How Sweet It Is!

Bon journée: Have a good day!

I arrived in the town of Nantes and was absolutely wiped out from all the traveling so I wanted to hold off on site-seeing until the following day. So I went to get some dinner and as normal, I found myself walking in circles trying to decide what i wanted and how much i was willing to spend. The entire time I was walking I was saying to myself: Sushi sounds amazing. But no matter how many streets I went down I couldn't find even an Asian restaurant. In the back of my head I kept telling myself just got to McDo...you know you want to. I passed a building that had wifi gratuit [Pronounced: wee-fee gra-twee] so I stopped for a minute to google map where a McDo was but there wasn't anywhere that was in the area. I found this surprising considering how large Nantes is. Eventually, I walked back down the main street to finally give into something when I passed a little street that I overlooked; I decided why not? I walk down a little bit and stroll across a little cafe and almost pulled the trigger when i looked up and saw a sign: SUSHI. I got so excited I'm pretty sure I was in an all out sprint inside. I opened the menu and realized..I know everything in, well, "English sushi" but French sushi was overwhelming. Thankfully pointing works well and some good laughing and a Please-help-me-understand-this smile. Overall experience..très bien!
*Side note: I found out later today there are Sushi restaurants everywhere lol.

On The Coast Of Somewhere Beautiful

Today I made my way to the coast to see Mont St. Michel and the American Cemetery. I learned that Mont St. Michel was built on the legend that St. Michel appeared in a bishop's dream. The bishop played it off, but his next dream was the same except this time St. Michel burned a spot on the bishop's head so that he would realize it wasn't just a random dream. On the way to there, we passed through the area where the Battle of Hedgerows took place. I was taken by surprise when I was told that there were more casualities here than there were on the actual beach invasion because the hedges were so thick due to the fact that in the middle ages when people began to populate la Normandie area, they would cut down the forest but leave parts of the forest up and replant whatever they cut down in that area so that way it would be a natural fence around the area they wanted. But because so much time had passed the hedges grew so thick and it made the Allies vulnerable to attacks when they tried to cross through them. With the focus back on Mont St. Michel, I found out that Mont St. Michel is an active monastery although I didn't get to see any monks during my visit. There are three parts of Mont St. Michel: The Abbey, the Village, and the Fortress. Mont St. Michel has a population of 33! Pretty cool.
After traveling to Mont St. Michel, I made my way to the American Cemetery today which was amazing. I couldn't believe how huge it was. I knew there were a lot of graves..but never that many. It felt like it was never going to end. So it was a nice quiet visit there. I made my way down to the beaches of Utah and Omaha and it was crazy to just think that at one point there were thousands of men running and fighting their way up the sandy beaches and dunes which are obviously all grown out now. But on this specific trip I was timed so I only had an hour to do all of this which meant that I was working the power walk up and down the walkways and beaches, but it was well worth it. I learned that Bayeux was sparred because of the priest of the town was a Resistant who had a relationship with the Allies and he told them that there were no Germans in the town. Most cities around Caen [Pronounced: Con. which is the largest city of Normandy region] were bombed but rebuilt after the war. When they were rebuilt they used a "white stone" quarry that start in BC from Caen and has been used to rebuild these cities as well as William the Conquerer's fortress and the Tower of London [otherwise known as the White Tower]. An interesting note: St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City was actually built using the white stone from Caen, however with the amount of pollution in NY, it's no longer white.

Sitting, Waiting, Wishing..

Je ne comprends pas: I don't understand!

After finishing my time in London, I took the train into Paris and finally got to put my French into practice! I took a taxi [first time I've actually done that in Paris) so it was fun to finally see the things I couldn't wait for. I made it to St Lazare and bought my ticket to Bayoux and jumped on the train. Now..I thought I would be smart and beat the crowd so I jumped on one of the back cars only to find out it was le premier classe and I most definitely didn't have that ticket, but because I was on the trai I didn't want to get off in case it started to take off so I just dragged my bags all the way to "2e classe" and grabbed the first open room. I was sitting by myself for probably about 10 minutes until a kid, maybe 17 or 18, walked by and saw me but continued on and then a minute later walked right back and sat down across from me. Maybe about 10 minutes later another guy joined us and as soon as the train took off you could tell there was a.."bubble" in the air because we all were "talkers" and wanted to say something but nobody budged. So, maybe about an hour in a half into the trip the younger kid walked out to use the restroom so it was me and the other guy, but one of the train workers joined us in our room because he was friends with this "other guy" [Unfortunately, French culture says it's "impolite" to ask for someone's name right from the beginning, so I'm going to have to use "Young" and "Other"] and after a minute or two the train worker walked out also, so the other guy asked if I had my charger because he saw my iPhone and I said yeah of course and grabbed mine and gave it to him. He instantly saw my plug and knew I was American and then, just like that, the bubble popped.
He started asking me questions and we got to talking about differences between America and France, then shortly the young kid joined us again and found us talking so you could see him lok at ease finally so he found out I was from the US so that meant more questions from him..and then like a comic strip, the train worker walked in and found out I was from L'Etats-Unis so more questions came! So by now I was sort of getting back in the groove of speaking French and trying to listen and all the good stuff. But then came the point for the other guy to leave for his stop so it was just me and the young kid and we talked for maybe 30 minutes about random things but then we reached my stop and wasn't paying attention and so he tells me in English "you better hurry the train doesn't wait long" so I grab all my stuff and run to the door...it doesn't open...OF COURSE! I run to the other end of the car..grab the handle and halfway open the door and the bloody train starts leaving..lovely. I walk back and the train worker sees me: "you didn't make it?" [wasn't in the mood to be sarcastic, so I said yes] and he told me I needed to get off at the next stop and turn around so I just went to the first open car..again [because you know that I'm not going back to the young kid and look like a complete idiot]. Finally, I make it to the next stop which felt like forever, I get off the train and this little old woman comes up to me because she saw me miss my stop and she starts talking to me to help me figure my way so she points me in the right direction and now it is just a waiting game. Luckily, the French rail system is amazing with trains very often so I maybe waited 20 minutes for the next one. So again, I didn't want to miss the train so I jumped in the first care this time closer to the front of the train but yet again it was 1st class! So I just stood near the door so I could get out as fast as possible when the train stopped.
Finally I made it to Bayoux, and I made it to my hotel [Churchill Hotel] which has been a lovely stay in a lovely town.

Come Fly With Me!

Bonjour: Hello!

The plane ride was amazing. I walked on the plane and saw there there was a water bottle in my seat and my first reaction was "Great, someone left their trash from last flight?!" only to look again to find that we are given free waters whenever we would like. The safety video started with Richard Simmons teaching you how to "exercise" you safety habits on the plane. Hilarious. I had a dinner that I thought I needed to be dressed up for, but the best part about dinner: they served our dessert first with the appetizer..so I chose to eat the dessert when they gave it to me but after I had finished it I looked around a nobody else had touched theirs. So, embarrasingly [but also happily] I asked for another and of course they were not going to say no..so I got another dessert! Fun stuff. The other fun part of the ride, was when I had to use the bathroom for the first time. Typically I don't mind airplane bathrooms and this time was no different - however - when I walked into the bathroom I was blown away! It looked like any normal bathroom with wallpaper that was hilarious! It was painted as a bookshelf with funny titled books all about bathroom time.