The first place we stopped was Omaha beach, which was where a large portion of the American casualties occurred on D-Day. Omaha was particularly difficult because of the German fortification and lack of cover. The Allied forces knew this, but they had to land here to link Utah (the 2nd American beach) to the west and Gold (the British beach) to the east. Omaha now has only this large monument (below), so it's hard to imagine how it looked that day with obstacles, mines, vehicles, etc. scattered everywhere. It's a strange feeling standing on the beach and thinking how far the distance from the boats to the nearest point of cover would have been.
Our next stop was the American Cemetery: This place literally took my breath away. I want to describe it, but words don’t do it justice. Seeing all of these graves really puts things into perspective. There are 9,387 soldiers buried here. After D-Day, the families had the choice to bring the bodies back to the States or have them buried here, or else the total would sadly be much higher. It was truly one of the most moving experiences of my entire life and I am so thankful for the sacrifices that were made by these men and women.
All of the markers have the soldier's name, date of death and home state.
The graves are pointed home toward the US (specifically at the coast of Maine, which is the closest point across the Atlantic).
Continuing on with the somber day, we visited the German cemetery next. This was a very stark contrast to the American cemetery (unsurprisingly). The grave markers were much smaller and dark gray, in contrast to the American ones which were bright white. The small visitors’ center focuses on world peace. There are also several hundred maple trees planted along the drive into the cemetery, and these also symbolize peace. I don’t know how to feel about all of this. It's easy to get a bit emotional when you think about WWII history, but it's important to remember that the German soldiers often didn't have a choice. Many of these German soldiers were very young men (arguably children), and they were someone’s son, brother, husband, or father, too. It’s all just terribly sad.
After reflecting on these experiences, we did try to enjoy the remainder of the day in Bayeux. The town is really quaint and we enjoyed checking out some of the small stores. Since the 60th anniversary of D-Day was within a few weeks, there were even more USA decorations than normal. It was fun to see a European town with American flags everywhere. We finished off the day with a nice dinner. The food was good, but nothing spectacular. The menu did focus on many apple-related items, as apple orchards are plentiful in this area. We also got to try some cider from the region, which Normandy is famous for.
The next morning, we started the day off with breakfast at the B&B. We were really surprised by how great the food was. The owner selected various local products for us to try: local cheese, small pastries that are well-known in this region, and even apple juice that is produced locally. It was all very delicious and interesting to learn a bit more about the local products. After breakfast, we drove to see some more D-Day sights.
Our first stop on the second day was Pointe du Hoc. As its name suggest, the coast comes to a point here, and you can see Utah to the west and Omaha to the east. The Germans had very strong fortifications here since it overlooked both beaches, and the U.S. Rangers' mission here was to scale the cliffs (probably the most famous story from D-Day) and take control of these guns. As a visitor to Normandy, this is the impressive landscape everyone envisions. The stiff, rocky cliffs plunge directly into the Atlantic.
An air bombardment took place before dawn on D-Day partly to bomb bunkers and guns, but largely to create craters to provide cover for the Rangers once they reached the top. You can still see these craters all over Pointe du Hoc today.
The view down from the top.
High-level look at one of the German bunkers. Notice how thick the concrete is!
A look at the cliffs the Rangers scaled...
After Pointe du Hoc, we drove up the coast to Sainte-Mere-Eglise. This was the first town liberated by the Allied forces. Two U.S. Airborne divisions landed in this area during the night with the hope of carrying out several missions before dawn. Due to bad weather and heavy flak, the landings were hectic and troops got scrambled (think Band of Brothers - some troops from Easy Company landed here).
I'm not sure why our pictures look more like paintings here, but I promise we actually took these...
One paratrooper got caught on the steeple during the landing in the night, and he survived by faking dead for several hours until he got rescued. There aren't many happy stories from that day, but this happens to be one of them. As a monument, they now leave a fake soldier hanging from the steeple still today, which you can see better here.
The Airborne Museum here was great!
Leaving Sainte-Mere-Eglise, we drove to the German battery at Longues-sur-Mer. There are still several guns that exist there today, and it's really interesting again to see how thick the concrete is and how big the guns are. These guns are a good distance off the coast, but they played a key role in the German defense as they could still easily reach the beaches and ships anchored far off the coast.
Our final stop was Arromanches. This spot is unique, since it's not known as a point of battle during D-Day. Instead, Arromanches is known for having an artificial harbor that allowed Allied troops to unload more than 9,000 tons of supplies per day. Without this artificial harbor, they would have needed to wait until one of the larger ports was controlled by the Allied forces. This allowed them to immediately begin bringing supplies, vehicles, reinforcements, etc. onto continental Europe on a large scale. The harbor still exists there today - this is admittedly a bit underwhelming in pictures, but it was still cool to see.
Particularly pensive...
Since it was mom’s birthday that day, we planned dinner at a very nice restaurant in the evening. The food was outstanding and the service was top-notch! I am still dreaming about the vanilla bean and caramel cheesecake that I had for dessert.
For our last day of the trip, we had some driving to do so that we could make it back towards the airport outside of Paris. On our way, we stopped at Giverny, which is the location of Claude Monet's home and gardens. These are the gardens where he painted many of his masterpieces. It was really cool to see the lily pond with the bridges in person. The gardens themselves were exceptional. So many stunning plants and flowers. The house was also very pretty. Many of the rooms were furnished as they were when Monet lived there. Some of his artwork was on display as well, although most of the famous pieces are on exhibit in museums throughout the world.
After spending the afternoon at Giverny, we made it to our final destination, a small town called Chantilly. We weren't expecting too much, but it was the cutest little French town! Matt had booked the coziest bed and breakfast for our final night, as well. The hosts were so kind and we really loved the character of the house where we stayed. Our final meal in France was typical -- crepes. But we couldn't have been happier.
All in all, we had a really wonderful time in France. We saw so many beautiful things, ate delicious foods, and drank outstanding wines. We were pleasantly surprised by the friendliness of all of the French people we met (even in Paris!). Another amazing trip in the books!
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