Normandie

Well, Jason has already written a post about our time in Normandie - and I was just planning to add my pics to his post. But when I saw how serious & well-organized his post was, I decided that I needed to do a post too :-)

We left Paris Monday morning and drove the 3 hours to the coast to the Normandie area. We stayed at a wonderful B&B called Le Mas Normand that was recommended by a friend who used to live in Germany (thanks, Karen!). It was a wonderful place! They served us delicious breakfasts with homemade bread and jams (and coffee bowls instead of coffee cups!). The owner is a gourmet chef, so he also fixed us a several course meal the 2nd night we were there. It was delicious! (and yes, there was more French cheese :-) ) The B&B was right next to a babbling brook & a field of cows and they had chickens and geese on the property as well. I think it would be a wonderful place to visit again when the weather is warmer and one had more desire to stay outside :-).


One of the highlights of the stay was the owner's dog, Granade (which means pomegranate in French). Granade is an 18 month Golden Retriever puppy and she was a delight! She reminded us so much of our Rosie. Katie loved playing with her and was hardly inside if we were at the B&B. One morning Katie looked out our window to see Granade staring into the breakfast room, longing to go inside w/ the people. Katie said "The only thing that will make Granade happy is if I go out to play with her." :-) I definitely see another big puppy in our future! :-)

We got into Normandie on Monday afternoon, and headed over to Gold Beach which is one of the beaches where the British landed. Jason mentioned in his post how they had constructed a temporary port a little ways from the shore to aid them in bringing their men and equipment onto land. Most of that port was destroyed by the weather, but you can still see the remnants of it out in the bay. The 1st pic is us on Gold Beach, then the remains of the makeshift port, then the beautiful town of Arromanches that lies next to Gold Beach.





Next we went to see Omaha Beach. By then it was getting very dark but we charged ahead :-). (The 1st pic here is Omaha Beach in the daytime on Tuesday) There are still German bunkers near the beach as well as several monuments to the soldiers who landed there. Having such vivid images in my head from the movie Saving Private Ryan, it was very surreal to be on that beach and to try to imagine what it must have been like. They call it "The Longest Day" and I think that is an understatement. Of the landing beaches, the fighting was the worst at Omaha Beach, partly because of things that went wrong in the execution of their plan. At the beginning of the day, the casualty rates were unbelievably high. By the end of the day, they only succeeded in securing small sections of the beach - a "small toehold" - after such a terrible, fierce day. Unbelievable what those young men sacrificed for our freedom. And unbelievable the success they had against seemingly insurmountable odds. They kept going in spite of the horror - and they succeeded. It took them several days to accomplish the goals of D-Day, but they persevered and succeeded.

Tuesday morning we headed to the American Cemetery. They have an excellent museum which we really enjoyed. It put faces with many of the names we were about to see outside. Then we went out to the Cemetery. I have been to Arlington National Cemetery near Washington D.C., another place where the crosses (& stars of David) go on & on. But this place is different. The vast majority of those men buried here died within a few short months of each other - June, July, August, September 1944. And there are nearly 10,000 graves here! These crosses also only represent a small fraction of those who died - and only the Americans. It is truly overwhelming and truly difficult to explain. Almost impossible to wrap your mind around really. I'm so glad that we had the chance to see it.





When we decided to go to Normandie, I began to worry about how Katie was going to take all of this - I mean, it's hard to sugar coat a place like Normandie for a 5 year old's ears and eyes! But thankfully there was nothing too graphic in anything that we saw. She probably heard more bombs and gunfire from the videos than she's ever heard before, but she seemed OK with it. The other day she began asking where Rusty is buried and if we can go visit his grave when we return to Texas - so I do think more of it sunk in than she's said. As with all of these experiences she is having, I just hope she remembers being there where all those those brave soldiers are buried. Having to explain it in simple terms to her also brought it home again to me - how terrible were the things that Hitler was doing and how fortunate we are that our country joined those who were fighting to maintain our freedom.

Finally, we visited Pointe du Hoc, the top of some bluffs that were scaled by the Army Rangers to destroy German guns firing on Omaha Beach. The casualties here were 60%! Unreal. This place was most undisturbed in the 65 years since D-Day, and you could still clearly see the craters and destruction from the bombs.


Something I didn't expect from our time in Normandie was glimpsing the liberation of France from the French perspective. Given the current opinion of most of Europe about America, it surprised me a little bit to feel the gratitude in Normandie. They remain deeply grateful to the British and Americans for rescuing them from the Germans. And they paid a terrible price as well for that liberation.

There are other wonderful things to see in Normandie - we just didn't have time. We had to head back to Paris on Wed to catch our flight back to Madrid. On the way to the airport, we stopped briefly to see the Tapestry in Bayeux, which is a medieval tapestry telling the story of William the Conqueror. It was very interesting and is 230 feet long! Fortunately they had an audio guide so we could listen as we looked :-).

What a great trip we had in France - and our week of vacation was not yet over! Tunisia is up next :-)