Day 1, July 4th

We flew through the night and arrived in Paris around 11:00 am.  We worked our way through customs and got to the rental car counter.  This was our first test, would we be able to remember enough High School and College French to get by?  I totally wimped out and the first words out of my mouth were, "Parlez-Vous Anglais?"  Fortunately for us everyone in Paris can speak English.  We got our rental car all set and headed out to the lot.  I was expecting a tiny smart car, come on now that would be hilarious right?, but instead we got a little Peugeot.  It was small, but had a back seat so it wasn't as comical as it could have been.  It took Matt a second or two to adjust to the standard transmission and the fact that he was driving with his knees up around his ears, but then we were off!  Our first stop was Normandy.  We wanted to see Omaha beach and all of that WWII stuff.  We payed about a million tolls on our way up there, and then we got to the beach and it was just a regular beach with families out on vacation.  I have to say I was dissapointed, I was expecting something right out of Saving Private Ryan, and instead we saw families sunbathing.  Matt wanted to get in, but it is the English Channel and freezing so he settled for just his feet.  We then drove to the WWII memorial and got there just in time to see them lowering the US flag.  It was neat.  I pride myself on not being overly emotional, but this cemetary/memorial got me a little teary eyed, especially concidering it was July 4th.