July 9

Yesterday we continued our Normandy tour visiting Utah beach and the town of St. Mere Eglise where paratrooper John Steele was entangled in the spire of the belltower of the church. He hung there for 2 hours and played dead because the town was full of German soldiers. He eventually had to move and was captured, but he escaped prison and survived the war. The church has stained glass windows depicting the brave paratroopers that liberated the town. We visited Bayeux cathedral and saw a wonderul exhibit depicting 2000 years of the history of Christianity. We headed out to the island of Mont St Michel. We walked thru the town and mounted the steps to the abbey only to find it closed - the workers are on strike. We had a lovely lunch and made our way back to Paris. We had some dinner and went to bed.