My Funny Valentine

**St. Désir War Cemetary Approx 3000 graves - Canadians, Americans, British, and German. Copyright 2011**

Okay - I have finally found a moment here to write something substantial!

How is Everybody!?!? I miss you all very much!

I am currently in the city of Caen, just south of the coast in lower Normandy, basically just south of the D-Day beaches. The history here is incredible! I spent almost 7 hours in the D-Day museum here - so fascinating! It was incredible to be standing on Ohmaha Beach, where almost 4500 soldiers died in one morning. The bunkers overlooking the beach are so well hidden, and maintain an eerie presence. Equally shocking was the artillery battery at Point-du-Hoc - a few hundred square metres that was hit with 700 tonnes of bombs the night before the landings! It was incredible to be walking between the craters, and inside the bunkers, where you can still see the bullet holes in the walls from the invaision. Truly eerie.

Aside from getting my world war two facts straight (and there's a lot of stuff they didn't talk about in High School social studies!), I have been enjoying many of the local specialties in the city of William the Conqueror - I tried Tripe a few nights ago - my first venture into organ meat - I actually really liked it! It had the texture of a well cooked ham, with a taste that destroyed the boundry between pâté and a porkchop! Really good! As well, many local cheeses - my favorite being I think the Pont L'Eveque (sp?). Really similar to Camembert, but it's made in squares instead of rounds.

Before Caen, I spent four nights camping in the small town of Cambremer - about 40km from Caen, in a rural campsite that was run by this tiny old lady. She was incredible!!!! She is 85 years old, living on her own, in a MANSION! Seriously though.... She is in perfect health, and had so many wonderful stories! I was the only person in the whole site, so we had coffee together, and chatted, and swapped stories. Truly a blast!

And I have to say that my time in Honfleur was incredible! I stayed with a couchsurfing family for two days, and they were SO kind! It truly felt like I was with family! Honfleur is a truly beautiful city! I absolutely recomend that people go there! It's the first sand beach that I encountered, and it's one of the towns that didn't get totally levelled by the war.

That's the other fascinating thing to realize. Most of the cities I've visited were totally razed. Everything has been rebuilt since 1944... Truly strange to think about that I find!

And in news - MY DAD IS COMING TO VISIT ME!!!!!!!!!!!

We are going to meet up for a week in Paris. I'm really glad - it's going to be so nice to see a familliar face! And plus, I'm going to get to see all the parts of Paris that I missed because I was constantly running around trying to get all my stuff organized! I'm really looking forward to that week too - just settle into a hotel, and relax - guarenteed a place to stay, somebody to eat with, talk with - it's going to be weird speaking in English sudenly!

Speaking of english, I have to say it's really miraculous what even just a few weeks in France can do for ones French! While my vocabulary still lacks a bit, and if I'm trying to explain something even the least bit abstract, it's a total disaster, but my accent has come LIGHT YEARS, and well, when a french person says - Mais, vous parlez bien français; vous venez du Québec? - I guess I know I'm doing okay... I love french, and I wish I could keep speaking it for many more months. Alas...

And, things are changing - I'm going to head to Iceland in June, for a few months instead of Italy - I'm going to try to avoid the summer crowds by going to a quieter country. Plus, that's supposedly when Iceland will be the most beautiful! Thousands more photos - all back-lit and polarized as seems to be the icelandic tradition!!!

Speaking of which some useless stats:

Almost 700km on the bike

7 Days camping

16 Days couch surfing

1400 photos

And that's all I can think of...

PS - Kids, knives are sharp.... don't play with them... That's my Speedskating leg...

Much love to all out there, and everybody should send me their mailing address!!!

POSTCARDS!!!

Trying to keep the rubber side down,

-Ryley-

"All is Well"