Juno Beach Day Trip

Last weekend, a few of our plans fell through so we decided instead of staying in all weekend, we would take a spontaneous trip to Juno Beach in Caen, France. On Saturday, I did a bit of research and planned out our transportation and decided we should take the noon train to Caen on Sunday. Something you should learn about Elina, Rasha, Julie, and me - combined we are very unpunctual. So we had a meeting time of 10:50am to walk to the bus stop which comes at 11:07, getting us to the train station at 11:17 which would give us time to order tickets. So, bad idea - we all went out on Saturday night so come Sunday morning, it was a little hard to get up. BUT we did it! But not all of us were ready at 11:50, so at 11:58 we were finally all ready until we all realized we had forgotten our 12-25 Student discount cards we need to buy train tickets, so back up the stairs we ran! Finally en route to the bus stop, we knew we had missed the bus but as we were approaching the stop, guess what? The bus pulls up!! YAYY, luck on our side today! We hop on, get to the train station in time, get our tickets, and on the train we go!

The train ride is approx a 1.5 hour ride. We find four seats together and all pass out. We arrived around 1:50 and at the last minute that morning, I had scribbled down some directions on a piece of paper that I threw into my bag. I took them out and realized they were the worst directions ever. We found the bus stop we were supposed to find and THANK GOD, it was a Sunday and buses only run every 3 hours, but our bus was due in 10 minutes!! Also on the website, I read that it only takes 25 min to get to Juno Beach, the bus schedule said over one hour (greatttt). We had a 4:30 train to catch back to Rouen, and if it takes an hour to get to Juno beach, and an hour back, and buses run only every 3 hours..the math didn't work out! But we decided to hop on the bus anyway. It only cost 2.8 euros for an hour bus ride on a coach bus (not bad!).

One other slight problem. My amazing directions told us what area to get off the bus at, but what I didn't realize is that within each area, there are probably about 10 stops. But there was a 16 year old girl named Brittany who we met at the bus stop who was extremely friendly and who communicated to the bus driver for us and she got him to tell us what stop to get off at. The scenery on the bus ride was beautiful! I think I would like to go back and just explore Caen. We finally arrived to Juno Beach a little over an hour later, and the bus driver told us that the next bus comes in one hour, and then next one in four hours. When we got off the bus, the seaside was beautiful! We decided we would need four hours and that we would just exchange our tickets when we go back to the train station.

Juno Beach looked to be a very touristy seaside town. It had beach cottages and condos and lots of ice cream parlors and cafes, but at the end of the beach was where the historic part was. Juno Beach is where the Canadian troops landed during D-Day during WWII. We explored the beach for a while and then walked over to the museum and memorial which was really moving. The museum is a Canadian Museum where Canadian students work. There was a girl from Vancouver and another one from Montreal working there that day.

After we explored, we grabbed some supper and then caught the bus back to the train station. Although the day started off to a rough start, it ended up being a great day trip! Lesson of the day: take more time to write down directions.

Here are some Pictures!