Mumsy and Guvna take on Europe: A 2016 Europe Trip Report! updated 5/29/2017

Sounds like the Doctor Who Experience was pretty cool!

Oh my gosh that story on the train is SO frightening! I'm glad that you two were both okay and you were smart about the moves you made. So scary.

Sounds like a nice first day in London! Stinks that you got lost for a bit, but glad it all worked out!

The Tower Bridge is so beautiful, great pictures! And the boat ride must have been pretty cool.

Sounds like a busy but fun second day in London!

Great pics of the changing of the guard. I'm sure it paid off being there early, glad you got to witness it!

Loved seeing the pics of Big Ben and the London Eye!

I'm sure it was sad saying goodbye to England! But the ferry looks like a fun way to get to France!
 
Sounds like the Doctor Who Experience was pretty cool!

Oh my gosh that story on the train is SO frightening! I'm glad that you two were both okay and you were smart about the moves you made. So scary.

Sounds like a nice first day in London! Stinks that you got lost for a bit, but glad it all worked out!

The Tower Bridge is so beautiful, great pictures! And the boat ride must have been pretty cool.

Sounds like a busy but fun second day in London!

Great pics of the changing of the guard. I'm sure it paid off being there early, glad you got to witness it!

Loved seeing the pics of Big Ben and the London Eye!

I'm sure it was sad saying goodbye to England! But the ferry looks like a fun way to get to France!


Yeah it was so scary but luckily we kept our wits about us once we started feeling strange about the situation.
It was so wonderful to get to France! The French countryside is so beautiful .. but yes I still miss England! I hope I can go back someday!
 
On Wednesday April 20th we started the day by packing up our things and checking out.

We had breakfast at our hotel before leaving. It was not free but it was great and fun to eat in the beautiful dining room.

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We had lots of different types of pastries and crepes.

Yum!

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After breakfast we drove back toward Mont St. Michel.
Again, I gave mom my phone to take pictures along the way.

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Soon we were back in the parking lot.
We walked over to the visitor's center where we hopped on a shuttle bus.
When the bus stopped near Mont St. Michel we were so excited!
As you can see, it has a bit of construction going on.
They were doing some repair work on the statue of Saint Michael that is on top of the belfry.

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As we walked from the drop off to the entrance, I had to take a lot of pictures of Mont St. Michel itself but also of the beautiful surroundings. It was breathtaking.

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The history of Mont St. Michel goes back to 708 when Aubert, Bishop of Avranches, built a sanctuary on Mont-Tombe in honor of the Archangel. It became a major site of pilgrimage. The Benedictines settled in the abbey during the 10th century and a village began below.
It was a stronghold during the Hundred Years War. Its ramparts and fortifications could not be passed by any of the English assaults.
After the dissolution of the religious community during the Revolution it was used as a prison until 1863.
In 1874 it was classified as a historic monument and underwent major restoration work.

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As you enter the gates you first walk through the village and old houses.
It is all circular and uphill and you basically just follow the paths up to get to the abbey.

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And if you are me, you sometimes crawl into little caves to get a picture.

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The way was long and steep but it was amazing, with something to look at every time you turned your head.

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Off to the left there you can see a long slope coming down from one of the openings.

We guessed at what it might be. We decided it was probably something to bring things up to the abbey or send them down. And we were right! Later we would actually find the top of it.

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Soon we were in the entrance to the Mont-Saint-Michel Abbey.

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The views from up here was incredible.

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The abbey church was built in the early decades of the year 1000.
It was built on top of a rock, 80 meters above sea level

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Then you enter into the cloister.
This was a place of prayer and meditation.

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In the refectory the monks ate their meals in silence whilst one of them would give a reading from the pulpit.

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A stairway takes you from there and you are free to explore the rest of the buildings...

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The wheel in the former monk's ossuary (a building or vault where human bones exhumed from a churchyard are preserved) ...

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The wheel was installed around 1820 to hoist provisions to the prisoners held in the abbey when it was a prison.

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Looking down that slope we had noticed earlier from the opening by the big wheel.

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Mom standing in the huge fireplace.

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We had a stop at the gift shop and then made our way back down the winding roads and staircases.

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When we reached the bottom we caught the shuttle back to our car.

Next up: Exploring the Normandy D-day beaches
 
Mont St. Michel looks so interesting! I'm trying to get an idea of size. About how long did it take to walk up to the abbey? Then how long would someone probably spend exploring the abbey?
 
