Day 3: Utah Beach

May 22:

We headed out early for the coast North of where we were. The weather was beautiful and we soon came upon some familiar flags:

In the surrounding area they have these markers where men died. It's humbling.  

 The beach was so beautiful, it was hard to imagine what happened there. 

 And it was so HUGE. Impossible to imagine landing ships there and trying to run up to shore while staying safe.

A reminder that life just moves on-- some men were practicing chariot races along the perfectly flat and long beach.

 Shot taken with my back to the ocean.

A note William left in the sand. :) We tried to help him understand what was so significant about what we were visiting on this trip... He could repeat it back to us: "a lot of people died here to come and beat the bad guys" but at age 6 (or 32), it is really hard to internalize. 

Day 2: Dinner Date!

Abby graciously stayed at the hotel with William while Nathaniel and I went out to get some authentic French cuisine. For my record keeping sake-- here is our menu!

A house appetizer... that I did *not* like. I have already forgotten the flavor, but it was too strong for my pregnant tastes! 

Raspberry juice was delicious. :) 

My salad was surprisingly good (this coming from a grilled cheese sandwich type of girl!).  

Nathaniel ate his weights worth of muscles I think..

 Main course!

 My main course. That purple pear looking thing at the front was actually apple! Strange. Nathaniel asked for my steak to be cooked "well done":

 THIS is "well done" French style. Seriously. 

Dessert-- Nathaniel's was okay, but mine... 

...was incredible! Mmm. 

Day 2: Mont St. Michel

Our final stop of the (busy!) day was to the breathtaking Mont St Michel:

Our first view... 

William was impressed. ;)

Mont St Michel is a castle/community (people live there!) that is built on an island-type rock. When the tide comes in, it is surrounded by water. 

The pictures loaded totally out of order... Backstory here: Nathaniel kept posing for pictures with his muscles (surprised? haha!) and after posing under this light William stepped in for his turn. 

Prisoners would walk on this hamster wheel to bring supplies up to the top of the castle. 

The view of the supply track... yikes. Steep and far down! 

This place is just so beautiful! 

The family that flexes together, stays together... or something.  

This was William's first muscle pose. haha! 

 dancing among pillars in an incredible courtyard

 View from the top. I can only imagine how amazing it would look surrounded by water, but tides were not working with our schedule. ;)

 Abby under the Abbey sign. :)

 A replica sculpture of what is on top of the Mont. 

Day 2: Along route medieval city. :)

May 21

Are you noticing how much we did in one day? The day's not even over yet! :)

It is hard to see signs for a Medieval city and not swing by to visit... We're so glad we did.

Map of the original city.

This guy looks enthusiastic!

  

A history.

 The ruins! Amazing. 

My climber. William was a great traveler, but having cool stuff to climb on helps. :)

 I love the old foundations and walls and trying to mentally picture what it looked like, where rooms were, how they got things where they did (pre car and crane days!), etc...

 Aw, Abigail- you darling girl.

 This chunk of wall was quite a ways from where it originally was... What the heck happened to this building? 

 See? 

 William found a bone- that this was how willing he was to show it to me. haha!

Around the grounds there were gates to private homes. This stone was outside the entry to one of them. Amazing. 

  

 Oh Nathaniel, you're just as beautiful as that statue fixing her sheet. :)

 Unfortunate name... 

Uh.. interesting company to stumble across... CIA: Animal insemination. ;)

  

 Before we loaded in the car, we found a patisserie (be still my heart!) and stocked up on deliciousness. William is a sucker for strawberry or raspberry tarts and that is what he had for breakfast most days!

 Another random, beautiful building that we passed (but didn't get out to see-- too much already on the plan). 

 My favorite: a French baguette.