needed to defeat the Germans who had successfully been storming Europe for five years.  The harbor was built beforehand from a model and pieced together in place, first by sinking ships as anchors and building a seawall on their windward side, then constructing peers and ramps to land. That those from top to bottom could keep such a mammoth undertaking of preparation for two years a secret was an amazing accomplishment in an of itself.

The initial assault utilized 5000 vessels, 10,000 aircraft and landed 176,500 troops and 20,000 vehicles on the beaches of Normandy in the firs 48 hours!  One wonders in today's culture of satellite and drone images, Wikileaks and Internet if anything can stay secret for long or that we would have the collaborative will to work with our allies or they the trust to work with us.

The French are still very grateful for allied troops and their liberation from  Germany. American flags along with other allied forces are proudly flown.  Museums are filled with people of all ages.  Many school groups from France and England visit Normandy to learn their history and to understand why history must not repeat itself.

They are still attached to history through proximity while Americans seem to forget anything not proximate to the here and now.

The sea is whipped up today, it is overcast with periods of rain, not unlike and perhaps even more favorable than the  conditions our allied forces faced.

Omaha Beach Cliffs

It would all seem unrealistic if the skies were blue and the beaches filled with sun bathers.  There are only a few people on the beach today.  We hear only the sounds of the sea, sea birds, and the imagined sounds of the past.

Arromanches -  Debarquement - Disembarkment Museum

Coleville - Overlord Museum
Coleville - American Cemetery Museum
Omaha Beach - Omaha D-Day Museum.

We found a geocache on "bloody Omaha Beach" then returned to Nonante and the farmhouse where we are staying.  Our host Chantel was preparing dinner for us this evening.  

Dinner was scheduled for 8:00 pm.  We arrived about 7:45 and had a few minutes before dinner to be introduced to the farm animals besides the friendly dogs.  We met three donkeys, a bunch of chickens, and a horse that is a boarder.  Chantel's payment comes from a percent of any prize money the horse wins in local races.

Our supper was wonderful from apperitif to dessert, and included pate and avocado salad, sea scallops and rice in cream sauce, fresh peaches with vanilla ice cream and hand whipped cream. 

Tomorrow we leave for Mont Saint Michel with a stop in Bayeaux to visit the Tapestry Museum that depicts the story of William the Conquerer.

All is Well with the Worrall Travel Rs in Nonante, France