Road Part of Tour Begins - September 17, 2008

The road part of our tour began. Everyone got on the bus and we departed Paris for Rouen. The bus itself was fairly comfortable. I liked the fact that my legs weren't squeezed. Globus hired a bus for the Montmartre excursion and I had to see sideways in the seat.

The journey to Rouen was uneventful. Rouen itself is perhaps most famous for being the place that Joan of Arc was put to death. The French built a cathedral in her honor and placed a huge cross where she was burned to death. When I saw the cathedral they had built in her honor, my first reaction was "that's a cathedral?" It really doesn't look like one. I thought it might be some kind of Nordic memorial or something as it has a number of tiles that looked like dragon scales to me. I didn't go in the cathedral so I have no idea what it looks like inside. The cathedral is alongside a square that has some nice old buildings. A street leads from the cathedral to the medieval clock which tells time and the date. It was an impressive clock. The street ends at the Rouen Cathedral. The cathedral took damage during World War II and it shows some. Still, it is an impressive cathedral and has statues inside of Richard the Lionhearted and Rollo, the first duke of Normandy. I believe there was also a small chapel dedicated to Joan of Arc.

After Susan, our guide finished showing us the Cathedral of Rouen, we were free to find a place to have lunch, shop or check out other sights. I didn't feel like having a full lunch so I found a place where I could get an ice cream. I managed to speak enough French so the person in the shop understood what I wanted. After that, I wandered around taking some more pictures. When it was time, everyone returned to the bus and headed to our next stop - Caen.

Caen has the Memorial Museum for Peace. This museum tells of the events leading to World War II and the battles that were fought in Normandy. It has a number of excellent exhibits. It used genuine articles from the war, models and first hand accounts to give visitors an idea of what the battles were like. After seeing the exhibits, the museum showed a film that showed film footage shot during the war. It was a very good film and gave a better understanding of what took place in Normandy. After we were done seeing the museum, we headed to our hotel the Mercure Centre in Caen. Along the way, we learned some more of William the Conqueror.

William was determined to marry his cousin Matilda. However, there were issues because they were related and the fact that William was illegitimate. Matilda (I hope that's the right name) turned down William's marriage proposals 5 or 6 times before finally giving in. Because of their close relations, the Pope censored William. In order to make amends with the Pope, William promised to do 2 things. First, he would commission 2 monasteries to be built in Caen: one for men only and one for women. Second, when he and Matilda died, they would be buried in separate graves in the 2 monasteries. Apparently, this pleased the Pope enough to where he forgave him. Part of the men's monastery can still be found in Caen and we got to see it as we drove to our hotel.

Our hotel was located next to a small marina which was very pretty. The hotel itself was comfortable and had nice rooms. One thing I would noticed during the tour was the rooms were more spacious than the ones in Scandanavia. I would really appreciate this fact. That night, our group had its second group dinner. The food was good and everyone had a nice time chatting with their new found friends in the tour. The next morning, we would leave for Mont St. Michel.