Almost a "grand slam!"

I made it to Carentan from St. Mere Eglise the other day by bus. A little girl helped me get off the right stop so I gave her one of the buffalo nickels I brought as gifts. Tourist office closed when I got to Carentan but a map there showed me where the campground was. Camping when fine. Yesterday morning then, headed to the tourist office to see if there were buses to St. Marie du Mont and Utah beach...NO. There were tours but I think these were really expensive....so I rented a bike. After about the first mile, I realized it had gears (the pedalling had been pretty rough up to that point), in the 2nd mile I figured out how to operate the gears. I got to St. Mare Du Mont (6-7? miles) and then tried to find the road for Brecourt Manor which I couldn't. Fortunately, my maps showed me the back door route so I took it. Ended up meeting the farmer who owned the place. I told him I was a history/geographer teacher and the son of a farmer so he told me about the events during the war on his land and where the big, German 88mm guns were at that the 101st took out in one of the early episodes of Band of Brothers. He let me on the land so I could walk the hedgerows where it was at. From there I biked to Utah beach where I took tons of pics of the memorials and went down to the beach and put my toes in the English Channel. I messed around St. Marie du Mont on the way back and then started pedaling back to Carentan. A little west of Vierville I was changing gears when something (on the bike) popped. Something broke on the gearing so after getting the broken parts off the spokes, I ended up pushing the bike the last 4? miles back to Carentan (except for the hill past Dead Man's Corner that I coasted down). Because of the breakdown, I won't call it a grand slam day....but I did go for extra bases. I'm sore and a little swollen today from that bike seat. While riding, I thought abit about the last time I rode a horse...Frank's "Roni." Yeah....some of the same muscles involved. Camped in the same place last night and got up at 5:15 am to take down my tent and catch the 6:26 to Paris. Arrived around 9:00? and got turned down the first place I tried to stay. Got in at the second. First stop was to try to buy a museum card which took a while. Fortunately, the subways are easy for me to navigate so that helps. Finally got the card and then went to find Lafayette's grave....it's like they are intentionally hiding the thing, but I did find it and found it interesting. Back to the hostel then for a tad and then off to do a bit of my own walking tour (with the help of Rick Steves...he's a travel, TV host) which started at Notre Dame. Last was the Sacre Coure church and the area of Montmarte. Tomorrow, I'll try to get to the Louvre to see the Mona Lisa, Hammurabi's Stella, and the Venus de Milo among other things. The museum card lets me go almost anywhere so have lots of options...just depends on how quick I want to get through it all. Can't think of much else I guess.

God Bless,
SNorris
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