Pont de Normandie

We were staying in Hardecourt-aux-Bois (about an hour and 40 minutes north and slightly east of Paris) when the fellow with whom we were travelling got too sick to leave his room in the bed and breakfast. My wife and I decided to drive to Normandy to see Omaha Beach.

Looking at the atlas we had, I plotted a course (this was in 2002, well before smartphones and cellular Internet). The most direct route would take us over Pont de Normandie. My wife at the time had an irrational fear of driving over large bridges where she could see water over the edge of the bridge (she was OK with bridges where she couldn't see the water -- "That's why it's called an irrational fear," she would tell me).

The car we'd rented had a manual transmission, and I did not drive stick at the time. I showed my wife the atlas, bringing the bridge to her attention and pointing out that an alternate route would push our 3 1/2 hour drive to over 4 hours (in each direction). Given the magnitude of the sacrifice of the men whose graves we wished to visit, she decided that the least she could do was drive over a bridge to get there.

As we topped the large bridge over the Grand Canal du Harve, we saw an unexpected, even larger bridge over the mouth of the Seine (the bridge that I actually saw on the atlas). Yes, for our €5 toll, we got to drive over not one but two very large bridges!

While I enjoy driving over cool bridges, my wife was stuck driving over them. And then, of course, we'd had to drive over both bridges again on the drive back to the B&B.

The experience did, however, turn out for the best: The four bridge transits, followed by a visit to the top of the Eiffel Tower three days later, has largely cured my wife of her irrational fear. When we drove from the Virginia Air & Space Center in Hampton Virginia to Wallops Island via the Chesapeake Bay Bridge/Tunnel in 2007, she was downright carefree as she drove over the bridges.