History and Context

We finally caved and are spending the night in a hotel. It cost €39 and I booked it from a McDonald's, because McDonald's is the only place that consistently has free Wifi. So now I sit in a bed. I just showered in a private shower. I have internet that functions at a reasonable speed. And there is even a T.V. These are luxuries that I appreciate as a nomad. You should appreciate them as well because a solid internet connection means you get a bunch of photos as well as a map I've been meaning to put together for a while. 

Seine-Maritime is the highlighted departments and one of the five departments that make up the region of Normandy.

Beginning with a couple of maps to give you a little context of where we've been and were we're going. Until yesterday we have spent almost every hour in the department of Seine-Maritime, one of five departments that make up the region of Normandy. Seine-Maritime is the highlighted region on the map of France seen above. Below is a zoomed in map of Seine-Maritime (click on it so you can actually see it)

A little background of where we've been.

1 - Rouen is the city where we had our flat and stayed for the first two weeks.

2 - The city of Neufchâtel-en-Bray where we played our first tournament.

3 - Head this way about 50 kilometers and you hit Mouratoglou Academy where we played tournament #2.

4 - Yvetot, locale of tournament #3. 

5 - About 50 kilometers further east was the city of Tourly, tournament #4. 

6 - The city of Yvetot, tournament #5. 

7 - The village of Yainville where Pascal lived isn't on the map. But it was in this area. We stayed here for two nights.

8 - Saint Vallery-en-Caux where we camped for two nights.

9 - Close to Saint Vallery is Veules-Les-Roses where we played tournament #6. 

10 - About 100 kilometers southwest is the city of Caen where we went to 'The Memorial' and to the north of that are the D-Day beaches where we have been for the last two days.

Now we are in the city of Rennes, it's about 170 kilometers southwest of where we camped last night. We had a very busy day today that began around 10:00. We made the one hour drive from Courseulles-sur-Mer to Colleville-sur-Mer, which is the home of Omaha Beach and the Normandy American Cemetery. Omaha Beach is the most infamous of the five D-Day beaches as the biggest loss of life took place here. About 3,600 Americans and at least 1,000 Germans.

Casualty approximations at the five different D-Day beaches.

The entrance to the American Cemetery in Normandy.

A view of Omaha Beach from the American Cemetery.

When we got the American Cemetery we wondered around the memorial for about an hour reading about various parts of the Normandy battles and watching a couple of interesting movies. It's worth noting that after mentioning yesterday that the French memorial in Caen was not particularly thankful of the Americans' effort in the war, this American museum was quite different. A video we watched showed several French historians talking about how grateful the French were when they saw there 'American liberators'. We also learned that just after the D-Day invasions the American's relentlessly bombed the city of Caen because it was a German stronghold, and in doing so killed about 5,000 French civilians. Perhaps this is why the museum in Caen didn't speak too highly of us. 

A fallen soldier's gun and helmet.

A monument at the American Cemetery.

The view from a monument at one end of the cemetery.

There are 8 plots, all about this size. 

Eventually we made our way out to the cemetery which was pretty amazing. You really have to see it yourself to understand it's impact, but you definitely leave with a lot of respect for those who died here. After walking around the cemetery for a while we took a short path down to Omaha Beach, which is a beautiful beach that is completely open to the public, and waded into the water. It's pretty cool to step into the water, turn around, and face the same hills that American soldiers faced some 70 years ago. Finally we grabbed some lunch in the tiny village of Colleville-sur-Mer before inspecting some old German shelters that overlooked Omaha Beach. 

Of the approximately 9,500 soldiers buried most have a Latin Cross marking their burial spot...

...but there are also about 150 Jewish soldiers whose burial spots are marked with the Star of David.

The rows and columns were very, very straight. 

A final view of the crosses, Omaha Beach in the background.

Eventually we walked down a short path to the beach.

What American soldiers saw when landing at Omaha Beach. 

Some sort of German bunker.

You could go inside some of the bunkers. 

It was actually pitch black in here, a bit creepy. 

After spending nearly 4 hours at the cemetery and Omaha Beach we decided it was time to hit some tennis balls. We traveled 20 minutes to the relatively large city of Bayeux in search of the local tennis club. The tennis club that popped up in the GPS led us to the middle of a round-a-bout. The directions I found online led us to a pool. And when I called the club and asked for directions we found ourselves cruising down a street when I finally spotted some courts out of the corner of my eye. But these courts were not the club's courts. These were public courts that were literally made out of asphalt. Since we'd already spent 45 minutes searching for the club we figured we might as well hit here. It was highly interesting. There were one foot tall plants growing in the court and large cracks that would cause the ball to ricochet in all sorts of directions. It was some serious street tennis. Frankie, being the hood rat that he is, felt very at home. 

Inspecting the courts.

Hood rat Allinson ready to ball.

We hit for an hour or so before going to the center of Bayeux, a town that I thought was really cool. It was too bad we didn't get to spend more time here. We grabbed some dinner at Subway because the kebab shop we wanted to go to only accepted cash and neither of us had any, before finally making the two hour drive to Rennes. Now I'm quite tired I will go to sleep in my lovely twin bed and sleep like a king.

They spoke English. That was very appealing.

I thought this city was awesome. Frank said it reminded him of Salamanca. He talks about Salamanca likes it's the greatest place on earth. I will be the judge of that soon enough.

No comment needed.

-Max