Marissa and Anne began the day by visiting the Michel Cluizel Chocolatrium located in Damville about 20 minutes south of Evreux. John and I decided to attend to more pressing matters, namely breakfast. Damville had several restaurants and bars but none of those dam places actually served any breakfast. We thus made do with some bread products obtained from one of the town bakeries. We actually asked a few people in the town if they knew of any restaurants where we could eat breakfast and it became clear very quickly that such a thing would not be found here. Oh well…
John and I picked up Anne and Marissa from the chocolatrium at the agreed-upon 1 hour after we initially dropped them off and we thus proceeded to Caen to check-in at our next hotel. After dropping our luggage at the hotel we proceeded North to the Juno Beach Centre located in Courseulles-sur-Mer where 14000 Canadian troops landed on June 6, 1944. The museum at the Juno Beach Centre has been open only 4 years and was started by a group of Canadian veterans, who upon visiting Juno beach a few years ago were saddened to learn that no museum existed to explain what had taken place there during the second world war. Through their efforts and many donations this wonderful museum – whose board of directors are based in Burlington, Ontario, Marissa’s home town – became a reality.
After visiting the interior of the museum we opted into the 45 minute guided tour of Juno beach. Our guide, who happens to be from Quebec city, showed us remains of German bunkers and described the events that took place on Juno beach on D-day, 1944.
After Juno beach we travelled west to the cliffs overlooking Arromanches to see Gold Beach and the remains of the WW II artificial harbour known as Mulberry. On D-day soldiers and tanks were carried to shore in landing crafts. However, within 3 days, the allies had assembled Mulberry which allowed much greater efficiency in bringing soldiers, tanks, and the other requirements of war, to the Normandy beaches.
As a side note I wanted to mention that I had some ground horse for dinner today. It tasted pretty much just like beef though it was much leaner. I also enjoyed a locally-made apple brandy known as Calvados and I found it to be very tasty.
Tomorrow were planning to visit Mont St. Michel.
Did you taste any samples at the Chocolatrium? Yummy.
Comment by off2europe2 — May 10, 2007 @ 3:57 pm
Yes we were given a box of different chocolates to try and it was delicious!!
Comment by marissa — May 11, 2007 @ 1:44 am