As always, more beautiful photos!!


Thanks!

Mont St. Michel looks so interesting! I'm trying to get an idea of size. About how long did it take to walk up to the abbey? Then how long would someone probably spend exploring the abbey?

It is pretty big. I would say that it took us about 30 minutes to walk up. It could be longer if you stopped a lot at shops or quicker if you walk fast. We meandered... not too slow, not super fast.
We spent about an hour touring it. And then going down was faster, maybe 15-20 minutes.
 
After leaving Mont St. Michel we drove north to Sainte-Mere-Eglise.

Along the way my mom was again charged with taking photos.

She took this picture of the camper in front of us after I started laughing at it and asked her if she could see that the back looked like an old lady in glasses and shower cap.

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The French countryside is just so beautiful.

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We didn't have as much time as we would have liked to spend in in Sainte-Mere-Eglise and we couldn't get the parking meter to work so I was really paranoid about just running over to the church for some pictures. I wish we would have explored it more but, like I said I was really worried about getting in trouble for not paying the parking.

We walked over to the church. The town church is well known because on D-Day paratrooper John Steele of the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment had his parachute caught on the spire of the church.
The town was on fire and paratroopers were being shot as they descended into the town.
John Steele was shot through the foot. He hung there for two hours pretending to be dead as he could only observe the fighting below him.
He was then taken prisoner by the Germans.
He later escaped the Germans and rejoined his division when US troops of the 3rd battalion attacked the village. This was the first French town to be liberated. This was shown in the movie The Longest Day.
Now there is a uniformed mannequin that hangs from a parachute on the steeple to honor Steele and the liberation of the town. John Steele regularly visited the town and church before his death in 1969.

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There was a little food truck right by the church so my mom went to it to get us some cheeseburgers to eat on our drive to our next location while I ran to the car to make sure I hadn't been ticketed.
I waited in the car for her and when she got in she handed me my box with my cheeseburger.
Thankfully I noticed something on the side of it before I bit into it and I took off the top bun.
I almost threw up and tossed the box over to my mom saying, "Oh man. I can't eat that!"
She looked inside to see why.
I did not get a picture of them but this is basically what it looked like...

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She said she would go return them. At first I didn't want her to because I didn't want to be a complaining tourist. But she convinced me that she could just go take them back.
She said the woman was really nice about it and said "Oh! I forgot you English like them well cooked." She was really kind about it and gave us some hot dogs instead.
Unfortunately they were pretty gross too... but we ate most of them anyway.
Luckily we also had some Zone bars and Diet Coke to enjoy.

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Our next stop was Utah Beach. The drive to the beach was beautiful. We kept noticing bikes everywhere tied to poles. They were all beautiful pastel colors and had baskets and flowers. We later learned they are all over to remember the French resistance that biked all over the country.
I wish I had pictures of them but I don't.

I loved this quote on the statue at Utah Beach...

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It was a beautiful place with a very special spirit to it.
You couldn't help but think of those that died here, sacrificing themselves to try to help others.

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It was incredibly windy so we were getting sand everywhere... later I had to dig it out of my pockets of my coat!
I gathered a few seashells from the beach and we walked along it for a few minutes.

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My mom bought a little glass bottle in the gift shop that said Utah Beach on it and was able to go out and put some sand in it. I kind of wish I had done that too.
I will never forget what it felt like to stand on this beach.

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We bought some Magnum ice cream bars and got back in the car, eating them while we drove to our next stop.
 
Pointe Du Hoc:



German forces occupied Pointe du Hoc and made it into a stronghold, protecting a battery of heavy guns. On June 6, 1944, in the morning, US Army Rangers scaled 90 foot cliffs to capture it.

Their actions helped to establish the Allied foothold in France and begin the liberation of Europe.

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"And the American Rangers began to climb. They shot rope ladders over the face of these cliffs and began to pull themselves up. When one Ranger fell, another would take his place. When one rope was cut, a Ranger would grab another and begin his climb again. They climbed, shot back, and held their footing. Soon, one by one, the Rangers pulled themselves over the top, and in seizing the firm land at the top of these cliffs, they began to seize back the continent of Europe." - President Reagan

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Pointe du Hoc was full of huge craters from the battles fought here. It also still had the German bunkers which you could go inside.

