We are Back

Words can not adequately express our experience in France. To travel in a land that has had a vibrant culture since the beginning of recorded history is really hard to define. Our tour guide would take us into a stone cathedral and point out that it has been standing here actively used since the 14th century or this other one since the 9th century is really hard to wrap your head around. To stand in one of these buildings and understand that every stone was cut by hand, carried on a cart pulled by mule, raised 6 or 8 stories to the point of completion is a exercise in stretching the cerebral. Visions of all the history that has transpired while these buildings stood here inundating my mind all at once overwhelmed me. We think of our USA as a reasonably established country but to put things in perspective Jesus was still a current event when some of these were built. The same to be true of the castles that litter the hillsides. Scenes we know to be true seeing them via some sort of media but the enormity of it all really comes home standing in the middle of it all.
The beauty of France is breath taking. Hills, rivers, chateaus, orchards, entire community's that were established 500 years ago, homes with a legitimate thatched roofs, the Cliffs of Normandy where our soldiers fought the Germans.
To touch a german bunker on the shores of Normandy is a moment in itself. Makes me really appreciate how I have never had to experience war on our shores from foreign occupation.
The American cemetary at Omaha Beach...................
I will have more to say soon and we will have pics up on google picassa. I will email everybody a link as soon as I am done with posting. We took almost 1,300 photos but have culled it down to about 850 to post on the net.
Robert