Google maps does some goofy things when you're operating solely on the GPS (as opposed to the full connection via the data network). Locating the segway tour company took longer than it should have, because google maps had us walking through places that really didn't have an actual path to do so. Therefore this morning's adventure to find the Paris CIty tour office sort of had similar qualities. Basically, all we had to do was walk around the Louvre. But we hoped to find a "short cut". There was none. Worst yet, we kept coming across gates and other barriers closing off access to sidewalks that would have made it easier to walk around the Louvre.
But, we still found the tour office with a few minutes to spare. We were on Bus #1. First thing we noticed: the leg room space rivaled an airplane for lack of space. And the seats "upright" position was at some kind of recline, which is fine for most or average sized adults, but not for little me. Andy's knees were right up against the back seat of the seat in front of him, and I had two hoodies behind my back. All day on this bus, yey.
Our tour guide's name was Amourie - could tell right off the bat his level of enthusiasm was underwhelming. Nonchalantly mentioned the morning bus ride would be 3 hours with no stops (?!?), yada, yada, yada, and oh yes there's a bathroom on the bus.
Amourie's lack luster description of today's program and of the events of D-Day continued for about 45 minutes or so, and then he said, "Well, that's all there is for now." Whereupon he promptly pulled the drape across his window, put on his eye shields and went to sleep for the next 2 1/2 hours.
All righty, then.
Of course somewhere in there, I endeavored to figure out the bathroom situation. I had seen one other person go back there, so it was obviously do-able. The bathroom was actually on the down staircase by the 2nd/back exit for the bus. I pulled on the door knob. Nothing. Twisted the door nob. Nothing.
Seriously? what's the magic trick for this door?
I ended up going up to the guy I had seen earlier going and coming - he said, "You gotta grab the knob and twist real hard, then yank. It's super tight."
And indeed that did the trIck. Well, it got the door open, but I was perched on a step above - had to twist, pull, hop down, then in through the door all in one fell swoop.
Good news - I didn't need to repeat that performance for the rest of the day.
Our first stop was the town of Caen. Pronounced "cahn". Sounding identical to the city of "Cannes". What a relief to know that French appears to be way worse than English with regards to words not even remotely sounding like they are spelled.
Caen was one of the towns liberated as a result of the invasion of Normandy by the allied forces on D-Day. We were to spend the morning (including lunch) in the museum. The tour guide was very good about telling us what time we needed to meet for lunch. But his description of how to visit the museum was really confusing and uninformative. We ended up asking at the information desk - turns out, it's strongly recommended to follow the logical pattern of the exhibits ("pre-1944" (leading up to D-Day) followed by the D-Day exhibit.
The exhibits were well done - clear and descriptive. One item on display was this US Army issued French phrase book:
Note: it's labeled "restricted", meaning it was classified information. A French phrase book.
At then end of both exhibits we watched a 15 minute movie about D-Day, followed by lunch.
I must say, French museum food is by far way better than Washington DC museum food. And I can't say I've ever seen a bottle of wine available at a Washington DC museum cafeteria.
After lunch, we were off to....something. It sounded like the tour guide was saying "Pointy Hawk". It was, in reality, "Pointe du Hoc". The part we understood was that Pointe du Hoc is a very high and steep cliff that soldiers climbed up with grappling hooks and ladders. The part we didn't understand was whether or not we were supposed to be able to see Utah Beach. We saw this:
Yes, very high and steep cliffs indeed. What we didn't see from this point of view, was a beach. Of any kind. Possibly, Utah Beach was at the bottom of the cliff we were standing on. But there was no sign describing that. And our tour guide had stayed back at the bus. So we had no one to ask.
Next stop was Omaha Beach and the American Cemetery:
We also hiked down to the beach itself. And then hiked back up.
Before heading back to the bus, we wandered around looking for different views of the cemetery and other monuments. There was this mind-boggling map:
I have absolutely NO idea what's going on there, but that's a lot of arrows.
Next stop wasn't a stop - it was a drive-by of Gold Beach (British landing spot). A half hour later we were at Juno Beach (Canadian landing).
Would have been great to have a tour guide who could have made this story come to life. Instead, we had Amourie who was content to give us directions to various things to see, but not get off the bus himself and show us.
On the way back to Paris, we stopped at a rest stop to pick up sandwiches. And of course, the last bathroom break before arriving back at the tour company.
I'm washing my hands in the bathroom, when I see someone who looks an awful lot like a man exit a stall and then briskly exit the ladies' room. I pulled aside another woman from our group who was in the bathroom at that time and said, "Was that a man who just walked out of here?". She agreed that she did indeed think that had been a man. We both decided that one just never knows what one will see in a French bathroom.
An hour and 45 minutes later we were back at the tour office. The walk back was straight forward (helps to have a clue) - the Eiffel Tower was all lit up, as was the Champs Elysee.
Tomorrow: A Museum. Of Some Kind. Many Choices.
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