Sorry it's been a little while. Spring Break starts Friday, so I've been scrambling to get everything together. Anyways.....
First I have some pictures that I meant to put up a little while ago. I finally got around to going to the Eiffel Tour (I try to avoid super touristy spots for the most part), so here's a little snapshot of that. I started taking a different train to one of my classes, and I actually now pass over the Seine right next to the Eiffel Tour every morning. Talk about a view. The other pictures are from a place called Parc Montsouris. It was developed to give university students a place to exercise away from the roads, and it was beautiful. Full of people on a lovely Paris day.
This past weekend I was in Normandie, which (as some of you learned) is a region, not a specific city. Go ahead and GoogleMap Blonville-sur-mer. That is the actual city that I stayed in. Normandie is not the skinny peninsula of France that juts out into the Atlantic, but just to the east of that. Just look it up. My lovely host family took me along to their country house. Normandie is very much The Hamptons of Paris. Parisian license plates were everywhere. The family just finished building their country home a few years ago, and it is decked out, ready to hold as many family members as possible.
Saturday morning we went into house. The house is in Blonville-sur-mer, but the “big” local town is called Trouville or Deauville. This is where the upcoming G8 conference is being held. It’s a fairly ritzy town. They have several really nice hotels, and two big glitz casinos. We just went in town to buy grocery and to show me around, but we didn’t stay that long. We had a delicious lunch outside, and after lunch, the dad showed me all the local remnants of World War II. This town is not the famous beach where the Allies washed up to save the day, but there still is a lot of history. ALL over the place are these leftover bunkers, where the Vichy soldiers would do everything from eat and sleep to shooting cannons. They’re in remarkably good condition. You can also see their interconnected tunnels that criss cross the entire hill and all of the places where bombs made huge indentions in the ground. Very very interesting…
P.S. For those of you who are not history buffs, the Vichy government is the government in France that was dominated by Germans during the period of WWII. French people hated the Vichy government. It came between the Third and Fourth Republics. France has been in it's Fifth Republic since 1958 when General deGaulle founded it.
One of the old bombs that was placed high on the hill for visitors much later
View from inside one of the Vichy bunkers
Officer's club
During the war, there was a cannon mounted here. Men from right on the edge of the hill would radio the men working here to tell them which direction to shoot in.
Secret tunnels to avoid being spotted by planes
The valley by the ocean
Rachel, what a wonderful opportunity you are living seeing and learning not only your future, but being able to see the past history of the world. I am proud of all you have done and jealous of what you are doing. Enjoy your semester abroad in every way possible.
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