Well I was keeping a daily travelogue until Disney. Being that it is 2300 and I am smoked after a day of walking from Notre Dame to the Eiffel tower, to the Arc de Triomphe and back to Notre Dame via the Champs-Ellyses with Ellyn on my back....I am smoked and Brooke is unconscious. Suprisingly Sadie, the super trooper, is still in full energy mode...and she walked the whole way. Anyway, I will post my travelogue from the first 5 days of our trip and catch up during the next few nights or when we get back. We are going to London tomorrow via the Chunnel and I do not know what internet access will be like..terrific in Paris, that ius why I was able to throw up so many pictures. Anyway, this may be boring stuff, it is mainly for posterity...Mom, you are still printing the blog out right? I think it would be worth all going in on a fast color laser printer for your house, just a thought for everyone...the travelogue, no time to edit so enjoy mispellings and grammatical errors:-)

Day 1 – the drive
We left about 0900 from the house due to some unseen errands that had to be run. The trip was uneventful, thankfully. The route was quite interesting as we drove through Metz and Reims and other areas that bring to mind WWI and WWII history. We commented several times on how it looked a lot like eastern Kansas. We drove through the Argonne forest and crossed the Somme. Rain began as we left northeast of Reims. Our GPS tried to route us through Paris, but seeing how it was almost 1800, we would probably have hit some major traffic. So we went around to the north on much less trafficked “autobahns”. We arrived in Caen shortly after 2030 and checked into our hotel. The staff was very kind and stayed later than usual to make sure we were set up well. We noticed after unpacking that Ellyn had started a light fever, just as the other girls had in the last few weeks. Luckily, because of that, we know what it is. It should only last 24 hours. We were all pretty tired and went to bed early.
Day 2 – Bayeux, St. Lo, Carentan, and sleeping in…
Yes, we slept in. And it felt great…and we needed it and it was surely best for Ellyn. Taking Martha’s advice we decided today to head to Bayeux to view the tapestry that recounts the events leading up to William the Bastard becoming William the Conqueror, surely one of the best name changes in history. As a pleasant surprise, not only was the museum for the tapestry fantastic, but Bayeux is one of the few French towns in the area not leveled by Nazi occupation or Allied shelling and bombing. So it is still a town of tight streets (fun in the Pilot) and very quaint atmosphere. After the tapestry museum we decided for lunch and chose a place that looked reasonable. Well…it was reasonable until the $4 drink I ordered ended up being a can of coke! Nonetheless, the place had some great crepes and the Crepe Normande that I had was fantastic. After lunch we walked up to the cathedral to see inside only to find that mass was just getting out so we moved on. We decided to drive over to the British cemetery in Bayeux and just drove by slowly explaining to Jane about the D-Day events…which brought me to the next decision, to go see St. Lo and Carentan. I just wanted to see some of the terrain between all these areas. After reading many accounts of fighting in the bocage of Normandy, it was especially interesting for me as an infantryman to drive through these areas. I don’t think it resonated with Brooke or the girls, but they were able to get some naps while I drove and remembered experiences I had read about. We looped down to St. Lo and then to Carentan and back to Caen. We elected to drive into downtown to reserve a table at a fondue restaurant recommended by one of our travel guides. The chateau downtown was very impressive and we have elected to visit that tomorrow after we visit the D-Day beaches and before dinner.
