We arrived at the airport in Nantes, France at around 8am. From there we jumped on a train to Rennes, which was in the direction of Mont Saint Michel and was supposed to have buses going to this castle. We gave ourselves this day and the beginning of the next to see Mont Saint Michel and the beaches of Normandy. Unfortunately, much like Ireland, the train schedules were going to prevent this. When we arrived in Rennes we discovered the bus to Mont Saint Michel would arrive at the castle around 2:00pm and the last bus out of there was 4:00pm. This gave us 2 hours to walk to and explore one of the biggest castles in the world. Google “Mont Saint Michel” and check it out. It’s pretty big and we wanted to give it more than two hours. We decided we would try for it again tomorrow. So, from Rennes we took a train to our hotel in Bayeux.

Before leaving Rennes we attempted to book our sleeper train from Paris to Barcelona. The guy at the counter informed us this train is “very popular, like a hotel, and needs to be booked two weeks in advance.” Instead we would have to spend what was supposed to be our 2^nd day in Paris on trains during the day to make it to Barcelona. Paris in a day it is! In hopes of avoiding this problem again I asked if we could book sleeper trains within Spain while being here in France. To our surprise his answer was yes. We thought you had to be in the same country that the train was leaving from to book it, but not with a eurail pass it turns out. One of the many things they failed to inform us when we bought our eurail tickets. So we booked the 3 sleeper trains we were going to need in Spain to prevent this catastrophe from reoccurring.

Bayeux

We got into Bayeux around midday. It is a beautiful small town set back 20 minutes from the beaches of Normandy. The town was strewn with British, American, and Canadian flags. We were told the stereotype that the French don’t like Americans definitely doesn’t hold true in Normandy. The town of Bayeaux also has an incredibly large church in proportion to the size of the town. So we used our day in Bayeaux to explore the church and then to plan our itinerary for tomorrow. The church didn’t take more than 30 minutes being that it was just down the road from our hotel. Oh, our hotel! That’s an interesting animal…

Our hotel was booked for 40 euro, which is right around what we pay for a hostel. We were excited about this deal and to see “how the other half lived” being that we have been on the lowest rung on the socio-economic ladder during this trip. Our jaws reflexively drop whenever we walk by a hotel or any form of restaurant (for example, even a “Red Robin” type place – and yes that’s a shot at Fuoco because I know Natalie is reading along J ) at this point in our trip. But we should have realized from the price point of this hotel to not expect much. Our hotel was one of those “we run a bar for a living, but we have some empty floors above it so we’ll just shove a bed in the rooms and rent them out.” After being checked in at the bar, from the bartender, we ascended a steep, winding staircase to the 4^th floor. We then walked down a narrow hallway to our bedroom. As the door crept open it revealed a single queen size bed taking up one entire side of our room and on the other side there was a sink and a bade so we could wash our ass just before bed. The whole layout just made sense, you know? Later that night, minutes before we laid down to go to bed, Brandon said, “What the hell was that?!” and got up to inspect under his leg. The culprit that caused Brandon to jump was a bed-bug attempting to burrow into his skin. Can this get better?! Since the receptionist/bartender had went to bed we had no choice but to raid the linen closet down the hall and proceeded to cover our bed in 5 extra layers of sheets. Our last line of defense was our sleep-sacks (thanks grandma!). Luckily, we made it through the night.

Brandon cleaning his ass

After having to keep all our shit in a tight place because we shared a dorm room with other people, we immediately made use of the opportunity to have our stuff scattered about as much as we wanted.

