Normandy

I think the kids will formally protest if we try to put them in the car again anytime soon.

We drove just about 1000 miles over 3 days when we went to Normandy, France. The car ride there took about 8 hours with holiday traffic. We had done our homework before we left by watching The Longest Day and were ready to see it all.

We stayed in Bayeux and shortly after arriving, we went to see the Bayeux Tapestry. It was really amazing to see and hear the story behind each panel. Unfortunutley, they did not allow us to take pictures. We had dinner in town and crashed for the night.

Sunday morning, we headed out to Omaha Beach. The beach is marked with 2 memorials. It does not need much else, it is really moving just to be there knowing that 3500 Americans lost their lives there.

Afterwards, we drove up the hill to the American Military Cemetary. It is in a beautiful location overlooking the beach.

In the afternoon, we went to Mont St Michel. It almost looked like a mirage as we were approaching. The first building on the island was a church almost 1300 years ago. Over time, the church was expanded and houses and businesses were built. During low tide, you can walk all of the way around it. A causeway was built in 1879. We thought it was funny that while in the parking lot, our GPS showed that we were in the middle of the water.

Monday we set off to see more D-Day sites. Our first stop was Arromanches where there are over 140 cement caissons that form a semi circle in the water to form a harbor to offload equipment.

We then went to Longues-Sur-Mer to see the German cement bunkers along the coast. Our next stop was Point du Hoc. We were anxious to see the cliffs the rangers scaled but were most surprised by the enorous craters and destroyed military bunkers still there from the bombings.

We should have gotten on the road, but wanted to go to St Mere Eglise because it was so prominantly featured in The Longest Day. We were surprise that they had a dummy soldier hanging from his parachute from the side of the church. It was kind of weird but it gave you a good sense of what it was actually like.

It was a great trip and a long drive, but very interesting. The coast along the English Channel is beautiful and the water is much prettier and bluer than I expected. The towns we traveled through were very old and quiet.

I posted a lot of pictures to Flickr.