Stuck in the European airport snow? Lonely planet is sympathising by making thirteen of their Lonely Planet European City Guide iPhone apps are absolutely free right now.

I’m doing my geeky happy dance and downloading them all for later.

Here’s the list—complete with links to iTunes—so that you can grab them all:

• Amsterdam
• Berlin
• Copenhagen
• Dublin
• London
• Moscow
• Munich
• Paris
• Prague
• St. Petersburg
• Stockholm
• Vienna
• Warsaw

The apps will be free until 1:00 pm on December 23, 2010.

Ok, we did leave Rouen, France, that was only the 1st day. I’m just slow at posting. After driving through Rouen we arrived and spent our first night in Bayeux, France. Its famous for its tapestry which is basically a 70-yard political cartoon which tells the story of William the Conqueror’s rise from duke of Normandy to king of England, and shows his victory over Harold at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. It also is a convenient town to sleep in before exploring the Normandy WWII historical areas.

My WWII history knowledge comes from talking to my Grandfather about his WWII experiences. Grandpop only tells humorous stories as if the whole war was about joking around, pranks and cruising around (he was in the Navy). I know he just doesn’t want to deal with telling me the sad or harsh stories, but that’s ok. We decided to do a full-day Normandy WWII tour with BattleBus. This is a French company who specializes in D-Day and Battle of Normandy tours, but their guides are mostly native English speaking expats for whom D-Day is a lifelong obsession and hobby. Our guide didn’t have a memorized schtick, but a genuine passion for history. And our bus had 6 people in it, not the 40+ people of the Grayhound buses that we were passing on the road.

Sainte-Mère-Église was the first stop of the day. If you have watched the movie The Longest Day you might remember the famous scene where a paratrooper was caught on the Church by their parachute. The scene is based on an actual person John Steele who returned to the town year after year for D-Day celebrations and along with many vets was quite beloved by the locals.

The other sight beyond the Church in Sainte-Mère-Église is the Airborne Museum. While it was included in our BattleBus tour, I wouldn’t pay the 14E to get in if I was DIY my own tour. The reason I say this isn’t because the museum is bad, it is just too small to be worth the price tag.

Don’t forget to look inside the chapel. Visit the chapel early in the morning before the tourist buses ruin the moment would be well worth it. Inside you will find that they have redone the stained-glass which was blown out in the war with new commemorative glass which features the paratrooper who liberated the village. People from Normandy have a great affinity, even to this day for the US military. A Norman child places a flag on every allied grave every year on D-Day. What the allies did for Normandy is taught in schools. As an American it is strange to travel and have people like you these days, while I’ve never encountered hostility there is a lot of confusion on how and why America does what it does in the world. I’ve never felt the need to impersonate a Canadian because I think these discussions are important means of spreading good will and understanding. None of this was necessary in Normandy. My husband is in the Army so he has the short hair of an Army officer, sometimes this causes problems, but in Normandy we felt nothing but extreme warmth, very un-French, but very nice. That accompanied by the wonderful Norman cider and mussels had us wishing to stay longer.

The outside of Rouen’s Notre-Dame Cathedral is being renovated, like seemingly all historic sights in Europe at least part of them are under tarps or scaffolding. WWII took its toll on this cathedral and its still recovering.

St. Simon looks like he’s being kept company by a pigeon while he’s waiting for his fellow saint to be restored.

The cathedral isn’t the only building in Rouen to have been damaged by WWII. The the Palais de Justice, which was once the seat of the Parliament of Normandy has been restored to an amazing degree.

Thank goodness we were in Business Class or we would have been wiped when we got to Paris. It was over 30 hrs of travel to get there from Fairbanks. Of course the extra hour at the Hertz counter didn’t help, but when we got up to the counter they upgraded us to an automatic for free. I guess they saw our American driver’s licenses and were worried about their clutch. So much for getting to practice my new driving skills.

So with just a little bit of energy left we detoured on our way to Bayeux from Paris and stopped in Rouen. Joan of Arc was burned here in 1431. We grabbed some fresh baguette sandwiches and went in search for the very place. We ended up sitting on this nice stone wall for lunch. It was only after lunch that we realized that it was the ruins of an ancient Church and actually was the spot where Joan of Arc was burned. We saw the sign after finishing lunch.

After lunch it was time to find the Cathedral. I love looking at Churches everywhere I go, they are one of the most cared for and preserved buildings in most places. In this case we were looking for the Cathédrale Notre-Dame a landmark of art history. Hubby was into art history in high school and was quick to point out that I was looking essentially at exactly what Claude Monet saw as he painted the Church in his time. Inside we found a number of modern reinterpretations of Monet’s originals, impressions of an impressionist.

Today is the last day before we head home and we’re back where we started. My first trip to Europe was to Paris in 2006 and its Paris through which I will say goodbye for now.

Today we’ll be working off some of the wonderful Belgian and German calories…doing more damage by doing a DIY chocolate tour by Velib. For 1E per day you can get access to bikes all over this large, but very accessible city.

Last time we were here we were one of few American’s using the Velib bikes because we were one of the few to have either a Passe Navigo (rechargable card for the metro) or a credit or debit card with the little chip on it. Hint: an American Express Blue card works great for this, just be sure to call and activate the chip before you go. I did and hubby didn’t so I had to rent all of our bikes.

