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July 16, 2005 (Saturday) — In Normandy

Since we had rearranged our schedule and opted to not sing at Mont St MIchel, this was our day to visit. We drove to the abbey and hiked up to the top. We've been getting expert guidance from our tour escort Page, our tour guide Xenia and our dirver Olivier. We had Mez and Claude as drivers also in France, but we've had Olivier for most of the time. These guys get us through some very narrow streets. Should have mentioned a ways back that both our American bus drivers said we were the most organized and well-behaved groups they had ever driven.

Anyway, at St Michel we had asked months ago if we could just sing one song since we couldn't make it for mass the previous day. They had said no, so we decided to sing one anyway. That got the attention of the authorities there, who came over, presumably to tell us to stop singing. Instead, they said it was so beautiful they wanted to take up to the refectory, which supposedly had even better acoustics than the main abbey, and where the monks chanted. We passed through the cloister to the refectory and sang there as well. We had lunch in the town and did some shopping, then headed to the American cemetery at Omaha Beach. We did an informal concert at the cemetery to an appreciatve audience of mostly Americans. We sang Flanders Fields, which talks of "crosses row on row on row," and there right behind us were the crosses row on row. We didn't see veterans as we had expected, but felt as if we can contributed to the sentiment of the monument in our own small way.

We next headed to the cliffs above Gold Beach, and then headed back to the hotel for dinner. Partly to impress the group of 13-year-old British girls also staying at the hotel, Mr Kula led us in a grace that we often sing at camp. Then a woman from the next room with another group asked us if we could sing another after dinner. Turns out she organizes tours for WWII veterans to visit places like the D-day beaches. There were six veterans with some family and friends. Most or all of them had landed on the beach on June 6, 1944, and some had not been back since. We sang two songs for them, and the boys took time to talk to them and shake their hands. History has a way of connecting itself to the present and the future...