NORMANDY - D-DAY BEACHES

"I have full confidence in your courage and devotion to duty and skill in
battle. We will accept nothing less than full Victory!" 

- Dwight D. Eisenhower

...and full victory is what was ultimately achieved along the 6 mile stretch that is Omaha Beach. On June 6, 1944 a total of 160,000 allied troops, 5,000 ships and 13,000 aircraft bombarded a 50 mile stretch of beaches along the Atlantic coast of France in an effort to get a foothold of what had become a massive amount of Europe under Nazi control during World War II.  When we traveled from Paris to Normandy we had no idea how vast the amount of land was that was all part of D-day and poorly planned our entire trip there - I'm going to give you as much information as possible so you can properly plan your time in Normandy and really get the most out of it. One day we hope to go back to really soak it up for what it is and have a fuller understanding of what actually happened on the very ground we walked. So I will not have a lot of information about all the beaches and different monuments - mainly only for Omaha Beach, which is the most popular for visitors. I would highly recommend doing your research before you go (I did some but didn't spend a lot of time on it and I really regret it). For a list of books about D-day click here http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/29955.Best_D_day_books and if you're not really into reading, the History Channel has some videos and other media posted (http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/d-day/videos) and there are also scripted movies (such as Saving Private Ryan or The Longest Day - just remember these aren't entirely accurate) for you to view and really grow a connection with everything that is D-day before you go. I guess a major TIP I would pass along to you is to stay for at least one night and two days as we did not get much done in a couple hours. Now, to give you all I got from our time in Omaha Beach...

I have to say it was the most humbling, awe-inspiring and "proud to be an American" moment I've ever felt. The feelings of just standing in solitude on a rainy day on a dock that went at least 100 feet out into the Atlantic Ocean over looking endless water as far as my eyes could see and being in the presence of where true heroes once existed fighting for everything they believed in and loved. Most of them knew they weren't going home as they rushed the beaches with gun in hand against an enemy they'd never met before and there I was paying homage to those men who are very likely the reason why I was able to stand there at almost exactly 70 years later and remember them. I can't explain this spiritual journey or emotions that came along with it...it was almost as if while I was watching the waves crash on the beach I was somehow seeing these men still crawling up that beach and fighting. It was almost as if I could see bombs going off, hear shots being fired and see the blood stained sand although none of it was there anymore...just the remnants of what once was. I still get teary eyed with gratitude, love and conviction just thinking about what these men endured to protect what they loved. I wish the same for you, take the time to stand there and just experience what once was going on on the very ground beneath your feet and I promise, very few things will ever match that moment. 

It's crazy for me to think that these men and this scene is what happened so long ago at the same peaceful place I stood.

Getting there from Paris is surprisingly easy by a rental car (if you don't feel comfortable driving across the countryside there are trains that go out to Normandy you can take). We entered a tunnel in the middle of Paris setting out to start off on our adventure to Omaha beach...we were under ground for about 20-30 minutes (I began to worry we would never get out!) we finally saw some gleaming sunlight and as we came to the exit of the tunnel we were suddenly in the middle of the countryside. It was incredible. That coolness aside, we were able to go from Paris to Omaha Beach in about 3 hours (spending a few hours there) and made a stop in Honfleur (for about an hour to an hour and a half) and still made it back to Paris just as the sun was going down. You must remember, sunset doesn't come until almost 10 p.m. in Paris so the day is nice and long to get things done. Make sure you bring various Euro with you as there are tolls along the way, none of them too expensive and almost no wait time as they have many bays for the cars. There are enough places to stop along the way to get gas and food and WATCH OUT this road is loaded with cameras that enforce speed limits. We actually received 2 traffic tickets mailed to our house about a month after we got home, insert sad face here.

This is what we saw when we came out of the tunnel

 Now onto what Omaha has to offer...     

1) Omaha Beach Museum

http://www.musee-memorial-omaha.com/en/ 
For a list of hours: http://www.musee-memorial-omaha.com/en/practical-information/hours-and-opening-times/ 
Cost: Adult 6.50 Euro, Child (7-15) 3.90 Euro, Children 7 & under are FREE

I would recommend visiting the Omaha Beach Museum located just at the shore of Omaha (Avenue de la Libération 14710 SAINT-LAURENT-SUR-MER – NORMANDIE FRANCE) before you go to the beaches and the other sites. It is thoroughly educational and helps you get a personal connection and understanding of the men who fought and the depth of what they had to go through. It is an amazing museum with original equipment through out. They use mannequins dressed in original uniforms on display in various scenes of what it would've looked like in 1944. They have original letters, dog tags, guns and more that were either found at the beaches or donated. I must put a warning on it though as some of the pictures are graphic and depending upon the age of your children you might want to monitor exactly where they go in the museum. There is a wonderful movie area by the restrooms that plays the original footage of the invasion and has some of the nurses, soldiers and rangers being interview about their life experience on the beach that day. On the way out of the museum there is a great little museum to get memorabilia for all ages. This museum is a MUST GO if you are around the D-day beaches. It will give you an entirely new understanding of the reality that happened that dark, but liberating day in 1944.

