Pleven, Bretagne, France

PLEVEN, BRETAGNE, FRANCE: Today, Tuesday, we drove from Honfleur to Deauville looking for the beach and boating scenes Monet painted and found a very fancy resort city. We happened by riding lessons for kids, tennis courts, lots of big sail boats, glitzy downtown, realtors, banks [all ferme for holiday], and a big flat clean and empty beach. Maybe the rain and wind were the reasons the beach was uninhabited.

We drove west along the coast ending up at the D-Day beaches and the American Cemetery. There were lots of folks there. It was very moving. Exploring the bluffs reveals lots of German implacements largely intact. The whole thing is hard to grasp especially with a few swimmers in the water.

After Omaha beach we went on to Pleven in Brittany where we are booked at Manoir du Vaumadeuc. This is another beautiful place, a fifteenth century chateau, now a B & B run by a descendant of the original family. Our room was the library with a gigantic fireplace.

The weather has been cold, windy and rainy at times. The region, even so, is way ahead of NJ with rhodos, roses, chestnut trees, iris, hawthorne trees and wisteria all in bloom.


D-Day Cemetary

German Pill Box

Manoir du Vaumadeuc