Also, since I'm back at work having all kinds of technical issues with getting my phone hooked up to the wifi (ugh!) I only have pictures that I uploaded befoooore I left. So basically, what I'm saying is that I suck and this is NOT a complete picture of our trip...
first off I need to make one thing clear - mid-afternoon flights are THE BEST. I am so used to getting up at the crack of dawn to make the first flight out OR jam packing 2-days into 1 for the last flight of the day (procrastination at it's finest). NO MORE. I had a 3:55PM flight from Houston to Frankfurt, and it was perfect. I leisurely got up, had breakfast, went to my spin class, finished up packing (maybe a tad bit too leisurely) and headed to the airport....10ish hours later I was nervously waiting (yes, I am my mother) for my parents to get to our gate in Frankfurt to jump on a quick flight to LONDON!
We got into our perfect AirBnB in the city of London, dropped our bags, and hit the ground running - straight to George Inn for our first pot pie, fish
I think that if it would have been up to Mom, Dad, and I, we would have walked around a bit and then called it a night because we were full and sleepy. BUT thanks to Jason, we hit the pavement to do a little pub-hopping! One of Jason's uncles had lived in London for some time and he put together a list of his favorite pubs. The best part about his list is that almost all the pubs that we went to were on the list of pubs that my girlfriend, Alanna, and I had tried (and failed) to go to a few years back (see 'Cheerio' post from March, 2014) - except this time they were OPEN!
First stop was Grenadier an adorable little place, which claimed to be the most haunted pub in Londone - luckily, we survived. Next stop was London's oldest wine bar about a block North of the Thames River, Gordon's Wine Bar. This place was SO neat, but completely packed inside. So we enjoyed a bottle of wine in the alley with all the other locals. Thinking that we were probably all done for the night after a bottle of red wine, we decided to take a walk down to the river. We stumbled on a beautiful walking bridge and then caught our first glimpse of Big Ben and the London Eye! The combination of fresh air and some big London sights perked us all up and Jason was on the hunt for our next pub!
Onto Ye Olde Mitre, which claims to have been established in 1546...crazy! It was pretty tough to leave this gem, but I had finally remembered the name of the only pub that Alanna and I found that was actually open - Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese! I kept asking Jason if there was a pub on his listed called "something cat." It's funny how the brain works. I'm just I had cheshire hidden somewhere in my memory that made me think it was cat - and then it all came together. I think the English ales helped me remember as well ;)
The next morning, we lazily got up and headed out for the double-decker tour bus! We spent the day hitting all the London tourist attractions. We had to go back to Gordon's Wine Bar to actually sit in the cave and fill up on wine, cheese, and bread - so good! We had out last dinner - fish & chips and another pie
Our time in London came and went too quickly - Saturday morning we were Paris-bound! We were all pretty excited to get on the Eurostar train and travel under the English channel into France! It's a weird feeling knowing that you're on a train underneath a river - but we made it safe and sound!
We got checked into our Montmartre apartment, walked up the the 2nd floor and got our first glimpse of Tour Eiffel! She's pretty consistent in taking my breath away :) We hit the ground running in search of onion soup (which is basically what we lived on for our week in Paris - that and croissants).
From there, we hit Notre Dame and then headed to see Eiffel up close and personal! Things were a bit different than when I had gone last year - a bit more security, considering the Paris attacks were just a few weeks after my trip last October - but she was still as stunning as ever! Especially when she started to sparkle....the pictures will never do it justice! We headed back to Montmarte in search of what would become our French tradition - bedtime snack of wine and bread...hey, we are on vacation!
The next morning we got up early (again) and headed to Versailles. I was struggling with whether or not to take the trip out because we had such limited time in Paris, but Versailles is just too incredible not to see. It was a quick trip out and back, and I'm so glad we went because they had different rooms open from last time I was there.
It had been far too long since we last carb-loaded, so we had to stop at a sidewalk cafe to load back up. We needed the energy for all the steps we were taking...or at least that's what we told ourselves! We met up with my precious aunt Carol, and headed up to see Sacre-Ceour. As we were getting closer to the top of the hill where Sacre-Ceour is located, the area started getting more and more crowded, and everyone seemed to have wine glasses in their hands. We finally realized that we were walking into a wine festival somewhere in the area. Now, I consider myself a festival connoisseur of sorts, so I explained to my crew that we would likely have to buy tickets/get a wristband/go trough bag & ID check/etc in order to partake. So I informed everyone, that we probably wouldn't have time to sip. We continued to walk uphill because I needed my parents to see the gorgeous basilica, and unknowingly walked right into the wine festival....joke's on me! Anyways, we took a walk around the church and then popped back out for a glass :)
One of my coworkers had spent quite a bit of time in Paris, and she said that we just had to go to dinner at Le Train Bleu. I googled it and agreed, solely based on how beautiful the restaurant looked (judging a book by it's cover at it's finest). The place it located in Gare de Lyon train station and it's where all the posh passengers used to wait for their trains back in the day. The place was opened in 1901, and as we were eating there I was just imagining all Downton Abbey-esque ladies and gents covering the place.