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The sad thing about this was they reeked of urine.

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The Pointe du Hoc monument:

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After that we drove to Omaha Beach.

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We walked along the beach for a while.

Again, it was still so windy that we had to be careful from all the sand that was flying into our faces and eyes.


After we left Omaha Beach we went to the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial.

We went into the visitor's center first.

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This place was amazing.

They had artifacts and pictures. They had movies. Most importantly they told the stories of the people.

I was tearing up most of the time we were in here, over and over.

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There were hundreds of stories all over the visitor's center. It was amazing.
One of the most poignant moments for me was as we were going toward the exit. You walk through a Hallway of Names. As you walk down the hallway the names of those buried in the cemetery are being read aloud. It was so touching and heartbreaking. We exited the center onto a path that led to the other memorials and the cemetery itself.

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The feeling here was one of gratitude. It was peaceful and somber.
It was something I don't think either of us will ever forget and we will be forever grateful we got to experience it.




 
After leaving the Cemetery it was time to head to our bed and breakfast for the night.

We wanted to be close to Giverny and I found this place online that had great reviews and looked beautiful. It is called Les Hautes Sources. If I ever make it back I will stay there again. I loved it.



We were already behind schedule and so we were trying to get there as quickly as possible.

We thought we would try to stop for dinner along the way but there wasn't anything.

We soon got into the little town of Menilles (Mini) and weren't that impressed.

The GPS took us to the wrong spot so I put the address into my phone and backtracked a bit and went up a very large hill.

I still couldn't find the place so I called the owner.

He told me he would come out into the street so we would see him.

As we drove back down the hill we saw him waving.

We pulled in through the gate and were immediately smitten . Both by the place and by Amaury, the owner. He was very charming and so friendly.

The family lives in one building and then the other buildings are used as the bed and breakfast.

This place was gorgeous.

He showed us to our room.

It was in this building, the balcony was ours.

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It was very beautiful and cozy and felt very French.
We had an awesome view.

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Amaury told us that there would be no where open for dinner close by.
We went into the little kitchen where you can buy snacks on the honor code and got some chips and drinks and then went to our room and had those with some more Zone bars.
We read for a while, cleaned sand off of us and out of our coats and purses, and just enjoyed the relaxing, comfortable environment.
We slept great and woke up to the birds singing. The only sound we could hear!
 
Yikes that burger does not look appetizing! Sorry the hot dogs weren't any more.

Your trip to the beach looks lovely!

The B&B you stayed at looks so nice, what a great view!
 
On Thursday, April 21st we got ready as soon as we woke up. It was such a cozy room and I had to grab a picture of my mom reading by the window...

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Such a pretty view...

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As soon as we were both ready we went down to the dining room for breakfast.

Breakfast was baguettes, Pain au chocolat, croissants, juice, and homemade jams.

It was delicious.

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There was a couple from England staying there as well and they were in the dining room with us.
Amaury hung out with us as well and the five of us chatted for a long time.
They were all very friendly and I quite enjoyed it.. even being an introvert.
Amaury told us to wait to go to Monet's garden until around 11 because it was when all the tour buses would go to lunch.
That surprised me as we try to usually get everywhere right at opening. But we knew he would know what he was talking about so we took our time.

Amaury and my mom...

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We eventually went up to our room and finished getting our things ready.
Then we came down to check out.
I grabbed some more pictures of the dining room now that it was cleaned up and empty.

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We said goodbye to our host and jumped in the car.
As we were driving down the road I had to stop to take a picture of this house through their gates.
Isn't it amazing?
It reminded me of the book Madeline.

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Giverny was about 15-20 minutes away so I put my mom in charge of taking the occasional phone picture out the car window again.

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It was so pretty.
I stopped to grab a picture of this house because we saw this color of blue shutters all over the place.
Now when I see that on a house I think of the french countryside.

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Pretty soon we were in Giverny.
I parked in the first parking lot I found which happened to be free.
We began walking to Claude Monet's home.

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First we went into the museum that wasn't part of his home and so we didn't stay long but we did see some beautiful flowers.

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We then went back down the road to the real Monet museum and house.

When we first walked in we saw the couple from England that was staying at Les Hautes Sources and said hello.

Then we began to roam the gardens near the house.

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Claude Monet's house was very long.

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It was very cool to be at the home of someone that I named my child after!

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What a view from your bedroom!

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