Each day that the John Carroll Football Team is on its journey to and from France, Blue Streak junior Luke Whitworth will correspond through jcusports.com. His reports will be posted as soon as they are received. This entry represents days three through five - rapide et furieux (Fast and Furious)

I am sorry to everyone for not blogging the last few days but we have not had a minute to ourselves with all the sightseeing and no internet at our last stop. We are now in PARIS!! But we will get back to that in a minute, I have to catch everyone up on the past few days
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DAY 3 

This was a day where we went non-stop from morning to night. We started off the day meeting our tour guide, Caroline, who was instrumental in guiding us through all the D-Day experiences we went on.

It was a day long history lesson for us. We started off with an hour drive to a German bunker where the allies dropped 700 tons of bombs leaving the land devastated. There were craters all over this bunker. It was incredible to see the land structure completly changed by the bombs. 

We then made our way to "Bloody" Omaha Beach. This was a quick stop, but amazing to see how long this beach was ... and to think of all the ships that landed ... and to remember all the people who died on this beach. Considering Monday is Memorial Day back in the States, to say it was moving would be an understatement. 

After the beach we went to lunch in a small town by the water where the allies made a temporary dock to hold supplies near the shore. After lunch we went to the American Cemetery, where there are 9,000 graves of Americans who died in WWII. This was an amazing esperience for us. It was a beautiful place and incredible to visit. 

Once we had visited these historic venues, we returned to our hotel and prepared to undergo an evening football practice. This was cool because we had the opportunity to practice with a French team named the Conquerants. We then ended the evening with dinner at the same place from the night before and as a great cap to the day, spent another night in Caen. 

Day 4 

We departed from Caen and went to the Loire Valley. Our first stop of the day was at the Chateau de Chenonceau. This is a beautiful castle from the Renaissance times. The castle was incredible but the landscape was one of the prettiest things I have ever seen. There were two large gardens, a forest, and even a little hedge maze. 

After the Chateau, we stoped in a small french town for lunch. Once lunch was over we made our way to the Vouvray winery. This was interesting to see because the winery was built inside a cave. We had a tour of the cave and a little lesson on how they go about making the wine. 

We then left and made our way to Tours, which is where we stayed for the night. A nice dinner in the hotel capped our evening in Tours. 

Day 5 

A peaceful night of sleep in Tours led to the fifth day of our stay in France, which was marked by a two-hour ride to a Chateau, and the another two hour ride to Paris.

We visited the Chateau Chambord, which is more of a "man's" castle with it being surrounded by a forest. The wall surrounding the forest is 23 miles long and is the longest in France. This castle was needless to say outstanding. 

The structure itself is MASSIVE.  It had a stair case in the center of it which was shaped as a double helix. It also had tons of deer heads and paintings because it was used as hunting grounds, hence it being surrounded by the forest. 

After the Chateau Chambord, we stopped in Blois for lunch. We had a few hours here which was nice because we were able to walk around the town a little bit. 

We then left Blois and made our last travel of the day to Paris. Once in Paris, we had the opportunity to experience Paris rush hour traffic. We ended our evening with dinner at the Hippopotamus. 

Day 6 (preview)
 
We will leave at 9:00 am and drive north toward the Belgium border where we will take on the Belgium All Stars. We will have dinner with the team after our game and then head back to Paris for the night.