France Day 4 - a little lighter day

 Day 4 - July 17

Memorial atop Hill 314

The view from the hill

Today we got to sleep in a little bit and headed out to Mortain and Hill 314, so named because of its height above sea level. After a short walk thorugh the trees, we came to a chapel at the top of the hill which was backed by overlooks. You could see the entire valley from there.

At the parking lot is a memorial shared with Tannheusen, Montain’s sister city in Germany. It includes footprints from residents of both towns and encourages peace and forgiveness, Birgitta said. It says "Walk together on paths and leave traces."

We had lunch at the Hotel de la Poste – a three-course dinner, actually, so lunch is a misnomer. We started with salad that included duck gizzards or something like that. I ate some and they weren’t bad. Then came steak and baby potatoes. Again, not bad. Dessert was a merengue and fresh fruit (including strawberries, yum!) and it was very good. We had a little time to look around, so I went to the cathedral across the street. It’s a working church, so the service got out while we were at dinner.

It included relics of St. Guillame Firmet, the patron saint of the town. It also had a copy of a book that appeared to have been restored. I only know that because a copy of the pages as they originally appeared was hanging above the volume. When I stepped in, I could feel the floor was definitely used. There is a groove in the walkway where the feet of hundreds of parishioners have trod.

We were trying to decide if the church had suffered any injury during the war. The hotel was almost completely demolished, so the church building had to have seen something.

After walking around the inside of the church, I decided to walk around the outside. There was a wall at the back, and I was at eye-level with the stained glass window at the front of the church. I saw what looked like lights inside that, when turned on, must shine through the windows at night, which must look really amazing.

Dr. Larry Smith refills his water bottle at a fountain in front of the church in Mortain.

On the way to Brittany American Cemetery, we caught a glimpse of Mont-Ste-Michel, an island abbey that is a destination for a lot of people. Not us, though. It’s a full day to get there and back, and we don’t have time. From our distance, it looked a lot like Chimney Rock. :)

From left, Wayne Milton, Darin Krueger and Lori Milton lay the wreath at Brittany American Cemetery.

Anyway, Brittany American Cemetery and Memorial was our next stop. We laid a wreath and found each of the six members of the Nebraska National Guard buried there, sanding their graves and taking photos. I did not go with that group, choosing instead to make my own way around the cemetery. The rows of crosses look straight from the chapel toward the memorial. When you look at the rows from the side, however, they curve. It was really neat to see.

I had dinner tonight with Alan and Janet Baldwin and Wayne and Lori Milton. We walked down to a series of restaurants and sat outside. We ordered pizza (yes, it’s not a French food, but sometimes you just have to have pizza) and it was good. I had chocolate mousse for dessert and it was as fabulous as you would expect.

More to come as the adventure continues.