France Trip Day 9: Bayeux, Normandy

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We reached our hotel in Bayeux, Normandy at lunchtime after a two-hour drive. Before we could begin to decide what we wanted to do for the rest of the day, we needed to get the kids fed. It all goes back to that Hierarchy of Needs pyramid I learned about in my education classes in college. You can't expect kids to behave and be interested in learning about something if their basic needs haven't been met -- in this case the need for food and drink. This is always made apparent to us when we're traveling. We wonder why our four kids have started whining and want to leave a museum and realize that it's 3:00 PM and we haven't eaten lunch yet. No wonder.

The Dam Pizza place was open for lunch and the kids happy munched on pizza and David and I had sandwiches.

Here's my sandwich, called "un sandwich américain." Apparently, what makes it American is that the French fries are placed inside the baguette along with the ham. Hmmmm, this wasn't the first time I had seen such a sandwich in France, but I don't ever recall seeing such a sandwich in.....America!

But I must tell you that the entire idea is ingenious. You can get your lunch to go and you don't have to keep a hold of your fries as you munch your sandwich. Plus, you're saving the planet by eliminating the need for a French fry container. In addition, you probably end up eating fewer French fries as what was in my sandwich was about 1/2 the amount of a small order of fries. Lastly, it is tasty and what could be more fun than eating a sandwich with French fries inside it!

So, what to do for the rest of the day as tomorrow we will be touring the World War II sights along the coast of Normandy. Bayeux has a beautiful cathedral that was consecrated in 1077 in the presence of William, Duke of Normandy and King of England, otherwise known as William the Conqueror.

Before we left for France, the kids had pleaded, "Please Mom. No castles and no big churches. All we do is visit castles and churches!" Touring the cathedral, even on Easter Sunday, was out.

And then there's the Bayeux Tapestry, one of the top 5 things I had seen during my entire junior year abroad. The tapestry is an 11th century 230-foot long embroidered cloth which explains the events leading up to the 1066 Norman invasion of England as well as the events of the invasion itself, featuring William the Conqueror. It is often referred to as a medieval comic strip. The museum itself had done a phenomenal job of educating you on the tapestry, in a fun but thorough way, so by the time you viewed the actual tapestry, it was like visiting an old friend.

The kids were not interested.

We decided to visit the Memorial Museum of the Battle of Normandy of Bayeux. We thought the kids would understand better what we would be seeing at the beaches tomorrow after visiting this museum today.

I was a little nervous about the questions the kids might have during our stay in Normandy. We live in Germany and have many German friends. How would they handle learning that Germany was an enemy of the United States, France and so many other countries during WWII? Micaela and James already knew that, but did they really get it?

And it even hit me a little as we exited the minivan at the museum. "Um, David, this is all going to be a little weird, seeing that we have German license plates." David agreed that it was a strange feeling. Almost as if we wanted to add a bumper sticker that stated, "Yes, we're visiting from Germany, but we're American!"

By the way, the German flag was being flown outside the museum.

Churchill "Crocodile" Flamethrower Tank

Concrete tank trap

The American M10 Tank destroyer

David checking out a Sherman tank.

Photography inside the museum was not allowed, but these pictures were in the museum's brochure. The museum was full of videos, artifacts, weapons and more vehicles.

There was also a small theater showing a short film about the 2-month Normandy campaign of 1944. The film showed no killings or any other graphic scene, until the last 2 minutes. It did then show dead soldiers laying by the side of the road and when I looked at Emilie, she had tears rolling down her face and could barely talk. I had to keep reassuring her that that was all very sad, but it was a long time ago.

James chose to spend some of his vacation money on an American army man action figure he came across in the gift shop. Earlier as we toured the museum, James turned to me and said, "You know, I really wish I hadn't worn this shirt today. I feel really uncomfortable." We just keep reassuring kids that we are allies with Germany today.

Emmie's army man bouncy ball

Looking over a restaurant's menu at dinner time. We all liked how a chain held up the podium. The kids suggested we go back to that Dam pizza place, but we wanted something different and found a small restaurant that was not a Dam pizza place.

Rebecca eating a croque-monsieur, a hot ham and cheese grilled sandwich. The rest of us also had croque-monsieurs or spaghetti carbonara.

This picture captured a tender father-daughter moment, but also an American in Europe moment. After the waitress served us our meal, she plunked a big bottle of Heinz ketchup on the table. I'm wondering why. Last I knew, Americans didn't put ketchup in their pasta. I've heard of people dipping the corners of their grilled cheese sandwiches in ketchup, but a grilled ham and cheese? I've never heard of the French doing it. Or does this restaurant follow the belief many Europeans have that Americans eat everything with ketchup, so they automatically give all Americans ketchup?

While walking back to our hotel, I said to Emilie, "So, tomorrow we'll go to the beaches we saw in the film, where some battles took place." Emilie's eyes grew very wide and I rushed to add, "But, don't worry. That's not happening today." Emilie tugged on my arm and said, "But Mom, what about tomorrow?"

A child's mind is an amazing thing.