Brianna: “As you know, my family went to Normandy. I'm here to tell you what I thought of it. First of all, I just have to say that I've taken the Florida beaches for granted. Talk about rock-y . While we were there, there was one beach that was sandy enough to actually walk around on without getting sores and cuts all over the bottom of your foot! Although, it was quite nice to lay in the sun.

Anyway, about the abbeys. We went to way too many of them. The problem with abbeys is, it's just like coming up to a stone and mortar building, saying, ‘Oh, monks lived here,' and stare like idiots and marvel at it. Sure, it's cool to look at 10 th century buildings, but one is enough and when you go on guided tours for each…well, you know what I mean. But, in all, we had a great trip.”

Dillon: “When we first got to France, this is what I thought: ‘France, oh boy, beaches, cool cities, and war zones.' Take back what I said about a day ago and replace it with, ‘oh boy, another abbey.'

What my Dad thought: ‘Hmm, I wonder what we have planned between 2:00pm and 5:00pm? Let's see another abbey.'

What I thought: ‘I can't wait till 2:00pm when we go to the beach.' Speaking of beaches, when we went to Normandy, we saw big metal landing docks, a.k.a. big metal bits from World War II. We also built this huge sand castle that was trampled while my Dad was sleeping on guard duty.”

Mary: History, nature and food. 1,000 year-old buildings, colorful floral creations and sweet, chocolate-y crepes. 4 days in the Normandy region only made us want to return another time to see and do more.

A very choppy ferry ride across the English Channel brought us to the western region of Normandy. We visited several sites related to William the Conqueror, first King of Modern England, and other sites related to the D-Day events of 1945 and the liberation of France.

We lounged on beaches and relaxed in our French gite. (gite: [zheet] a holiday house in France; 18 th c fr ‘stopping place'). Our very poor French was tolerated by all we encountered.

Grant: “Normandy was more stunning and culturally rich than I ever imagined. Like Brianna and Dillon, I thought the abbeys were incredible, especially, Mont St. Michel. One could really get a sense of how the monks of Normandy lived 1,000 years ago.

The other fascinating thing was learning of the Norman-Viking history up to and including William the Conqueror and his invasion of England. Mary and I both commented on how little American students learn of this history given its impact on England, Ireland and thus America.

The sites commemorating the soldiers who died during WWII during the invasion of the Normandy beaches were striking. They have left much of it as it was after the invasions including the huge craters created by the Allied bombing of the German cannon sites.”