Day the Thirteenth

I. Love. Caen.

Steph and I abandoned Dani in Paris today. She will be enjoying Versailles and the Louvre while we visit a bit of Normandy.
We caught a train this morning. Steph, the Montreal Hulk, lifted our packs onto the shelf above the seats on the train, like where carry-on goes. I don't even understand how it happened.
We spent the afternoon exploring the town of Caen, where we're staying. Caen is located just 20 km from Juno beach and was liberated by the Canadians on July 18, 1944 after the D-Day landings. We are missing the seventieth anniversary by 2 days.
That's ok though!
Caen is beautiful and quiet and friendly and a nice change from busy, rude Paris. We visited several cathedrals and a castle today and even had time for a walk by the river.
Dinner was incredible. We went to a small creperie called Creperie la Fromentine and ordered 2 crepes to share and some local cider. It was absolutely perfect. I want to eat every meal there for the rest of my life.
After dinner we went for a walk and came across a twelfth century church that was destroyed during the raid in 1944. I can't even explain how cool it is for me to be in the place where the things happened. Such history. You can still see shell and blast marks on some of the buildings. We were walking with a purpose though, we were on a mission to find more Normandy cider. Carrefour is open until 9, we arrived at 8:57, just enough time to find the literal wall of cider, get overwhelmed, panic, and choose a local pear cider.
Currently, we are sitting in our room, watching EuroNews (the only English channel on our TV, but in the last hotel there was just CNN International so this is a real step up), drinking our ciders (Steph got red apple), and enjoying the natural air conditioning aka breeze.
Tomorrow is Juno Beach!

Things I ate:
    - Choco Suisse! Also, pain au chocolat
    - tuna baguette and an apple pastry
    - ham, gruyere, potato, and creme fresche crepe followed by a chocolate, banana, and chantilly crepe
    - cider. cider. cider.
Highlight of the day:
     - we found a cool exhibit about the 1944 raid that really loves Canada
     - the crepes
     - the cider
     - the ruins
     - I just really love Caen, ok?