Beautiful Bayeux
10/25/04
An amazing trip to Bayeux! So Monday, the 25th found me waking up very very early in Paris. I had went to bed around 1:30 the night before after taking Paris by storm with Bridget, Jori, Lee and Michelle. I finally got myself out of bed around 6:30, grabbed a really quick shower. Daniel and I exchanged email addresses and stuff, shook hands, and he headed downstairs. I quickly packed my stuff and joined him downstairs for breakfast. We shook hands again and wished each other the safest of travels. I wish I would have gotten a picture with this guy, but it’s a little late now. I then took the metro to the train station and arrived about 30 minutes ahead of time. I did not find Nika and Larry before the train departed, so there I was at the train station contemplating what to do. Larry, Nika and I had arranged to meet each other at the platform of our train because Nika had all 3 of our tickets. When they didn’t show up, I was making plans of what to do now. I mainly thought about them, and hoped that they made it ok and everything. God worked all of this out in his amazing plan. Flexibility is a big huge thing to have when traveling. So, when I didn’t catch the first train, I bought tickets for the next train to Bayeux. I then utilized the time the best I knew how, I wrote postcards for those back home J. After writing postcards to Mom, Dad, Kayla, Kiana, Chase, Kelly, and Megs. If you read this journal entry before you get the postcards, well I guess it is not such a big surprise now…lol
This is the cool part of the story, as I was sitting down, I spotted Larry and Nika on the same train!!. We were ECSTATIC to see each other. We kept saying how glad we were to see that we were all ok. What happened was Larry and Nika over slept and felt very bad about everything. It all turned out for the best though J The train left at 10:43 am and we showed up in Bayeux around 1 o clock.
Once we unboarded the train, we realized how amazing of a town Bayeux was. We were all very excited to be there, and couldn’t wait to do some walking around and stuff. After a little confusing walk to Larry and Nika’s hotel, we found that the town was super small and very easy to do by foot. Then we went searching for a hostel for me to stay at. We finally came upon a place called “Family Hostel”. There was no one there, and we were just walking around in it. Weird stuff. We found out from a carpenter that it opens at 3. So we decided to go to a café and grab something to eat as we were all starving. I had a coffee and smoked ham sandwhich with butter …mmm.
I settled into my hostel then we went exploring. First we went to the Cathedral of Notre Dame (not to be confused with the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris…they are two separate cathedrals…lol). Once we finished walking around there, we headed to the Bayeux Tapestry. We walked around this explanation tapestry of the entire story, spending time reading the story of William the bastard. Once we had finished with that, we headed upstairs to the cinema. We took goofy pics with us and the cardboard characters and then entered the cinema. It was a hilarious producation. Many times I busted up at its corniness. Anyways, we then went to the tapestry where we heard an audio story again. In all I somehow got to know the story 3 times either through a movie, reading, or listening, so now I know the story all too well..lol
Once we left, we headed back to the hotel to figure out what to do for tonight and tomorrow. We figured out everything and then headed out to dinner. We found this amazing place. It was called like La Fragole or something like that. I had deep fried trout, escargot (for the first time ever!! And it actually tasted good!), a raspberry cake for desert smothered in sauce and then two glasses of wine. We had a really great dinner. Then I was back to my hostel. I rang the bell and this grumpy lady came out to let me in. I was happy to be in, but she didn’t know what room I was in. After a long complicated convo in French and English, she gave me a key to room 15 even though she said I was in room 14. Lol, anyways the key worked and I was the only one in the room. It was actually pretty eerie. I liked being by myself, but not really. Kind of hard to explain. I watched video I had taken of Paris and then hit the sack after securing my stuff. What a day!
10/26/04
Today ROCKED!!! I cannot praise God enough for my amazing adventures through France. Today marked the end of my vacation to France. It is hard for me to believe that in one day I visited the beaches of Normandy, the awesome town of Bayeux, and returned to Paris for the evening. I am going to miss France a lot. I am going to miss meeting travelers every day, experiencing new cuisine each day, gazing up to the Heavens contemplating the amazing love of my Saviour (ok so I can do that one back home too, but when the Eiffel tower is right in front of you, you are overcome with an emotion unlike any other). Ok, I am still here and alive, so for now, I am going to continue to live every moment of this fall break.