Anyway, back to our wandering the streets of Bayeaux. We went to the tourist office to find out our options to tour Normandy and Mont Saint Michel tomorrow. Turns out tours are expensive! In Ireland both of our all-day tours ran about 25 euro each. To see the beaches of Normandy it was 50 euro (about $65-70) for a half-day and 90 euro for a whole day! We also discovered it was going to be just as big of a pain in the ass to get to Mont Saint Michel tomorrow. We had one option where we could manage to accomplish our goal; a tour that did the beaches of Normandy and went to Mont Saint Michel. This would cost us 98 euro. Our other option was a 40 euro half-day tour in Normandy (the student discount made it cheaper). When one of use wanted to do Mont Saint Michel, the other argued for going. When the one wanting to go decided it was probably best not to, the other would come to the rescue of Mont Saint Michel. I don’t think either of us wanted to officially write it off. We finally were able to let go of our beautiful island castle and decided it was not worth the extra 58 euro ($80) to see a castle. It would also cause us to arrive in Paris around 1am so we won't be well-rested for our one day in Paris. We did laundry the rest of the night and pretty much booked hostels for the rest of the trip, now that we had our train schedules finalized.

We awoke the next day at 730am with clean assholes and excited to take our tour of the beaches and the cemetery. The tour left at 8:30am and went until about 12:00pm. Our first stop on the tour was Pointe du hoc. This is where the Germans had nestled large gun implacements that could fire 12 miles (past the horizon) and could shell both Utah and Omaha Beach. The cliff-face here was about 70 degrees vertical and I couldn’t imagine anyone successfully climbing it without being killed by the Germans waiting above. According to our guide, two Americans (this was an Army Ranger mission) were able to get to the top of the hill and destroyed the guns at this location. There were also machine gun bunkers and ammunition storage bunkers in this area. We were able to walk into a bunker that was the sleeping quarters of the German soldiers.

Point du hoc

Indentations from U.S. naval shelling

Our next stop was Omaha Beach, which interestingly did not have a name because it was an obscure beach with few houses in this location. It's ironic that it is now one of the most famous beaches in history. So the Americans named it Omaha Beach and the name has stuck ever since. Our guide told us a little about the site and then allowed us to wander around. We walked along the beach and read some of the plaques. As I was walking back from the beach and facing the hills I realized I had the exact same vantage point of the American soldiers storming the beach. The hills rose at about a 30 degree angle from the beach to a height of 400 ft (this may be a little off. Look it up so you can correct me and call me dumb). Just imagining being fired on from the top of these cliffs and looking up at the enemy was a frightening image. All I kept thinking was how thankful I felt to be born in this generation.

Old Fench towns we drove through by the coast

Omaha Beach

From here we went to the American Cemetery. It was incredibly well-maintained and moving. It is officially U.S. soil because the French sold the U.S. this land for 1 Franc long ago. Our guide said the locals consider it a high honor to receive a job at this cemetery and I don’t blame them. I have never been to any place so pristine. The cemetery was located on the top of the hill overlooking Omaha Beach, so now we were able to see the vantage point the Germans had. It must have been like shooting fish in a barrel. Our tour guide also said the average age of the soldiers buried here was 22 and since many lied about their age to fight this average is probably high.

Our final stop was Juno Beach. This was a British beach. Juno was a fairly easy beach to obtain and there were less than 500 casualties. Omaha Beach was by far the hardest to take and most well protected. The unique thing about Juno is that a huge artificial port was built here and half of it still floats out from the shore. Other parts of it have washed ashore and since the tide was low (the tide goes 1km out during low tide) we were able to walk out and get right next to these pieces of bridge. They attempted to build a harbor at Omaha Beach, as well, but a bad storm the day of the invasion ruined most of it and they decided to focus their efforts on the harbor at the calmer Juno Beach. From Juno Beach we returned to Bayeaux.

Part of bridge inland that washed up. You can see the artificial harbor floating in the background

Gun implacement on Omaha Beach

We aimed to take the next train to Paris at 2:30pm. We figured we’d get some quick grocery shopping done in Bayeux before we caught the train. At the grocery store we filled our sacks with the usual staple items in our backpacking diet. Kellogs meal bars, 2 pieces of fruit, a little candy, some peanut product, and sometimes the bare essentials for a plain sandwich for me. Brandon would get pretty much the same but less peanuts, never meal bars, and ALWAYS sandwich essentials. He loooves sandwiches. And he will sometimes get some form of wafer-type food to snack on. He then hopped on the 2:30pm train for Paris, which got in at 5:00pm.

