Notes from France November 2018

Thursday, November 15,  2018  Rode the bus for 2 hours on our way to Normandy over the beautiful countryside. We saw many farms, cattle, horses etc. Lovely. Our first stop was the Arromanches Debarkment D-Day Museum and learned about the engineering and logistical activity it took to launch this attack. Amazing feat!! Lunch was at the Omaha Beach Golf Club. Delicious food, beautiful course. Onward to the American Cemetery and Memorial in Colleville-sur-Mer to attend the daily ceremony honoring those who had died. The average age being 24. Viking provided us with roses, so we found a graves from Pennsylvania and Oklahoma to lay ours. An 82 year old gentlemen on the trip had an uncle buried in the cemetery. He was the first relative who had traveled to France and visit the grave. They had contacted the American Cemetery management before the trip, and a docent collected them and took them to the uncle's grave. The chapel was very peaceful, the inscription aro...

November 12, 2018 Paris never disappoints even in the rain. We took a lovely bus tour and saw the high spots. Notre Dame remains as beautiful as it was when I was here 15 years ago.  In front of the cathedral is zero stone for distance measurement in France.  In the cathedral we lit candles (of course) in memory of deceased family members, and gazed at the gorgeous stained glass,...the huge Rose window still takes my breath away. We hit all the important landmarks, Eiffel Tower, Arc d’Triomphe, the Left Bank (all those bookshops!!!), Champs d’Elysee...it was lovely.  We had some time at Notre Dame, so had the quintessental  Parisian espresso and crepes! We disembarked from our Parisian docking this evening and as I write we are traveling up the Seine to Normandy. A lovely way to be lulled to 😴.