Western France
Western France
As fun as Paris has been, it's time to move on. From here, we travel to Caen. We've packed and organized our bags and cleaned up. It was great spending time with our host. We say our goodbyes to her and the cats and walk to a bus just down the street. The bus we need is already there, which is strange since it's early. The bus has broken down, and we get a little worried about what this means for our schedule. We must catch another bus after this and then get on a coach to travel to Caen. Luckily, another arrives soon after we do and takes over the bus route. We are able to get to our coach on time without any problems.
The coach drops us off at a central terminal near the rental car office in Caen. We will have a rental car for the next few days to get to the places we want. Everything went smoothly with the pickup, and we drove to the WWII museum in Caen. We decided to go to the museum before our Airbnb because the only parking by our place is a paid lot until 7:00 pm. After the museum, we'll get back close to that time and avoid paying a fee. The drive to the museum is less than 20 minutes long, and we get to see a little bit of the town on the way.
Arriving at the museum, we see flags of all the nations involved in the war out front. The building is quite large, which means there will be excellent exhibits. The museum has a huge main lobby when you first walk in. A British Spitfire hangs from the ceiling, and an American Willy's Jeep is in a crate. The gift shop, ticket counter, cafe, and exhibit entrances are all here. We get our tickets, explore the gift shop for several minutes, and purchase a few things. After admiring the crated Jeep and seeing how the vehicle was shipped overseas, we went into the main exhibit.
The first portion is a round room explaining the events that led up to Germany starting the war. It has an ominous feel with black walls, a walkway, and a red-illuminated floor with various objects strewn about from the 1930's. We read information about Hitler, the politics leading to his rise in power, and the subsequent actions, and go to the next room. This is basically a large room with various exhibits throughout. The first area is made to look like ruined building walls with posters plastered on them but with information on the war. The lighting here is not a well-lit room, but directional lights on the exhibits bring attention to what needs to be read or looked at.
We meander through inspecting maps, diagrams, photographs, displays, and artifacts explaining many aspects of the war. The part which explained the extermination of Jews and others deemed "unfit to exist" within Nazi criteria was particularly hard. Being in a place so much closer to where these atrocities happened gave it a more profound sadness. There were pictures of bodies, the concentration camps, and a room with videos playing of survivors explaining their first-hand accounts of what happened. Finding out specifics of more terrible things that occurred with evidence proving it was as informative as it was depressing. Despite that, we need to learn this from history so it doesn't happen again.
From here, the exhibits continue, showing German battle defeats, resistance within Germany, America entering the war, and so on. It was really neat to see a map showing how many battles were taking place at the same time once America started fighting the Japanese. So much was happening in Europe and in the Pacific. This museum didn't show much about the American-Japanese conflicts and focused more on what happened in Europe. Caen itself was bombed heavily, and about 35% was destroyed. It did have great exhibits on D-Day. There were lots of pictures, stories, and accounts of the events of that day. Other exhibits showed how America's involvement with the British and French military pushed German forces back to Germany.
After finishing this exhibit, there was a separate room with various displays dedicated to the invasion on D-Day. Explanations of detailed planning, maps, personal stories, recovered artifacts, models, and photographs were all displayed to convey the magnitude of that day. Each beach involved in the invasion had a dedicated expose. Learning more about things that happened and with the beaches being so close brought this knowledge to a new understanding. The exhibit did a great job of conveying the difficulty of the invasion. It also showed France and other countries' gratitude for its success.
We walked down to the preserved German bunker under the museum when we finished this area. There is a tower with an elevator and staircase leading to it. The top of the tower overlooks a green space behind the museum. The bunker was a command center relaying communications to defend the coast. It is over 200 feet long and 9 feet high. It has some weapons and several furnishings from when it was used, including a radio, desk, chairs, and other items. Speakers play background conversations in German throughout to convey how it would have sounded inside. From here, we go back to our car and leave.
Now it's time to go to our apartment. The closest parking is the paid lot, which is about ten minutes walking distance away. The apartment building is part of a lively strip with restaurants, bars, and shops. Thankfully, our place is on the other side of the building, so we aren't disturbed by the noise. The walkway for the strip is quite broad, and we walk down the middle with all of our luggage in a single file. Seeing the curious looks from people sitting in front of cafes as we walked by was funny. We find the entrance and go through a foyer and a courtyard to the other side of the building. After climbing a few flights of stairs, we got to our place. It's a surprisingly spacious main room with two bedrooms, a bathroom and a small kitchen. I notice that the floors are pretty creaky. There is nothing left to do but unpack and unwind the rest of the evening.
