normandie || normandy

first of all, you should all know that this song was stuck in my head all weekend :

normandie by the shout out louds

[yes, this is a bakery song, and no, i am not ashamed to admit that i actually liked some of the songs played at the bakery.]

on to the important choses || things.

this past weekend, my paris family took an amazing weekend trip to normandie. normandie is the region in northern france that we all know for it's importance in wwii (jour j || d-day), but it is also know for its fantastical dairy products, bien sur! (can you say cheese-and-milk-lovers paradise? because that is exactly what it is.)

just a side note : this post is going to be long. i was only gone for three days, but it was such an emotional roller coaster for each of us. i want to be able to describe what i was thinking and feeling as accurately as possible and i want to remember everything, so forgive me if this becomes too long for you to read all of it. this will be organized by events. skip around as you please. also, i won't be too offended if you just look at the photos. i do that too, sometimes.

another side note : if some of the things i say don't make sense, please forgive me. you see, this week is french challenge week (fcw), which means were are only allowed to speak french (there are exceptions, of course, like blogging). right now i have the most confusing mix of french and english in my head...so i'm sorry if i say things that don't make sense.

fashion week in paris

yes, it's true. it was fashion week in paris this past week (good thing i knew that, right? sarcasm, i had no idea). i was definitely a participant. as you can see, i traveled in style. no way was i lugging around my duffle bag again, especially on the metro, so i opted for a backpack. good choice. i also remembered that i love backpacks more than i love purses, which was great because i happened to have my trusty camelback daypack with me. so i used that, too. i ended up wearing two backpacks at once. and no, i didn't get any weird looks. i have no idea what you're talking about.

giverny

giverny was claude monet's home and gardens. i kid you not, this is one of my new most favorite places in the entire world ever of ever the end. when we got to giverny, it was grey and a little bit rainy. but i love that we were there in the rain. i think gray skies make colors pop more. the waterlilies may have been my favorite part. they weren't in bloom, but the pond, the bamboo, the bridges, the weeping willows...it all made for one of the most beautiful gardens i have ever been in. the gardens closer to the house were all color coordinated. i'm talking rainbow effect, here. i loved it. (ocd? of course not. i just like color coordination.) walking around giverny, i can see why monet was so inspired. being surrounded by nature and so much color will do that to a person. after not nearly enough time and after spending way too much money on a print and a nifty "claude monet" tshirt, we got back on the bus and headed off to rouen.

heather, me, cori

waterlilies

me & alicia

rouen

rouen is a medieval town in normandie that is known for being the town where joan d'arc || joan of arc was burned at the stake. we stopped here for lunch and to walk around and explore a bit. cori, heather, nate, the hurlbuts, and i got kebaPs (it was spelled wrong at the restaurant) and then adventured in the rain a little bit. cori and i got separated from the group at one point and found ourselves in a fish market...barf gag. but then we all got to go to the wax museum that told the story of joan of arc's life. have i told you how much dr h loves joan of arc? he says she was his premiere amour || first love. "i was ten years old and saw a film about a girl with a sword. of course i fell in love." then we explored the city a bit more...and we found this building (why can't i remember what it was called?) that was built on the place where 2/3 of the population of rouen were buried during the plague. on all the woodwork of the building, there were skulls and bones. that was pretty sobering. then jennie and i ran to monoprix to find a cake for nateybabes' birthday. after finding a "cake" and some birthday candles (who knew birthday candles were so hard to find?) we ran to the bus. phew. hurrah for bonding time in monoprix with sister h! :)

dr h and a wax figure of joan of arc

l'abbaye de jumièges

this old abbey was so cool! it was in ruins. i'm a big fan of ruins, especially this kind. it was basically just the skeleton of this benedictine chapel. jennie explained to me that this was from the gothic period, but it lacked the ornate decorations that classic gothic cathedrals have. she explained that whenever there is a new movement, there is always a counter movement. while classic gothic was moving towards flamboyant, saint philibert, who built the cathedral, followed the counter-movement and wanted his cathedral to be as beautiful but as simple as possible. i loved all the old stones everywhere and that when we were "inside" the cathedral, we could look up at the sky. it was so fun to explore and climb and play ring-around-the-rosy.

bayeux

in bayeux, we went to dinner at this great little restaurant. our first course was raw salmon. i'm pretty sure it was raw. i drenched it in lemon and ate it as quickly as i could. lucy cheered me on. she's just so great. then we had duck and these amazing fried potatoes. je l'aimais beaucoup || i loved it a lot. it more than made up for the salmon experience. i find that i'm eating a lot of fish here...i figure it's a great growing experience? or something? for dessert we had baked apples with this cinnamon flavored ice cream. delish. after dinner, some of us walked around bayeux with the hurlbut's and we stopped in front of a statue of alain chartier, who wrote the poem "la belle dame sans mercy" || the beautiful, merciless woman. we got to hear all about him, as well as dr h's quest to find out who actually wrote l'hôpital d'amour || the hospital of love, which wasn't chartier's poem, but was attributed to him. i'm excited to read it when i get back to provo! dr h has a copy of it in his office on campus. that night, we had a girls night in our hotel room. alicia, olivia, lucy, cori, heather, corine, annie, and i did our nails and laughed so hard. i don't think i've ever laughed so hard in my life. i'm not even exaggerating when i tell you i looked like a raccoon. look at my photos to see why. maybe you have to know olivia to get the full effect...but it's a beautiful thing.