There are several displays like this through out the museum each in a different scene

This is original from D-day

2) Normandy American Cemetery & Memorial
http://www.abmc.gov/cemeteries-memorials/europe/normandy-american-cemetery
Address: 14710 Colleville-sur-Mer, France

Located on a cliff over looking Omaha Beach and out into the Atlantic Ocean this cemetery contains the remains of 9,387 American soldiers. Upon entry, the rows of crosses and large monuments seem overwhelming, you almost don't know where to begin. To your left is a massive semi-circular colonnade made of French limestone, ceramic tiles and a floor made of pebbles taken from Omaha beach itself. Within it is a 22 foot bronze statue ("The Spirit of American Youth Rising from the Waves") stretching up towards the sky and overlooking the Garden of the Missing. The garden is wrapped with semi-circular walls with the names of the 1,557 missing men who were never found or whose remains have never been identified. These men are so worthy of a silent moment and prayer as you walk by the flowers. They gave their lives fighting for freedom and made the ultimate sacrifice for so many, it's heartbreaking (especially for someone like me who is super emotional) and makes you really appreciate the acts of someone you have never met. As you continue on through the Garden of the Missing you will discover there are 5 paths that divide the garden - we only walked one and it took us a while to go down. You almost feel this desire and need to read every name and pay respects to each cross or star you walk by. Among the crosses you will see father & son together, brothers side by side and even twin brothers, who all died together fighting for their country. There is a chapel that marks they half way point of the cemetery (for an amazing aerial view click here: http://www.specialcamp11.co.uk/Normandy/Aerial%20View%20Of%20Omaha%20Cemetery.jpg. ).
Make sure you stop at the visitor's center before you walk through the cemetery as they have movies, brochures to take with you with a lot of great detailed information, pictures and more so that you can really soak in everything you see and understand the meanings of it all from the script written on the monuments to the time capsule on site that is not to be opened until 2044. Overall, I believe this was one of my top favorite things out of all of our European vacation. I think it's something everybody should see once in their lifetime.

This picture says more than my words every could

My husband took this amazing picture and I just thought I'd share it as a bonus

There are several other monuments through out Omaha, I'll post pics and small descriptions of what each one is. Stop at the visitor center to pick up maps of where you can find all the monuments and their meanings. It would be a shame to be in Paris and miss out on this incredible experience...my advice to you is to make every effort possible to go to Normandy to experience something that very few things in life can match. It's so educational for children and will help them understand how massive this day was for America and our allies. It will teach them to honor, respect & appreciate veterans and their sacrifices.

This is one of many German Bunkers around Omaha. You can walk up to it and go inside.

This is on the way up to the Second Infantry Division Memorial...To me, this is a MUST STOP as the original gun is still there from when it was under German control.

This is the interior...you can see the massive hole on the upper right, my husband imagines is from fire from the US Army.

This is where you enter, at first it was so eerie for me just to know what happened there but once I got in it as hard to leave as I felt a strong connection to the past. 

The Ranger monument at Point Du Hoc is to honor the American Second Ranger Battalion who scaled 100 foot cliffs and took over German artillery that otherwise would've been firing on American troops on Omaha.

World War II Memorial on Omaha

People still leave sentiments around the memorials to honor all of these brave men. It's very touching to see some even from children.

This will wrap up our Omaha visit. I hope you find it helpful and honorable to all the allied forces who fought that day.

If you have any further questions about something above or would like to know if I have more info on something not listed just message me or comment and I'll help out the best I can. Happy Travels my fellow Gypsies.       



 

FRANCE - OVERVIEW

"France cannot be France without greatness"

- Charles de Gaulle

Oh, Charles how right you were. France is definitely my favorite place I've ever traveled to. I'm still trying to convince my husband to move there even if only for a year. While we were there we took a mini road trip to the West coast of France so this entry will be a little different from my London overview, the Omaha beaches and Honfleur (located in Normandy) will have their own entries.  We took the train from St. Pancras in London to Gare du Nord in Paris. I reserved a rental car from the Hertz located in Gare du Nord through Auto Europe. We stayed in Paris for 4 days then traveled through France to visit Normandy and spent most of the day there. We spent a total of 10 days in France and absolutely loved every minute of it. I'll start off be reviewing the accommodations in Paris and then go on to review the trip to Normandy. 

