This past weekend I had the opportunity to visit the place
where so many gave their lives, not just to secure our freedom.
It all started with a snap decision made by my roommate and
I. We’d had a full week at school, and dealt with a fair amount of French
bureaucracy, so we decided we needed a little break from our beautiful city. We
settled on Normandy. I had always wanted to visit, and as it’s not too far from
Paris we thought “why not?” In typical fashion, we ended up leaving a little later
than planned, and when we arrived at the train station the automated ticket
machine was broken. So I’m thinking, “great here we go again, just another
fight waiting to happen.” We trudge to the ticket counter, waiting for the news
that our train was actually on strike or some other small tragedy, when to our
surprise, they lady was incredibly nice and helpful. She was even able to get
us a discount and our tickets in the 10 minutes we had until our train left.
Now this could be just be because of the not so great experiences I’d had that
week when it came to state agencies, but I’m still wondering if I was just
dreaming. Thanks for sticking with me while I share my little wins, now for the
actual trip part….
So we’re feeling pretty great by this point, train worked
out, weather is phenomenal, found our hotel right away, and we get a break from
the fast pace of the city. We chose to base our Normandy adventure in the city
of Caen. This was one of the first major cities liberated by the allies, and
took a massive beating during the second world war, a few years before it was
also where William the Conqueror set up shop.
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| Off we go! |
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| Conquered that castle |
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| View of Caen |
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| Goodbye William... |
We walked around the ancient castle, and took in the city
views. We had enough daylight left to visit the Abbaye aux Hommes, which served
as a hospital and shelter during WWII and the Abbaye aux Dammes. Both are
impressive examples of gothic architecture, but I’ll let the pictures do the
talking.
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| Abbaye aux Hommes |
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Abbaye aux Dammes
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We then had an awesome meal in the historic part of the
city. That was also somewhat of an adventure, because while I feel pretty
confident in the majority of my French, my knowledge of particular types of
fish and their respective dishes is realatively limited. So I just went with
the house special, hoping I hadn’t ordered some form of anchovies. I was
happily surprised with a regional mix of different types of fishes. It was just
the right end to what had turned out to be an exceptional day.
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