Thursday, natallie and I randomly decided to go to Normandy the next day. When I mentioned my plans to the other imbas, jamie, sara and pfaff decided to jump on board. And that's how it came about that I volunteered myself to drive a manual transmission van 220 kilometers to the D-day beaches. Even with the navigation system on the fritz, we made it out of Paris alive. Anyone who has ever driven with me will tell you that I drive like a grandma. I always have, always will. My hands are white-knuckled and glued to the ten and two positions. Anyways, i was a little nervous about getting out of Paris but we just followed the signs and everything was fine. We arrived in Caen around one and after driving around the city for half an hour trying to find the tourist office, we just parked. This is us trying to figure out how to pay for parking. How many imbas does it take?
Finally found the tourist office after deciding to ignore the signs which pointed not in the right direction and got some brochures which were basically of no help. We saw a lady with all of her hair in one dred lock which was pretty much the sickest thing i have ever seen. 
Finally found the tourist office after deciding to ignore the signs which pointed not in the right direction and got some brochures which were basically of no help. We saw a lady with all of her hair in one dred lock which was pretty much the sickest thing i have ever seen. After a quick lunch, natallie volunteered to drive and subsequently keep me sane, since pfaff has a tendancy to backseat drive with comments such as, "by the way, we seem to be off our route," and "geez, are you really only going 120? HA." We headed towards Omaha beach. It was absolutely beautiful. 
It was also pretty hilarious to see Jamie re-enact the storming of the beach. 
The water was cold, but that didn't keep some crazy tourists from stripping down to their skivvies to take a dip. We were too late to get into the cemetery, but we did see some people wind car racing or whatever you would call such a thing.
It was also pretty hilarious to see Jamie re-enact the storming of the beach. The water was cold, but that didn't keep some crazy tourists from stripping down to their skivvies to take a dip. We were too late to get into the cemetery, but we did see some people wind car racing or whatever you would call such a thing. 
After that we drove to bayeux to see some churches and have an amazing traditional normandy dinner. Then, the navigation system finally kicked in, but only enough to direct us towards the round about at the arch de triumph which is eight unmarked lanes of mayhem that no one should ever drive in. scary! And natallie was driving, which was good cause you can't tell when she is freaked out, so we were probably relatively more calm than we should have been. But we came out alive, so all is well.
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