Honfleur: The Second Floor and the Top Floor Are the Same Thing?

We arrived in Honfleur on the first night of July following an exhaustive day touring France's Normandy region.  The stifling heatwave continued throughout the week, but Europe's lack air conditioning left us swaddled in a blanket of excessive warmth.  We found refuge in the air conditioning of our hotel in Paris, but we have been without it since.  As long as we had fans and could avoid our accommodation's top-floor, we managed.  And thus far, we were successful - until we descended upon Honfleur.

While in Bayeux, Julie contacted the hotel in Honfleur and asked, if possible, that our rooms not be on the top floor.  She was reassured to hear that our rooms were on the second floor.  However, much to our chagrin, we discovered that the second floor was indeed the top floor.  Apparently, when Julie confronted the employee about the top floor/second floor conundrum, she was greeted with abrupt rudeness (there are three floors: ground, first, and second. Therefore the second floor equals the top floor).

We proceeded to check-in to our Bikram Yoga hot boxes, only to find the chocolate decorum of the turn-down service melted on the bed.  I have never participated in hot yoga before, but after the first night's stay in La Maison de Lucie, I perspired for eight hours while "relaxing" in Corpse Pose.

Carrousel á Honfleur and harbor

The following morning we regrouped, headed down to the harbor for breakfast, and charted our course for the day.  Being the tail-end of an active vacation, we planned to minimize strenuous activity in the sweltering weather.  We were content to part ways for a period of time and explore the town in our respective couples.  Later, we reconvened for one last adventure, a boat ride to visit Le Pont de Normandie.

Streets of Honfleur

Le Vieux Bassin

View at night

At the moment of completion, Le Pont de Normandie was the longest cable-stayed bridge ever built, however, it was unseated nine years later.  The two hour tour went from the harbor to the bridge and back; with the most interesting part being the journey through the canal waiting for the water level to rise and/or lower.  There was information played over the loudspeakers pertaining to our surroundings, but the spoken English was less discernible than Charlie Brown's teacher.  Sadly, this tour paled in comparison to the one we took as a group a year ago in Heidelberg.

Down the road from Hotel Hell

View from breakfast

Following the most underwhelming bridge tour in continental Europe, we returned to Le Vieux Bassin near the docks.  It was early evening, but no foraging was required because we had made dinner reservations.   Despite our shabby American apparel, the fine dining restaurant didn't shoo us away, a fortuitous affair because our dinner was among the best we've had all week (and we ate substantially well).

Le Pont de Normandie

The end of our boat tour

Our vacation drew to its end, but we still had the final stage of our Tour de France ahead of us, the daunting drive back to Homburg.  Our car brakes had somehow deteriorated into an even louder noisemaker than when we departed.  With a six-plus hours ahead of us, it was going to be a squeaky ride home.  We screeched and grinded our way through Honfleur until we reached the highway where our ears were granted a well deserved reprieve.  However, about two hours away from the French-German border, our air conditioner died.

Random Rue

Saint Catherine's Church

Walking back from Galerie la Véluze

Not only was our cacophonous car an auditory nightmare, we would have to suffer the remaining four hours with the windows down - exposed to the oppressive heat.  I am unsure as to whether we drove in silence, or if it was impossible to hear anything while driving Autobahn speeds the rest of the way home.  Despite our automotive issues, the Tour de France was an otherwise masterful success.

Normandy: A Walk Through History

Early mornings and long days continued to be the theme of our Tour de France - today was no different.  We were fortunate to have planned a private tour focusing on the American role during the Allied invasion of Normandy.  Adding a contemporaneous twist, our day started in the commune of Sainte-Mére-Église, the area targeted five hours previous to the assault on the beaches of Normandy.

Omaha Beach

The quaint town of Saint-Mére-Église was a primary objective due to its important location relative to major roadways used for supplies and reinforcements.  One would think, with the meticulousness of wartime planning, all potential obstacles would have been accounted for.  However, unfavorable weather proved to wreak havoc on the campaign from the moment of inception.  Heavy cloud cover and chaotic winds caused an abundance of paratroopers to miss their drop zones.

"John Steele" inspired The Longest Day

Sniper bullet damage on fence

Further complications were compounded when a coincidental house fire in the middle of Saint-Mére-Église drew attention to the townspeople and Nazi soldiers. With the night sky ablaze, Allied paratroopers could easily be seen and marked by enemy troops.  Famously, paratrooper John Steele, successfully careened through enemy fire, however, his parachute caught a church spire and left him dangling from the steeple.  He played dead for two-hours to ensure his safety, but was later captured and taken prisoner.  Eventually, Steele miraculously escaped his captures and rejoined his regiment and the war - inspiration for the movie, The Longest Day.  A dummy paratrooper still hangs from the church and dents incurred by sniper fire can be felt on the fence opposite the square.  We continued our tour and drove east to the location of a strategic defensive position opposite the English Channel.

