Sunday
There are just a few pictures for this particular day.
We bid adieu to charmant Saint Malo and boarded the bus to visit the city of Caen and its Peace Memorial Museum.
The core of this exhibit centered on but was not restricted to the timeline of events that surround WWII.
It started by exploring the many worldwide influences and outright causes that led to the war. It went into great detail depicting every aspect of the war using archival material from allies and enemies alike colored with a decidedly French perspective.
And it went beyond the celebrations of VE and VJ Day. One exhibit explored the Cold War that seemed to pick up almost before the ink on Japan’s surrender had dried. There were side by side American and Soviet lifestyle vignettes seemingly meant to show the differences between these two societies–while, in truth, they illustrated the similarities of these “enemies.” There was a timeline room here as well with articles, artifacts and archival footage of the many milestones, each of which seemed to be marching us to nuclear war.
And speaking of nuclear war, there was a separate exhibit focused on the atomic age…or so I think. Unfortunately, we ran out of time for this…as well as the outside peace gardens, an underground bunker exhibit and probably more.
Skipping lunch, we were transported to the M/S Bizet — our home on the Seine River for the next 11 days — where we have a balcony! Sweet.
Unfortunately, due to French bureaucracy and Honfluer flexing its home-rule muscles, the ship was docked on the right bank/wrong side of the Seine in a bleak, almost forgotten area of Le Havre’s port rather than on the left bank/right side at Honfleur.
C’est la vie.
France: Normandy to Paris 