Normandy and Our New Friends the Ramsbottoms

We left Versailles today for Normandy.  It rained the whole way up there, and the fog rolled across the fields like cotton batting.  It is cold and wet in the middle of June, and it brings to mind the weather of the D-Day landings and makes it easier for me to understand how it could have been so awful for the soldiers.

We had heard that the Peace Museum in Caen was a great place to start our visit to Normandy because it gives a good overview of the causes and effects of World War 2, starting with WW1 and the Treaty of Versailles.  Since we had just been to Versailles, I thought it would be cool to see photos of the major WW1 players signing the treaty in the Hall of Mirrors.  We decided to stop and dodged the rain (poorly, I will say) and went into the museum.

It was expensive.  48 euros for our family and additional fees for audio guides.  We got one guide to share.  The WW2 video was about to start, so we went to that first.  It was in English and mostly showed Newsreel footage of the bombing of England.  There was some stuff about D-Day, but not as much as I thought.  Still, it was an okay introduction to WW2, especially for the girls.

Then we began the tour of the museum.  There were A LOT of pictures.  And copies of newspaper articles.  And more pictures.  And lots and lots of description of the pictures and newspapers.  We had been in the museum for well over an hour and a half, and we had not seen anything regarding WW2 or D-Day, but we kept looking.  We saw A LOT of information about the French Resistance.  A lot.  Now, don't get me wrong.  The French Resistance was vital to the war effort, but what we saw made it look like the French won the war with just a little help from the Allies.  Really?

We kept looking for the D-Day information:  the information about the 10,000 Allied casualties on D-Day alone;  the 209.000 Allied casualties in the Battle for Normandy.  There was nothing.  We saw some examples of "Ruperts," the sawdust dummies that were parachuted out of the planes to make it look like there were more men than there were.  We saw a map of the coast and where all the units came ashore.  We saw a mock-up of a bombed out French house.  Then we were in the aftermath and moving onto the reconstruction of Europe.

Wait, we thought, did we miss it?  Where is the info about Omaha Beach?  Juno Beach?  Carentan?  The Battle of St. Mere Eglise?  Surely there must be a whole other wing devoted to D-Day and the Battle for Normandy.

So we went back and looked closer.  Maybe we should have just gone on because what we saw, really, really chapped my ass.  There really was nothing else about D-Day.  And then what we saw was like, "Well, the Germans were bad, but the destruction of Normandy was caused by the Allies..."  Well, okay, French people, maybe you would have preferred to be speaking German right about now.  Maybe if you all would have defended yourselves, we wouldn't have had to invade your country!

I know history is all perspective, and we are in France, so we will get their point of view, and who doesn't like to gloss over the parts that make you look bad, but REALLY???

Then we went to see the movie about the Cold War and the aftermath of WW2.  It is called "Hope."  I was hoping to use it to reinforce how Wilfried and Manfred lived for the first part of their lives, to show the kids how people are more alike than different.

Yeah.  No.

The movie left my mouth hanging open.  It started out after WW2 went to the Cold War, the Berlin Wall, the Korean War, Cambodia, African famine, the fall of the Berlin Wall, Peristrokia, the Gulf War, the poverty around the world, 9-11, the war in Afghanistan, the war in Iraq...Then it ended with an eagle soaring in a blue sky.  There were no words, only heavy depressing music, and all of these terrible images of man's inhumanity to man and then the eagle.

I was like, "Okaaaay."

We left soon after that and continued on to Carentan to our our inn.

Driving through Carentan was like something out of a movie set.  You could see pock marked holes in the walls and how the houses had been rebuilt.  The hedge rows tumbled alongside the roads.  Since it was June, there were a lot of D-Day signs and American, British, and Canadian flags flying.  There were signs pointing every direction:  Omaha Beach, Arromanches, St. Mere Eglise, St. Mere du Mont...The land was alive with its past.

We pulled up to Le Clos Castel, our French farmhouse run by the Ramsbottoms, a British family.  Hazel met us at the door with a smile and a, "Would you like milk with your tea?" It was such a fresh change of pace from our previous accommodations, that I almost dropped my bags and hugged her on the spot!

The house is awesome.  Really.  It is a massive stone structure with an attached barn.  We have a whole wing to ourselves.  The girls have their own bedroom and bathroom, and Kyle has a twin bed in our room and we have our own bath as well.  The showers are multifaceted.  They can rain on you, jet from the top or the sides, pulse, and there is a waterproof radio in the shower!

Le Clos Castel

Looking out from the front door

The drive to the house

The common room

The common room

Our room

The girls' room

The dining room

We dropped off our stuff, drank our hot tea with milk and sugar, and then headed into town where we had dinner at an Italian restaurant overlooking the harbor in Carentan.  It was delicious and the people could not have been nicer.  We kept waiting and waiting for our check, though, and after about 45 minutes, we finally asked for it.  Found out that you have to ask for it.  Duh!  This IS France!

After dinner, we went back to the house to see Alex Ramsbottom's WW2 memorabilia collection.  He seems like a really nice kid.  He's 18 and is a WW2 reenactor portraying an American 101st Airborne soldier.  He had been out back with his dad and brother using a metal detector to search for artifacts. (How cool would that be?!)  He came in, though, and showed us his collection and the collection of items they've found around their house in the 4 years they've lived here.  It was really, really cool.

Listening to Alex explain what he has

Alex's equipment

Kyle in an authentic WW2 officer's coat

And what I thought, again, was how alike we all are if we just get to know one another.  Here we are, an American family and a British family together in France.  Here are our boys, 16 and 18, who 230 years ago would have been fighting each other in the American Revolution.  Today, they are marveling at the weapons of a war almost 200 years later and sharing experiences as reenactors.  Just like in Germany with Wilfried and Manfred, it brought tears to my eyes just to think about it.

Kyle, Kirk, Emily, and Alex look at a .50 cal. shell

After visiting with Alex, we decided to settle in for some Band of Brothers viewing.  Hazel and Steve have all the WW2 videos and books you could want.  We figured we'd watch the invasion episodes and the Carentan episode at least, so we put the video in just as Steve came in to greet us.

I tell you what.  There are people and then there are people.  Hazel and Steve are people.  I feel like I have known them for years.  We just forgot about the movie and had the best time talking about the area, their house, their reason for moving to France, their lives back in England...You know Kirk is not afraid to ask anything or go anywhere if he has a thought about something, and pretty soon, we were talking about politics, religion, race, the economy, the French, entrepreneurship, and before we knew it, it was 11 p.m.  We got out the bourbon we had brought them from the US (we brought mini bottles of Maker's Mark and Blanton's to give away).  They got out this apple brandy stuff called Calvados and we swapped alcohol.

The Calvados is REALLY, REALLY  strong, and I was sipping it barely and Steve said, "You go--a toike a good swig uv it, Luv!" (That's my attempt at writing his accent phonetically.)

So I drank it all in one swallow, and I thought my insides were melting.  That stuff would have powered our car!  They all laughed at me and told us that their neighbor makes this in his barn, and he actually can run some engines with it!

We found out that this house was built over 100 years ago and was used as a field hospital by the allies during the march through Normandy.  It was bombed by the Germans (take that Caen Museum!) and rebuilt after the war.

I wonder if there are any ghosts.  I kind of would like to experience the paranormal but not really.  Gives me shivers to think about!

Tomorrow we head to the beaches of Normandy and the American Cemetery.  Steve has plotted a chart for us.  I can't wait!