Oradour-Sur-Glane, Village Martyr

We left Nantes in the early afternoon and began making our way towards Oradour-Sur-Glane. A good friend, you know who you are ;) told me about this place several months back and I just knew I had to see it. The story of what happened to this quiet little village back in 1944 is absolutely heartbreaking. Basically, a few days after the successful invasion of the beaches of Normandy, the Nazi's were in a frenzy trying to prepare to stop the Allies from going deeper into France. On their, the soldiers', way up to Limoges the army somehow ended up in the little town of Oradour-Sur-Glane. They rounded up all the citizens, nearly 700, then separated the men to two different areas of town and the women and children were herded to the church. At some point the Nazis massacred all the men and then proceeded to gas the women and children, shoot, and then collapse the roof of the church. Overall, 642 people died in the worst massacre of citizens to take place on French soil during WWII. The Nazis tried to burn the town and hide the evidence, but time was not on their side, and people began arriving in the village by the next morning. Consequently, the entire town still remains and is now a national memorial where people can go to pay their respects and see first hand the brutality of the Germans during WWII.

We stopped in the museum first to get some good background information on the events leading up to, and the actual massacre, of Oradour-Sur-Glane. If you ever make it to Oradour, definitely set some time aside for the museum. The first little bit is mostly general WWII information, but then you get some really good information on the events leading up to and the day of the killings (I basically just completely repeated myself. I just really want you to understand how great the museum is! :) ) We had to hurry through it because everything closed down relatively early and we were starting to run short on time. When we walked out of the museum, a road leads you right up to the entrance of the "village martyr."

Here is the entrance into the city.

Remember!

When I first walked through the front gates, I was so shocked at how big the town was. It wasn't a few buildings scattered along a desolate road. It was LOTS and LOTS of buildings lining the streets of the village.

As you can see in the picture above, many ruined object such as scales, sewing machines, cars, etc., are still standing within the buildings. These were just ordinary average people, just like you and me.

After walking past several buildings, we came to one of the spots where many of the many were shot alive.

Coming to this building and seeing the sign that simply stated what happened in that building was such a surreal experience.

These tracks ran right through the city and connected it to the rest of France. The next morning following the massacre, a train pulled in to town right on schedule. The memoir of one of the men who was so unfortunate to arrive was absolutely heartbreaking. I wonder if he ever slept again.

At the end of the road, you finally come upon the church where so many women and children lost their lives.

This was the one building at the entire memorial open for the public to walk in to and look around.

Going inside literally broke my heart. Knowing that innocent little children: babies, toddlers, and kids, were murdered here made me hurt all the way down to my soul.

Notice that the roof was gone? The Nazis caved in the top of the church to cover up, and I'm sure to finish off any of the survivors.

I I wish that my pictures could capture the size and vastness of the village. What an experience. I'm always left in shock after visiting the various WWII sites throughout Europe because each time I think how atrocious the crimes the Nazis committed towards humanity were as bad as it gets, we come across another place that was worse than the site before it.

Nantes

After finishing up at Mont Saint-Michel, we made our way over to Nantes. Neither of us had any expectations for Nantes. Whenever people talk about France, they talk about Paris, Nice, or and of the French Riviera cities. You never hear anything about Nantes. When we first pulled into the outer part of the city, neither of us were too impressed. That quickly changed once we made it to the center of town. First off, our hotel was the BOMB! It was newly remodeled and just a really awesome looking fancy schmancy building! I waited in the car while Nathan went and checked in. When Nathan got back out, he was all excited about the great things the concierge told him to see and do in Nantes. He was also excited because the front desk guy told him that our "special request we asked for had been fulfilled!" 

 Gigantic skittles rainbow and then chocolate covered strawberries, or what I like to call the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow! Yum! It was the saddest thing ever to have to move those perfectly placed skittles off the bed, but I was consoled once I popped them into my mouth!

After sitting around and being lazy for a while, we decided to hit the town. We first walked over to some shops that the conceirge had recommended. Unfortunately, the entire center was under construction and it was basically impossible to get into any of the stores, so we headed out. We walked a little longer and then decided to go and get some grub!