In Paris we hoped to find our hostel and squeeze in some Parisian sights before we awoke early for our valiant attempt of ‘Paris in a Day.” We might have done so, too, if it wasn’t for the fact it took us 1.5 hours to find our hostel, of which almost an hour was spent walking up and down the same street and passing our hostel multiple times before we found it. You would think addresses would be in sequential order, right? Paris hostels book up really fast and we made the mistake of doing it 4 days in advance. Therefore, we had a pretty nice hostel but it was way outside the city and in a shady neighborhood. After settling in and highlighting what we hoped to accomplish while in Paris we realized our one day in Paris also happened to be a day when the Louvre was closed. We decided to do some walking tonight and then a lot more tomorrow. Us missing the Louvre wasn’t the end of the world for us. It is a must-do thing in Paris and we were going to do it because ‘everyone does,’ but I’m sure it wouldn’t have done much for us personally.

Our game-plan for tonight was to attack Le Defence (the name given to the modern-building district of Paris, and since this was a French 'Defence' I guessed this mission would be successful), then walk down from there to the Arc de Triumphe and further still until we hit the Louvre and Notre Dame.

La Defence was very impressive. It contained many large, uniquely designed new-age buildings. From there we started walking down what is the biggest street in Paris. It took us a long time to reach the arch. When we got there it was rowdy! Portugal had one a soccer match 7-0 and the local Portuguese contingent were going wild in the 7-lane wide round-a-bout that encircled the arch. We watched the show and saw people hanging out windows and out of the back of cars. In the States this could ever happen. French police were out in force just in case, but people were allowed to loiter and drink on the streets. Welcome to Europe; the new ‘Land of the Free.’ Of course we had to cross this 7-lane round-a-bout to get some SICK pictures under the arch. We sprinted across without a blemish and took some pictures before realizing there is an underground walkway to get under the arch. however, it turned out to be a less fun route to the arch.

La Defence

We lost a lot of time by getting distracted by the Portuguese. We decided to head home at this point. We were going to see the Louvre and Notre Dame tomorrow morning, and getting some night pictures of both was not worth cutting into our much-needed sleep for the night. We returned home at 1am.

We woke up the following day at 6:50, which we chose so we could catch our free morning breakfast as soon as it opened. Then it was off to Notre Dame where Rick Steve’s (our guidebook) was going to take us on a 3.5 hour walking tour of historic Paris. It started with touring Notre Dame. And then a jewish memorial, the Latin Quarter, the Concierge (old torture chamber/prison), Saint Chapelle, a quiet island in the middle of Paris, and the New Bridge (which is now the oldest bridge in Paris).

Front of Notre Dame

Inside Notre Dame. Pictures can't do half the things we've been to justice. This one either.

Opening room the the Concierge

Courtyard of the Concierge Prison. In the back, left corner is a gated section where the next 12 prisoners to be executed by the gallows would wait to be taken away.

At the end of this tour Brandon and I parted ways. I did the gothic church, but Brandon skipped it in favor of the military Museum (who wants to look at a bunch of white flags waved by the saddest army in the world? Not me.). The military museum also housed Napoleon’s tomb, which was hard to say no to, but I’m happy with the option I chose. I instead saw the gothic church and then went to the Rodin Museum to see ‘The thinker’ sculpture along with other sculptures that were set up in a park-like setting. It was all outside, too. It was a pretty unique museum. The Rodin and Military Museum neighbored each other so we met up after. From there we took a 35min tram ride to Versailles Palace.

