It took us about 3 hours to get to coast from Saint Malo, after getting lost and after having a petrol drought crisis mid way. We started off the Normandy trail at Pointe Du Hoc and I think it was a great start off point. At Pointe Du Hoc, we saw the many, many bomb craters that were left behind during the war. I was taken aback for a moment because I was not expecting to see that many of them. Both of us were solemn and overwhelmed for a while and had shed a couple of tears just seeing everything in real, imagining what it could have been like for them then. We love watching war movies and seeing them in front of us was a little overwhelming. We then moved on to the Pointe Du Hoc museum briefly to find it closed before driving on to the Omaha Beach, a war grave and the Musée Du Débarquement. The Musée Du Débarquement had very interesting exhibits and a short film that illustrated the first landing at Normandy. It was even more meaningful to see artifacts at this actual first landing site. 6 June 1944.
Normandy had a special meaning to me because my parents had been telling me about Normandy and Umipom from the movie The Longest Day (their first movie together) since I was young. We've watched the movie at least once together and had come across numerous "Normandy" ever since in war movies. Thus, it had been more than enjoyable to be able to go to the Normandy beaches with Alv. It was like a childhood tale brought to life and being put in front of me.
Mid afternoon, we drove a struggling 3 hours back to Paris to return the car. Long distance driving had been tiring for my only driver. =( It was worse when we entered Paris city because the Parisian drivers, cyclists and pedestrians were maniacs. At the roundabout at Arc De Triomphe, cars were criss-crossing each other like crazy in all directions as though there were no traffic rules. Drove us both into cold sweats just trying to watch out for sudden bikers zooming diagonally from behind. =Z We ended the long day with awesome local French food of French onion soup, duck breast and steak at Au Virage Lepic restaurant and right now, a good night's sleep to welcome Christmas Eve in Paris tomorrow. It's 2am on Christmas Eve.
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