The next morning was (yet another) early morning. It was out last day in Paris, and we still hadn't hit Sainte-Chappelle, Arc de Triomphe, or the Lourve. I feel like all my early AM wake ups on vacation are just pay back to my parents for the unnecessary Saturday morning wake up calls during my 18-ish years at home...still today for that matter ;) Anyways, we were up and at it packing up our lovely Montmartre flat to stop our luggage at one of the train stations for the day. Once secured, we headed to Sainte-Chappelle. I was super excited because this is the one place in Paris that we were going to that I hadn't seen - and it did not disappoint. I had NO idea how much history was in this little hidden chapel. It's surrounded by the Palace of Justice, so it's not as prominent as most of the other landmarks - and it shares the same little island as the much more popular Notre Dame. Anyways, we probably could have spent 3 hours in the place looking at all the details of the stained glass windows - which depicted everything form the creation through acquiring artifacts form the Passion. Just stunning!
We headed towards the Seine to get a glimpse of Notre Dame from the river and walked around the back, which (in my opinion) are even more gorgeous views than the more popular from entrance. Next stop was the Louvre to snap some photos of the pyramids before we met one of my dear friends and her mom (who just happened to be in Paris) for lunch! Maru moved to Paris earlier this year, and she continues to amaze me every time I see her - which is usually to few and far between!
After lunch we were on a train west-bound for Bayeux, which is where we would be for the next 2 days to experience the beaches of Normandy. Now, when I started researching Normandy I was completely out of my element. I originally thought we could just rent a car and drive to the major landmarks, and quickly realized that I had no idea what "landmarks" I was even looking for. So I contacted Overlord Tours, and I am SO glad that I did. Not only did they recommend they full-day tour of Utah and Omaha beaches, but they also recommended staying in Bayeux - which ended up being one of our favorite stays on the trip! Now, I'm about to blow your mind with information. Our tour was so through, and I can guarantee that I'm missing TONS of valuable information but I'll share as much as I can remember from Operation Overlord (the code name for the battle of Normandy).
Our tour guide, Michael, took us straight to some bunkers that overlooked Gold Beach - one of the 5 sectors of Operation Neptune (the code name for the Normandy beach landings). The 5 sectors were Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword. Utah and Omaha were the two sectors invaded by the Americans and were named by one of the generals randomly asking two soldiers where they were from - Utah and Omaha. Gold (Britain), Jelly (Canada), and Sword (Britain) were named after types of fish, but Canada who was assigned to Jelly said that they didn't want to fight on Jelly beach - so it was renamed Juno after one of the commander's wife.
So going back to the bunkers. Germany recognized the fact that their Western front was exposed and likely where the Allied forces would try to attack, so between 1942 and 1944 Hitler had 15,000 of these things built along the Western coast of Europe - from Souther France up to Norway. They were very well built, reinforced concrete structures that housed different sizes of guns and ammunition. Some of them were completely empty, just a facade to make it look like the area was protected, but all the bunkers in the Normandy area were well stocked. Most of the bunkers along the Western coast have since been destroyed, but we were able to see these still intact.
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| These guns were meant to aim at the troops invading Gold Beach |
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| Gold Beach is back to the right of this photo |
Seeing as Hitler had 15,000 bunkers built, he clearly knew something was coming. There were also clear signs from the Allied forces that they were prepping for some kind of Western front attack. One of which was an army on the coast of England that General Patton was heading up. Little did the Axis forces know that the "army" was an inflatable decoy - courtesy of Goodyear Tire! The Allied forces has also started air raids in the days leading up to D-Day. The raids were successful in some areas, but failed in others - Omaha specifically...
