The weeks seem to be flying by, blending into a sea of happy memories and new experiences. The school term finished almost 2 weeks ago now and I spent my first couple of days of holiday with my friend Romain. I was keen to see some of my school mates playing football and a couple of them had their cup final so I was invited to come and join to large group of supporters who follow each of their games. The day before the match I stayed with Romain in Champignon and got to explore that small town a wee bit. It is a cool little town towards the edge of Jura. In Champignon there is a fairly large farming community and Romain and his family were no exception so I got to see his farm as well as his awesome forest cabin he built from scratch. We also visited a tractor open day which was surprisingly interesting which showed off rare older tractors and équipement including a Lamborghini tractor as well as newer larger models. We then went to watch the football match on Saturday. The atmosphere was really amazing for an under 18s game, there were heaps of supporters who had plenty of flares, drums, horns and the like. Unfortunately the Champignon team went down 4-2 but I had a great time none the less. After the game I headed back to Voiteur in time for Germain's theatre performance which was completely improvised and great quality!
On Monday Germain, Julia, Valerie and I were up at the crack of dawn and got on the road to Normandy it was an 8-9 hour drive right up to the top of France so we got on the road early in order to avoid Paris traffic. There are two certainties in all villages in France, every one will have a church and all will have a cheese or a wine that is specific to that town, village or region. On the way to Normandy we stopped in a town called Pont L'évêque which had a cheese of the same name. We got crepes there for lunch which of course contained Pont L'évêque and they were absolutely divine! The cheese in France is far better than the good Ol' cheddar we have back home! When we finally arrived in Caen, our first destination, we stopped off at Stephane's mother's house. She was happy to see us all and after a brief introduction she got stuck into giving us a brief history of the city of Caen. Turns out Caen actually has major historical significance as the home of William the Conquerer, king of England. It was pretty much completely destroyed during WW2 and was then rebuilt into the town it is today although many of the old churches still stand from back in the era of William the Conquerer. That evening we went on a long walk and explored the botanical gardens of Caen which were in full bloom as it's currently spring which looked and smelled amazing. The next day we went for a relaxed lunch at a little french cafe where I had a Camembert cake thing followed by a tart au chocolat, my day was already made. It didn't stop there though, we then went to check out the Hôtel de Ville de Caen which is connected to L'abbaye aux Hommes, the church and final resting place of William or Guillaume in French the Conquerer. The Hôtel de Ville de Caen is still in use today as a government administrative building. The Hôtel and L'abbaye are both enormous and the architecture of both is outstanding. After taking plenty of time explore those two buildings we headed back to Valerie's sister Dominique and her partner Hervé's house where we were staying for the week.
The next day we were out again exploring Caen. This time we went to the ruins of the castle of William the Conquerer. Standing on the medieval walls looking out over the city I was able to take in the amazing differences in the buildings. Most of Caen was completely destroyed during the war but dotted among the more modern buildings numerous churches and Abbeys still stand. We spent the remainder of the afternoon wandering around the city enjoying the sights.
Perhaps the main attraction of Normandy is the site of the D-day landings and the museum that has been constructed in memory of the great struggle that happened on the Norman beaches. Thursday was the day we were to visit the museum after meeting up with the Aunty of Stephane and her grandchildren for a classic French lunch of baguette and ham. The museum was really good, they had a seperate section for each county that took part in the attack as well as plenty of gear that was actually used in the attack on show. On top of this they also had multiple large models to give a good idea of how the assault played out plus a film (Which was in french)! I was very impressed by the whole experience and have immense respect for all the soldiers who took part as the d day landings were rightly called 'hell on earth'.
