We met up at nine for breakfast in the hotel restaurant. Not the best one but it was sufficient for our needs. Our reserved time slot for entry to the Caen Memorial Museum was at 10. When we checked in at the reception they recommended us to take one of the smaller exhibitions before the main one because there were quite a lot of people already inside.
So we started with the Cold War exhibition. Since I’m not that interested and well-read about history in general it was quite informative to read so much about it. Fascinating and scary at the same time. Halfway through we went inside a 360-degree cinema which took a crash course of European history during the 20th century.
We took a coffee break at the museum bistro and then headed into the main exhibition, the second world war. This was quite crowded and had a lot of information so it was a bit rough to take it all in. With the experiences from yesterday, I think I might not have been in the best shape to go through it properly. Anyhow, we walked it through and then headed off to the last one, the bunker. It was an actual bunker that was used by the Germans in the defense of Normandy.
We got back to the hotel and took the car to the city center once again to get some lunch. Peter found a place just at the car park we’ve been using the whole weekend where everyone but me could get clams. The sun popped out and it was a rather nice meal and environment.
The afternoon wasn’t really planned, but Peter and Daniel wanted to go to Bayeux and look at a tapestry museum. Dad wouldn’t mind some alone time, going to a couple of record stores and writing his postcards. So we three brothers jumped into the car and left for Bayeux, a 30-minute drive.
We did a couple of laps around the museum before we found a parking spot. It required a parking disc and to my surprise, there were none in the rental car. So we took a receipt and wrote the date and time on the back, leaving it in the windshield hoping an inspector would accept it.
We entered The Bayeux Tapestry Museum and looked at a 69-meter-long piece of cloth that is about 1000 years old, with “drawings” on it, telling a story. You got an audio guide that ensured that everyone was moving at the same pace along the tapestry. It took longer than expected and even though I wasn’t that fascinated my two brothers were happy that we went. Afterward, we got some ice cream before heading back to Caen to meet up with Dad again.
We picked him up downtown and went back to the hotel. During Peter and Dad’s run yesterday they had found a mini golf course in a nearby park so we went there to enjoy the fine weather and pass some time before dinner.
The courses had both concrete and synthetical grass, weird obstacles, non-bouncing borders, uneven surfaces, and some impossible shots. We did what we could and it was a quite tight race for the second place. Dad won with a comfortable margin. It was fun though, a couple of the holes created some really funny moments 🙂
Back to the hotel for some cards and a shower before heading for the highlight of the evening, the restaurant Ivan Vautier, one star in the Micheline guide. We went for the “trust the chef”-option and we couldn’t have been happier. A delicious four-course meal with great staff and service. Not my usual kind of food, hence the statement, “But the bread was good”. But it was really good! It took us almost three hours but the time went by quickly.
Now I’m sitting writing this blog post, we’ve just made plans for the trip back to Paris tomorrow and time for some sleep before returning home.
