Normandy; its beauty is breath
taking and was to me the most memorable time in all the areas in France that we
visited during our time overseas.
Everything from the beaches to the farmlands of Normandy are absolutely
beautiful. Normandy would be the only
place other than Versailles that I would ever return to in France. Overall, I just didn’t care for Paris and the
language barrier had nothing to do with my opinion of the city of love. Don’t get me wrong, Paris still had beautiful
sights such as the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre, but the city just seemed to be
very dirty and did not present a welcoming feel like the one London gave me. Normandy was however, as I said before,
absolutley breathtaking. The German
bunkers also added an eerie bit of appeal to the already beautiful beaches of
Normandy. My day at the beaches of
Normandy began with our free time for lunch in which I found out what an
American baguette was. As it turns out
the baguette was the typical American fast food meal of a hamburger and fries
all on one baguette sandwich.
The true highlight of my day, as I was
about to find out was a mix between the beautiful Omaha Beach and the stunning
cliffs of Normandy. All of the beaches
from the D-day invasion during operation Overlord are now family friendly
public beaches with plenty of beachgoers each day. Our tour guide for the day took us to Omaha Beach
where there now stands a magnificent metal monument that will never allow the
lost souls to be forgotten. Next on our
Normandy tour was the cliffs of Normandy where I got to actually go into two
German bunkers which was as cool as it was creepy. When my friend was in another room and I was all
alone in the room, I felt a feeling that I can’t quite explain. I felt unwelcomed along with also feeling
like I was being watched. I didn’t feel
like I was being watched by just one person either, oh no it felt like I was
being watched by twenty people, similar to when I have given speeches in
school. I will never forget that feeling
or the beautiful view of the English Channel which I was lucky to be able to
enjoy for a few moments.
The first night in France was awful
because the room I was in did not have air conditioning. I didn’t realize that I had taken it for granted until then since, back in America it seems to be in every building. Our last stop in Normandy was a fromager
cheese factory. Even on the outside of
that factory you could smell the powerful stench of the cheese, and yes—I said
stench! The smell reminded me of that of
a land fill and was not appetizing to me whatsoever; in fact all that stench
did was make me lose my appetite. When
the time came where we actually got to sample the cheese, I figured from what I
have experienced in my lifetime so far that if it smelled bad, it must taste
good. That, however did not apply to any
of the four cheeses we tried. Believe
me, I love cheese, but the French like some nasty cheese!
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