CAEN, France - With former W&M women's soccer standout Jill Ellis '88 at the helm of the United States Women's National Team, 50 Tribe women's soccer alums, family, and friends have made the trek to France for the United States' final two games of the group stage.

To read the first three installment follow the links below:
Blog 1 - Tribe to France
Blog 2 - Off Day in Pairs
Blog 3 - Trip to Caen

Blog  4 - Exploring Caen
After a travel day, Tribe Team Ellis woke up ready to explore Caen. As it turns out, our hotel is less than a quarter of a mile from Caen Castle, an old Norman stronghold that William the Conqueror built in 1060. Like much of Caen, the castle took a beating in World War II, but big chunks of it are still standing. Even better, they're open to the public. Some of the early risers in our group who were looking to get a run in before breakfast found the castle by accident and scrapped the workout to check it out.

A quick word about that breakfast: Our hotel seems to be a renovated 12^th century convent. I can tell you that rooms are lovely and all of the meals have been insanely good. The hotel restaurant is a Michelin Bib Gourmand for crying out loud.  

 After breakfast, we hopped on the bus and headed southwest to check out Mont-Saint-Michel. We spent about two hours driving through a charming countryside under grey and increasingly rainy skies. And you have to know that to appreciate our experience: Here we are, cruising through picturesque farms and hedgerows toward the coast. Think of a damp French version of Field of Dreams. Then somebody changes the channel. Now we're in some kind of Gallic Lord of the Rings.* It gets colder and darker. A small medieval city emerges from the mist in the distance, with fortified walls and towers and a spire reaching for the sky. The closer we get, the more unlikely the city seems. We see that it's on a coastal island; you can walk across the beach to it at low tide, but at high tide you need to take a bridge. At the very top of the island is an abbey, with the transept crossing the island's very peak. Below the abbey are layered fortifications to fend off Vikings or Englishmen, as circumstances require. There's a beautiful cloister, and great halls, and a spooky crypt, and ever so many stairs. Also, they have great pancakes. The overall effect is impossibly lovely and utterly preposterous. And that's Mont-Saint-Michel.

So we knocked around there for the afternoon. The kids loved it. We climbed all the way to the top and wandered all over the abbey. By the time we'd finished and were waiting for the shuttle back to our bus, the wind had picked up and it was getting a little uncomfortable. A subset of our group decided to forget about the shuttle and run back to the bus. A subset of that subset took a wrong turn but was quickly set right by some French-speaking nuns ("Hallo, madame? Non, non, non!"). Good times.

When we got back to the hotel, we enjoyed some free time before dinner and the England-Japan game. The younger contingent headed off to a park to play soccer, while other folks explored the city and got ready for tomorrow's game against Sweden.

* Mont-Saint-Michel was actually the inspiration for Minas Tirith in Peter Jackson's movies

- James O'Keeffe, husband of Carrie Moore O'Keeffe '00