The morning started off in the quaint family home hostel. I was terrified the night before because I had a room to myself, but the morning was a lot better (as I was not afraid in the light). My plans were to catch a bus trip out to the beaches of Normandy at 8:30, but I did not wake up til 8. I decided to try and catch Mont. St. Michel with Larry and Nika at 9:23. I showered (in a really really hot shower). The shower really surprised me as most showers are lukewarm to hot. This one was SCORCHING!! I couldn’t control the temperature, so the shower lasted very short. I then headed to breakfast.
Breakfast was really cool. The lady who didn’t like me the night before, suddenly transformed into a super cook. I sat down with a French family. It was so interesting to see them interact and stuff. I just looked around a lot and laughed when they laughed. I didn’t really pick up too much of what they were talking about. I started off with the cereal kix stuff. It was ok. Then I had the croissants. HOLY COW!! Those croissants rocked!
Once in Bayeux, I decided to book it to the train station to catch the Mont St. Michel. I showed up around 9:14 and inquired about the train to Constances and if it was going to Mont. St. Michel. The man informed me that the next train to Mont. St. Michel was the 27th at 5:00 pm. I was like, crap. So then I went back into Bayeux to look for Larry and Nika. Ooo ooo, I forgot, on the walk to the trainstation, the sunrise was AMAZING! It was a really late sunrise (after 8:30 am), but it was fantastic. I took some pics of it and the Notre Dame. Once back into town, I chose to go to the tourist office first before seeing Larry and Nika, and who was in the tourist office but Larry and Nika…lol We met up both realizing that our plans were drastically changed and were looking for something to do with our day. We decided to leave our bags at the info desk (which was really nice of them) and leave on the train at 2:58 back to Paris. We split ways, they headed for breakfast and Me to the internet. I walked around town, enjoying the company of cafes, brasseries, chocolatiers, and the like. At the end of town I found the internet.
Afterwards, Larry, Nika and I all went to the World War II museum. It was a really really informative museum. They had tons of original war uniforms, artillery, guns, newspaper clippings, and detailed information on the entire d day invasion. I learned a good bit for the 45 mins I was in there. After leaving, I headed to the bus station to catch the bus to the beaches of Normandy. I met two girls waiting for the bus. Their names were (coincidentally) Brooke and Becca. How crazy is that? Here I am on a bus with like nobody on it besides us and I run into a Becca and a Brooke. These girls were from Minnesota and were traveling together for quite some time.
We visited the American Cemetary where Omaha beach was. This was the most intense part of my adventures during fall break. Standing amongst the graves of so many who gave their lives for freedom’s sake. I have such a larger respect for those who serve in our armed forces.
After the time at Omaha beach, Becca, Brooke and I went back to Bayeux on the bus and parted ways. I met up with Larry and Nika again and headed back to Paris around 3 to catch our overnight train to Madrid (which left around 11ish).
When back in Paris, I headed on the walk which I loved so much, past the louvre and the cool cathedral, and along the Seine, and then to show up at St. Chapelle, and Notre Dames’ foot. My main focus was to shop a little, and then see the city from atop the Eiffel tower, then head to the train station. Once at the Eiffel, I realized that I was going to have to wait 30 mins in line. I loved every bit of climbing the heights of the Eiffel. Headed down next to a british kid who kept saying “right then”. Also, took some peoples picture atop the Eiffel. Once on the bottom again, I booked it to the metro. I soon realized I could not take the RER so I had to figure out an alternate route back to the train station. The next hour and a half was a huge blur. It was a lot of running around because the train 5 was out of service. I had 24 minutes to run to the train station. I am so glad that God sent this man on the top of the metro stop to point me in the right direction. I would not have made it if that didn’t happen. I ran as fast as I could, giving myself breaks, but I arrived with 7 minutes to spare. Met Larry and Nika and we were happy to be on our way to Spain!!
Once again, if you would like to continue reading about my journal entries for Fall break, the next portion is in the Majestic Madrid and Totally Incredible Toledo section. I don’t know if these two will be posted today, but most certainly they will be posted tomorrow. Keep in touch everyone!
Salut!
Kyle Kekai
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