Day 6 - Bastille Day and D-Day Beaches

 July 14th is Bastille Day, the French national holiday where they celebrate the storming of the Bastille Fortress prison.  This was the start of the French revolution.  For our July 14th, we headed outside of Rouen to the Ruins of Abbaye du Jumiges, an abbey that was once one of the largest in France.  The abbey became a ruin just after the French revolution, as they decided to use the abbey as a source of stone for other projects.  Today only one third of the original abbey remains, but is is still quite spectacular.  It would have been even more spectacular, except that most of the abbey is covered in scaffolding. It is in the middle of a renovation project as the ruins are starting to fall down.

After the Abbey, we headed for the Caen Peace Memorial.  It tells the story of WW2 and presents a balanced picture of the futility of war and the tragic loss of life.  After the Memorial we headed to the D-day beaches.  This is a stretch of approx 50km of beach which was the site of the allied landings in occupied France.  The French countryside is beautiful, as are the beaches, and around every corner is a monument, museum, cemetery or a relic of WW2.  The most interesting of these was some of the bunkers and German gun emplacements which were still standing, still complete with the gun.

After a thoughtful drive back to Caen, we checked into our Hotel and then went out for Dinner.  Josh was happy as he finally got to have a "Creme Brulee" - No one has been brave enough to try escargot just yet. We are all just getting ready for bed and the sounds of fireworks outside have started. - Bastille Day Celebrations. - Not sure how much sleep we are going to get tonight!