Normandy American Cemetery and Monuments, Arromanches and Trouville

Day 2 we drove down Omaha Beach and stopped at various war memorials.

Here is part of the Mulberry artificial Harbor left:

Operation Overlord Museum at the American Cemetary was very well-done. In the background, there were names of fallen soldiers being read off.

The Cemetary overlooks Omaha Beach. It is a gorgeous setting:

It was staggering to see all of the Tombstones for American soldiers that gave their lives to grant us freedom:

Next we went to Arromanches, where there are tons of pieces of the artificial Mulberry harbor left out in the water in random spots (a second harbor was constructed here after the original at Omaha Beach was severely damaged by a bad storm): 

A piece of the bridge:

We had paninis and crepes and drove to Trouville next. Chris hung out in the car with the napping kids (he wanted a little siesta himself) while I checked out some of the cute shops. Along the water is this carnival looking strip. There is also a fish market and the city is famous for their delicious seafood. It is right next to commercial Deauville which is famous for casinos (supposedly Churchill gambled here for a whole summer) and parasols and people in fancy clothing.

These brightly colored sardine cans in this sardine shop ALMOST make me want to buy them.

All different kinds of Calvados (a liqueur made from apples that is made in the area). I opted for the smallest bottle I could find (a teeny tiny bottle for £5)--we'll have shots of it later to try it.

Here was the restaurant we ate at. Lonely Planet recommended it but I don't think I would do the same. It was the first French restaurant we went to where we got the "stereotyped French attitude". We really have had nothing but good things to say about the other restaurants we went to in Paris and Normandy. Anyways, they were open but didn't serve dinner until 7:30 (of course). But, we showed up at 6:30 thinking maybe we could get some drinks, perhaps an appy? It was like pulling teeth to get any service or a menu. After we got our drinks (served up with some attitude), I gave up and went to a nearby bakery to get some croissants to appease the kids. They did not seem to like us and we were in a bit of a hurry because we needed to leave by 8:30 so we could drive to our guesthouse and check-in before 9:30pm. We gave up on getting Ethan's kids meal dessert and just ended up leaving without it.

Hailey was mesmerized by these music boxes:

We were afraid she was going to break this rickety high chair (she is hard on things):

The place we were staying Ferme de la Tuilerie, was out in the boondocks in the country. It was a bit confusing to find and driving there in the dark didn't exactly help. We didn't make it by 9:30 but luckily, they left out the sign and left the keys in the door. It was a converted barn loft with two bedrooms and was perfect for a family of four.