We were there late April through early May and the weather was just beautiful. We always carried a light jacket as sometimes when it was overcast it would cool down but overall a shirt and some jeans were fine. It would rain a little here and there, but again as I've recommended before set your weather app to Paris so you can always check first thing in the morning and know what to take with you and how to dress. The sun doesn't set until very late (about 9-10 pm)so there is plenty of time to roam the streets of Paris and indulge in everything Parisian.   

Paris 

Hertz Car Rental - Gare du Nord
I must say, driving in Paris was much more pleasant than driving in London. The driver's seat was on the left side and they drive on the same side of the road that we do here in the states. There was definitely a lot of traffic and not a lot of places to park in Paris but if you will be driving to suburbs or other parts of France I highly recommend getting a rental car, sure you can take a train just about anywhere; however, the experience is well worth it! The roads in France are easy to travel and there is a lot to look at along the way. I rented our car through Auto Europe (http://www.autoeurope.com/go/car-rental/) from Hertz and it was a breeze. Everything was exactly how I reserved it. The entire process of check in was maybe 10 minutes, I was relieved to see their employees spoke some English and there was little confusion to be had. The car was clean, filled with gas and I made sure to get a car with GPS so we wouldn't have to use our iphones to get around. We were able to return the car rental at Charles du Gaulle airport without any problems. Overall, I would absolutely rent from Hertz again. Everything from the product to the customer service exceeded my expectations. Posted below are pics of our rental by the ocean:

My husband really is a great photographer :)

HOTEL REVIEW
Alright, I'm going to be completely real with all of you right now...our hotel was the worst part of Paris. I literally cried our second night there and wanted to go home (this is so embarrassing to write about, I'm such a baby but it really was that bad). We stayed at the Mercure at 20 Rue Jean Rey (http://www.mercure.com/gb/hotel-2175-mercure-paris-centre-eiffel-tower-hotel/index.shtml)...online it looked like the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. It is across the street from the Eiffel Tower, walking distance from grocery shops and cafes and had what appeared to be modern and stunning rooms. I want so badly to be able to recommend this hotel but absolutely everything about it fell far short of any minimum expectation. This is a 4-5 star hotel and we were expecting the same level of service and atmosphere as our wonderful hotel in London, The Rubens. So much for expectations. When we arrived, the entire place was under construction. There were plastic linings all over the floor and the walls, pieces of wood laying around and tools all over the floor. There were painters and carpenters walking all about and nobody to help us from the staff. Look, I get places have to be maintained and upgraded BUT when I booked the hotel room that should have been noted to me - especially because we paid just under $2,000 for our stay. I do not want to pay a 4 star price and not have the complete hotel there. We finally found a make shift front desk with someone to help us out. She was very nice and got us checked in in less than 5 minutes. The elevator was out of service for a short time because of their construction and we had to take everything up the stairs. Our room was a decent size, especially for being in the heart of Paris, and the decor was pleasant. Unfortunately, that's the last good thing I can say about the Mercure. I'm just going to copy and paste a modified version of my review of the Mercure from my Trip Advisor account so I don't have to revisit it all again...I spent 4 months going back and forth with the manager (all for nothing, we'll get to that later) repeating everything and frankly, I'm tired of repeating the story...so here we go:

"I know the location is great but don't compromise quality for location, there are plenty of other options close to the Eiffel Tower. The staff was very rude, the rooms were filthy, and our housekeeping never came before 2 pm. There was a time our tv didn't work, I phoned downstairs (the in-room phone worked only about a third of the time I tried to use it, most times I had to use my own cell phone to call the hotel because the in room phone didn't work) they said someone would be right up...30 mins later nobody came, I called again (from my cell phone) 4 times before someone picked up at the front desk then when I told them who I was and what room number I was in they hung up on me, I had to call 2 more times before I got through and told them we were still waiting for someone to fix our tv and the guy rudely said "I know, I said someone is on their way up" and hung up the phone on me while I was mid sentence trying to talk to him. There was construction all over the place and the elevators didn't always work leaving us to climb 4 flights of stairs. nobody helped with our luggage or taxis.

You need a hotel card to make the lights in your room work (it slides into a socket above the light switch) and we would leave it there so we could turn the lights on when we would come back and housekeeping kept taking our card out of the room so we had no working lights...AGAIN I would call downstairs and they would tell me to walk down and get one! (I'm sorry but a 4 star hotel should send someone up immediately with a card especially when their staff are the ones who keep taking it).

