Normandy

The first three days of our trip were spent in Normandy, France. We flew into Paris, rented a car and drove to the coast. Our first stop was Mont St. Michel, a rocky tidal island with a small town (population: 50) and a monastary. As we were driving up to it Lacey informed us that it is the number one tourist attraction in France and by the amount of people there, I believe her. Everything about the island was beautiful and we spent several hours checking out the 1000 year old monastary as well as the gift shops. We had to have our car out of the parking lot by 9:30 because of the incoming tide. We wanted to stick around to see the tide come in but we ended up driving straight to our hotel (we were all pretty tired from getting no sleep the night before).
We spent the next day around the D-Day beaches of WWII. The first place we went to was a museum with information about all the countries involved in the battle of Normandy. There was also a war memorial there. We then went to Juno beach, which is the beach the Canadians landed on. There is a museum there that is specific to the Canadian battles and what life would have been like during that time. The museum was interesting, but Amy and I spent most of our time walking along the beach. We had a long drive to our next hotel so after a quick stop for pizza, we headed towards Paris.
The next day was all about Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette and the Palace of Versailles. The palace was HUGE, especially the gardens. Inside, we got to see several rooms, including the hall of mirrors and the king and queens beds. You weren't allowed to use flash inside so a lot of my pictures didn't turn out but I did get a few good ones. There were several other buildings on the property, including two smaller (although they were still pretty big) palaces. Marie Antoinette also had a country home, which was a 10 minute walk from the main palace, where she would go to get away from everything.
The first three days were a lot of fun but we were all excited to get to Paris.

Versailles gardens with the palace in the background

Versailles

view of the gardens from inside

hall of mirrors

Versailles

Juno Beach

WWII war memorial

Mont St. Michel street

Mont St. Michel