Normandy Part Deux

This morning I awoke in the nearly autonomous hotel, feeling surprisingly well considering I had slept on a sofa bed. The bed is actually acceptable, not a pillow top, but firm enough that you avoid that hammock feeling. I was expecting to eat breakfast at the hotel, but the lobby was locked down, there were no employees in sight. I managed to interpret one of the signs, there is no customer service on Sundays. Looking through the window into the breakfast room I could see the breakfast table was covered with bowls and plates, and the packaged pastries, yogurt, and cereal were also out. Only the perishables had been put away. I’m impressed with the efficiency! I couldn’t figure out where to leave my key, so I placed it near the service window (yes, there wasn’t much service during my stay). I can only hope that someone doesn’t grab it and wreak havoc in my room before the staff finds it on Monday.

Once again I didn’t have a specific plan for today, other than I wanted to leave around noon to be back in Orleans in time to run on the river walk. In the back of my mind was to head to Bayeux and check out the Medieval festival. Stopping at McDonald’s, I logged in and did one last search on Normandy museums. I happened upon a Rick Steves site (we used his tour book exclusively while in Italy, I’m a huge fan). He was gushing over a WW2 museum in Caen, so I decided to check it out.

It was well worth it. The Memorial de Caen is easily one of the best museums I have been in (for you museum haters, I think even you would like this one). The museum covered the entire war, spending more time on D-day assault and the lead up to the war. Very intriguing was the details on the French resistance and Vichy France. The contrast between the hardy few who continued to sabotage trains and provide intelligence to the Allies, and the leaders of Vichy France who justified there subsequence to the Nazis by holding Communism up as the greater evil. As in our time, there are those on both sides even in the face of great evil. As today we debate the threat of militant Muslims, so there was an internal struggle in France over how to react to the Nazis. There were significant numbers who rallied to DeGaulle’s side after his speech from England urging resistance. A large section was devoted to personalizing the war through displays and readings of the letters from the soldiers at war, many of the actual letters were displayed. An hour long film gave an excellent overview of the D-day invasion, this was worth the price of admission alone. The first 30 minutes showed actual footage shot during D-day, with only a classical score and the actual sounds of boots tramping, engines roaring, and guns clanking. The screen was split in half, showing the Allies preparing for battle and attacking on one, and the Germans defenses on the other. The footage was astounding, and being the sap that I am, I cried again. This was similar to Saving Private Ryan, but without actors. A few highlights: the Rangers scaling the cliffs of Pointe du Hoc as the rocks exploded from the German bombardment; the US troops at Omaha submerging behind the x-shaped timbers under withering fire; 4 soldiers running up the beach, one cut down not to move again, a second falls and struggles to arise, the other two continue to run; and an amazing shot from a plane that flew low over the beach as hundreds of soldiers ran up the surf.

And that concluded my stay in Normandy. It would be interesting to return sometime to visit the other beaches and museums, but if that doesn’t happen I am satisfied that I saw the most interesting ones. I do plan to return to visit Mont St Michel, a huge church located on an island not far from the D-day beaches.