Europe part 5 - April 26 - May 2, 2015

April 26, 2015 - Turned in the rental car this morning and got on a high speed train to Paris.  Took about 3 hours.  Very smooth and comfortable.  In Paris we went to our hotel room for the night and got into one of the smallest rooms that I have ever seen.  There was a full size bed in there, but it took up almost all the room.  There was a window that opened inward and it hit the bed when you opened it part way.  The bathroom was even smaller than I thought possible.  Well, it was only overnight.

April 27, 2015 - Picked up our new car today.  We have arranged for a lease buy back program that allows to take delivery of a French made car for up to 3 months for less than renting a car and at the end of the time, we just turn it back in.  We picked up a black SUV, a 2015 Peugeot, model 2008.  It had 1 km on the odometer when I picked it up.  Then drove to Versailles, France.  The palace is closed on Mondays, so almost everything else is closed as well.  We just wandered around for a while in the chilly weather and then decided to do laundry.  Not easy finding a coin laundry here.  After we went to dinner and ordered the house special at a small place that was recommended by the waiter.  It was "beef and potatoes - Fantastic".  OK, taking his word, ordered it with a couple glasses of wine.  First he brought out some cold soup that was not very good ( at least to our taste buds).  Then he brings toasted bread with a cream cheese type of spread on it.  The bread was hard as a rock.  Worried about what was to come, we find that he brings out a plate of steak that was sliced up in portions that could have fed 6 people.  He then brings out 2 giant bowls of fries.  The meat was at a minimum of 3 pounds and probably more than that.  It was very delicious, tender, moist and great flavor.  But the portions were intimidating.  Obviously, we could not eat it all.  We tried harder that we should have and only ate about half of what was served.  It was now determined to be a great meal.  After that we waddled back to our hotel.

Picture of the remainder of the food after we stuffed ourselves.

 

 

April 28, 2015 - Walked to Versailles Palace and Gardens.  The most over-the-top display of wealth and power ever is on display here.  The palace is monstrous.  The grounds and gardens are bigger than most cities.  The inside of the palace is all marble and gold, cut crystal, Paintings on the walls and ceilings every where and there are thousands of rooms.

 

A small sampling of the gardens and palace.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

April 29, 2015 - Left Versailles towards our next destination and did a detour to Giverny, France, the home of Claude Monet, the famous French Impressionist artist.  Visited the gardens and his house.  Amazing gardens that obviously inspired his art work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

April 30, 2015 - Leaving town and heading towards Granville, France.

 

Granville, France from our room.

 

Granville in town.

 

 

Mont Saint-Michel.  This is a castle that is built on a small mountain out in the water.  It is either surrounded by water or is a mud flat when the tide is out (as it was when we were there).  Quite a huge place that is about 1,000 years old.

 

 

 

May 1, 2015  - Normandy Museum of the invasion.

 

May 2, 2015 - American Cemetery at Normandy by Omaha Beach where the Allied forces met the greatest resistance and lost the most lives.  This cemetery has almost 10,000 Americans buried here and that is only a fraction of those that had died.  Many of those that died had their bodies shipped back to the U.S. at the request of the families.  All of this is a very dark and sobering display of history.

 

 

Omaha Beach

 

Symbol of a dead soldier.

 

Looking down from on top of the hill at Omaha Beach. This is where the Nazi had their troops dug in to defend the beach.  It is easy to see that being up here was a major advantage.

 

Ceiling of one of the memorials.

 

Map of the beaches and landings.