Normandy

Pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2004717&l=af7b1&id=1173293194
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2004718&l=bdb9a&id=1173293194

This weekend my goal was to see the battlefields and museums in Normandy. Writing this afterwards, I definitely plan to return with Shereen. The Normandy American Cemetery, Batterie de Longues, Pointe du Hoc are inspiring. And yes I cried at the cemetery.

I had reserved a hotel in Caen, the largest city in the area, and left straight from work on Friday. From Sully it took about 4 hours of half country and half highway driving. I had reserved a hotel on Expedia, when I arrived I learned why it was such a low price. I wasn’t sure I was at the right place after TomTom toned “you have reached your destination”. The lobby was dark and the door was locked. After wandering around the parking lot and up the street I was beginning to think I would spend the night in the car. Walking back to the door, a French couple was arriving as well. They were able to interpret the sign by the door, call the number for the code to the door, and enter. Kindly they let me in. There was no one in the lobby, but my key was in an envelope stored with several others in a safe box. There was a sheet in French with info on the hotel included and a code for the door; I was on my own for that night. I’m not sure what I would have done if someone else hadn’t shown up. It turns I had reserved a sort of minimalist hotel. There is very few staff here, although a small breakfast was served in the morning, no one cleaned my room today. The place is very modern, each room has a small kitchen with fridge and stove, but the bed is a sofa bed. I like the idea: a clean room for a good price without the unnecessary trappings.

In the morning I punched the town of Bayeux into the GPS. I didn’t have a specific plan, but I had read that Bayeux was a good town to start from if you wanted to see the WW2 sites. The roundabout entering town was dominated by a statue of General Eisenhower. I was getting close. Signs for the “Centre Tourismo” looked promising. There was a medieval festival just setting up when I arrived, individuals were setting up tables to sell knick-knacks and food. You can imagine what these were: medieval knives & swords, interesting candies, meats, cheeses, medieval clothing & jewelry, and even a square pen with 4 pigs snoozing, a goat fenced against a tree, and a kitten in a cage. The setting was near an enormous middle age church with flying buttresses, and streets were closed off to allow room for the vendors to setup. I would have loved to stay.

I was forced to park the car and follow the Tourismo signs on foot. At the tourist center, the girl at the desk spoke English, fortunately. She provided a detailed map of the area and pointed out the location of the Musee du Debarquement in Arromanches. This happened to be the one I thought would be a good place to start, after seeing it I could have easily skipped this one. Arromanches is at one end of the “Gold Beach” (the five landing sites: Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, Sword beach). The museum was OK, displays were in French and English, as they were for the rest of the day, and it was interesting to learn how the Allies setup a floating pier in the ocean to unload the troops, equipment, and supplies that carried out the inland invasion. The piers were towed into place and constructed so that they rose and fell with the tide, allowing ships to unload 24 hours.

From here I knew that I wanted to go to Omaha beach, but wasn’t sure quite how to get there. I entered a town near the beach into the GPS and then followed signs once I was close. The first stop was the Normandy American Cemetery. This is a must stop for any American, quite an emotional place. The museum was excellent, both the films and displays were packed with feeling. It was interesting watching the interview of a French historian as he described his respect for the US soldiers who crossed the Atlantic to help people they didn’t know. Spread across the cemetery are more than 9,000 white crosses. It is a short walk down to the beach from the heights. I splashed barefoot in the surf. In the lobby I was given better information, and a flier that listed 29 museums in the area related to Operation Overlord. You could easily spend a week here going to each of these. There was also a museum dedicated to Omaha beach nearby. A small place, the most interesting part were the black and white photos of D-day and after. Amazing the pictures that were taken while the bullets were flying.

Next I visited Batterie de Longues, the only place that still houses the German guns that shelled the ships in the Channel. This was impressive. The 4 guns were contained in huge concrete bunkers, set well back from the edge of the cliff. At the edge of the cliff was the bunker for the soldiers who provided the coordinates for targets. I crawled inside and peered through the one foot high gap in the concrete to the Atlantic. Climbing to the second level, there was a similar view between huge slabs of concrete, with at least 4 feet of concrete over my head.

The last stop for the day was the Pointe du Hoc, a rocky outcropping strategically placed between Utah and Omaha beaches. This was where the Rangers scaled the cliffs to take out the German guns on the plateau. Walking on the plain above the shear cliffs, the concrete bunkers that housed the Germans and there guns are still present, with various levels of damage. There are huge craters in the ground, that I believe were caused by bombs dropped by the Allies. Another must see.