bayeux part ii

woke up, went to breakfast, and had a wonderful experience. at our hotel, there was a british wwii veteran who fought on the beaches of normandy. i typed out my experience on my phone (i didn't have my computer with me) while we were driving to gold beach later that day because i didn't want to forget it. here's part of what i wrote:

this morning at breakfast in bayeux, there was a british veteran from dday. i watched him and his wife eat their breakfast while i ate mine. i didn't want to approach him because i thought he wouldn't want to be interrupted. he was in his uniform, a navy coat decorated with pins and medals from the RAF. 

i finished my breakfast and realized that if i didn't thank him, i would kick myself for the rest of my life. how many times do you run into a veteran from normandy while you're in normandy? not often. i walked up to him and shook his hand while i said, 

"thank you." 

he locked his eyes with mine through his thick glasses while he spoke and said, 

"we couldn't have done it without you." his hand held mine the whole time. it was rough and worn and warm. "it was the americans who made all the difference." 

he proceeded to tell me a little bit about his experience in the war, and about how he was so grateful for roosevelt and the american soldiers coming to the aid of the british. he smelled like coffee, and in the hand that wasn't holding mine, he was holding a sugar cube. he asked me why i was in france, and i told him about our study abroad. he told me to cherish it because it is an amazing experience to live abroad. i told him i would. 

he smiled. 

i loved him and his british accent and his faded ribbons on the lapel of his jacket.

bayeux tapestry

the bayeux tapestry is such a cool piece. it is 70 yards long and tells the story of the battle of hastings in 1066. we got an audio guide that narrated the entire tapestry for us. i loved it. i was super impressed and entertained by the embroidery. we also got to watch a 15 minute video on the tapesetry, and we watched in once in english and in french. good thing i fell asleep. (thanks for letting me use your shoulder, nateybabes. i owe ya one.)

me & my audio tour

gold beach

our first stop on our tour of dday sights was gold beach. this was where the canadian armies began the offensive on the germans on june 6, 1944. when we arrived, the thing i first noticed were the flags. there was a flag for each of the allied countries, as well as germany. i really liked that. we got to go down on the beach for a few minutes, then we got to explore a little bit while we ate our lunch. some of us decided to explore the giftshops for a minute and i totally scored and found some sweet-awesome rings. don't be jealous because my rings are cooler than yours. jokes. but really.

sage, annie, alicia, & moi

moi! yes, that is a toothpaste stain on my pants. it wouldn't come out, ok?

mon bague || my ring

bunkers, aka "pill boxes"

our next stop was at the german bunkers. these bunkers were so interesting - these weird cement mounds in the ground that looked like pill boxes. these houses cannons that could shoot out into the ocean at ships that were up to five miles away. kinda blew my mind. it was actually a really beautiful place, and it was hard to imagine that this was once the sight of one wwii battles. i was standing on top of one of the pill boxes, looking at the ocean with noah and i told him, "i can't even imagine what the germans were thinking when they were standing here." he said, "are you kidding? they must have been scared out of their minds!" sometimes we forget that. in our minds we think of the germans as "the enemy" during wwii. i realized that we put a label there, and sometimes we're able to forget that the germans were human, too. thanks, noah, for the insight on top of that pill box.

american cemetery at normandy

there is a sign at the entrance of the cemetery refers to this place as "hallowed ground." i don't know how else to describe this place. of course i had seen photos. everyone sees them in text books. but i don't think anything could have prepared me for seeing it in person. the cemetery is actually right on the coast. it's about a half mile away from omaha beach, where the worst casualties were experienced during the normandy invasions. to get to it, you have to walk along a little path that curves along the coast. it is all lined by trees. when we were there, it was beautifully sunny. we followed the curve of the path and suddenly, after views of the beach and trees, all i could see was white.

