Normandy

The next place I visited was Normandy. Normandy is the sight of a lot of WWII history. Simply put, it is where British and American troops invaded France to get rid of the Germans. It is a collection of smaller French towns each with their own unique beauty and things to offer.

We visited four towns in Normandy- Pont Saint Michel, Caen, Hornfleur and Deauville. These were not our choices but were the places chosen by the Erasmus people who organised the trip.

Once again we found ourselves on a bus where it was party central. This time it was 7am on a Saturday and once again I found myself not wanting to par-take in the partying. However, this was not an option as everyone found it very exciting that I was from South Africa and Tafadzwa (the other UCT student) was from Zimbabwe. This involved a lot of shouting of “Waka Waka” and “Mandela”. Sooooooo Awesome!

We arrived a few hours later at Pont Saint Michel, which is a huge church/abby on top of a mountain surrounded by water. It is beautiful, but as churches go, I have seen better. It is pretty cool that it is on a mountain and is an island and like a whole little town exists in it with restaurants etc.

We then moved onto Caen which is the sight of another famous WWII battle. It has a huge wall in the middle of it which kept the bad guys out. My history of WWII is pretty lacking, as you can tell. It is a nice town, but we arrived in the evening so did not see much of it. We did see the canal it has through the middle, which is pretty cool and it has a good Quick Burger, where we got some food. And maybe one of the worst clubs I have ever been too- but this could have been because he was playing music popular in the 50s as the main attraction for the evening.

The next day we went to Hornfleur and Deauville. These are beautiful seaside towns, surrounded by the English Channel and apparently where Parisians take their summer holidays. I have never been to the Hamptons but it sounds a lot like the Hampton in France. They are small with old houses and lovely beaches. Not much to do with WWII here, but did have lots of seagulls, ducks and really good food!




Sadly we did not get to go to the D-day beaches, which is were I wanted to go. Erasmus is a bit dumb- don’t go on trips organised by them! But besides that, it was really nice to get out of Paris and see some more of France. It is very different to Paris- much more relaxed, the people don’t smoke as much, they actually eat food and are really nice to you.

I am definitely glad I went and I hope I get to see a bit more of France before I leave. There is definitely more to France than just Paris!