Part 1: Romans and WWII

This weekend may have been my favorite thing I've done so far in France. It was amazing! (It'll have to be in 2 parts though, there is too much to tell!)

Wednesday (so this isn't technically the weekend, but it was still cool)

We went to the archaeological ruins under the plaza in front of the Notre Dame. I hadn't ever heard of them before, but it was really cool! Only 2 euros and you get to see all of the ruins they've discovered there--from a Roman hypocaust system to the foundations of the first Hotêl Dieu and 16th century houses, all mixed together. So cool.

This is the last remnant of an ancient quai (port) from the 1st century

Part of a roman hypocaust system, they were right next to cellars from the Middle Ages

 Seeing the roman ruins made me really excited to go to Italy! I think it's so amazing that had such innovative technology way back then. Here is one of the aqueducts we passed on the bus ride, still perfectly intact!

Next was another amazing class on Renaissance architecture (and a really cool church--one of the workers let us go into the back where vistors aren't usually allowed and showed us the cloister and where Blaise Pascal is buried!) That night we saw Peter Pan in the Theatre de Paris. It was pretty funny because the songs were in English, with French dialogue. I'm pretty sure we were the only ones laughing when they sang row-row-row-your-boat and twinkle-twinkle-little-star in the serious scenes--none of the French people got it. The only drawback were the random f-words (in English) in a sentence about eating green cake. Bizarre.

The theatre! I love the gold and red velvet

Peter and Wendy

Thursday: Off to Normandy!

A couple hours of driving in a pink and purple charter bus, we arrived in Bayeux, Normandy, home of the Bayeux Tapestry. It's actually an 220 ft long embroidery from 1066 and it depicts the Battle of Hastings. It's pretty incredible how preserved it is, it's almost 1000 years old! They would hang it in the main part of the cathedral on special days as a type of "movie" for the commoners. Pretty cool.

Next stop: the D-Day beaches. We went first to the American cemetery. It was freezing and rainy, which was actually perfect because it was the same weather on D-Day. It was really moving. The pictures don't do it justice, but I'm not sure I can express it in words. Seeing all those graves....I couldn't believe it, they went on forever. And that was just the Americans. So many men died for freedom. And many of them were my age and the ages of my friends--drafted to fight for their country and never came back.







And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air
gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh say does that star spangled banner yet wave,
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Hopefully these give you some idea of what it's like to stand among thousand of graves:

Seeing all of those crosses reminded me how grateful I am to be a Christian. That I know for certain that death is not the end. That Christ can lighten any load, and give hope to the hopeless. It also made me really proud to be an American. These men died for freedom--from tyranny, and from religious persecution. After studying all about the French Wars of Religion, not to mention the innumerable other European religious wars, it seems a miracle to be able to say that America has had religious freedom from the beginning. That is something I am so grateful for.

Right after the American cemetery, we visited la Point du Hoc, one of the sites the rangers scaled to destroy German guns, in between the Utah and Omaha Beaches. Out of the 220 rangers that started out, only 90 returned alive. There are the remains of German bunkers, barbed wire, and craters from the bombs left intact. It was amazing to see the cliffs they scaled.

The craters from the bombs make it look like the moon, it's surreal

The cliffs

Original barbed wire

 Walking among the ruins of the battlefield really brought home to me the reality of war. Can you imagine sitting crouched in a bunker for days on end, knowing you could die at any moment? Or running while bombs fall around you making craters 10 feet across? The courage that must have taken--it's hard for me to imagine.

The view from one of the intact bunkers

A destroyed bunker

Well that sums up the first day at least....stay tuned for Part 2 it gets better!

P.S. The whole time I was looking at the WWII stuff I kept picturing Foyle's War. It's this BBC mystery show set in WWII and it's super historically accurate, so cool. If you haven't seen it, you should try it. It's on Masterpiece Theatre or on DVD at the Library :)