I want to explore Caen, but we have a busy schedule due to our short time here. Today, we are going to Normandy and visiting Omaha and Utah beaches and the Normandy American cemetery. We need a car to make the trip easy. Public transportation would have taken almost three times as long and would have required multiple transfers to get to one beach. On top of that, getting to Utah Beach wasn't an option. We left early enough in the morning to use the whole day for this trip. It wouldn't be a simple pull-up, look out over the beach, and continue driving. We are going to walk the beaches and take it in. It's a nice drive since it's mostly countryside and farmland. This is another part of our trip Tanya and I have been very excited about.
We arrived at a parking area at Omaha Beach. It's near a German bunker with the gun still inside. On the other side of the parking lot is a memorial for the soldiers who ran reconnaissance to clear obstacles ahead of the invasion. We walk up to the bunker and explore it. It is thick concrete with a big, rusty 50mm gun on a track so it can move left and right. It doesn't move anymore. Some chunks were blown out of the concrete when it was hit by a destroyer to neutralize it. From here, we went down to the memorial about the men who cleared paths through the obstructions Germans used to slow down and deter anything from coming in from the sea. I find it fascinating that operations like this happened before the big, famous invasion, but they aren't discussed more. These soldiers made landing troops, vehicles, and supplies on the beach possible.
Now it's time to go down to the beach. We walk down a short path to a hill that leads to the beach and look out over the sand. The beach is vast and has a tidal range of about 20 feet. We are there at low tide because we can see the remains of a landing craft. Tanya and I stood there and tried to picture what it was like on D-Day. Honestly, I simply can't imagine. Our two youngest are playing near the water, and our oldest goes back to the car after a while since it's pretty windy. My wife and I stroll the beach in light conversation, just taking in the moment and place. There is so much beach, and it brings a harsh understanding of how vulnerable the troops were when they landed.
We go back to the car with the kids for some snacks. The American cemetery is up the hill from us, and there might be a walking path from where we are. At least, it looks that way on the map, and past reviews of the place say others have walked there from here. We cross the street from where we are parked and start following a path. It narrows down to being wide enough for one person among shrubbery growing all around. It's behind a sand dune that goes the length of the beach. After walking a while, we come upon an intersection of trails. We happen to meet a guy coming from the direction we want to go and ask what he found. He informed us the trail is closed when it gets close to the cemetery, and we can't enter from there. A little bummed with this news, we walk back to the car.
I want to see if there is parking further down the road so we can see more of the beach. Along the road are homes, small hotels, and Airbnbs. I go far enough down to see more of the beach I'd like to explore, but I need to know where to park. Most of the parking is for the homes or is designated otherwise. I do see an area where cars can pull off the road that doesn't have any signage restricting its use.
Further down is a paid parking lot, but again, we're cheap. I go back to the car to let them know what I found. We drive to the spot and pull in. There is an odd sculpture on the beach and more placards about D-Day. Tanya and I want to see more, but the kids want to stay in the car. She and I walked to the beach and looked at the sculpture. It's called Les Braves or The Brave. There are several tall metal pieces coming out of the sand. Two are straight; the rest curve as they rise, get wider at the top and resemble swords.
We wander past this to look up and down the beach, still trying to picture hundreds of boats and thousands of men landing here. There are remains of something long and made of wood further down the coast. I can't tell if it had anything to do with the war or not. This part of the beach has a sloped sea wall built from the sand to the road that parallels the coast. Lots of people are out taking pictures and exploring the beach. I noticed a house with thatch roofing and vines growing on it, so I have to take a picture. Tanya and I meet up and walk back to the car. It is time to drive over to the American cemetery.
Before we go to the cemetery, we stop at a small museum and gift shop. Outside is a tank, an 88mm anti-tank gun, a hedgehog obstacle, a Belgian gate (another obstacle for stopping boats trying to beach), and a 155mm M1 "Long Tom" heavy artillery gun. Inside, next to the gift shop, is a landing craft with a Willy's Jeep, an American anti-tank gun, and an original propeller with an attached transmission (I think). Since we had just gone through the WWII museum in Caen, we didn't go to the museum here but looked through the gift shop for a little while. Walking around the tank and guns outside was fun to get an up-close look at them. From here, we drive to the cemetery.
