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Study Trip to Normandy/L'Aigle

Hello List,

I’m back from my Normandy study trip. It was really terrific. We saw
picturesque Bayeux and the overwhelming Bayeux Tapestry (I bought an
English and a French version of a video cassette about the Tapestry and
a French book by Lucien Musset explaining the embroidery painstakingly.
We also went to the Mont-St.-Michel which really left a deep imprint on
all of us. On our way back to our hired minibus, I constantly kept
looking back at this place of myth and contemplation (and of thousands
of tourists every day). We saw WW II War Memorials and documentations
(depressing but important so you do not forget it should never happen
again!). More than 20,000 American soldiers and about as many German
soldiers lost their lives there on June 6, 1944 and the first days after
the Invasion. I personally feel these men did not die in vain because if
Europe had not been liberated from Nazism, we would not be here
exchanging emails as if we were one great family - including debates and
disputes. At Arromanches we saw the remains of the artificial port that
W. Churchill had built. The tides were low so we could see some of the
huge U.S. pontoons that were part of this ingenious construction.
Unfortunately I did not make it to L’Aigle but my youth hostel warden
exactly confirmed the words of the Labenne Brothers - I might find
myself facing a gun. She said these people there are very proud (she
used the French word ‘orgueilleux’) because they don’t like anyone to
walk on their private property. The good part of the story is that she
has got a sister at L’Aigle and that I might go there with her one day.
Things would be quite different then, of course. On the other hand, one
must really be aware of the fact that 200 years will have taken their
toll because the area is humid and intensely cultivated.

Good to be with you again,

Bernd