Friday, October 7, I took the train to Caen, saw the amazing Memorial and then drove to Bayeux for the night. A close up of a window of my hotel.

Hotel Le Bayeux in Normandy

My hotel in Normandy at Le Bayeux Hotel

The breakfast room of the hotel.

It was nice to see the American flag next to the French flag.

I was a little confused...exactly which country was I in?

And here, it was the Canadian flag next to the American flag.

The picture says it all...a petit bistrot.

The cathedral right next to the hotel

Different view.

Inside the church.

Walking around this quiet church as the sun was setting, I was overjoyed to see the great play of color on this statue.

Back outside... this window catches my attention...here I go..

and I zero in on it...

closer... *

and even closer..

and really close!!

This church was full of interesting little details.

interesting sad looking little guy..

and I guess if a bird perched on your head, you might be unhappy too..

I'm sure the bird on the ledge was checking out this gargoyle too.

Bayeux, just walking around the peaceful charming town after the day tourists had left.

Saturday, October 8, I drove through the typical Normandy villages on the way to the D-Day Beaches.

I was just driving along when I saw this particular place. I initially just passed it, but quickly decided that I had to turn go back, enjoy it and take pictures.

Normandy was what you would expect, at least what I had envisioned.

Here's my rental car, great little car...it was fun to drive a stick shift again.

Just next to my car were these beautiful flowers.

Port en Bessin

I climbed up this small hill overlooking the ocean.

I would have liked to spend more time in this little fishing village.

Overlooking the village from the hill.

Not many tourists about, just a couple or so other people made it really easy to take in the quiet of the place.

This was a lookout during WWII

Me again, with the new self portrait method for this trip.

At the American Cemetery...

It was so emotional to see all these crosses and stars of David.

Reading all the names and dates of their untimely death...

9,450 American men and women are buried here.

Some crosses and stars of David had no name, the bodies could not be identified.

I was glad to see that most people, except for a small group of teenagers, behaved with respect in the cemetery. I had to control myself from going over to the teenagers and tell them to stop acting like idiots, this was a place of respect.

Point du Hoc

where the Allied troups climbed the cliff and battled with the German troops who were in bunkers all over this area.

Driving back to Caen to catch the train, I saw my future house in Normandy. :)

Can't you just see me greet you at the front door when you come and visit?

And this is my little gate house...

Back in Paris for the night, I stayed in Hotel Albion, the smallest room during my entire trip, but it was very clean and....

this was my view...but since I wasn't even at this hotel for 12 hours...it didn't really matter. I took the train early in the morning to go to Bruges, Belgium.