A last minute decision to upgrade meant full lie down pod seats on Air Canada. That’s all well and good except when dinner is served at 10:15 p.m. and you’re woken up at 2:30 a.m. body time for breakfast, even snatching a few hours sleep with pillows, blankets and special headphones gets undone.
Landing in Paris midmorning we walked a couple of kilometers at Charles de Gaulle airport to the rental car building only to be told we were early and would have to wait 50 minutes until our prepaid contract started. Apparently the system can’t print a contract outside the agreed to time range and given it was prepaid, we had to sit and wait. At least they gave us an upgrade at no extra charge.
Finally away and after doing two loops of the same exit/entrance ramp (hey, the car in front of us started off on a third go round) we found the correct highway. The car is very comfortable but has an annoying habit of constantly chirping and binging warning messages for no apparent reason to pay attention and drive carefully. Reading the messages at 130 kph in French, in small font, on the dashboard is probably much more likely to cause an accident than any bad driving habits. Oh, and once every half hour, we think, there was an extremely loud gong without any accompanying message.
An easy journey past Rouen to Caen through unremarkable farmland and rolling pastures. Given the calmness and intermittent sunshine it was impossible to envision the area as a theatre of war.
Upon arrival in Caen we spent 2 1/2 hours touring the Caen Memorial History Museum. Dedicated to the Second World War, it is organised chronologically, beginning with the aftermath of the First World War in 1918 and concluding with the surrenders of Germany and Japan in 1945. It was filled with exhibits, videos and artifacts that really present a detailed story. The hand held audio machine was priceless.
Notwithstanding the great history lesson our long night/day caught up to us and when we both started to nod off in one film auditoriums it was time to go.
Tomorrow is a tour of the main Normandy beaches, museums and military cemeteries.
The Bennetts On Tour 
Don’t know if this will reach you before you tour Normandy but if so I wanted to recommend you spend adequate time walking thru the cemeteries. Meandering through the American one quite unexpectantly provoked in me one of the most memorable and profound experiences of the entire visit;. I was literally sobbing as I read the dates of birth and death on the headstones. WS
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