June 7

A note about July 6th -- I was NOT pleased when we missed the train that we had left the museum in such a hurry to catch. I like museums. And reading most of what there is to read in them.

Now, onto July 7th.
I woke up at 7:30 and showered. Cate, Jeanne, and I went out looking for a place to have breakfast, but nothing was open. We all went to the train station in a taxi, making a stop at an ATM on the way, and next to the station we found a cafe where we could eat breakfast. So, after buying our train tickets to Bayeux, we ate in the cafe. I had pain au chocolat and hot chocolate.
We had to take two trains to get to Bayeux -- one from Lisieux to Caen and one from Caen to Bayeux. On the train we met some British veterans with whom Melissa spent quite a bit of time talking. In Bayeux we met even more British veterans, and we talked to each one and then took a photo.
Madame tried to buy tickets for an organized tour of the beaches and the cemetery, but there were none, so instead we called a taxi. We were to meet the taxi at 2:30, so we had time to go see the Bayeux tapestry. I listened to the guide of the tapestry in French, which wasn't a great idea. It was very formal and difficult to understand -- evidently even the English version was overly formal. However, I really liked seeing the tapestry, and I bought a small book and some postcards.
For lunch we ate omelets. I don't think we should have gone to the restaurant -- we barely had enough time to eat there. However, the omelets were excellent. However, the sausage they used for the sausage omelet was essentially a hot dog, not something more flavorful.
We met the taxi immediately after we finished eating. It took us to the Normandy American Cemetery, where we had forty-five minutes. Right as we got there it began to rain. However, Madame said she was still going out to visit the grave of her adopted soldier and that we could to, just to meet under a certain tree afterwords.
It was raining very hard and was extremely cold. Because it had seemed sunny enough that morning, none of us had so much as considered bringing a rain jacket, so I was soaked by the time I reached the crosses of Robert J. Powers and Annis I. Altman. I had to walk quite a bit to even reach Plot B from Plot A, because the area between them was blocked off, causing it to be necessary to go all the way around.
I went back around after visiting each cross and stood waiting under the tree for a moment. None of the others were there, and I couldn't see any of them in Plot A -- not that I could see very far, for it was pouring down rain. However, I turned and saw Cate, and she took me to the others, who were standing in a covered area near a large statue. Just as I got back, Melissa said she wanted to go out to Plot B, so I went out with her. We talked as we walked about all the crosses, about the beach, about the rain, about how one could hardly see where the sea ended and the sky began.
We went back to Madame and Cate and were almost late for the taxi. I think Madame would have been mad, except Jeanne and Stephanie were even later than we were. Madame had told them to go look out at the beach, and evidently they had decided to go down, which takes forever. So they got back up twenty-five minutes later, and then went to the welcome center, not to where we were standing. So Melissa, Cate, Madame, and I waited for about five minutes, and they waited for us, when finally Cate called Jeanne and asked where they were. Madame was furious.
Because of the rain, we decided not to go to Point du Hoc but instead to Arromanches. We stopped to take quick pictures at a small port, and then we went on to Arromanches. It had stopped raining while we were at the cemetery, but when we reached Arromanches it was raining again. We were able to get some very grey pictures of the concrete remains of the mulberry harbour there, but then we got back into the taxi and went to the Bayeux train station. We took the train to Lisieux, where we looked for a place to eat. The two creperies we had seen that morning were closed -- perhaps for Mother's Day? It was Mother's Day in France...Anyway, we ended up eating at a rather good Chinese restaurant. I had chicken with black mushrooms and fried rice.
We went back to the hotel and repeated the night before to some extent, staying up in Madame's room very late blogging and talking. However, we also had to pack whatever had been unpacked, for we were leaving for Paris in the morning.