We had another packed day seeing D-Day sights. Of course it's France, so you have to start out with a leisurely cafe and pastries. This patisserie reminded me of some of the sites jennifer and I saw in Paris two years ago. My tart Normande (with apples) was fantastic.
We picked up on the beaches where we'd left off yesterday, on the west end of Omaha. This was the worst of the invasion by far, and the terrain makes it clear why. Whereas the British beaches yesterday weren't at all like I envisioned, Omaha was just like you see in the films, apart from the horses.
Just down the coast was Pointe du Hoc, the cliffs the Rangers had to climb to take out some gun batteries. Aside from the cliffs the most amazing thing was the ground littered in huge craters from the shelling. This place really took a beating.
This is the wall of a bunker where seven Germans holed up for a number of days. They hit it with bazookas and all sorts of explosives and couldn't break in. Eventually the men inside surrendered.
Off to Utah beach and lunch (Croque Monsier, jambon on baguette, etc), then the excellent little museum on the beach.
We stopped in a nice little town called Sainte Marie du Mont which the paratroopers had fought it out for. They had a nice set of plaques around the main square/church that told a number of personal stories about the events. Then to Sainte Mere Eglise where the paratrooper got stuff on the church steeple, and a great museum dedicated to the airborne.
In the way back to Bayeux we stopped at the German cemetery, which was very well done. I wish we'd had more time in the visitors center as they had some wonderful quotations regarding the brutality and futility of war. I was curious what we'd see there in lieu of the themes about restoring liberty and freedom that you see at the Allied sites, and it was nicely done.
On last dinner in Bayeux - pâté with onions, pork tenderloin, frommage (the stinky kind), Creme brûlée, Calvados. Good food here. As dad said "lucky for us John's on a Mediterranean diet."
Tomorrow we leave for Honfleur. We may not have Internet access for a day or two. I'll make sure to keep notes either way. After just a few days it's already getting hard to remember what we saw when. In the meantime here's something to keep you occupied:
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