History of Normandy

We ventured up to the Normandy region this weekend to explore and learn about that area. We really had a great weekend despite the fact that it rained almost constantly, the temperatures were in the 40's and the wind was fierce! We saw some really great sights and ate some fantastic food! We explored St. Malo which has a long pirating history. It is a walled city built on an island. It is now permanently connected to the mainland by a causeway but is really beautiful. We went through it's castle including taking a long, narrow and steep winding staircase up to the top of one of the castle's towers. Beautiful views of the town and beaches below. Max was a little nervous on the stairs and Josh spent his time at the top mostly just hugging the wall, but the rest of us thought is was very cool. After lunch in St. Malo, we drove to Le Mont St. Michel which is just an absolutely amazing place!!! It was a huge, granite abbey built on an island with the construction started in the 700's. It is just fantastic! We climbed the more than 300 stairs to the top and took a nice tour of the abbey itself. We then walked through the narrow, winding and steep, steep streets of the island below the abbey. Mont St. Michel is the site of some of the highest tides in the area and all but the causeway gets covered in water at high tide. The kids thought it was wonderful to see the people scurry to move their cars as the tide began to come in. We spent the night in Caen and then headed to the Caen Memorial this morning to learn all about D-Day, World War II and everything that went along with that. It was really fascinating and eye opening for all of us. The kids really learned a great deal. Despite the fact that it was pouring down rain, we drove out to the landing beaches to see where all of these events actually took place. Amazing to see the huge guns and shelters still in place. We all got soaking wet but were able to get comfortable enough for our 300 km drive home. We are now ready for a warm night in our own beds.