June 3rd

Woke up to another beautiful day. Love laying in bed and looking out at the valley view and smelling the croissants baking! This is a wonderful place to kick back and relax. We were treated to fresh eggs again this morning! On Liz's suggestion we headed to a nearby town, Villedieu, whose claim to fame is copper production that dates back to the Middle Ages. It was a lovely little town with cobblestones streets and a number of alleys and courtyards to explore. I picked up a couple of small copper pots to bring back home.

Villedieu

After making sure we stopped at a small supermarket to stock up on a bit of food we headed to Le Mont Saint-Michel. UNESCO classed this site as a world heritage in 1979 and it has three million visitors a year. This the 2nd most visited place in France, next to the Eiffel Tower. http://www.ot-montsaintmichel.com/en/accueil.htm. It was certainly a busy place and required lots of climbing but well worth it for the views and history of the place.

Headed back towards La Maugerie and decided to turn off the GPS and just explore some of the back roads and gorgeous French countryside. Had a nice glass of wine at a roadside brasserie and stopped a couple of times to take pictures.

Liz out did herself again with another excellent dinner. Liz and Mark are great hosts and we really enjoyed their company. It we win the lotto will be taking this place off their hands. :) There were other guests staying the night; four young people from the Netherlands so we had an enjoyable evening chatting with them.

Just a pretty village church

Normandy and Landing Beaches

 Yesterday started with an excellent breakfast with eggs laid that morning by the chicken's Liz has in the  garden. :)  We're loving being in the country after 4 weeks of city living.  Opened the curtains when we woke up and looked out over the beautiful countryside with cows mooing in the next field and sheep baaing.   This home is so beautiful and the views even more so.



Fresh Eggs for Breakfast!



We started off about 9:30 for our D-Day tour.  First stop was a Canadian cemetery in Cintheaux.   2,978 Canadian soliders buried here.    Very moving to see so many young men buried in one place and with the dates of their passing all within weeks of each other.  The care and upkeep of the cemetery is amazing.  After drying a few tears we headed to the landing beaches starting with Sword Beach where the British landed.  We stopped a number of times to take in the views and the memorials.  In each village/town along the route there were numerous memorials each flying the Canadian, British, American and French flags.  Next major stop was Juno Beach, the main landing point of the Canadian troops.  We spend a couple of hours were and took our time at the Juno Center.  Very interesting and really helped us understand what this men faced when they landed in France the morning of June 6th, 1944.  From Juno we visited a 2nd Canadian cemetery, Benny-Sur-Mer-Reviers.  Here lie 2,049 Canadians.  The cemetary is laid out much the same as the one In Cintheaux with the same care and standard of upkeep.  Amazing how many people have laid wreaths, flowers, personal notes, pictures and flags at various headstones. 

We also visited Omha Beach where the US landed and walked around Grandcamp-Maisy where the US Rangers scaled the cliffs.  You can see all the mine craters, old bunkers etc.  While we were there they were setting up stages and tents for the June 6th remberance services.



Cemetarey



Sword Beach

One of the landing beaches

Grandcamp-Maisy

Juno Beach

After a full and rather emotional day we came back to our B&B, La Maugerie, where Liz had outdone herself with another excellent 3 course mean which included Beef Bourguignon with Lemon Posset for dessert!  (I'm bringing home Liz's cookbook so I'll get to share some of these recipes!)

We needed to take a bit of a walk after dinner to digest after eating far too much!  Country lanes are so great and again the views just blow us away!

Evening Walk