Easter in Normandie

For our Easter bank holiday weekend, we decided to venture to one of my favorite areas in France - Normandie. The quaint Norman villages surrounded by apple orchards, cows, and D-Day villages.

[divider class="" ]Planning:

Dealing with our first large planning experience, we handled it well. Fortunately, the Ashcrafts are a very easy bunch in the sense they were just happy to be there and didn’t mind the method of transportation, departure or arrival times, and delighted with all the English and French foods! From the very beginning, we knew Normandy would be very popular as the quiet French countryside combined with the US history would be ideal. From that point, learning from our previous Brussels trip, we knew the Eurostar would be much preferred as it isn’t as stressful as plane travel. We then booked our Eurostar tickets leaving at 6pm arriving around 8:30pm into Paris’ Gare du Nord. Since we also wanted to show off Paris (and to hit the bakeries early!), we thought about leaving for Normandy around noon arriving at 3pm in Caen. However, unfortunately, we did not book any tickets… Thus, we had the 7am train on Saturday and the 845am returning… In Caen, we rented a cheap rental car and Mary Frances and I found a great AirBnB located just outside Saint Mere Eglise. It was perfect. Our downfall was not booking the Paris-Caen roundtrip tickets in advance. My thinking was they would easily be available at the train station until the night before when I checked and most trains were all sold out!! I failed to remember that Easter weekend + bank holiday = travel chaos. Lesson learned for future bank holidays!In total, our costs were a little higher than anticipated due to the Eurostar (usually expensive) and the late booking of the Caen trains…

Fixed Costs:

Eurostar: £150SNCF (Paris-Caen RT): €60Car: €120 (2 days) + €175 in incidentals… (to be explained…)Lodging in Paris: €282 (1 night)Lodging in Normandy: $168 (2 nights)Pastries: Priceless

[divider class="" ]Friday:

Since our lovely bank holiday weekend began on Friday, we had the joy of being a tourist in our own city! Since we hadn’t been to Bletchey Park yet, we made plans to spend the morning there before heading to the Eurostar. Thankfully, my little go kart managed to fit all five of us and our suitcases and struggled its way to the park!

Bletchey Park

Hidden until the 1970s due to secrecy and probably because some governments were still using the technology, Bletchley Park remained a WW2 myth and secret until the Brits declassified everything. At its peak, the estate was home to 10,000 men and women who ran a 24 hour spy ring dedicated to deciphering German and Japanese messages. They even had a special train line from London and the surrounding other cities! In a short summary, the British were able to crack the German Enigma code due to clever and pure genius. They were clever as they would try to capture a submarine before it sank and nabbed a working Enigma. The people were pure geniuses as they were mathematical prodigies and somehow cracked a once impregnable coding machine. Without the machine, thousands of lives would have been lost and it easily impacted most war decisions. The park is set on a former manor estate and it is really pretty - when it isn’t raining! There are special, numbered huts depending on the region and country. For example, the Germany navy had a different hut versus the German high command. Everything is still in prime condition and I do not know how these people managed in those un-insulated huts in the summer and winter! [gallery size="large" ids="1448,1449,1450"]

Eurostar to Paris:

After our nerdy adventure to Bletchey Park, we made our way to St. Pancreas International - home of the Eurostar. On our first Eurostar experience in December, we were saved by a new opening in the passport line and just made our train. We did not want to make the same mistakes as our last trip. Unfortunately, we forgot that our idea was a really good one and a lot of people wanted to go to Paris for the long weekend! Safe to say, get to the station in plenty of time because it will take awhile to go through customs and security.After the chaos of security and literally walking onto the train straightaway, our Eurostar journey was extremely pleasant. I forgot how easy it is especially that we did not have to go through customs once we arrived! We even saw England and France in the daylight and passed through beautiful scenery at very fast speeds. 

Paris:

Once we arrived in Paris, we were tired and hungry. Oh and the metro line we needed was closed at Gare du Nord meaning we had to walk to the next station. In case you weren’t aware, the area around Gare du Nord is not desirable and a little creepy. John and I kept a very fast pace… Once on the metro, it was an “easy” 30 minute ride. We missed the cleanliness and overall ease of the Tube!!Once we were settled in our rooms, certain people declined to see and eat Paris at night, so the boys went to dinner and went to a recommended Italian restaurant. It was very close to the hotel and it was very enjoyable! I had a seafood pasta and it was very fresh. They weren’t that busy so they enjoyed having three Americans to serve. If you’re ever in the area, look up La Bon Pari!After our lovely dinner, John and I headed towards the rooftop for the famed rooftop bar at the Novotel. We were the only ones there! Turns out it closed like 10 minutes before we got there so we were quickly shuffled out of the door back downstairs. That did not stop us from snapping a few pics of our amazing view. 

