Normandy = 1st Trip Failure

Le Havre was an experience. We made the train out with only minutes to spare; not that it ended up mattering. We got into Le Havre, which is in the province of Normandy at 11am. That gave us 6 hours to see the D-Day beaches, American Cemetery, War Museums, etc. None of that happened, if you were interested in reading about them, do not bother reading any more. Turns out, the bus to that area only leaves every 3 hours on Saturdays, so even if we took it out when it left (not until 2pm), it wouldn’t be able to bring us back in time to make our 5pm train back to Paris. A cab, the information guy told me, would be about 160 Euro, each way – forget that. Car rental seemed to be the cheapest and flexible option. The Avis dealership at the train station was closed for renovation. The "information guy" then sent us down a street which he promised had 3 rental agencies, he was wrong. 30 minutes of walking later, we hit the beach. There the Tourism Office told us that Europcar agency opened soon and to walk over there.  After grabbing lunch, with an amazing croque monsieur, we found Europcar and they opened at 2pm, except today, they were closed. 

Le Havre: Porte de L'Europe

Let me fill you in on the bane of our existence today. The G8 Summit Manifestation. So apparently there was a G8 summit, going on in Le Havre, today. This meant that every single thing in the town was shut down. It was eerie when we first got there and no one was walking the streets, and all the shops were closed, but I didn’t think much of it. Then at the lunch place and tourism agency, I found out this was why. According to one shopkeeper, everyone was mandated to shut down for the day because of security reasons (?). The lunch place was even violating them by being open, so odd. I’m going to have to look more up about it online. I know G8 summits are always heavily protested and threatened, but this seemed over the top. [According to later news articles, about 7,000 rioters/protesters were there] All the car rental places in the whole town were shut down, along with every other type of tourist attraction or shop. Another person I asked about it on the street said that it was too dangerous for places to be open today and she had only gone into her shop to do some cleaning. Then, in the weirdest event of the day, when I asked a couple for directions to the train station as we were leaving, she told me not to go in that direction because it was dangerous, but when I told her I needed to go there for my train, she said that we were very courageous and shuttered at the thought of us going that way. I guess ignorance is bliss, I’ve always liked that phrase and it applied today (perhaps). I still don’t feel like there was any danger anywhere I went, but I guess I don’t know the full story.. On our train to Le Havre, there were cops pacing the aisles a lot, and the train station in Le Havre was flooded with police, not to mention police everywhere out on the streets. 

relaxing on the pebble beach

I’m not sure exactly where in the city the events were taking place, but as we were leaving we noticed one of the streets was trashed (looking like a protest was there earlier) and there was an audible megaphone in the near distance. Odd odd odd. Whatever, we’re on the train back to Paris now. So, since going to the D-Day sites was impossible, we relaxed on the pebble beach for the afternoon, which honestly, was really fun. It was nice to just relax and not do anything, after a morning, and week, full of walking non-stop rushing to fit everything in. It was a very peaceful way to break up the trip at the halfway mark. So that’s that, right now I’m bustling through the French countryside on this train, and in a few hours will be in Belgium. I don’t even need to say how excited I am to go back (home) to Belgium. Yes, I can call it home, I grew up there. So many memories will hopefully come flooding back to me, just like speaking French has. Can’t wait. Au Revoir for now, 7 days from now at this time I will be landing in Philly, so so crazy.