Day 2 – D-Day beaches, fondue, overpriced museum
We woke up late and decided to visit the Caen memorial museum, or just Caen “memorial” because it was so highly recommended in all the travel guides we have. I t was a very nice museum but it also cost close to 80 bucks for the family and with Ellyn becoming a pill halfway through, it ended up being a disappointing event. However, I will say it was an amazing presentation of the causes leading up to WWII, I just wish I could have spent more time. For a couple without kids, you could really spend a day in there. We then had to find a gas station which seems quite tricky here in France because they just are not that common. Oh, and the tank took about 83 Euros of fuel – over $100 U.S. And we complain of gas prices…it is no wonder that I have yet to see an SUV in France. Too bad we cannot use our gas coupons here…it would save us over $50 U.S. a tank. We then drove out to Omaha beach, to the American cemetery at Coleville. It was a tremendously moving experience. Very nice to see how well the grounds are taken care of here. Certainly one of the most beautiful sites on earth, and a memorial well deserved for exceptionally brave men that truly saved the world. The weather was superb, partly cloudy and about 80 degrees with a cool breeze off the Channel. Jane, Sadie and I walked down to the beach while Brooke and Ellyn waited up top with the stroller. Two things that were striking to me from someone who has studied this event in history quite a bit: Omaha beach, just Omaha beach is about 4-5 miles wide, we are not talking about a specific small section as I always saw in my head, but a significant amount of beachfront. I always pictured Pont-du-Hoc right off to the side of a 500 meter wide beach. In actuality, it is almost to the horizon away and, in fact, the actual Pont-du-Hoc cannot be seen from Omaha because it is actually around the bend from another point. Then to think that Utah is even further to the west and that the Brits and Canadians were spread over 20 miles of beaches to the east…I never imagined that scale…a victim of Hollywood movies and video game replications of the day. The other thing that stuck me was the distance from beach to the hilltop was about 2-3 times further than I had supposed. We finished up at Omaha and since we had a dinner reservation for 1900, we had just enough time to go to Pont-du-Hoc. As we drove we passed all the small French villages on the way and could easily see many of the low walls and hedgerows, the “bocage” that these guys had to fight through. Pont-du-Hoc was very cool, many bunkers still in place, many blown in place, and many craters still left from the day but overgrown with grass. The Ranger memorial there was fenced off; it is right on the precipice of the cliff so I imagine it is for safety although you can still see where the path once led there…hopefully the fence isn’t a result of someone falling. After our short trip, we had to get back to Caen for our dinner reservation. We arrived on time. The place we went, called Maitre Corbeau was a fondue restaurant that was recommended in one of our guides. The girls were a huge fan of dipping things in bowls of hot cheese and the waiter was appropriately frustrated with our lack of French skills. I had to leave early to use the Internet and a local e-café to print out some car insurance documents and our Disney confirmation. We arrived home shortly before 2200 and had to find a parking place on the street because the hotel lot was full. We played a game of Caylus Magna Carta, a card game version of the respected eurogame Caylus. Then we were off to bed or beds…the double would not tolerate me and Ellyn in the same bed with Brooke so Ellyn wins, I get a small single in the corner…
Day 3 – Pegasus Bridge, Utah Beach, Sainte-Mère-Église
We elected today to hit the other beaches and some key locations I wanted to visit of the many available D-day sites. Pegasus bridge is the memorial to the British Airborne unit which seized 2 key bridges in only 10 minutes using gliders followed by an incredibly well executed paratooper and glider assault the same night…seizing and securing the eastern flank for the 6 June invasions. I wanted to see it because to me it is one of the most well executed operations in the history of war. It is just north of Caen. We then drove to Utah beach where we let the girls play around for a while. Ellyn made very short work of getting dirty in the wet sand. Certainly a nicer day at the beach than June 6, 1944… Following our visit to Utah, we decided to drive through the hedgerows so I could get a look at the areas in which the 101st (Band of Brothers) and the 82nd had so much trouble. We followed this up by a visit to the town of Sainte-Mère-Église, which was the first town seized by U.S. forces during the airborne invasion. The museum there ended up being terrific but we were a bit worried since it looks a bit cheesy from the outside. One note: many more French visitors to these memorials than by any other nationality, all respectful, very impressive. In fact the French have been amazing so far and extraordinarily kind. I heard all these horror stories, none of which seem true here. Certainly more friendly than the Germans. Our plan was to go to Mont St. Michel following the museum but our tired bodies said no. It would have been a terrific visit but we will leave that for next time.
Day 4 – Off to Disneyland Paris
We woke early this morning to drive about 3 hours to the east side of Paris for Disney. Staying at a Disney hotel gave us 3 days of tickets to the attractions, including the day of arrival so we were a little worried about getting set up and off to the park in time to enjoy it all. Well, nothing to worry about! We checked into the Davy Crockett Ranch reception area and they said our room would be ready when we got back from the park! When we got to the park (there are 2, Disney studios, like MGM in Florida, and Disneyland) we decided to go to classic Disneyland first. We stopped by guest relations to see if any accommodations could be made for Ellyn and they were more than understanding; they gave us the all-powerful blue card which basically gets us to the front of the line on every ride Ellyn can go on. Lest you think we are cheaters…try waiting in line sometime with other people and Ellyn…it would have been horrible, especially with the language barrier. So we got a bunch in. Ellyn seemed to like everything about the park, of course the other girls were in heaven. We also got in the Lion King show…Ellyn basically went from staring at the animatronics Simba to the side and the singing on the stage, all in complete wonder (it is one of her favorite movies). We decided about 1900 we had had it and wanted to go check in to our place. The Davy Crockett Ranch is very cool. It is basically a log cabin trailer park with BBQ pits but hey, it has atmosphere and it is well done. The main square had some square dance instruction going on to a bunch of kids and the pool had closed by the time we were unpacked so we plan on that for tomorrow.