[divider class="" ]Saturday:

Thanks to our awesome timing, we had to wake up at the crack of dawn in order to reach the Paris St Lazare station. It was a dash through the metro (only ones on board) and then through the train terminal to reach our seats. We reached our assigned carriage and we found a family sitting in them. Lacking complete confidence in my 645am French, I pointed to our tickets and said these are our seats. The family put on their best puppy dog faces and cried about giving up their prime seats. Thus, we were kicked out of our seats before sitting down.  The train journey to Caen is approximately three hours long. It definitely feels much longer! It is on one of the slower trains that rumbles through the French countryside. Since it was still dark outside, I napped and planned our trip around Normandie. Once we arrived in Caen, the car rental agencies are located across the street so it was really easy to find Sixty. We were upgraded to the BMW 5 series - aka the boat - for free! To me, it felt more like a death sentence as I now had the pleasure of driving through tiny French alleys in a massive car.

Caen:

Before the Caen Museum, we first stopped in the city for some much needed breakfast. We all cherished our first tastes of fresh baguettes, chocolate au pain, and croissants. It was absolutely delicious.After we enjoyed our breakfast in the quiet Caen streets, we went to the famous Caen Memorial Museum located just outside the main center square. This museum in Normandy is one of the best as it takes you back through time to WW1 and the events to and until the end of WW2. It has great exhibits and information on the D-Day landings as well! Having been to the museum twice now, I declined a third visit and went to explore one of my favorite cities in France. Since my previous stay over 3 years ago, Caen has not changed. The city has a certain modern, yet quaint town.More importantly, I was able to eat at my favorite bakery!!! Then I sat in a good cafe and did one of my favorite French pastimes - people watch. After the stressful early morning, it felt great to relax with my French pastries and expresso. [gallery columns="2" size="large" ids="1374,1373"]

The Gun Batteries:

Rather than try to park the “boat” another time (after picking up John and then going back to the city center), we picked up lovely French sandwiches for the gang and went to our next stop - the guns of Longues sur Mer. The big German guns are one fo the only remaining gun embankments left on the coast. They lie between Utah and Omaha beach and provide an example of the amazing firepower facing the Allies on D-Day. They also provided great pictures![gallery columns="2" size="large" ids="1453,1454,1455,1456"]

Arromanches:

Our next stop is the tiny beachside village of Arromanches, located on the British Gold beach. After D-Day, Arromanche was home to one of the Mulberry artificial harbors which you can still see off the coast. The village is extremely cute but we did not have time to explore as we headed straight to the 360 D-Day movie. Perhaps for the iMax experience of old WW2 footage, it is one of my top underrated activities in the area. While it is advertised in all the D-Day activities, it doesn’t get as visited because it is located in Arromanches. After the movie, we all were a little tired. Getting up at 530am does not bode well for an action packed touring day! We drove near Sainte Mere Eglise for our Airbnb and it was about 4-5 miles from village center. We pulled into a cute little farmhouse and were greeted by Patricia at the front door. Thankfully she was home as I forgot to notify her about our arrival time! She welcomed us with cold apple cider and brandy - which we ultimately forgot to try! Epic fail on our part![gallery columns="2" size="large" ids="1451,1452"]Our host recommended a few dinner spots in SME so we went to town to check them out. We figured we might be able to squeeze in if we went earlier enough and hopefully they would have room for us. We went to all the restaurants and no one had room for us! I was really surprised because most of the places had available tables but I suppose people were coming soon? Instead, we went very American.. I am ashamed to say that we chose McDonalds… It was FUN for the whole family!

[divider class="" ] Easter Sunday:

Since we had a very early Saturday, as lead tour guide, I allowed everyone to have a lazy Sunday. At this point, I figured we had seen a lot the previous day and chances are most of France was closed on this Easter Sunday. Turns out I was partially right - the grocery store was open for a grand total of three hours!  

Omaha Beach:

Our first stop was Omaha Beach and the American War Cemetery. We first made a stop at the American museum and it was extremely sobering. I had forgotten how good this museum was at telling the stories behind the white crosses in the cemetery. There lie the true heroes and perfect examples of valor. Similar to my previous 5-6 visits, it is very sombering to walk through the graves as we are reminded of the cost of D-Day and the following Normandy Campaign. Unfortunately, the pathway to the beach and the surrounding grass was off limits. My bet is that they wanted to save the look for the upcoming June anniversary. [gallery columns="2" size="large" ids="1357,1354,1355,1353"]In the afternoon, we had another late lunch at a seaside café on Omaha beach. If it weren’t cold and windy, it would have been a perfect setting! It is called Restaurant L'Omaha and we had yummy seafood that was hot and fresh and very tasty.