Battlement for heavy artillery

Hilly landscape provided by Allied bombardments

Pointe du Hoc

Pointe du Hoc is the site of a fortification built by the French during World War I to house their heavy artillery cannons.  Under Nazi control, the Germans used the battlement for the same purpose, however, heavy bombardments by the Allies forced the removal of the 155mm cannons.  As we walked the grounds and approached the precipice, the scars of battle were strewn across the landscape.  Skeletons of bunkers and casements could be seen protruding through the flesh-like grass which has grown over the cratered terrain decimated by bombardments.  If the plight of warfare wasn't tangible enough, our next stop was the site of the highest casualties incurred on June 6, 1944 - Omaha Beach.

Bunker destroyed by bombs

Memorial of U.S. Rangers at Pointe du Hoc

Model of Nazi 155m cannon

Unlike Saint-Mére-Église and Pointe du Hoc, Omaha Beach appeared unblemished by the destruction of warfare.  I don't speak for the lot of our group, but at first sight, Omaha Beach leaves a perplexing impression. War memorials for the Allied soldiers and their nations can be seen from the parking lot, but they are the only monuments commemorating a battle that saw so much death and carnage.  This five-mile stretch of beach changed the tides of World War II, yet the scars have been washed away by the ocean's ebb and flow.

Omaha Beach War Memorial

How Omaha Beach looks today

Our guide led us to the through the events of the Omaha operation, drawing lines in the sand representing the major sections of beach and their objectives.  Scenes from Saving Private Ryan came to mind and helped recreate the mayhem of the Allied landfall.  Standing in the exact location left a lasting impression.  The distance separating the Nazi defensive lines and the shoreline (often) exceeded 150 meters and was laden with the obstacles of the Atlantic Wall.  The imagination struggled to grasp the reality of such a horrifying and daunting task.  With little to no cover (many tanks failed to reach the beaches), heavily armed enemy combatants gunned down those who made it to shore.  With wave after wave of boats hitting the beach, the Allied forces were able to complete their mission, but not without casualties.

Normandy American Cemetery

Grave for an Unknown Soldier

Approximately 3,000 soldiers were killed or injured during the Omaha Beach invasion.  A staggering number, but the sacrifices made altered the course of the war and history.  To conclude our tour, we paid our respects to those who perished at the Normandy American Cemetery.


Lastly, the day ended with a drive to the final destination of our Tour de France, Honfleur.

Caen and Bayeux: A Day in a Museum, an Unseen Tapestry, and the Mysterious Emergence of French Accents

The morning after our exploration of Mont Saint-Michel, we broke our fast with the Count of the Chateau.  He shared the history of the property as well as expressed his concerns regarding the amount of noise the donkeys make when in heat.  While we would have loved to stay longer, our escapade through France continued; the next stop, Normandy.

On the drive from Vergoncey to Bayeux, we planned to stop at Mémorial de Caen, a museum with exhibits focusing on the extensive history spanning from World War I to the Cold War.  Approximately halfway through our short drive we stopped for gas and coffee.  A benign sequence of events, but we learned Julie's mother spoke French.  That is to say, she spoke English phrases with an inflection resembling a French accent.  Despite our cackling over the emergence of this mysterious display of international phonetics, Julie's mother flawlessly ordered for the four of us.  We soon returned to the road and would reach the museum a shade before noon.

I am not sure of the record for amount of time spent in Mémorial de Caen, however, we unknowingly committed ourselves to the cause.  Little did we know, we would devote more time here than our combined visits to the Louvre and Musée d'Orsay (and we never made it to the Cold War wing).  Our thorough pace through the engrossing exhibits left a unanimously pleasurable and lasting impression.  Although, there was one French twist we collectively found overstated (albeit sensical, given our locale), the tide-changing importance placed on the French Resistance (Viva la Résistance).  By the time we finished the World War II section, early evening descended and we still needed to check-in to our hotel a short distance away in Bayeux.

The day's tentative itinerary had planned for a visit to see the famed Bayeux Tapestry, however, our time was limited due to our (unofficial) record setting visit to Mémoiral de Caen.  Unfortunately, we missed the opportunity to see the 70-meter historical artwork because the Bayeux Cathedral had closed for the evening.  With the sight-seeing portion of our evening over, we concerted our efforts to satiate our growing appetites.  After dinner at a "liberators welcome" restaurant, we walked down the cobble stoned street to buy desserts - coming across the largest meringues our eyes have ever seen.

Hello...? Anybody home?

We hear there is a large Tapestry here

Don't turn the lights on, let us in

We discovered a delicatessen near the hotel with pastries and meringues so delicious - we wanted to return the following morning before a full-day touring the beaches of Normandy.  Much to our dismay, our broken French wasn't enough to garner the answers we needed (What time did they open?).  Therefore, we employed the help of our new-found translator, Julie's mother.  With her previous success at the gas station, she was encouraged to continue her French inflection-fused English.

Julie's mother delved into her role as international sustenance liaison.  However, when she approached the counter with the confidence of Napoléon on the battlefield, she asked the employee, "o-PIN, TO-mar-O?" (note: capital letters signify her obscured French inflection).  Much to our surprise (well, not really), the baker tending the cafe did not understand the question.  Amid our laughter, we were disappointed to learn they were closed the following morning.  Therefore, we doubled our purchases to have enough leftover for breakfast.