What I Learned in Normandy

Normandy is well known for three things – D Day, Calvados and the Bayeux Tapestry.  Well, two out of three ain’t bad.

It’s not that I hate tapestries; it’s just that I think they are the most boring art form known to mankind.  Maybe they weren’t quite so boring when they were first woven, but throw in 500 years of fading and you’ve got the most blah rug imaginable. An exposition of tapestries is the greatest cure for insomnia ever invented.

So imagine my lack of enthusiasm at the prospect of visiting a 1,000-year-old tapestry nearly a football field long, commemorating William the Conquerer’s smackdown of King Harold of England in 1066. 
But then I found out it wasn’t a tapestry, but an embroidery, with the colors still lively.  And the story it told!  Treachery, wild animals, fierce battles, bloodshed, revenge, space travel (ok, I made that last one up).  The audio guide they give you explains it all as you walk along, bringing the story vividly to life.  It was well worth the visit.

We also saw lots of the D Day sights – museums, memorials, the invasion beaches themselves (spoiler alert, the Allies win).  The America cemetery was especially moving, with so many crosses and stars of David in row after row.  

A couple of days after we saw Utah Beach we went to Deauville, one of France’s most upscale beach towns.  Lots of glitzy buildings along a wide, beautiful sandy beach.  I was struck by how similar the beach was to Utah Beach, and yet how different.

Along with Deauville, we also visited Honfleur, an old fishing town where they used to tax houses based on the square footage of the ground floor.  So guess what, the buildings are tall and skinny, with the upper floors a bit larger than the ground floor.

While we were in Normandy I wanted to get a bottle of Calvados, a liqueur made from the famous Normandy apples, to give to my friend Christian.  So I went to a specialty store with a wide selection.  What could I do but sample the wares?  

After I settled on one brand, I had to decide what age was best.  This required tasting the 8-year-old (mmm, still a bit rough), the 12-year-old (rough edges gone but lacking complexity), the 15-year-old (nice roundness but still missing that je ne sais quoi) and finally the 30-year-old (ahhhh!)  After all this tasting I was glad there was a place to sit near the checkout counter, to prevent me from listing too far to one side as my purchase was rung up.

KVS

William the Conqueror’s church in Caen

Honfleur

Pointe du Hoc (American troops scaled these cliffs on D Day under heavy fire)

Arromonches (British troops built an incredible temporary harbor here after D Day)