Pointe Du Hoc:

One of my favorite places in Normandy is Pointe Du Hoc - a crater cliff top scaled by the American Rangers. On a good day, one can play in the craters and admire the intense climb. Today was not that day. It was insanely windy and cold, but it was still super awesome to revel in the mighty destruction of the cliff side by the Air Force bombs and the Navy shelling.[gallery size="medium" ids="1457,1458,1459,1460,1461,1462"]

 Sainte Mere Eglise:

In Sainte Mere Eglise, there are two things: paratroopers and pastries. Both things I love! The church is very famous in the movie – The Longest Day (and movie!) – and the townspeople were so thrilled by the liberation that they memorialised their landing in the stained glass windows. By far, it shows the love and thankfulness of the French to Americans for dying for their liberation. After a quick peek in the church, we headed to a yummy pastry shop. Since it was our last night in France, we obviously had to go hard on the pastries![gallery columns="2" size="large" ids="1378,1366"]

Easter Sunday Dinner:

Since we went back to the Airbnb a little early and had no dinner plans, I decided to go on a little run through the French countryside to St. Mere Eglise center. It was around 8-9 miles and seemed like a good idea! As I ran, the countryside slowed down and I was really all alone.  A few cars would pass me, but for the most part, it was me and some cows! The infamous Normandy hedgerows came to life as I understood fully why they werean issue for the Allies. There were also many little memorials along the run. One of the most touching is a medic who parachuted and set up a field hospital. Once the Germans found him, he was able to save his fellow comrades and laid down his life. It was very motivating for the rest of my run!

[divider class="" ]Monday: Normandy -> Paris -> London

Again, thanks to our non-booking fiasco, we had one of the first trains back to Paris from Caen. This meant that we had to also get to the train station awfully early. This is where I wished we stayed closer to Omaha Beach but we certainly managed it!Unlike our Paris-Caen train, people actually respected the seat assignments on the train. Unfortunately, we adopted the earlier French attitude of sit anywhere and this did not bode well with the other passengers. It didn’t matter in the end because we found seats all next to each other in the end!

Paris:

I prepared for the fastest tour of Paris in the 3ish hours that was possible. Thanks to a really helpful service called Nannybag, we stashed our bags at a hotel and went to tour a few key highlights. Nannybag is a cool service that rents out hotel space for about 5 bucks a bag and is usually at hotels so our bags were safe and secure.Our first stop was Notre Dame! Surprisingly, it wasn’t that busy. We didn’t go inside so we just stared at the amazing facade. Since John and I were late due to storing at Nannybags, the rest of the gang had already walked around the outside so we were onto our next stop! In the end, we decided to keep it easy by taking in the crowds in a chiq Parisian cafe. It was quite lovely![gallery columns="2" size="large" ids="1467,1463"]We had about 1 more hour before the Eurostar so we put it to the Ashcrafts - either the Eiffel Tower or the Arc. They decided on the Arc! It gave me a chance to check out our digs for next week while trying to navigate the very crowded Arc. Of course, being so close to the Champs, Mary Frances just had to go into a shop - just to look, obviously. Thirty minutes later and one failed macaroon trip, we finally were able to leave the Champs. And yes, Mary Frances bought a fancy bag…[gallery size="large" columns="2" ids="1464,1465"]

Eurostar:

In the “before you board” emails, they often say to arrive at least 1-2 hours in advance as you have to go through customs and what not. However, I did not realize that everyone would try to board our train at this time… John and I ran back to Nannybag to grab the bags while the others went ahead and got in line for customs and security. By the time, John and I reached the Gare du Nord, we were far back in line…Thankfully, with the UK Pre-Check, I breezed through the UK customs and ended up “coming through” before the Ashcrafts! Unfortunately, Mary Frances did not realize this little trick and had to suffer in the “normal” line… All in all, Eurostar is definitely the way to go. Despite our initial concern about the customs line, it is still light years easier and less stressful than the airport. Overall, you may save about 2-3 hours round trip, but you do pay for it in costs!Arriving in London is also EXTREMELY easy compared to the airport. There is no worry about rushing through the customs lines and waiting for ages. We just strolled on out of London St. Pancreas and immediately went to Shake Shack. We obviously had to introduce the Ashcrafts to Mary Frances’ and I’s favorite American burger shack!

[divider class="" ]The UnChartered 13 Summary:

Normandie will always hold a special place in my heart. I definitely enjoyed my time playing tour guide with the Ashcrafts and visiting these powerful war memorials. In addition, I think Normandie shows you the true French culture that actually likes Americans and is very warm and friendly. I cannot wait to go back in May!