Northern France (Mhari)

My last blog continued…  In the end I did buy some chocolate in Tournai.

The day after we went to Tournai was the day we left our gite.  The night before we left, I set my alarm clock for 7:00 am but while setting the alarm I accidentally put the clock an hour ahead.  In the morning my alarm went off, I woke Sam and went to organize my stuff.  When Sam went downstairs, mom looked at her watch and let us all know it was only 6:00 am.  The sun was not yet up.  The stars were bright.  That morning we were ready to go a little bit sooner than planned.

That day we went to Caen and walked around looking for the hotel we wanted to stay at.  The streets were full of young people (it was a Friday night) the people had odd hairdos and stuff.  Once we found the hotel we got our room and went out again for a walk to the castle.  The Castle was nice but we couldn’t see much because it was late and the museum parts were closed.  On the way back there were lots of groups of between five to ten University age students standing around chatting. The streets were literally littered with them.

At the marina.

The next day…

We got up and sent mom and Sam to get us bread and milk - Sam the bread (baguette) and mom the milk. Then time for fooooooooooooooooooooood!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That day we went to Bayeux and saw the Bayeux Tapestry, it was amazing, it was a lot bigger than I expected, I knew it was going to be big but not That big!

We went to Juno beach that day as well. It was good but they made you pay for the tour, while at vimy it was free and a slightly better tour as well.  I learned that around 400 Canadians lost their lives on D-Day at Juno Beach. But hundreds more died throughout the weeks to follow.  They came at low tide to be able to see the obstacles put on the beach by the Germans to prevent an invasion.  But this meant they had to run a long way with big and heavy packs.  They were about 80 lbs.  I learned that the French call D-Day – Jour-J – makes sense.  We were told the Germans had put up a sea wall along the whole of Europe called the Atlantic Wall.  Along that wall they had lots and lots of defenses.  They had bunkers and machine guns and canons and obstacles at important places.  There were mines by the bunkers to prevent parachute attack.  They did not have much of a memorial until more recently.  All they had was a canon.  But now they have a museum with tour guides and a gift shop and a coffee machine.  The have a statue, an Innukshuk, and plaques with information.  It was all done with help and money from Canadian Veterans, friends and families.