So as I said, the air raids to take out the bunkers and guns at Omaha were unsuccessful due to the thick fog and weather conditions. There were several other factors of the invasion at Omaha that make it an absolute miracle that we were successful. One of which was the terrain of the beach. The invasion was set to start during low-tide, to eliminate any risk of the Higgins boats getting caught on the sandbars. This meant that the troops would have to run, completely exposed for 300+ yards before even reaching the beach, and then another 200ish yards until they were semi-protected by the shelf and out of enemy fire. Now, aside from the fact that they were being shot at from all angles, they were also having to navigate obstacles that were installed to protect the beach - mines, barbed wire, etc. The first wave of troops included the engineers who were tasked with eliminating these hazards in any way possible. So this already was a seemingly impossible task, but on top of all of this due to the harsh weather conditions not only was sea-sickness overtaking may of the troops, but navigation had been impacted badly and folks were not landing where they were supposed to be landing. Despite what seemed like mass chaos, General Bradley recognized that although young lives were going to be lost, this invasion had been 1.5 years in the making and would be a critical turning point in the war.
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| Looking up to the bluffs from Omaha beach |
From Omaha beach, you can see an American flag flying above the trees. This is where France gave land to America for the National American Cemetery. This land is owned and maintained by the American Battle Monuments Commission, and is one of the most touching places that I have ever been. The cemetery is the final resting place for 9,387 souls including 1,557 missing in action and 303 unknown - only 40% of the total lives lost during the Normandy invasions. The most shocking fact about this cemetery is that the average age of the souls was 23-years old.
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| gorgeous ceiling of the chapel |
One of the most famous sites in the cemetery is that of Theodore Roosevelt III (known as Theodore Roosevelt Jr. "Ted" the son of President Roosevelt). Ted was 56-years old at the time of D-Day, and walking with a cane led the first wave of troops at Utah beach. Sadly, he died of a heart attack in France following his success at Utah beach, but he was given the Medal of Honor for his service.
Just after walking in to the cemetery our guide noticed that there was a very large group tour in the area, likely veterans or families of veterans, and typically when they have large crowds like that they would play the National Anthem followed by Taps. Shortly after he told us this, the anthem came on....probably one of the most emotional experiences of my life, and absolutely something that I will NEVER forget.
After about an hour at the cemetery we headed to Pointe du Hoc. I had never even heard of this place (common theme), but it is the highest point between Utah and Omaha beaches. (Side bar: our tour guide kept referencing the movie "The Longest Day" which seems like it pretty accurately depicts many of the events during Operation Neptune.) Anyways, the Army Rangers were assigned the daunting task of scaling the cliffs of Pointe du Hoc to destroy 6 German guns that were located there - 3 aimed at Utah and 3 aimed at Omaha. These were gigantic guns with a range of up to 15 miles. The rangers were scheduled to arrive on Pointe du Hoc at 6AM to destroy the guns before the beach landings. Since this was such a tough task, they were to call back to the warships by 6:40AM in the event that they were overtaken and needed backup. Due to the harsh weather conditions and navigation errors, the Rangers ended up in the wrong location and they didn't arrive to the cliffs until around 7AM. The first member scaled the treacherous cliff in 5 minutes, and all 225 members were up the cliff in 20 minutes - which is just absolutely amazing. Once on the top of the cliff, they realized that all 6 guns were gone. It turns out that the air raids in this location were incredibly successful, and in turn caused the Germans to remove all 6 guns to protect them from getting destroyed. They were able to find the guns and destroy all 6 and secure the main, all while under fire from the Germans. Back up for the Rangers did not arrive until June 8th - two days later - and during this time 90 out of the 225 Rangers were able to bear arms...pretty spectacular!
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| One of the hundreds craters from the air raids |
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| Memorial for the Army Rangers |
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| Looking towards Omaha beach from Pointe du Hoc |
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| One of the 6 gun bunkers |
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| The cliff of Pointe du Hoc |
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| There was also a delicious quiche place....with equally delicious deserts ;) |
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| EVERY town, large or small, always had a gorgeous church |
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| We loved this - a few of the churches in the area has stained glass that included the paratroopers. Needless to say, they are very thankful for our American troops |
After lunch, we headed to Utah beach. Unlike Omaha, Utah was a GREAT success. The air raids were successful, they landed in the correct location, and the Germans did not have the geographical advantage that they had at Omaha. The landing such a success that they beach was secured by noon, and the troops had moved inland to support the paratroopers. There were only around 200 casualties during the landing, which (I'm sad to say) is relatively small compared to the ~2000 at Omaha.
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| It was VERY chilly... |
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| Merchant Marines memorial...thinking of our Papa! |
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| Engineer memorial |
Ok, I'm pooped and there is still a whole city I haven't even covered. So in order to do the lovely Bordeaux justice, I'm going to save that for next week! Maybe I'll find someone who can get my phone set up to get some photos up as well...
Work is as busy as ever, so the days are going by quickly AND I'm back on my normal 28/28....which puts me home just before Thanksgiving! I'm already dreaming of my Christmas decorations :)
5 days down, 23 to go! xoxo...
