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Monday, June 16, 2003 Normandie I think from now on I'm going to type these entries up on a friend's laptop in advance so I'm not constantly having to shorten entries because I'm running out of minutes at the internet cafe. But for the time being.... This weekend our group left for Normandy because more-or-less every hotel in Paris was booked for the Johnny Hallyday concert. I don't get it; the guy's old (we're talking probably 60 here, maybe more) and he's a huge sex symbol. It's scary. It was an anniversary concert and had been advertised for something like two years, so since we needed to leave our hotel anyway, we took a trip to Normandy and saw the monuments to World War II. Americans are notorious for lacking a sense of history, but it's everywhere you look in France--every village, every city has a monument to the people who died in various wars, primarily WWI and WWII, not to mention ancient cathedrals and castles. With a half-hour summary of D-Day and its significance by my friend Nick, who was dubbed tour guide/professor for the trip, we had some time to walk around the beach, a museum, and the American cemetery. The American cemetery alone holds over 9000 graves--if I remember correctly, 40% of the men who died in the offensive--including soldiers "known only to God" (in other words, 300 unidenitified bodies). D-Day, June 6, 1944, is considered by many historians the turning point of the century. If it hadn't worked, the world would look very different today. Plaques in the area ask visitors to remember the price of liberty and the cost of freeing not only France, but all of Europe. ^ Top | 9:56 AM | | | 
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