When we arrive, we grab our lunch and go over to the main walkway that divides the parking lot and leads up to the memorial museum. There are several benches along here, and we sit to eat. An employee lets us know they don't allow people to eat in this area and shows us where we can go to do so. We walk over to an area next to the parking lot with a gravel lot and grass all around. This is a good spot for a picnic. I finish mine and walk over to the edge of the tall hill we're on that overlooks the coast. The sun has come out, and it is a beautiful view. I take some pictures and see a stone spire encircled by benches down the hill, so I go to it. It's a monument called Big Red One dedicated to the American 1st Infantry Division that took the hill on this part of Omaha Beach. Further down the hill are two bunkers that I want to explore.
I get to the first bunker, and it's built into the slope. You can see damage on the outside and inside when it was neutralized during the landing. It has an open area in the middle where the 75mm gun would turn and two small rooms. I walk around inside and out, inspecting everything and thinking about everything that happened here. Instead of blocking it off, I can walk through, climb over, and touch any of it. This really helps me grasp the significance of the bunker and the events that occurred. After checking it out, I saw a trail leading down the hill to another bunker. I can only see the roof from here, but since it's flat and jutting out from the hill, I can tell what it is. I walk down to it but briefly explore. None of my family is with me, and I've gotten ahead of myself and them with my curiosity. I walk back up the hill so they know where I am.
They were at the monument and taking pictures of the view. As I reach them, I see an opening in the ground near the memorial. There are a couple of remnants of the trenches that were dug here, and this is one of them. Even though it's a small opening, we go in to see what's inside. A round grate is on the surface, and we see it over what used to be an underground room. It has since been mostly filled with dirt over the years, and grass is growing. There is barely enough room to fit under the grate and get a picture taken, which we do for the kids. I tell Tanya about the bunkers down the hill and take the family down to them. The kids are all over them, and I point out the damage from bullets and shells. We take pictures and explore both of the bunkers built nearly identically. The bunker closer to the beach had a large puddle in the central part, so we couldn't explore it as much.
From the second bunker, we follow the path to the beach. Despite the wind, it's more pleasant now that the sun has come out and the clouds are clearing and going away. We walk toward the water, looking for any sign of anything left on the beach from the invasion. There isn't anything like that, but we found a very shallow inlet of water that we carefully navigated through. The kids find various shells along the water and have fun avoiding the small waves as they come in and recede. Our oldest takes off his shoe to get something out of it and ends up standing in the inlet in his sock. Since it doesn't matter now, he thoroughly cleans his shoe by filling it with water and pouring it out. My wife and I can't imagine why he thinks this is a good idea now that he has to walk around with wet socks and shoes. We get a laugh out of this, then walk back to the hill and up to the cemetery museum.
After a bathroom break, we enter the museum, which is also how you enter the cemetery. Upon entering, there is a room with a short video, and you go downstairs. There are lots of displays with pictures from D-Day, quotes from soldiers, and facts about the events. Further, there are maps showing how widespread the landing was along the beach and how many vessels were involved. The museum also has exhibitions on paratroopers and vehicles that were brought in by boat. Details and history are provided that are different from other museums we've been to. Since so many men died at this beach, there are more personalized exhibitions. We walk through everything, learning new things and soaking in the personal nature of being where the action happened.
When we walk out of the museum, we are overlooking the beach, and there is a nice wide, paved path leading to the cemetery. It was a beautiful and peaceful walk as it paralleled the coast. A large map of the beaches called the 'Belvedere table d'orientation' shows the landing sights on the beaches from where you are standing. Just past this, you can see a quadrant of the cemetery come into view. We turn left, and this brings us to the head of the burial grounds and the Walls of the Missing and Garden of the Missing behind us. Stretched out before us are thousands of white crosses mingled with hundreds of markers that are the star of David. In total, there are 9,389 graves. The entire cemetery is kept immaculate, and it looks pristine.