We went to this amazing brasserie called La Cigale. Supposedly it was the first brasserie in France ever! We lucked out and got there at a very quiet time. For the first while, we were the only ones in that specific part of the restaurant. We asked the waiter for his recommendation and decided to go with it. I was super nervous because I'm such a picky eater and usually hate 99% of everything on restaurant menus. I got super lucky this time because O.M.G., this was possibly the BEST meal I have EVER had. That's right, EVER! We seriously loved everything about this place. The atmosphere, the food, the service. If you ever find yourself in Nantes, make sure to get to take the time to hit up this place!

We left the restaurant and started walking around exploring Nantes. We knew basically nothing about this town so it was pretty fun to be completely ignorant and to stumble upon all kinds of neat things. After checking out the city center, we decided to rent some bikes, just like the ones in London, and cruise around Nantes. Riding bikes in these cities was handsdown my favorite activity! It was the most fun and exciting way to explore, and definitely the most cost friendly way, too.

On our ride we literally stumbled upon this insanely amazing and beautiful castle! Just a huge castle sitting right there.

We parked the bikes and then walked around the castle for a few minutes. Then we hopped back on and went and checked out a few of the town's cathedrals.

It was starting to get pretty late and we were pretty much exhausted so we dropped our bikes off and then walked back to the hotel.

The next morning we woke up and walked over to a nearby grocery store where we stocked up on baguettes and a few other fun french foods for our long drive to the ruined town or Oradour-Sur-Glane and Limoges.

Mont Saint-Michel

We made it to Mont Saint-Michel relatively early-ish. Actually, we got to the town right before it and found a lovely McDonalds where we could use the WiFi in order to find our hotel. Got the directions made it there without a hitch. I still can't believe how easy it is to drive in France. We didn't really ever get lost at all and the roads were very clearly marked. I've gotten lost way worse out here in Fruita than we ever did in France. I could have lived without the millions of toll roads everywhere, though! Those get insanely expensive! 

Our first glimpses of the abbey were at twilight. It was the most amazing site ever. It looked like this magical castle floating in the sky.

Once we got to our hotel we checked in, dropped our bags off in the room, and then headed across the street to grab some food. The town near the abbey was incredibly small and incredibly made to suit tourists, therefore, lots of crappy food and cheap souvenir shops. The place we ate at was like the nastiest food ever! We ordered the "chips and salsa with guacamole and nacho cheese," which should have been a red flag to us. It's France, not Mexico! They seriously brought us out some knock off Doritos, that covered the chips and nacho cheese, with some nasty out of the bag guacamole and something similar to pace picante but not as good. Funny story. While we were trying to decide what to order, the waiter came up to us and asked us what we would like. We asked what he recommended or what his favorite was. He just sat there for like a minute and was like, "Ugh....I don't know! Um..." Red flag number 2. Anyway, dinner sucked, moving along.

The next morning we woke up bright eyes and bushy tailed and checked out of the hotel. We left the car in the hotel parking lot and hopped the free bus to the abbey. And this is what we saw. 

I swear Harry Potter should have been filmed here. The abbey SCREAMED Hogwarts to both Nathan and I. It was soooo amazing!

We were pretty darn hungry by the time we finished at the abbey. When we left the hotel we figured that we would eat up in the town rather than try our luck at one of the restaurants again! Bad choice. Pretty much no one opened up for eating until noon! We found a place with pastries and grabbed a few to hold us over. After walking around the town and then taking a tour of the church, we decided to try the "famous" omelets of Normandy. The restaurant we chose was incredibly busy and it took forever for someone to notice we were even there. So Nathan got his omelet, and because of a super bad communication connection, it ended up being completely plain. I tried one bite and....it was awful! So awful! Nathan managed to choke most of it down because he was so hungry. Anyway, that was a big fat fail! We finally left the abbey and headed back to the hotel to grab the car.

Next stop, Nantes!