Normandy

Continuation of last day in England (7/4/2009)
Anyway, Daniel picked us up and carted us off to Portsmouth. I think it is pretty safe to say that if he had seen just me standing by the side of the road instead of Jordan, we would be cycling into Portsmouth. I think he took quite a shine to my little girl... and vica versa. After exchanging blog and email addresses we said goodbye and boarded the ferry. Jordan immediately met two boys from Ireland (about 16 and 12) who asked her to play 21 and poker with them. The ferry crossing to Cherbourg took about 3 hours. When we arrived we immediately began biking out of town and found a campground. We pitched the tent, showered and started walking back towards Cherbourg to find a restaurant. It was looking pretty bleak and then we found a creperie that was open. The food was excellent.
It rained that night and my new tent performed beautifully. We slept in until about 9AM so the tent could dry off. After a breakfast of fiber bars we took off. The Norman countryside is spectacular. We had the wind at our backs most of the day and a partially sunny day. We found a restaurant for lunch that had free WiFi. We set up shop there, charging batteries and checking email. We finally took off around 3PM. Our original goal was Omaha Beach, but that was not realistic at this poing. We stopped in the city of Carentan, which was the site of a famous WW II action led by Lt. Dick Winters from "Band of Brothers" fame. We camped again (3rd night in a row!), showered, and went looking for a place to eat. By this time it was 8:30PM and it looked like they had rolled up the sidewalks. We were just resigning ourselves to a dinner of a Payday candy bar, when we discovered a place that was open. Food was good, and not too expensive. Jordan ate crepes again, and she is "creped" out. I had the equivalent of the "Blue Plate Special" which was a hell of a deal... big salad, bread, and a chicken cutlet with fries and mashed potatoes. I am definitely getting my carbs. At the end of the meal I ordered a glass of calvados, which is the local apple liqour. It has a bit of a Gran Marnier feel to it, only apple instead of orange. Jordan could not handle it.
July 7, 2009
It rained like hell last night, and the tent held up again. We stayed in bed until about 10AM waiting for it to stop. We finally got up and walked into Carentan to buy fruit and pastries for breakfast. Every town in Normandy has at least one bakery, if not two or three. The pastries and bread are incredible. Jordan and I are stopping at these at least twice a day. We broke camp and finally left town around 11:30. It immediately started pouring ran, which was fitting since we were headed to Omaha Beach. For all of you naysayers who said Jordan would pack it in within a week, she really held her own. She did not complain once, even though we were both soaked and cold.
We arrived at Point du Hoc at the west end of Omaha Beach first. As we were locking up the bikes, a car pulled up near us and an old British gent stepped out with two younger people. We exchanged greetings and started talking. I asked him if he had come ashore here 65 years ago. He said no, but he came ashore close by at Sword Beach. That was one of the beaches where the Brits came ashore. Jordan and I said goodbye to them and started walking toward Point du Hoc. I mentioned to Jordan that we ought to get our pictures taken with him. We saw them again a little later, and talked a little more about his experiences on D-Day. One of the things he had to do on June 7th, 1944 was remove the German charges from Pegasus Bridge and put there own charges on the bridge, in case the invasion did not succeed and they had to blow the bridge themselves. Stephen Ambrose wrote a great book about this key action called "Pegasus Bridge".
Jordan asked him if she could get a picture with him. He looked at me and asked if I wanted in, too, and I said sure. I will post the picture when I get on line. He gave us his email address and said he would email his personal account of WW II if we sent him our email addresses. We will be sure to do that and post the account for any WW II buffs who want to read it. This is the kind of history lesson that you cannot get just sitting in a classroom. I am really pleased how inquisitive Jordan has been during our journey. We are really building memories.
Next stop was Omaha Beach and the U.S. Cemetary. I had been here 10 years ago, but it was still just as impressive this time. There are row after row of crosses and Stars of David for all the men buried there. It is not just D-Day dead that are buried there. I saw some dates from 1943 and some as later as April, 1945.
We left Omaha Beach around 3:30 with a good 25 miles to get to Caen. We made another pastry stop about 6 miles from Caen and then finished at about 6:30. With hills, wind, rain, and wieght of gear, we our making about 10 miles per hour. I think I am going to have scale back on the mileage until we either start getting up earlier, or are stronger riders.
We checked into a cheap hotel. We dropped our stuff and walked to a grocery store next door. Lucky we did that first, because they closed at 7:30PM. Tonight will be a good night for cleaning our gear, updating blog, and drinking a few beers. Tomorrow we start pushing for Paris.
Generlizations on the British and the French
Britain was not a great cycling country. Many of the roads are narrow. There are no berms. Traffic moves very quickly. On the other hand, the French roads are wider and the cars slow down for you as they pass. As we approached Caen, which is a fairly large city, there was a bike path along the side of the road.
This being said, I never met a friendly people than the British. They were quick to offer help and had great senses of humor. They loved to talk and were very interested in our journey. The French seem rather indifferent to us. At first I thought it was just the language barrier, but I think it is more than that. They are much more reserved. Another thing that I think is interesting is the number of French who know no English. I know it is embarassing that most Americans do not have language skills, but we are not really forced to since English is really a world language. Many of the French we are meeting are very dependant on tourism (restaurants and hotels). You would think that more of them would know a little English. There are some restaurants that advertise that their menus are in English as well as French, but very few. My Francophile friends will claim that this more French-bashing by "moir", but I really do think that the French still think they are a world power and are the center of the known world.