So we rented a car out of Paris to drive around France in. It is a standard and my dad hasn't driven a standard in, oh.. thirty years so he is a little... rough around the edges. Also all our suit cases don't fit in the van properly. Now you are thinking... a van in France I didn’t think those existed, oh but they do... but I wouldn't call it a van unless you would call the back seats the trunk. The car is 'supposed' to fit seven people and three big suitcases and two little. However... you can't do both at the same time, they failed to mention this. SO we had to cram all our luggage into the back and Emily, Tess and I sat in the middle seats crammed together. AND to put the icing on the cake my mom had told us before we left 'not to pack rolling suitcases as they are too big, we are going to pack duffle bags'. The day we left i came upstairs to three rolling suitcases and my father huge rolling duffle. I was the only person who packed a duffle bag. Packing the car became my job because i was the only one who could work the luggage so my dad could see out the back window and the four other suit cases weighed around 20kilograms each.... This is just the beginning.
ANYWAYS... back to driving north. Our next stop was in a town called Rouen. This town had three huge churches, one modern like church (really odd looking) and was the place were Joan of Arc was killed. From this location we could spread out through the north of France to different areas.
Giverny - Claude Monet's House and Gardens
I took a bunch of pictures here but I will only post a couple.
Rouen
This is the view from my room in Rouen. The wall there is the huge cathedral. It was really neat how close the church was to all the other buildings in the area. You can also see the little white train in this picture. These little trains are in most of the tourist cities in France. Luckily my parents didn't submit us to the embarrassment of ridding around in one of those for an hour.
Rouen - Cathedral
Another view from my room.
Rouen
One of my artsy shots from inside the Cathedral across from my hotel.
Rouen
This is another church in Rouen. it contains some amazing stained glass that was moved during the war from a cathedral they thought would be attaacked. So they moved the glass to protect it. The church has something to do with Joan of Arc as well. I think she was killed outside of the original church or something.
Common on a lot of churches in Europe, there are statues of little boy peeing as a fountain on the side of this church in Rouen.
These are some carving in a courtyard that is a memorial for people who died of the black plague in France. Also located in this courtyard is a petrified cat that died because of the black plague. It is perfectly preserved pretty much and they don't know why.
These are some drunk men who were hanging outside another one of the four churches in Rouen. It was... oh.. about 9 or ten in the morning when i took this pic, and those bottles are in fact beer bottles. It was very humorous.
Normandie
We went on a day trip that ended up covering two days to visit the D-Day memorial museum. It was very interesting. We got to see a Canadian, American and a German cemetery. As well we went on the Omaha because and over looked sword beach. It was really weird to be at a place that you have learned so much about in history class. This picture is of the Canadian cemetery.
There was also a plaque outside the cemetery that read: Their name liveth for evermore.
This is a picture looking over at one of the american beaches I think. The part I was standing on was part of Sword.
It's German! You are allowed to go behind and see the other side of it too. Really interesting.
American Cemetery
The American cemetery had a lot more money put into it. There was a computer to find where people are buried as opposed to the books in the other cemeteries. As well, everyday they play the trumpet to one of those trumpet songs and take down the flags at five pm. If a veteran of the war is there they are part of the ceremony and are given the flag.
Unknown soldier.
Omaha beach
German ammunitions hold
This was a German bunker. It is located on point-de-hawk (I don’t about the spelling) Anyways. This was an ammunitions hold and it exploded from the inside and sent huge cement blocks flying everywhere.
German Bunker
We got to go look inside a German bunker which was really cool. There would be about 40 people living in a really small space. It came with electricity, showers and grenade protection. The ceiling was made of metal so if they were attacked rocks and cement wouldn't fall on them.
Point-de-hawk was heavily attacked during WWII. In this picture you can see that the ground was bomed and the craters all still remain.
German graveyard
This picture was taken inside the D-Day memorial museum. I didn't know if you were allowed to take pictures inside or not so I snuck this one. It is of the Star of David that the Jewish people had to wear in WWII. There was a lot of cool artefacts from the war in the museum, it was a really big museum.
I took a bunch of pictures here but I will only post a couple. 
This is the view from my room in Rouen. The wall there is the huge cathedral. It was really neat how close the church was to all the other buildings in the area. You can also see the little white train in this picture. These little trains are in most of the tourist cities in France. Luckily my parents didn't submit us to the embarrassment of ridding around in one of those for an hour. 
Another view from my room.
One of my artsy shots from inside the Cathedral across from my hotel. 
This is another church in Rouen. it contains some amazing stained glass that was moved during the war from a cathedral they thought would be attaacked. So they moved the glass to protect it. The church has something to do with Joan of Arc as well. I think she was killed outside of the original church or something. 
Common on a lot of churches in Europe, there are statues of little boy peeing as a fountain on the side of this church in Rouen. 
These are some carving in a courtyard that is a memorial for people who died of the black plague in France. Also located in this courtyard is a petrified cat that died because of the black plague. It is perfectly preserved pretty much and they don't know why. 
These are some drunk men who were hanging outside another one of the four churches in Rouen. It was... oh.. about 9 or ten in the morning when i took this pic, and those bottles are in fact beer bottles. It was very humorous. 
We went on a day trip that ended up covering two days to visit the D-Day memorial museum. It was very interesting. We got to see a Canadian, American and a German cemetery. As well we went on the Omaha because and over looked sword beach. It was really weird to be at a place that you have learned so much about in history class. This picture is of the Canadian cemetery. 
There was also a plaque outside the cemetery that read: Their name liveth for evermore. 
This is a picture looking over at one of the american beaches I think. The part I was standing on was part of Sword. 
It's German! You are allowed to go behind and see the other side of it too. Really interesting. 
The American cemetery had a lot more money put into it. There was a computer to find where people are buried as opposed to the books in the other cemeteries. As well, everyday they play the trumpet to one of those trumpet songs and take down the flags at five pm. If a veteran of the war is there they are part of the ceremony and are given the flag. 
Unknown soldier.
This was a German bunker. It is located on point-de-hawk (I don’t about the spelling) Anyways. This was an ammunitions hold and it exploded from the inside and sent huge cement blocks flying everywhere. 
We got to go look inside a German bunker which was really cool. There would be about 40 people living in a really small space. It came with electricity, showers and grenade protection. The ceiling was made of metal so if they were attacked rocks and cement wouldn't fall on them. 
Point-de-hawk was heavily attacked during WWII. In this picture you can see that the ground was bomed and the craters all still remain. 
This picture was taken inside the D-Day memorial museum. I didn't know if you were allowed to take pictures inside or not so I snuck this one. It is of the Star of David that the Jewish people had to wear in WWII. There was a lot of cool artefacts from the war in the museum, it was a really big museum.