Walking beside a long reflective pool, we go to the memorial behind us. It's a tall semicircular colonnade with huge maps depicting Western Europe's military operations and the development of the beachheads after the Normandy landings. In the center is a bronze statue, "Spirit of American Youth Rising from the Waves." We walk the colonnade studying the maps and statue. Behind the memorial are the Walls of the Missing and the Garden of the Missing. The walls and garden are also a semicircle with 1,557 names inscribed on the wall. There are walking paths within the garden with roses outlining the grass portions.
From here, we walk to the burial area. One quadrant is roped off while groundskeepers mow grass and weed-eat. We stroll up the path as we pass row after row of white crosses. In the center of the burial grounds is a small round chapel, and we go in. Inside is a beautiful ceiling depicting angels among the soldiers on D-Day and a black marble table flanked by the flags of France, America, and Britain on either side. There is just one row of pews on either side that are roped off. We walk out of the chapel and into a quadrant to look at the headstones. Tanya has researched some facts about the cemetery, which she is reciting for the rest of us. Things like Theodore Roosevelt's son, forty-six sets of brothers, and a father and son are buried here.
The headstones give the information of the soldier buried: their name, rank, division, home state, and date of death. I look for ones from Alabama to see if I recognize any names. Even though this is a solemn place, it's also beautiful, and I can't help but notice. The contrast of the stark white headstones against the bright green grass, trees, and shrubbery is wonderful. The blue sky adds to the beauty, and this is a place to come, not only to mourn but to reflect as well. Everyone here is being reverent as they walk around and explore the burial grounds. It makes the overall experience much more enjoyable and poignant in regard to the respect this place deserves. We gather the kids and walk back towards the parking lot. Tanya and I talk to them about what they've seen and how they feel. I hope this place makes a lasting impression on them.
We get in the car and drive to Utah Beach. On the way, we stop at Point Du Hoc. I didn't know about this place, so I was glad to visit. It's a cliff overlooking Omaha Beach and Utah Beach on one side. There are some German bunkers and concrete casements built here to fire upon enemy ships and craft attempting to land on the beaches. When we first enter, there is a small visitor center/museum where you can learn about the invasion. Two Army Ranger battalions scaled 90ft cliffs to take the area. The museum showed the grappling hooks used and what happened that day. The bunkers were also fired upon from battleships, which helped them take the point. This was considered one of the most dangerous positions held by the Germans and was a crucial victory in the overall success of D-Day.
After looking at the museum, we walked out to the bunkers and cliffs. There is a dedicated path to follow through the area, and not all bunkers are open to explore. The fire support from the battleships left craters all over the ground. Some bunkers or gunpits took a direct hit, which was obvious. It was hard to tell which it was since it was just a pile of leftover concrete. There is a lookout built over one of the bunkers near the edge of the cliff, and you can look over the beach and the grounds behind. A concrete bunkhouse or command center still stands, and we can quickly walk through it before the place closes. We walk back to the car, talking mainly about the craters in the ground and how it would have felt to be near one. Our last stop for the day is Utah Beach.
We arrive there late in the day. There is another museum for this beach, but it's closed when we arrive. We've seen so many thus far that it isn't a concern. It's the beach we are primarily interested in. There are memorials and monuments outside the museum, though. Two of the kids are done by this point and want to stay in the car, except our middle child. The three of us walk on the beach for a while, thinking about why we are here. The wind has picked up again, and our son goes back to the car. Tanya goes to the memorial ahead of me while I meander on the beach. Eventually, I walk over to it and look at everything on display. There is a landing craft people can board, a gun used against the landing troops, statues, a small bunker, a tank, and some placards with the French and American flags flying high in the wind. She and I explore all this and even see another bunker in the middle of a field a few hundred yards from the beach. We do get to go inside and inspect it. This has been a great day and one we've looked forward to for a while. We drive back to our place, appreciating the French countryside as we do.
Tomorrow, we leave for the UK. We will take another ferry and are looking forward to it. France has been incredible, and we've thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We pack our things tonight and reflect on the day. The next day, we drove to the bus station, dropped off our car, and caught a bus at the ferry port. Walking from the bus stop to the ferry, we stop at a vendor for some food. When get to the ferry, get our tickets scanned, and board. We find the room for our seats and are pleasantly surprised to find out we have front-row seats in front of a long window at the bow of the ship. We settle into our seats and relax after getting here. We will be in the UK for the next three months and wonder what fun awaits us there.
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