Our room was supposed to be one of the newly renovated ones but it smelled like urine, paint chips were everywhere, there was something disgusting growing on our fridge. Our sheets were dirty and there were deep grooves in the bed from previous guests. 

They charge 28 euro a night for rental car parking and the machine you have to pay with to get a ticket to leave rarely worked, so we would have to go back upstairs to pay several times (the girl at the front desk said we could park it out front cheaper but it's a dangerous area at night and it's not wise to do so). I'm sorry but WHY WOULD SHE SAY THAT? I mean I don't think a lot of cities are the absolute safest around the main attractions...but come on.

The people across the hall from us had ordered room service and their dirty dishes were left in the hall in front of our room for 2 days before being picked up. Nobody there seemed to care about anything and nobody would listen to us if we wanted something. We seemed to be a burden whether we were asking for another room key because ours was taken or where the nearest place to exchange money was (which by the way they said was a "blue building down the street" and nothing further....which way down the street? is there a name?)"

I was so upset staying there I went down stairs and told them I wanted to cancel the rest of our nights because we wanted to stay at a different hotel. The man at the front desk told me that since I paid up front they wouldn't return any of my money and I was more than welcome to go somewhere else. They never once attempted to make anything right or to make me feel like a valued customer.

To sum it all up...I attempted for 4 months to find someone from Mercure or even Accor hotels who cared about our experience. Hours poured in for nothing. The manager of the hotel even agreed with me they fell far below expectations and he couldn't believe the pictures I sent him were from his hotel...I asked him for half of our money back. I told him I understood we still used the facilities and we stayed with them but even he agreed it fell far below any basic expectation and he refused to do anything to make it up to me. I've never felt so under valued as a customer and I would never recommend any Accor hotel as their whole system for getting in contact with someone if a stay goes wrong frankly just doesn't exist. I'm still upset that $1,700 went to service like that. I would imagine you could find much better service at a Comfort Inn for about $700 for the amount of time we stayed. If I have any sort of TIP other than recommending you stay away, far away from the Mercure it would be to rent a flat or apartment. It's well worth your money, you have a kitchen and multiple bedrooms and can still be in the heart of Paris. It may have cost us $1800-2000 for our total stay but there would be no additional fee for parking your car ($28 a night), the rooms would be clean, it's someone's personal property so if anything went wrong I can almost guarantee they'd fix it at all costs and promptly, and you have privacy. Here is a link for some rentals in Paris http://www.tripadvisor.com/Search?q=paris&geo=&pid=3826&returnTo=__2F__ 

You guessed it, my advice is DO NOT book with the Mercure or any Accor hotels. You will deeply regret it and it will take some of the Paris magic away. Posted below are just a couple pics of our room:

All of the doors looked very banged up

Sloppy workmanship...this was the "finished" product

Doors were missing pieces and torn apart. You can see the slot I was talking about to the right of this pic where you have to insert a card to make the switch work.

Scum & dirt around all the base boards as if it was never cleaned.

This is what was growing on our fridge! Gross right?! It was there for our entire stay...housekeeping never once cleaned it off.

DRIVING FROM PARIS TO NORMANDY

This drive was beautiful, easy and fun! The drive there took a little under 3 hours and there are plenty of stops along the way. The D-day beaches obviously don't have an address so we used the Omaha Museum's address in our GPS to get there. The museum is a good location between all of the sights to get you in the general area. Here is a link for going from center Paris to the Omaha Memorial Museum (https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Paris,+France/Mus%C3%A9e+M%C3%A9morial+d%27Omaha+Beach,+Avenue+de+la+Lib%C3%A9ration,+Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer,+France/@49.1215648,-0.4546003,8z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m13!4m12!1m5!1m1!1s0x47e66e1f06e2b70f:0x40b82c3688c9460!2m2!1d2.3522219!2d48.856614!1m5!1m1!1s0x480b0801156cbe1b:0x4e87e30afa62e26d!2m2!1d-0.882118!2d49.367087

We spent about 3 hours in and around Omaha beach but I have to say you could easily spend days there. Had we known it was so massive with so much to see we would've stayed at least one night to see a lot more. On our way back from Omaha, I wanted to stop in Honfleur...being the art fan that I am I had to see where Claude Monet first began to paint. We only spent a couple hours in Honfleur as it was getting to be evening time so we didn't want to be driving back to Paris too late. I will review Omaha and Honfleur in a separate entry for those of you interested in visiting. I would suggest both these places to anyone who loves history or art. They offer up so many emotional experiences that cannot be missed. 

If you guys have any questions or if I left anything out you're curious about please comment or send me an e-mail and I'll get back to you with any information I have.

Happy travels my fellow gypsies!