PARIS: 2007, 2015
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When Paul and I visited Paris for the first time together in 2007, we arrived a few days before the Rick Steves tour began. The hotel where the tour was booked was near the Eiffel tower and within walking distance of Les Invalides. Paul was keen on visiting the Army Museum and Napolean's tomb in Les Invalides. Due to a computer crash nearly all of my Paris pictures from 2007 are gone. The few that remain aren't of good quality, but I include them here. Being a former soldier, Paul would have loved the exploration of the World War II sites I toured in 2015.
I may be mis-remembering, but I do believe this is an actual sized gun turret from a WW II plane. (even though it looks like something from Star Wars)
In 2015, our itinerary was for us to travel by bus from Paris to Giverny to Rouen, and ultimately roll into Bayeux. Bayeux would serve as our "headquarters" that night and for the next two days and nights while we explored World War II sites and Mont St. Michel.
Our first morning in Bayeux, we headed out to the beaches of Normandy for our first look at the Operation Neptune landing sites. We arrived at Omaha Beach where a member of the D-Day Academy gave us a "you are there" style description of the D-Day landings on Omaha Beach, June 6,1944.
The statue of the two soldiers, one dragging the other, touched all of us with its silent tribute to courage, duty, responsibility. As we stood, hearing the story of the landing, our guide asked us to turn around. Then we saw, what they had faced, machine gun fire from bunker after hillside bunker.
The 29th Infantry Division of the US Army, based in Virginia, is known as the Blue and Gray Division. After landing at Omaha Beach, three days later, they advanced to Pointe Du Hoc saving 90 Rangers, all who were left from contingent of 225 Rangers who had held their positions in those horrific three days.
Five weeks after the D-Day Landing, the 29th liberated St. Lô (St. Lô was the setting for the popular book "All The Light We Cannot See." )
Concrete caissons were dropped into the Atlantic to create a breakwater and harbor at Arromanches.
The Normandy landings were part of Operation Neptune; the beaches were named Omaha, Utah, Gold, Juno and Sword.
Today, amid the statues and tourists, grand-fathers take their grandchildren on walks and life goes on in the village of Vierville-sur-Mer.
At Omaha Beach, our tour group boarded a World War II-era Cargo/Supply truck. Those who saw themselves as Patton, took the jeep and we headed to Pointe du Hoc, following the trail of the 29th Infantry.
We're in for a bumpy ride!
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We followed the 29th Infantry to Pointe du Hoc - where the fields of battle have been preserved. Great craters in the ground from the mortar shelling are now covered with grass.
It seemed fitting to spend time here, honoring those who died here, viewing the bunkers from the outside - then inside - and back out again.
These bunkers really were built like brick ----houses.
I took one last look at Pointe du Hoc, remembering my friend's father, a Ranger who had also fought in Europe in WWII.
The trip culminated in a visit to the American Cemetery but before that, we boarded the cargo truck for a short respite at a cider/Calvados-producing apple farm, where I discovered one of my favorite French things - Pommeau de Normandie (a blend of Calvados and apple juice and a touch of fizz!)
Never expected to see surfboards lying in an apple farm in Normandy - but there they were! (What a massive entry arch - built to last!)
The Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in Colleville-sur-Mer contains 9400 graves and 1600 names on the Wall of the Missing. On this day the gray cloudy skies and intermittent rain seemed appropriate accompaniments to the sense of sorrow and loss.
After walking through the Memorial, seeing the maps and the numbers, we took a last look at the rows and rows of markers - some incorporating the Star of David, some acknowledging Medal of Honor recipients (Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.).
We boarded the bus for a last look at Omaha Beach before heading back to Bayeux.
The tide was particularly low on this day, enabling us to see shards of metal protruding above the waves. Also low enough to attract a group of wind surfers.
On the drive back to Bayeux our guide played a tape of an English World War II soldier and survivor and a German soldier and survivor in conversation. We were given the choice to stop at Huisnes-sur-Mer or not, we voted to stop.
Mont-de-Huisnes is the German war cemetery, established in 1961 to contain nearly 12,000 German military personnel of World War II.
Understandably low key, there was also a unique somberness about this place.
After this brief stop, we re-boarded the bus and spent our second night in Bayeux, before our day-long visit to Mont St. Michel.
