On Monday morning, we set out for Normandy by train. We went through Paris where we stopped and had lunch and then continued on. The thing about going through Paris is that it has about (at least) 7 different train stations and most of the transfers mean that you have to switch stations using the metro.
We got to Bayeux around 5pm and wandered around town. The cathedral there was one of the first things that we saw. It was grand and amazing. Reed kept asking over and over again how nobody knew about it, while everyone knows about Notre Dame de Paris.
Unfortunately by the time that we had gotten there, the cathedral was closed to visitors so we wandered around town a bit more. The streets of stores were all cute and old but they had all of the regular french stores.
The streets in Bayeux and in other towns along the Normandy coast still celebrate the Allied victory that liberated them in World War II. They've got the Allied flags everywhere in the streets.
On Tuesday, we went on a tour of the D-Day sights. After asking around, I decided that a guided tour was the best way to go because there is very limited transportation between all of these places outside of a tour. The first place we went early in the morning was Longues-sur-Mer, the Germany gun battery. It's kind of hard to tell in the picture but the light was literally streaming in through holes in the clouds. It looked pretty cool. You can also see La Manche (the English Channel) in the back of the photo.
The guns kept at this battery were really big and could shoot a very long way (as they were aimed at boats in the English Channel, the distance of which can be seen above).
From the back side of the gun (inside the bunker):
I believe that he said that it took something like 10 people to use this one gun. We walked into the back of the bunker and looked into the supply rooms. They were basically just big, empty, cold cement rooms.
One of the bunkers was blown up. Our tour guide told us that what is thought to have happened is that a missile came in through the hole around the gun and hit the supply room which caused the gun powder in there to explode.
After that, we went to Omaha beach. It was very windy and cold there and for that reason, I didn't like it very much.
Omaha beach was one of the bloodiest of D-Day because the long expanse of flat sand didn't allow any cover for the incoming troops.
From there, we headed on to the American D-Day cemetery. The land of this cemetery was given to the United States by France, so while we were there, we were actually on American soil. More than 9,000 soldiers are buried here.
All of the Christian soldiers have crosses and the Jewish soldiers have stars of David. It's so peaceful and calm there. This is probably the only cemetery that I like. It's so beautiful and horrible at the same time to see all of those white crosses spreading out over acres of land.
After that, we left for the Pointe du Hoc, another German bunker area. I had been here before but it was fun to walk around again. When D-Day happened, the Germans had been in the process of building the concrete bunker things to hold their giant guns that could reach both Utah and Omaha beaches.
After that, it was lunch time. For that, we went to see Saint Mère Église and the 101st Airborne Unit Museum. Saint Mère Église is a church famous for a parachuter who got stuck on its roof and played dead for 2 hours until he was taken prisoner by some Germans. They still have a dummy there today.
The 101st Airborne Museum was kind of cool. It showed all about flying and how the military lives were back then with letters and uniforms and such.
At the entry, they had the flags of all of the Allies but not the US flag. Instead they had the flags of each individual state going all the way around the inside of the building. Look which two states were right next to each other:
After lunch, our tour group went to see Utah Beach.
I really liked Utah Beach. It probably helped that it was quite a bit warmer than when we went to Omaha Beach.
That night when we got home, we went and checked out the cathedral. It was very beautiful on the inside. It was much lighter and brighter than Notre Dame de Lyon or Notre Dame de Paris, but again, I don't have any pictures of the inside. For dinner that night we went to a restaurant called Le Petit Normand. It served special Norman cuisine. I hardly liked a thing on the menu so I got something steak-like that was really not good at all. Reed had oysters and cod with caramel sauce. Ever since, he's been raving that it was the best meal of the trip.
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