9,387 blindingly white crosses and stars of david.

the organized rows went on forever. i really couldn't breath. it's hard to imagine that there are even more men who could have been listed there, but aren't. our entire group dispersed - we all wanted to be alone. i took my time looking at the crosses and stars. each were inscribed with a name, state, rank, death date, and dog tag number. some of the crosses were inscribed, "here rests in honored glory a comrade in arms known but to god." what i really wanted to do was stop in front of every single one of them and say a silent "thank you." i wanted to thank each of these boys - because for the most part, they were my age and younger - for all that they did. on the chapel at the cemetery, these words are inscribed : "these endured all and gave all that justice among nations might prevail and that mankind might enjoy freedom and inherit peace."i can't think of better words to describe and thank these boys. the certainly deserve this beautiful place dedicated to their memory. even writing this is making me tear up a little bit.

while at the cemetery, i'm pretty sure i was on the verge of tears the entire time. i was doing pretty well holding it all in until i ran into nate. i had to leave asap because i was going to break down. i ran away and had my own little moment, thanking heavenly father for all of my blessings and freedoms. i thanked him for the men who gave their all to the cause of justice and freedom and peace. i thanked him for my country and for the opportunity that i have to live abroad. i thanked him that living abroad not only has helped me to appreciate other cultures, but also to appreciate the united states and all of our blessings there even more. it was one big fat cry fest. and i kind of loved it.

the chapel at the cemetery

after wandering the cemetery, alicia and i decided to visit the beach. we were quiet the whole time, neither of us felt like talking really. i collected a couple of sea shells. they were all broken. i liked them that way. it felt appropriate. is that silly? anyway. omaha beach is one of the most beautiful beaches i have ever seen. it was so hard for me visualize it as a the site of a wwii battle. (don't worry. that comes later. and you'll get to read about me crying again. excited? you should be.)

as cori put it in her blog, after what seemed like not nearly enough but entirely too much time, we left the american cemetery. 

that place changes people. i'll be the first to tell you.

omaha beach

after a short bus ride, we were at another spot on omaha beach. there was a huge memorial sculpture that i actually loved. it was made of steel and it reflected light all over the place. this part of the beach is a little bit more open to the public and we felt like we could play. we took some jumping photos...i was a sherpa because i have waterproof boots...it was great.

nateybabes & moi

annie, nate, carine, & moi

my new rainboots are great.

point du hoc

point du hoc is the outcropping of rocks that separates omaha and utah beaches. it is covered in craters from cannon balls. i don't think there was a single place there where the ground was level. there were amazing views of the coast and atlantic ocean, but what really got me was the damage the cannons did. it has been almost 70 years and these craters are still at least 4 people deep and maybe 6-8 people wide. crazy.

maddie, olivia, alicia, me, noah, sage, annie, & nate

caen

after point du hoc, we drove off to caen, where we had dinner and spent the night. that dinner...oh it was a hilarious night. kayla and alicia both got some raw egg yolks with their dinner on the side and just left them there. i made some comment about how gross they looked. i was sitting next to noah, who turned to me and said, "hey, if you eat those egg yolks, i'll give you 30 euros." and do you know what? i did it. and do you know what? he gave me 20 euros and a pastry of my choice here in paris (he didn't have the full 30 on him at the time). and i'm not even mad about any of it. alicia and i couldn't stop laughing...that was funny. and i had the best dessert in the world. it was french vanilla ice cream with a strawberry purée, fresh peaches, and chantilly (vanilla whipped cream). it was divine. after dinner, we had a laughing fest in the hotel and were then told to be quiet...oops.

noah, 20 euros, moi, & the cup the egg yolks were in

heaven on earth

wwii museum in caen

so the next morning after eating my weight in toast and nutella (i love hotel breakfasts) we went to the wwii museum. it was super interesting. and we got audio guides (I WAS SO HAPPY). i love audio guides, in case you didn't know. especially when the narrators have british accents. anyway, it was a super cool museum. it was very interactive, with an overwhelming amount of information about france during wwii. my favorite (and least favorite) part of the museum was at the very beginning. we were looking at posters and information about europe after wwi. it was really hard to listen to the audio guide and process the information because in the background there was a continuous drum beat and cheering. it wasn't super loud at first, but it got louder and louder as we approached this dome inside the museum. when you entered the dome, you were standing, facing a projection of hitler. it was just you and him. and german chanting and drum beating. it was so loud and i had no choice but to listen and stare. it was so creepy. but it really helped me to understand why the nazis believed what they did. it was all they heard. crazy.

we also watched a video on the dday invasions at the museum. it was actual footage of the attacks. it was so hard to watch. men unloading from pontoons and running through the ocean up to the beach. at the end of the film, the screen was split in two, with footage of soldiers being shot down on omaha beach on the left and footage of the beach today on the right. the juxtaposition of the footage made me cry once again. (i told you it was going to happen.) it was so hard to watch but i couldn't take my eyes away. once again, i was reminded of how grateful i am.

loved my neato audio guide

fromagerie

so then we went to a fromagerie. it was stinky and wonderful. we got to watch these silly little videos about how cheese is made and then we got to try some. free samples! it was like costco, only not so big and there was only cheese and...i guess it wasn't really like costco. but it was fantastic.

we share pretty much everything.

the end

then we had a 2 hour bus ride back into paris, where we ate american cereal for dinner and then we returned to our host families.

olivia, me, & alicia

normandie was such an amazing weekend. way too many emotions, but i wouldn't have had it any other way. i'm so glad i got to experience that. after weekends like that...you look at things differently. i appreciate things more.

if you made it to the end of this post...you deserve 6 sparkle points. :)