Each bicycle can be used for up to 30 minutes at no charge beyond that of the 1E daily subscription fee. But I don’t think I could go more than 30 minutes before finding another stand and something nearby to gaze at or another chocolate stand or tea shop to pop into so its never been an issue for us.

Tonight we’re traveling from Munich to Paris by the City Night Line sleeper train ‘Cassiopeia’, leaving Munich at 22:48 and arriving in Paris Gare de l’Est at 09:23 tomorrow morning. We could take a Ryanair flight for 25E for both of us, but then we would have to pay for another night’s hotel. An overnight train seemed ideal. City to city no hassle.

The Cassiopeia has ordinary seats, couchettes (4-berth & 6-berth) and sleeping-cars (1, 2 & 3-bed deluxe and standard rooms).  We’ll be sitting up all night on the plane soon enough so we opted for the 4-berth couchette option instead.

There is a bistro car available in the morning for breakfast, but as we learned before train food is overpriced and usually not very good so we’ll be packing our own dinner and getting breakfast in Paris.

Travel tip:  For a cooked breakfast in Munich or evening meal before boarding the Paris-bound sleeper on your return, try the typically Bavarian Mongdratzerl restaurant, located in the hauptbahnhof itself.

You can book online direct with the German train website. (Don’t worry, its way better than Trenitalia.com and takes American credit cards just fine) You can book up to 92 days in advance. We booked exactly when the fare first became available online for 69E each ($175 total at the time). Booking closer to the date of travel would have cost 272Euro “standard fare” each.

Savings fare is awesome, but it has to be booked in advance, has limited availability, no refunds, no changes. If you can’t commit to a particular train then you may look at  a rail pass or Ryanair. These overnight trains pay to plan ahead.

Wow, last Friday was the first of our Europe trip and I was sipping my tea in Leuven, Belgium, this week I’m in Germany. Today’s tea will be followed by beer and chocolate and other delicious things. Yum!

Disney hopefully has nothing on the original Neuschwanstein castle. No touristy trip of Germany would be complete without a glance of the hoards of tourists in buses, oh I mean fairy tale castle of Neuschwanstein.

We’re short cutting the masses and avoiding some of the chaos by booking book online in advance for less than 2E more and 2 hrs of waiting in line for tickets saved. Tickets are 17E for both Neuschwanstein and its sister castle Hoehenschwangau. We’ll use the time saved to take a hike up to get a glance at the view in the picture above and if the weather cooperates we’ll eat our lunch there too.

Mad King Ludwig has had tourists visiting since 6 weeks after his death. We’ll be paying our respects at 9am, right when the castles open. I’m a little hesitant to pay 17E for two 30 minute rushed tours, but I’ll kick myself if I don’t go.

Our next stop will be off guidebook and less cliche.

The car is rented. One more thing off of the checklist before we leave on Friday night. I hate to rent when I could take trains, but this trip it just makes sense. Tonight is my last manual driving lesson and I’ll also be buying a Europe iPad GPS app. to join our Michelin Germany map for navigation.

Lessons learned for trying to rent a car in France & Germany:

1. Its cheaper to rent from avis.de or avis.fr (hertz.de or hertz.fr, etc.) than it is to rent from avis.com. Why? I don’t know.
2. You really should call your car insurance company before you leave to see if they cover your European rental. I have USAA (a really good insurance company usually), but they don’t cover you in Europe
3. Call the credit card company you plan on using for the reservation and see what protections they offer you. My American Express had TOTALLY different coverage than our Visa.
4. Renting for Sunday pickup is hard. In France it seemed impossible to pick up on a Sunday except at the airport.
5. Check Europecar, Sixt and other non North-American rental car agencies, they often have better deals.
6. Learn to drive manual, its saves tons of money. We’re talking $50/day in France savings.
7. Pack light, these cars are small!

Wish me luck, and German/French drivers I apologize in advance for my manual skills.

Tomorrow, le 14 juillet, is Bastille Day. This year marks the 50th anniversary of France’s farewell to its empire so troops from 13 of its former colonies will controversally march down the Champs Elysées alongside their French military counterparts in the annual parade. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/13/france-sarkozy-bastille-africa-colonialism) You can attend the parade or go in for some less controversial fun by celebrating things we love about France:

1. The impressionist collection at the Museé d’Orsay
2. The view of the Eiffel Tower and fireworks. Good places to watch the fireworks are:
   • Breteuil Square:  This square is close to the Duroc tube station and perfectly aligned with the Eiffel Tower. Mostly unknown by tourists (or so we hear, so that might not be true) so this may be less crowded.
   • The Buttes Chaumont Park: This beautiful park on top of a hill offers an outstanding view over Paris.
   • Sacré-Coeur in Montmartre: A very social spot to watch, surrounded by tons of tourists, but elevated so the nice panoramic views make up for it!
   • Passerelle Debilly: This bridge is on the Quai Branly and quite close to the Eiffel Tower. It provides a cool reflection of the fireworks in the water.
3. French antiques
4. Champagne at lunch
5. Boulangeries and the smell of fresh baked baguette
6. Fromage, fromage, fromage!
7. Celebrate summer like a real French person and get out of Paris. Go to the Normandy beaches – Honfleur & Deauville.

This list was inspired by La Mom, the French expat Mommy-blogger we’d all secretly like to be for a day (or more!).

Et vous, why do you love France? How are you celebrating Bastille Day?