On the bus from CDG to Caen to Cabourg

Once everyone arrived we jumped on the bus and headed towards our hotel, Hôtel Mercure, in Cabourg. On the way we stopped at the museum in Caen for a few hours. We took in a thirty-minute film that covered most of the war … ok, it was twenty-five minutes of D-Day and Battle of Normandy and five minutes from there to Berlin. The museum is built on top of the bunker of German HQ in western Normandy. It's dubbed a “peace museum” but has exhibits on WWI, WWII, and the Cold War. I guess they subscribe to the theory of détente or peace through strength or some such.

In another interesting twist of irony, we saw a bunch of these posters along the roadside. Our guide told us these were in support of the French Fascist Party. They don’t have any seats in government yet, but had a strong showing in the last election and made it to the second or third round. Interesting is probably not the right word – disturbing is better. One would think after suffering so much under fascism, France would have no tolerance for such politics. OTOH, it’s not politically correct to be intolerant of anything but intolerance! :)
Our guide is Jon and he his half-French, half-English and lived in Italy. He’s got a great style and has been very informative. Conveniently, our bus driver is also named Jon and they will both be with us until Berlin.

Time to go take a dip in the pool and get ready for dinner.

Day Early in Paris

I left a day early so that I could fly United and get upgraded to business class ... yes, I know, its a bit highfalutin but I'll live with the criticism. Anyway, the flight was uneventful and I managed a little sleep - not enough to call it a full night's sleep but enough to not be a walking zombie. I arrived this morning about 10 am and caught the shuttle bus over to the Marriott. I didn't know if I'd have to call but didn't really want to look up the number or burn the minutes so I waited it out. My patience was rewarded with a nice clean shuttle bus and a friendly driver. The Marriott is normal Marriott fare although maybe a bit plain. Unlike most of the Marriott hotels, however, it has one great perk: free internet! So now I get to geek out on the web and not have to pay a dime. Life is grand. After dumping my bags in my room, I decided I would try to stay awake the whole day. I had a quick shower and then caught the shuttle back to the airport to catch the train into Paris. For those who are interested, you can catch the RER (8.40 euro) from either Terminal 1 or Terminal 2 into Gare du Nord or whatever other central Paris stops you want and then take the Metro all over Paris. I'll tell you about the sights in Paris on my next post.