Sunday, October 25. Today was a long bus ride to Normandy, where we will board our ship. We stopped in Caen for a delcious lunch. Caen was bombed twice during World War II: first by the Nazis to take France, then by the Allies to take it back. The town has a lot of concrete block apartment buildings constructed after the war to replace some of what was destroyed.
After lunch, we went to the Caen Peace Memorial, a museum dedicated to the memory of the French experience in World War II, and to preserving peace for the future. They had really good documentary video of the war years in this area of France.
I recently read The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah about the French resistance. Seeing the video of allied troops parachuting in, I was thinking of Hannah’s story about a woman in the French resistance who helped track down Allied pilots who deployed their chutes when they were shot down. They risked their lives to hide and care for the pilots until they could guide them over the mountains to safety in Spain.
I also saw one of the radios, almost the size of small suitcase, that the Nazis outlawed and confiscated when they occupied France. Many French people also risked torture or death just to keep up with news from outside and share information. Another great World War II novel, All the Light We Cannot See, shows how important radios were to the resistance.
Now we are on the ship on the Seine. On to Honfleur in the morning.
Dinner last night was ridiculously good. There were cheeses that I’ve never heard of but were the most delicious I’ve ever tried.
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