Bus Trip Day 1 (since I can't think of anything more clever)

This morning marked the end of my stay with the Burlot family and the beginning of the program’s bus tour to Normandy and the Loire Valley, which is in the NW of France. What this means is that I will be staying the entire week in this:

Spending my nights here:

And seeing things like this:

Okay, well not only things like that. Today we went to the Bayeux, which is famous for its tapestry which is about a million feet long (I heard someone say that it was almost the length of a football field—I don’t think it was that long, but it was really long) and about three feet high. It tells the story of William the Conqueror (of Normandy, France) invading England and installing himself as king. It was made in the 11th century, and it is still in very good condition, hence all of the hoop-lah about it.

My personal favorite activity of the day was, however, the one back to America. Yup, that’s right. Today I walked on American soil. Or at least, the part of land that France gave to America because of the American soldiers who gave their lives there.

Omaha Beach was a lot more impactful on me than I was expecting. It’s hard to describe, so all I will say is that I felt a tremendous debt of gratitude to these men. I also felt tremendously proud to be an American—to have this kind of heritage.



And since I know that you can’t get enough pictures of me…