Normandy History Tour

Monday the 26th of October got off to a very early start as my fellow students and I disembarked from the school at 03:00 for Dublin Airport. Before we even left Dublin Airport, two of the boys were lucky enough to bump into "Half-wit" from Channel 4's Big Brother.


After the flight and a gruelling 3 hour long bus ride we finally arrived at the town of Bayeux. Here we saw the world famous Bayeux Tapestry, which dates from 1476. The Tapestry was a true marvel to behold but the best of the trip lay ahead. The next stop on the tour was the town of Sainte-Mere-Eglise, which was the first French town to be liberated by Allied paratroops on the 5th of June, 1944. Then we found ourselves back on the bus for another long journey to our hotel. After everyone was settled in their rooms and fed, we headed out for a game of laser tag (from which emerged, not only The Obvious Game, but also The Circle Game) which concluded our first day in Normandy.


We kick started the second day with a visit to Arromanches were we saw an amazing movie of real footage of the D-Day landings displayed in a 360 degree cinema. Afterwards, we proceeded to two of the American beaches code-named Utah and Omaha. They were a spectacular site which would appeal to anyone; the land is littered with remnants of the battle that took place 66 years ago.


The group then spent some time in the town of Arromanches, admiring the remains of the Mulberry Harbour, before leaving to visit the American Cemetery in Normandy. The cemetery had a small museum as you entered filled with memorabilia from the war and showed a constant flow of documentaries about the war. As for the cemetery itself, it is a site that I personally will take to the grave. It consists of a large monument dedicated to those who gave their lives for freedom and then endless rows of white marble head stones, which I'm sure many of you would have seen in the movie, "Saving Private Ryan".



We then spent some time in the German cemetery which was also very captivating but next to the American one, it didn't compare.
Then after a long bus ride back to our hotel in Caen, we wrapped up the long day with a game of 10 Pin Bowling.
We had another early start for the third day as we visited the CAEN NORMANDY MEMORIAL MUSEUM. It was quite an interesting visit and of all the museums and monuments we visited it was by far the most impressive.
We then bid farewell to Caen and we were off to Paris. When we arrived in Paris we were given free roam to explore the various shops around the part of the city we were in (however, not all of us were exploring for shops ;)).
We then enjoyed a nice, tranquil boat ride down the river Seine passing the world famous Eiffel Tower and other various historic edifices along the river.

After that we headed back to our new hotel where almost everyone collapsed in their beds after the exhausting day, with the exception of Conor Gonnelly, Karl O'Connor, Mr. Halpin and I, who decided to sneak out for a pizza.
The next morning we were on the bus once again only this time we were heading to Euro Disney. Now I'm not going to lie, there isn't one person on that trip be they from 2nd year, 6th year or even teacher, who didn't let the little kid in them out in the theme park demonstrated below:


Sadly, the time came to leave Euro Disney, and once all were accounted for we set off for the airport with heavy hearts. However, even though we were leaving France there was yet still some laughs to be had as one of the boys on the trip was called out of the group on the grounds he had replica bullets, which he got from a souvenir shop in Normandy; it was quite a comical episode.

We arrived back at the school at roughly one o'clock that night and all went home exhausted but extremely satisfied with an excellent trip and I'd like to extend thanks on behalf of all those who attended to Mr. Halpin, Ms. Nolan and Ms. McAdam, as the trip wouldn't have been possible without them.

D.Murtagh 6A2