                We got to Versailles at 4pm. The palace itself closed at 6pm, but the enormous gardens behind it were open until sunset. Versailles Palace is arguably the best example of overindulgence in the world. This place has well over 1000 rooms and the décor of these rooms is unmatched. The Hall of Mirrors, which might ring a bell (I had heard of it before, but wasn’t sure what it was or where it was), blew your mind as you crossed the doorway into it. Not to be outdone by the interior, however, the gardens behind the palace were endless. There was a pond centrally located in the garden and to walk to the far end of it would take you an hour. People were renting golf carts to get around. We saw crew teams dropping their boots into the large pond to practice their technique. It’s huge! And it abounds with sculptures, flowers, hedges, and fountains that put on an incredible show, so I am told, on the weekends. We left Versailles at 8:20pm and headed back to downtown Paris to visit the Eiffel Tower.

Hall of Mirrors

Back of Versailles

Endless backyard

                We got off at the metro stop almost right under the Eiffel Tower. To me, it wasn’t that impressive up close, aesthetically. Engineering wise, I couldn’t believe this was built all the way back in 1898 for the World’s Fair. It was the tallest building in the world back then, and it still towers over the city over a hundred years later. The tower has three levels at 200m, 400m, and 900m. You can take an elevator to each and the stairs to the first two levels. The stairs were cheaper, and to be honest if it were the same price we probably would have done it anyway. It was kind of cool to walk up through one of the legs of this structure and see its frame 3 ft from you as you wound up the stairs. We passed a bunch of the rampant Euro Smokers (that make up well over 50% of the population – Mom, you’ll fit right in (I’m assuming you haven’t quit again yet so here’s some motivation; public humiliation)) on our way up the stairs. Rick Steves, our 3^rd travel companion, said this level had the best views of the city and I think he was right. Even at this height we were well above all of the city save for the modern buildings at La Defence. We ran into a friend we met in Rome, Italy while we were climbing the stairs. We made small talk, swapped stories, and then began to deliberate if we wanted to go to the top. It was only 4 euros to go to the top, but we had blown through a lot of cash since being in France. About 250 euro in our 3 days there. Plus, we knew the views were nicer on this story and it was getting dark. However, Brandon kept saying, “Paris, the city of Lights.” Aka, it will be sweet to have a view of the city at night. Well, this nickname, if it even is it’s nickname, turned out to be shit. The thing most lit up in the entire city was under our feet and 2^nd was the Arc de Triumphe. Notre Dame was a little and so was the Louvre. It’s no Vegas, with obnoxious lights everywhere. We left the Eiffel Tower at midnight and headed home from there.

We headed home through the creepy neighborhood our hostel was in, as locals shot roman candles at passing bikers and gangs of kids watched us as we walked by. We made it to our 10ft tall iron gate and were on safe ground by 1am. We went to sleep, only to wake up at 5:50am in order to make our 7:15am train and begin our day of travelling.

On The Way to Barcelona

The reason this travelling was a full day was because we had a layover in Narbonne for 4.5 hours. It was near the beach so we looked at the bus schedule, but it turned out the return bus would bring us back 6 minutes before our train left. Not worth the risk. Barcelona has a better beach and, even though we didn’t realize it at the time, we would be on that beach in Barcelona until 6am tonight. So, next best option was a park. We thought we saw one on the map, but when we got there we realized it was a cemetery! A really nice cemetery at that. It consisted entirely of family tombs that multiple people were buried in. Although small, people seemed to have money here and it would be a great place for a tourist to spend a couple days relaxing. Brandon felt a little weird about entering, but I was hungary and needed shade. It was hot! Near the entrance there were a few trees and benches so I sat down to eat and Brandon went to find a bathroom.

                Brandon was gone awhile. After I finished eating I noticed it was pretty "dead" in there and wasn’t much foot traffic. I decided to do a few pushups by one of the tombs since my muscles have slowly been withering away. Easily the weirdest place I ever worked out. Brandon returned and said he found another park down by the train station. And that there was a medieval castle down the street. This kid loves to wander! I thought he was just looking for a bathroom. I’m surprised we have lost each other only a couple times. So I checked out the sweet castle and then we got on our train. France in 3 days. I was satisfied with that and dying to reach Barcelona.

Narbonne is nice