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Other entries in Normandy

Normandy Coast, France. With Mum and Dad!

Hey all!

Well it has taken me a while to finally get round to writing something in here for france, been busy busy as usual. But i enjoyed a weekend with Mum and Dad in the Normandy Area, my last time with Mum and Dad for a while. I had a bizzare overnight ferry over to France, where i clearly had not done the whole ferry thing before, but who can complain, it only cost me £13!! I met Mum and Dad at Le Harve and we ventured off to Bayeux where we saw the 70metre long (very impressive) Bayeux Tapestry made in 1077. Basically, it is a series of embroidered images and tells the story of William the Conqueror and Harold, Earl of Wessex, the men who led the Norman and Saxon armies in 1066. And why William felt he had to invade and defeat Harold in the Battle of Hastings (a famous medieval battle in the English Hisotry). Once you could get your head around the story of William and Harold, it is really interesting.

We then headed to the D-Day landing beaches on the Normandy Coast. These were nothing like i thought they would be, they were actually really nice beaches, it is hard to imagine the horrific events and the blood that was shed on these beaches. There were loads of memorials to the american and other soldiers that died which was good. Mum, Dad and I walked along the Omaha beach (aka. bloody omaha), which was the bloodiest of the beaches on d-day landings as over 2,200 soldiers died on that day on that beach alone, but it is quite a peaceful place now. We also went along the coast to the remnants of a man made harbour that was dragged by sea all the way from London. It was about 1km wide, massive! Imagine dragging that out from london back in those days!

That night we spent in Cean and got up the next day to spend the day at Mont Saint Michel, a MASSIVE abbey located on an island off the coast. It was beautiful! Definately one of my best travel destinations so far. It was low tide when we were there so people were actually walking around the base of it and on the sand for miles. Apparently it has quicksand in the sand surrounding it, but i didn't see anyone sinking. It would have been great to see it with water around it but oh well, it was cool anyway. At low tide the tide goes out 18km and when it comes back in, it comes in faster than a galloping horse! Crazy! It had a cute little villiage with the lil old french streets and we sat out in the sunshine and had a crepe, admiring the view. When in france.....
The abbey itself is pretty amazing as well, it is huge! Built in the 13th centry and stands about 80 metres above sea level. Anyway its hard to explain the beauty of it, especially me who is incredibly crap with words!! Have a look at the photos, altho they don't do it justice either. So lovely!

We stayed in a very basic hotel that night in St Marlo- you could tell i had organised the accomodation! i thought it was luxury coz im used to staring 20 bed dorms!! haha. Dad got up early the next morning and got us some crossaints for breaky, YUMMO!! i could live off them. We had a walk around the walled costal village of St Marlo and across to Dinard where they have the cute blue and white stripey tents on the beach - very french. unfortunately the weather wasn't great but we still had a walk around and along the beach anyway. Dad's french was very good actually and by the end if the weekend he could order a meal and read the menus! Lucky he was there! So when we came to have another 'un crepe' we were ok, mmmm gotta love those crepes!

I had to leave that afternoon back to good ole London and say my goodbyes to mum and dad for a while. You know what im like at goodbyes, lets just say a few tears were shed.

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