What can you tell me about Normandy?

What can you tell me about Normandy, France?

• The good, the bad, the ugly. I know NOTHING about Normandy, or France in general. My husband and I want to plan a trip there next year. My grandfather, a proud WWII veteran would ...show more

• Answer:

  I spent three weeks in Paris, Normandy and Brittany. My local subway system today is atrocious compared to France 10 years ago. If you get on a tour bus, which dumps 100 people into a little cafe during rush hour and you complain profusely, you are sure to be treated like a "angry, dumb American". I learned please and thank you, tried to learn a few words of clumsy French and had a blast. There is more than WWI & WWII. I went to see Carnac, spent 3-4 hours. Mt St Michel: Take time to eat out on an overlook/restaurant between the castle "door" and the top, midway. Just leave before high tide. French people are nice. Pick pockets (Gypsies, 9-10 year old girls, Romanian) are right where you go from ground to bus, from bus to ground, or platform to train/subway, vice versa. No French word, just yell pick pocket! There was a small war museum between Carnac and Mt St Michel, or between St Michel and Paris, looks small, but lots inside. Videos only play in Euro VCR's/DVD's. Two infantry cannon, WWII German, where you park. Don't rent big cars; the country lanes are narrow and often wet with rain, even in summer. Little cars have a lot of power, if a big group, go in two little cars. Took a laptop/internal modem and adapters from radio shack. Helped to see more, change plans. In Paris, see the Roman Thermopolis next to the Sorbonne. Go under Notre Dam and see the Roman digs. In America, you stop and see churches that are "Victorian"; in France, they are dark ages or Roman, skip Victorians? See the Loire Valley, the Chateaus, the troglodyte houses (Rochemenier). Caves/houses, some have been continuously occupied since the original inhabitants. I had a lady who grew up in Loire driving me around, translating (we could barely converse with one-another). Don't miss Leonardo's De Vinci’s house. Don't miss Chateaux Chenonceau, read up on it, plan to see the art, walk the riverbank, see the kitchen and escape door in the kitchen floor. Troglodyte houses... They just have a few traditional front doors and windows now. I wanted to go in the abandoned troglodyte houses, but never had the time. Double as wine and cheese controlled chill environments for aging. In Paris, don't miss Versailles, it's a suburb. So is where Joan D'Arc was born. Recommend Beef bourguignon and crème brulee at Pont Neuf area, ask around. A lot of German collaborators were killed (retribution for the family member(s) the Nazis killed). I ate in Cafes all over the roads Patton used, was never once treated rudely. This rule works everywhere I travel: be friendly, smile, stick out your hand, be curious, stay cool and calm no matter what, you are "on vacation". People tend to respond in kind. The horror stories are from people who do the opposite on vacation. Anywhere you can, go to local farmers markets. France has made a big effort to make amends to people they harmed in the past, part of that is self-evident in the farmers markets, bigger and more cornucopia than ours. Most rental cars had a 1.0 liter motor that screamed on 110 octane gas, rather than pinged like our cars do on 87 octane. Gas is expensive, but the cars are made economical on gas. I live where trains have to stop for red lights and school kids have access to the tracks and do die. Everywhere in France, bicycles, cars and trains are engineered for speed and safety, no "crossing arms" I ever saw, the cars are under or over, foot traffic under or over the train. Here in LA, all the money to do that went to crooked people who made a noisy, 50 mph train, slows to 35 in curves and almost tosses you out of your seat. At 160 mph, their trains make no sound, don't lurch you out of your seat in a 120 mph curve. Please don't take this the wrong way, they don't just dump people in prison. A convicted persons "good" is part of sentencing. They have "law and order" without the largest per capita prison system of all cultures (USA). During the freedom fries thing, I was thinking we should be following this countries newer examples, not pushing them into an oil war. During the cold war, America got into the habit of punishing anyone and everyone who "did not fight the communists", including France. If people here were honest about it, no one likes our market system, except economists, politicians and banks, high roller monopolies with access to IMF or World Bank, etc. Anybody smaller is tanked. I owned two businesses, banked with the same company (business accounts) since 1984. My banks German owned, took the tarp money, sat on it, made record profits, paid back tarp, will not help me start my third business, even though I did nothing wrong. Things are broken more here than in France, even the gov and military. Go see for yourself.