On our own in Caen, France

Today was the first day that we were able to activate our EUrail pass. We rode from Paris to Caen, the Normandie region in north France. We got to this cute little seaside town and checked into our hotel. The owner was so nice to us. I think it also helped that we told him we were Canadian! He was so cute and sweet and wanted to help us with whatever we needed.

Just ten minutes outside of this town is Liseux. Kristen’s favorite saint of all time (St. Therese) is from here so, of course, we took the train on day one to check out the village. There, we went to the cathedral with relics of St. Therese and a huge crypt church dedicated to her with colorful mosaics that tell her story. We walked through a wax museum telling her story as well. We were able to walk around the town and go to the Carmelite convent where St. Therese once lived. We saw where she is buried and the real journal that she wrote in that was eventually published and sold everywhere called Story of a Soul. It was a great afternoon. What was interesting was inside the Cathedral. The community was getting ready for a big celebration which would start the process of St. Therese’s parents becoming saints themselves. Also, a small altar that locals were praying at that was specifically to pray for Catholics in the United States. This was very moving. Last, in one corner of the cathedral was a spot for people to leave their notes to St. Therese... thank yous for giving them miracles. There were so many plaques and notes and pictures it was amazing.

The next day we went to church at St. Pierre Cathedral which was said in French, of course. Even though we didn’t understand much, it was still Mass and we knew what parts they were at. After this we took a tram to the Normandy museum a little outside the city of Caen.

At this museum, we booked ourselves on a very small group tour of the beaches of Normandy. We were very prepared for this trip since the two nights prior we had stayed up until 1am refreshing every detail about WWI and WWII. We originally thought we could take a bus to one beach and walk around the beaches and cemeteries. However, we quickly learned how huge these beaches are and how far apart we needed to drive to get to each one.

For those who don’t know the significance of Normandy, France: In short, this is the landing spot where the Americans, Canadians, and British troops first came to fight the Germans who had pushed their way into France during WWII.

There are many cemeteries in this region. We went to the American cemetery, of course. It was beautiful. This is also where the soldiers rip who were the inspiration for the characters in the movie Saving Private Ryan. Near this cemetery is Omaha beach. Out of the five beaches Omaha was the bloodiest battle and Americans were the ones who landed here. We went to the second American beach called Utah. On this fifth beach special forces had to scale high walls to reach our enemies. They were delayed in getting to this beach because of the tides so the germans were onto them and this too was another beach where many men died from our country. We walked around the cliffs at Utah beach and we can still see the bomb craters covering it completely. We walked in pill boxes and, for the first time, I wish I had watched one of those war movies that my dad (Bob Laurence) is always watching in his recliner. I guess we’ll watch a WWII documentary soon!

The next morning we delayed getting on an earlier train and went back to the Normandy museum. It was fascinating. We learned so much about WWII and even stayed a while to take in two other special museum exhibitions. We walked along the time line for the Cold War and we were very moved by the tribute the French were paying to the September 11th tragedy. We saw artifacts like clothing, plane parts, pictures, and walked along reliving the timeline. Of course, we all watched on tv the people in other countries celebrating the fact that America was attacked. However, it was very moving to read in an exhibit what people in other countries did positively on this day.

We learned that the Queen of England had the United States national anthem played during the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace. In Berlin, 200,000 german troops marched in silence. Ireland declared a national day of mourning. Iran held a candlelight vigil. Wow.

We were able to catch the later train out of the city and to our next destination: Tours, France. As we were leaving our hotel, the owner (who thought we were Canadian) wrote in big capital letters CANADA on our handwritten bill. We smiled and said, “Merci” and he ran to grab some croissants. He put them in our hands and we walked to the station with our packs. Ha.