This operation is not being planned with any alternatives. This operation is planned as a victory, and that’s the way it’s going to be. We’re going down there, and we’re throwing everything we have into it, and we’re going to make it a success.
– Dwight D. Eisenhower, American army general, statesman, and 34^th President of the United States.

We left Rouen in the morning, but not without drama, courtesy of the tight parking spot and lane leading out the hotel underground garage! We didn’t think we needed a code to get out, but we did. The problem was, we didn’t have a code. So as we scrambled to figure out if David should call the front desk or I should go to the front desk, the car with a German couple came up behind us, making a tense situation even more stressful. The man kindly gave us the code. I got out of the car and at the entrance of the garage exit to help guide David out of the lane. But David had trouble with the stick shift, and the garage door came down. While I stood outside, I heard the car rev up and then a bang. I thought, oh no, the car backfired and hit the German couple’s car! The next thing I know, the garage door goes up and our rental car comes out, with the German man having driven it out! He said our car merely tapped his car and took off. With a sigh of relief, we took off and said au revoir to Rouen!

As I mentioned in my first blog of our France vacation, the whole reason we came to France was because Jacob, our WWII buff, wanted to visit Normandy. So here was the crowning jewel of the trip for him. We were going to stay in Bayeux for two nights and explore the various sites of Normandy and D-Day. Before we checked into our AirBnB, we stopped off at the Musee Memorial 1944 Bataille de Normandie. This museum is dedicated to the Battle of Normandy, so lots of tanks and weapons, mannequins in various uniforms, military maps, timelines, and dioramas, and historical panels and videos. This is for the hardcore WWII military buff, which meant this was not Isabella’s cup of tea. But we were indulging Jacob, our graduate. Isabella will get her turn in three years.

Adjacent to the museum is the Monument to Reporters (Le Mémorial des Reporters), a beautiful garden and memorial to all the reporters who have died in the line of service, reporting on wars and other conflicts around the world since WWII to the present. The grassy walkway through this green garden with white roses bushes wends its way among standing stone tablets that list the names of those fallen, categorized by year. The monument was inaugurated on October 7, 2006. According to the Bayeux Award for War Correspondents, “in 2015, 110 journalists have perished because of their profession or in dubious circumstances. Reporters Without Borders assures that of those 110, 67 have been killed for the sole reason of being journalists. In total, 787 journalists have been killed on the job since 2005. To that number, 27 netizens and 7 media associates can be added. This worrisome situation can be explained by the peak of violence against journalists in the last decade. They are now deliberately targeted and all the efforts put toward their safety have failed so far.” We noticed that some years bore a long list of names, and we tried to match the conflict to the year. At any rate, this was a very moving tribute.

After lunch, we settled in our very cute apartment above a local artist’s shop and next to a stream and waterwheel. What’s more, we had a view of Notre-Dame Cathedral of Bayeux, which is yet another beautiful cathedral and as big as Paris’s Notre-Dame. Miraculously, Bayeux was spared any bombing and its cathedral and buildings remained intact, which is a gift not to just the town and France, but to all of us visiting. The cathedral is a mix of Romanesque (ground floor) and Gothic (upper floors) architecture. The high central window above the altar contains rare 13th-century stained-glass pieces.

The Tapisserie de Bayeux Museum was steps from our apartment. You can’t take any pictures of the actual tapestry, which was made in the 11^th century, but I can share its history and story. Once believed to have been displayed in the cathedral’s nave, the tapestry, which spans 70 yards, is made of wool embroidered onto a linen cloth. A historical document meant to inform the largely illiterate citizenry, the tapestry tells the story of William the Conqueror’s journey from duke of Normandy to king of England. William successfully battled England’s King Harold at the Battle of Hastings in 1066.

Today was a nice introduction to Bayeux and set us up for our big half-day tour of Normandy for tomorrow.