All adventures should include handmade nougat

Saturday morning Katie took me to Bayeaux for the open market in town. I had my camera, but I was having too much fun exploring to actually take any pictures. They had everything there: clothing, fresh fruit and veg, live chickens and bunnies, seafood, cheeses galore, food trucks, cut flowers, tons of scarves, jewelry, and plenty of other random things. I stopped to ponder what this stuff was at a stand to my left, and I really couldn't quite figure it out. There were these large wheels of creamy colored flaky stuff that had all kinds of things in it. I had it narrowed down to some type of edible substance, but was it specialty cheese? Strange fruitcake? Alas, it was handmade nougat!

It looked like this, except the
wheels were bigger.

I had actually never considered that such a thing existed. I thought nougat was just some manufactured thing that happened to be inside candy bars and wasn't really the great at all. But then this man handed me a piece and I have no words to describe how awesome this stuff is. I will never again eat a candy bar that claims to contain nougat. I know better, now. Also, if you ever end up in France, you NEED to find a market and hunt these people down. Possibly just wave your arms around frantically saying "Nougat! Nougat!" until someone gets tired of it and escorts you to the right place. This seems like the best possible plan.

We picked up some paella for lunch from a street vendor and headed to the supermarket. I needed conditioner, and amazingly the stalls at the market that had shampoo and body wash didn't have any. On the plus side, it did let me test out my american debit card, which I learned does not function at checkout counters. Prepared for such a dilemma, I had cash in my wallet. The supermarket also had an ATM, which happily accepted my debit card in return for more cash, so all is well. It's always good to know you're not stranded with no access to your accounts.

After lunch back at the chateau, we ventured out to Arromanches. Now, I learned a little bit of WWII history in school and have read a little bit on my own as well, but I was not prepared for the things I saw at Arromanches. I actually had no idea that they built a temporary prefab harbor with floating roads.

First view of Arromanches.
The building is their D-Day museum.

I can't really explain the biker phenomenon, but at every single place that I've visited in France related to war history there has been a different gang of bikers. Each has at least one lady with neon pink hair, too. I've compared photos, it's not the same group. We went through the museum and I learned a whole lot more about the war than I'd ever been exposed to.

Seriously. Roads that floated with the tide.
This pier had to be enourmous!

What the beaches must have looked like.
Absolute chaos.

They had a brief film in English using old footage that I had to explain to Katie because she only speaks French. Afterwards, we meandered around Arromanches for a bit, bought some postcards and ice cream, then headed up to the hill above the town for some awesome views.

You can see out in the water the ruins of the
temporary harbor brought in to support the invasion.

I got out from behind the camera to prove
I'm not just making this crap up.

Up on top of the hill, there was this thing called "Arromanches 360." Katie had told me that it was a film that had comparison photos from the war and the same spaces today to help bring the reality of it a little closer. This year is the 69th anniversary of D-Day, and the region is prepping for the big 7-0 next year. One of the things they did was re-vamp the video in Arromanches 360. If you ever visit, GO SEE THIS FILM. It costs less than 5 euros, and was an awesome experience. They've incorporated footage from all parties involved in the war into a room that has 9 screen surrounding you (hence the 360 in the name). I can't really do the film justice in words, other than to say that I don't get emotional lightly and I spent pretty much the whole 19 minutes crying.

After that, we drove along the coast searching for a town's visitor center so we could drop off some brochures for the garden. They were closed by the time we got there, so we took a brief walk on the beach and saw these charming little white changing houses along the boardwalk. Katie told me very seriously, "These things are a Normandie thing, don't ever let anyone tell you otherwise."

This is an unusual color for the sky in my experience.
It seems to always be a lovely shade of grey.

It was a long day filled with awesome things. Friday was a day filled with weeding and more topiary practice. It was also thrilling, I assure you.