Normandy Educational Field Trip!

We just returned from our Educational Field Trip in Normandy last night! We had such a fantastic time! Our program directors and assistant did an amazing job of putting a trip together that was fun and extremely educational. Here's a day by day overview of our trip to the Normandy region of France:

Monday-We left La Croisee at about 9:00 AM to get to the Geneva airport by 10:00 AM. Our Air France flight to Paris Charles de Gaulle left at 12:00PM and we arrived at 1:00 PM. We were greeted at the airport by our travel agent for the week, Jack, and our two story bus (we were all very excited about that!). From there, we started our three hours drive to Deauville, France, a beautiful seaside town in Normandy. We stayed at the Mercure Hotel and Yacht Club in Deauville for the first three days of our trip. Pepperdine really knows how to travel with class. The Yacht Club was amazing! The rooms were very nice and they had a hot breakfast for us every morning. Once we were checked in, most of us ran to the beach to snap a few sunset (and jumping :]) pictures. We all went out to dinner together that night in Deauville and since we were all tired, just stayed at the hotel or explored a little more the rest of the night.

Tuesday-We left the hotel at 8:30 AM to start our jam packed day of Normandy sight seeing. We went first to pick our tour guides in Caen, about an hour from Deauville, and from there went straight to Arromanches (Gold Beach for you history buffs). This is where the Brit's built an artificial harbor on D-Day called Mullberry B, and fought the Germans. We visited the D-Day museum for an hour and then ate lunch right on the water. After lunch, we visited the German barracks next to Gold Beach for about 20 minutes. We then drove about 30 minutes to the American Cemetery on Omaha Beach. There are over 9,000 graves in this cemetery. Our tour guides showed us the Niland brothers graves (the story that inspired the movie Saving Private Ryan), some of the women who perished while working for the American Red Cross, as well as the seven cross dedicated to the unknown soldiers who died during the war. We were all struck with grief as well as gratitude. Many of these men and women were our age and we all reflected on the sacrifice they made almost 70 years ago on that very beach. After that, we went down to Omaha for about ten minutes to look at the monuments some more. It was a long day, but really interesting to finally see the places that we have learned about for years.

Wednesday-Once again, we set out relatively early for Mont Saint Michel. It took a little longer to get there than the previous day (about 2 hours) but was so worth it. First, we went and eat lunch at Mont Saint Michel. Did I mention Pepperdine really knows how to travel with class? We had an awesome four course meal for lunch (Mussels, salmon with saffron rice, a sampling of local cheeses, and tiramisu!). We were in heaven! We then took a tour of Mont Saint Michel. It was once in the harbor there, but the river that flow into to ocean has created a bank so that Mont Saint Michel is only in the ocean every once in a while. It was built as a monastery and is still in use by 7 monks today. It was so gorgeous! We left after a couple of hours of walking around the little town to a biscuit factory! They had free samples (yum!). I'm sure some of you will be receiving them as gifts in the near future!

Thursday-Thursday was a driving day, mostly to drive closer to Paris so we didn't have to travel as much on Friday. We went to the small town of Honfleur. We stopped there for about an hour to see the beautiful little harbor. This is the harbor that Jacques Cartier left from in the 1500's to sail to North America. Honfleur also has only of the only wooden churches left in western Europe. Most had been burned, but this one has stayed in tact for centuries. After Honfleur, we went to Rouen, the capital of Upper Normandy on the Seine River. Rouen was gorgeous! It rivaled France in size for many centuries and was one of the main ports in France because of its strategic location. Rouen has a beautiful cathedral that we had the privilege to take a tour of, as well as well as many bell towers. Rouen is also where Joan of Arc was baptized and burned at the stake. They have built a monument to her as well as a church in her honor there. Thursday night we stayed in the town of Evreux.

Friday- Our last day on the trip and probably the most beautiful. We left Evreux at 8:30 AM and set out for Claude Monet's house in Giverny! This area of Normandy was so beautiful. We arrived at Monet's house at 10:00 AM and had an hour to go through his house and the garden that inspired so many of his masterpieces. I think we all would've loved to wander through the gardens the whole day. All of the flowers were still in bloom and it's kept amazingly by the many gardeners there. No wonder Monet had so much inspiration there! It was awesome. After Monet's house, we left for the airport in Paris and concluded our EFT.

Next weekend...Venice + Verona!