Normandy, Les Herbiers, Caen
We sleep in Brugge for the last night, and I wake up READY to leave this Granny-infested abyss. As usual, I am the first to wake up and I go downstairs for breakfast. The breakfast is subpar to say at the least, but I do end up packing some boiled egg and cheese sandwiches.
The drive to France is long, but worthwhile. The clouds are fluffy, the grass is green, and the fields are golden with wheat. The roads are definitely the nicest we have seen so far, and less crowded; but this moment was sort lived, France is filled with tolls! We end up paying 20-25 euros worth of tolls over the drive (and well over 100 for the whole trip).
Our first stop is Normandy, at the Omaha beach where D-day occurred about 6-7 decades ago. We visit the memorial, which was very educational and commemorated our good ol’ troops. The beach was really nice, and again it hit me: I find it so absurd, that a few decades later, so much has changed. Only about 70 years ago… its crazy. History, AP Euro, all that stuff is coming to life in this trip…
We proceed to eat a glorious little French joint for dinner, in celebration of Aaron’s birthday. First legit meal in Europe. Good stuff.
The next morning is glorious with sunny and blue skies; it will be a glorious day. This is obviously not because of the good weather, rather today (July 2, 2011) marks the first day of le TOUR DE FRANCE!! I am super excited of course, one of the biggest reasons I wanted to go to this euro trip! Yet with great days, come great misfortune: I awake with my camera screen cracked. Not the LCD, but the screen covering it, its pretty big. Bleh. Anyways, before Les Herbiers (the end of the first stage), we head to this big and old castle : Le Mont Saint Michel. The castle was quite a beauty, apparently it is surrounded by ocean on the high tide (though it wasn’t today because it was low). Nonetheless, the castle is really cool, but super touristy. As we walk up the steps, there are resturants, post cards, souvenirs… and then after walking about 500 sets of stairs, you have to pay money to go to the very top of the castle; I hate touristy places… To be honest, I didn’t really care for this place— my mind was on le tour! We take a few pics, and I urge my brethren to hurry to Les Herbieres.
The rest is history. We drive into to small town, eat Mcdonalds (I splurge on a big mac meal, today is a celebration bit$%es), hike up to the 750m line (where the sprint usually starts) and watch the race. As we camp out, huge vans and cars filled with advertisements start playing loud music, dancing, and throwing out free crap! I managed to pick up a few packs of inflatables, junk, cap, and gummies— sweet deal! As the sprint comes up, I cream my pants and watch Thor, Cadel Evans, Cav, Frank, Fabian Cancellara, and others hammer it up in a pack of about 20 guys. A few moments later, Andy and Contador are right behind. The end was an uphill finish, and these guys were going FAST. Its hard to imagine how they keep that speed after riding 190km (that’s nearly 120 miles people). It’s the drugs I tell you…
(evans, frank schleck, cavendish in the lead pack!)
(alberto you hurting a little?? haha)
Moments later, I see George Hincapie leading a pack (repping BMC). That’s pretty cool, since usually everyone is up in his GRILL about winning the prologue. I hope he kills the time trials. ANYWAYS, enough bike talk.
(george!)
(wdup mark renshaw!)
Afterwards, we drive around 4 hours to Orleans, our stop for the night before we hit up paris. Upon checking in, we have a good time with the receptionist talking about Truong and his sexuality (LOL). Summation of the conversation= Jerry: this is not the first time the French have dominated the Viets LOL. We of course hit up Mickey D’s afterwards and eat our glorious hamburgers, through a drive-through, without a car, like BOSSes. We eat it at a ghetto train stop, THAT’S HOW WE DO! PEACE ORLEANS, TOMORROW IS PARIS (that’s pronounced PAH-REE!!!) GET IT RIGHT!
BTW: The french love bruno mars (lazy song), and lmfao (party rock)
-Joe
