A Trip to Remember!

Normany France

As my dad was leaving France, we decided to take a week off and head to Normandy. See, in France, school goes for six weeks and then they have two weeks off, so it was the perfect time for us to leave the city. By that time, we had been in France for about four months and needed some time to decompress and destress.

Now, fall in Normandy can be hit or miss, and many people asked, “Why would you go to the beach at that time?!?” The answer: minimal crowds! Unfortunately, as we geared up for the trip, the forecast called for rain every day — but that didn’t deter us. We were determined to break in the new car and set off for a week filled with Normandy beach towns, WWII history, lots of relaxation, and sightseeing.

We left Paris Saturday morning and made our way to Honfleur — a small harbor city about two hours from the capital. We arrived around 4 p.m. and got comfortable in the Airbnb. At dinnertime, we walked down to the harbor (about a 15-minute walk) and checked out the shops and nearby park. After playing with the kids, it was time to eat — but in typical French fashion, not many places were open at 6 p.m.! We finally found Lou Cabana, and it did not disappoint. I had mussels, Hailey had a burger, Emery had a steak haché, and Fischer went with just fries. It was one of the best meals we’d had in France to date — and would you guess… we went back the next night too!

Day 2 we went to Étretat, about 45 minutes away, and marveled at the limestone cliffs. It was really amazing to see, and we enjoyed it from two different beaches. At the second beach, we even hiked up to the top and could peer down about a hundred feet to the ocean. Emery even walked the entire way up! After a full day out in the cold, we went back to Lou Cabana for another great meal.

Day 3 we packed up and headed to Grandcamp-Maisy, a very small fishing village between Utah and Omaha Beaches. On the way, we stopped at Pointe du Hoc, where the Rangers landed. It was insane to see the impact from the bombs that left giant craters. It was a well-done memorial and a very somber place, knowing the history.

After arriving in Grandcamp-Maisy, we checked into our attic Airbnb and decided on noodles and salad for dinner. It was super simple — but one of the top meals of the trip! After dinner, we walked out to the tidal flats to look for shells and washed-up jellyfish.

Day 4 we woke up early and went to the market. It was cool and damp, so we putzed around the small town before heading over to Omaha Beach. Despite being chilly, the kids had fun playing in the water. After that, we visited a small museum before heading back for noodles, round two!

Day 5 we went to Utah Beach and visited the Utah Landing Museum. It was a really nice museum — even Emery enjoyed it! She asked tons of questions and was fascinated by all the memorabilia. Fischer got a bit hungry toward the end, but luckily Hailey had a snack hidden away. After the museum, we ate at The Roosevelt and had great burgers and fries. From there, we went back to Grandcamp-Maisy and had dinner at a small restaurant.

Oh — and I can’t forget — on the way to Utah Beach, we stopped by the Isigny Sainte-Mère dairy factory, which had the best soft serve around. Truly amazing, fresh soft serve.

Day 6 we left for our final stop, Cabourg. We took a slight detour to visit the Victory Museum, which was also really well done, with tons of war dioramas. It even had pre- and post-war exhibits that we all found fascinating — including old tins of food and goodies people used to eat. After that, we hit up our favorite McDonald’s (where we learned the French are the second biggest consumers of McDonald’s in the world — so yes, they love it too!). Then we grabbed soft serve one more time before heading to Cabourg.

Cabourg is another small-to-medium beach resort town — and apparently, the home of never-ending rainbows. Once we arrived, we walked to the beach and up the main street. For dinner, we went with our favorite: noodles for an easy meal.

Day 7 we hung around Cabourg — going to the beach, the park, and up and down main street. We had crêpes for lunch and pizza for dinner. It was a great day!

Finally, Day 8, we spent more time at the beach and park — plenty of sword fights and sandcastles. We ate at a really good restaurant for our final dinner before turning in for the night.

Overall, it was an amazing trip, and we were sad for it to end.

Once back, it was straight into the normal grind for a week before I had to head to Abu Dhabi for the ADIPEC trade show. I wasn’t too excited about it — trade shows are draining, and I wasn’t thrilled to leave Hailey and the kids for five days. But she and the kids managed, and I’m really proud of her for hanging in there in a foreign country!

It was kind of cool to be back in Abu Dhabi, but it’s not the city for me. The trade show was wild — over 70,000 people — and the SLB booth was buzzing with activity. I was glad to get back though, just in time for us to go to the prefecture to get the kids’ residence permits. So now we’re three out of four… only Hailey’s to go. But there’s a funny story there.

At the prefecture, the SLB immigration specialist asked about Hailey’s card. After some back and forth, they said it wasn’t ready due to a bug (which we already knew) and that we’d just have to wait. We’ve now been waiting two months! So while it wasn’t unexpected, we were still a bit disappointed — especially since at one point it looked like they’d actually found it. Fast forward one hour — we were at Angelina’s getting the famous hot chocolate — when I got a text! Hailey’s card was ready for pickup! Exciting — exhilarating even — but odd since one hour earlier it was still MIA. We experienced both the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, though… because we couldn’t book her an appointment to pick it up. So, it’s back to the waiting game, hoping we can get it before we leave for the U.S. on December 13th. We’re closer — and hopeful it’ll happen.

Until next time, we continue to live the Parisian dream…
Oh, and you can follow along on the new vlog here: Oh Crepe, We Moved