10 October 2010

Tapestries, Memorials and Beaches

edit:15 Oct 2010- Now with pictures!

My weekend started on Friday since I don't have any classes (this is a great job). I headed to Bayeux, to meet another assistant, Nicole, who is placed in Lisieux. We were both looking to get out of our towns, because as much as we love them, it's nice to see somewhere new. We meet at the Bayeux train station and from there just started heading into town hoping to find our hostel. After a few inquiries at the tourism office and some wrong turns we found it... to find out that we couldn't check in until 5. So to pass the time we hit up the big attractions of Bayeux. First we headed to the Bayeux tapestry, where the was absolutely no line despite the number of people we had seen around Bayeux. I was also able to get us a price reduction since we are both teachers (well, in a way) and it's France so if you speak French and just keep trying you can get a price reduction if you try hard enough. The Bayeux Tapestry is looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong. When you walk into the dark long corridor where it's kept you think to yourself, “Well this is pretty big.” But as the little audio tour that goes with it plays and you able down the corridor you realized that the room turns back in a large U and the tapestry is twice as long as you originally thought.

After the tapestry we took a walk which led us to the World War Two Museum. Again I was able to swing the teacher's discount! The museum wasn't the most amazing I had seen but I did appreciate the short film that was there. Having been here for a while I've gotten better sense of how far apart things are and the terrain of the land. Seeing how towns, like Coutances, were reduced to rubble had a much different impression now that I had a frame of reference.

(What?! You haven't met Pepe yet? Pepe is the cutest donkey ever, given to my by Anthony last year for Christmas. Pepe loves to travel, just like me- and loves being in photos (though he always has the same expression. He's already been in tons of photos in on I-80 from Kalamazoo to NJ, Port Jervis, NY and Camp Glen Spey)

In the evening Nicole and I met up with the 3 language assistants in Bayeux. There's a British boy for English, a Mexican girl and a Norwegian and they all live together at the school. We had a lovely dinner of galettes (savory crepes) and dessert crepes. I also got a bottle of “Cidre de Bayeux” which was lovely. Cider and calvados (an apple brandy) and actually the bigger drinks in the region as the terrain and weather isn't good for wine production but better for apples and pears. It was really nice to have such animated discussion (English was actually the preferred common language) with a larger group than I had experienced in 2 weeks. After dinner we went to an “Irish pub” which was just a bar, but a bit peculiar because it was actually more of the high school hangout (the drinking age is 18). It was a great finish to the evening.

In the morning Nicole and I made the acquaintance of Carly, a Canadian backpacker making her way through France for 3 months (currently on week 3). With her we found out the bus schedule and made a trip out to Omaha beach. The are well guided tours and many visitors to the region rent cars so there isn't much by way of public transport to the Normandy beaches. Because of this we could only go to the Omaha with the American cemetery for about 1h30. It wasn't much time, but we were so close and the bus tickets so cheap that we figured it was worth our time.

The white crosses meticulously set in perfect rows are the first things we saw when we came in. While I had seen photos in the past, I was hit with just how many they were. The rows stretched further and further back. I couldn't even see were they stopped very well. We headed over to the bluffs with some diagrams of where different companies had landed. Beside this area was a walk down to the beach. It is a steep descent and after the dunes is only a short strip of “beach.” The weather was lovely and we all dipped our toes in and rolled up our pant legs, happy for the break from rain. After spending a bit of time down there we had to head back to the bus stop to make sure we wouldn't miss the only bus and be camping overnight at Omaha.

The return home was uneventful, and I was happy to see my bed again. Today, David, my mentor, had invited myself and the Chinese assistant, Huimin, to his house for lunch. As we waited outside the school gates my apprehension grew that I had somehow messed up the day of the week and we were waiting for nothing. Luckily it was just my nerves and David was quickly there to pick us up. He only lives about 5 minutes, on foot, from the school. He lives in a lovely house with his wife and 4 boys, ages 12 to 4. We had a lovely homecooked meal with them and afterwards they invited us to go to the beach. The beach is only about 10 kilometers away at Agon-Coutainville, but just out of reach if you want to go on foot. We stopped by, Claire's parent's house (David's wife is Claire). We picked up Elliot, the youngest and “le monstre” and headed over to the beach. We walked along the board walk while some of the kids rode bicycles. While everything is usually closed on Sundays, it's because all the action was at the beach. Everyone was there for a Sunday stroll. It's a very shallow beach and the tides was out, exposing about 500 feet worth of area for prime mussel fishing. Many people were out with hoes and rakes trying to dig up dinner. Afterward, David brought me and Huimin to another part a little further down that is part of a nature reserve that has large grass covered dunes. I finally was able to pull off my shoes and get some sand in my toes.

David, once again, had been a great guide and shown me a new part of the area I didn't think I would get to explore. I was so excited by that fact that it wasn't raining but my happiness was exponential when I realized that I got to go to the beach 2 days in a row!


That's all for now, but perhaps I'll remember to post something before next weekend!

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