Mending While Blending: France 2025

Since we did not have anywhere to travel to and everything we could do was close by, we slept in until nearly 9:30AM. What woke us up was the sound of airplanes flying all around us. When I opened the windows I saw four C-130 transport planes doing fly-bys. I was able to grab a few pictures of them as we were getting ready. We headed down to the La Mere Poulard restaurant, a place with world famous omelets. Since we were up early enough, there was no wait and soon we were treated to a culinary delight. The restaurant was opened in 1888 by Annette Poulard and was initially named "A l'omelette renommee de la mere Poulard." She served a hearty meal to the Catholic pilgrims in the form of a soufflé omelette cooked over an open wood fire. The dish was served in a hand-hammered copper bowl and became the signature dish of the restaurant.

Our Wednesday wake up call

C-130 outbound

Sleepy eyes after that huge meal

I ordered "L'Omelette du Fromager", the cheesemaker's Omelette with creams of Pont-l'Eveque and 18-month aged Cheddar, onions and marinated raw vegetables. Jennie ordered "Poulet fernier sauce facon-vallee d'Auge", farm chicken sautéed in the Auge Valley style. I'll be honest, I was disappointed at first in my selection of the 42 euro dish. When it was served, it was very thin and nearly runny. The texture turned me off at first. However, the longer it sat on the plate, it firmed up and the taste was incredible. The price of breakfast was crazy, but I'm glad we did it at least one time.

We took a walk down the boardwalk to an open field where many sheep were pasturing. On our drive to the Mont, Jennie had said she wanted to go out and see the sheep. As we were walking, we were greeted to the sun. That quickly changed to mostly cloudy and periods of intermittent showers. The sheep in front of the Mont are an iconic look and found in calendars, postcards, and prints in all the gift shops. We found a place to enter the pasture and worked hard to dodge all of the goodies left behind by the sheep. Once we got to them, they were remarkably calm and disinterested in us. This allowed for some great photos and video.

The sun finally showed itself

Tides out.

Beauty and the beach

I like old church graveyards

Green, green, grass.

Million dollar pasture

Flower shoes for the pasture

The old man of the flock

Black sheep of the family

After spending some time roaming the pasture, we made our way back to the Mont and found ourselves part of a World War II veterans event. They brought in 6 busloads of veterans and had cleared a space on the beach for some events. Those events turned out to be paratrooper landings in remembrance of the D-Day events that took place just to the Northeast of the Mont. Against the backdrop of the sea and sky surrounding Mont St-Michel, US Army Green Berets with the 1st Battalion, 10th Special Forces Group(Airborne) conducted a commemorative operation. It was amazing to see this take place. You had French school kids, waving American flags, and singing the National Anthem. There were 53 veterans that were there. It was difficult to get pictures of all of them, but one burst of pictures that stood out to me were taken during the playing of the National Anthems of France and the USA. A group of these veterans wanted to stand up but couldn't due to their condition. They sat in wheelchairs, saluting through both of those songs. One of the guys I grabbed in the photos was F/O Daniel Keel, a Tuskegee Airman. He was born in September 1922, making him nearly 103 today. He graduated with a degree in aeronautical engineering and was drafted in 1943. He attended pilot training obtaining ratings in the T-6 Texan and B-25 bomber in preparation for serving in the Pacific. The war ended before his deployment. He was discharged in 1946 and is one of three black officers to earn three aeronautical ratings during WWII. Given how messed up we are right now and how polarized we are, I can only imagine what Mr. Keel would say to our current government leaders today. He grew up in a polarized culture, but still answered the call to serve his country. You can read about all of these veterans at the link below.

Veterans Attending The 2025 Events

I am not the sentimental type, but I couldn't help but reflect on those veterans who responded when their country called them. The reality is had they not stepped up, France today would German speaking, along with Poland, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, The Netherlands, Luxembourg, Yugoslavia, and Greece. These kids did what needed to be done. I am not so sure our country would stand up again to answer that call.

During the French National Anthem

Old Glory flying in Normandy

Green beret incoming

After our outing, we headed to a restaurant for crepes and wine. We had a cold bottle of a white bourdeaux and some Nutella filled crepes. We spent the rest of the day visiting the shops and buying gifts for the kids left at home. Tomorrow we take the train to Lisieux.