Normandie: Memorial de Caen

What a long weekend! We left Paris at 7:30 a.m. on Saturday, and I didn't make it back to my apartment until 8:15 p.m. That was even after we left our last destination early, too! Seeing the memorial museum for World War II and the Normandy D-Day invasions ended up being good timing though, since it's Memorial Day Weekend back in the U.S. On Saturday, our bus took us to the Memorial de Caen, the American Cemetary at Omaha Beach (one of the beaches invaded on D-Day), and Point du Hoc (where American soldiers scaled a deathly steep cliff in order to attack the Germans).

After all the visits, the directors of the program surprised us with a visit to a local Cider brewery! We got a tour of the factory- everything from where they collect the apples, to where the cider is distilled, fermented, and bottled. The company gave us samples of their regular apple juice, Demi-Sec (about three percent alcohol), and Cidre Brut (stronger than five percent alcohol). Their ciders usually start around 70 percent alcohol, but are brought down to about 30 to 40 percent at their strongest.

These are the pictures from the Memorial de Caen. Before the trip, I would have said that I knew a considerable amount about World War II, but I definitely learned so many new things about World War II and the D-Day Invasions that I had never even heard of. It was one of the most enjoyable parts of the weekend, if not the most enjoyable.

A lot of my other pictures were ones of plaques and descriptions of certain events. After I add pictures from the other sites we visited this weekend, I'll add some more general information that may not be as well-known! Happy Memorial Day Weekend :)