Caan, France

Prior to our trip, we asked around and everyone said that you can just show up and buy your Chunnel pass to travel from London to Paris. WRONG! We showed up and the place was jam packed with Europeans going on their three week holiday for Easter. We stood at the ticket counter for over an hour trying to arrange our itinerary from London to Paris and then Paris to Caan where we would finally be meeting up with our parents. After an half hour, the agent was confused by our destination and was trying to get us to CANNES, FRANCE instead of CAAN, France. WOW!!! WE caught his mistake and finally was only able to get first class on the Chunnel to Paris and then on to Caan. The first class was the only available and we PAID for it. We knew that our parents were waiting for us and that we had no choice but to press onward. Lesson learned. We traveled first class and it was very quiet, comfortable and nice. The lunch was very amusing. It was so gourmet and tiny. Apparently that is why they call us "FAT AMERICANS" No wonder. I thought it was enough food to feed an infant......or possibly fill my stomach which is as big as my closed fist, right??!! We , as Americans, definitely overeat what our bodies can process. Anyways, I digress. We met some friends along the way and showed up in Paris at the train station. What a different story than London. They all spoke French! HA! So, I quickly started retrieving from my memory banks all the french that I had taken in high school and college. You would think that after two years in high school and two years in College that I could handle a little conversation. We finally made our way onto the Caan train and headed that way. The french countryside was beautiful and we saw field after field of these beautiful yellow flowers. By this point we had been traveling all day. Our parents were expecting us by 4pm. We finally arrived at 7:30. BETTER LATE than never!! It was a joyous reunion. We walked up to the hotel and there was our beautiful mother waiting in the lobby for us!! It was wonderful. We settled in our rooms and headed out for some dinner. Crepes, of course. They serve them all day long because of the variety that you can stuff them with. My parents had some friends, The Bradfords, that were traveling with them. They were really nice and easy going. I was a little apprehensive about traveling with a bunch of senior citizens, but they definitely held their own! I know, I'm so bad! The next morning we set out to the museum to catch our tour of the Normandy beach area and memorial of the World War II. I had no idea what a remarkable day that would be. We had a private tour guide that was a local of the area and I could not get enough information out of him. It was amazing. Most of us have seen Private Ryan which really brought to life the initial storming of the beach. What an opening scene that was! AND here we were!! One of the things that I had no idea about were the barge containers that were floated from England and then sunk in the ocean to creat a false harbor. This harbor cut down on the ocean waves and they were able to build a floating ramp that adjusted with the tide in order to bring all of the tanks, equipment , and supplies over from England. I was fascinated by the engineering of that day. We also saw the many bunkers that the Germans had built . I posted some pics of them. Truly amazing how we were able to make our way onto the beaches and get past the well fortified German line. I believe that it was truly divine interventioin. After exploring the beaches, we went to the Cemetery, which was a humbling experience. It was a very sacred place and quite reverent. We finished off our day with some chocolate croissants. YUM! The next day we parted ways with our parents and headed back to Paris. They had already been there and wanted to go up to Whales to do some genealogy.