Day in Normandy Saturday, May 3

I am having such terrible trouble connecting my iPod to Wi-Fi areas, it's very frustrating!
Anyhow I spent a wonderful night in Caen last so I would be ready for my scheduled 9 am pickup by Normandy Panorama tour. My hotel was just taken over by new owners so only the bar, not the kitchen was open. So I enjoyed 3 glasses of lovely red wine! My room was basic but clean with the toilet in the hall and the shower on the 3rd! At first she had me booked on the 5th floor but I asked for a lower floor, she obliged me with a 1st floor room, which really means 2nd floor in Europe! I walked along the Orno I think it was river, and found a little bistro for some dinner. I was the only one there eating at 7 pm as they don't go out to eat until much later.

 

I visited the lovely 12th century St. Pierre cathedral that at one time was the grandest in Normandy. My tour guide pick me up right on time along with a couple from Barcelona and their 10 year old son as well as Marty, an attorney and Andy a former third grade teacher and their couple friends all from Chicago. Natasha our guide did a very nice job although her English got hard to follow when she spoke too fast. She said she earns money as a tour guide and then goes to Colombia, SA, and helps feed kids on the street there. She's like her own personal NGO! Not clear why she started doing this.

 

First we headed in the van to Sainte Mere Eglise, which I had heard of from the movie Longest Day, where the paratroopers got caught hanging on the church steeple and were mowed down by Germans. There were stained glassed windows in the church dedicated to the Screaming Eagles and the AA, the American Airborne who liberated the town when gliders and paratroopers landed behind enemy lines in the night before D-Day (June 5–6, 1944)before the sea landings began. The city of Caen had been virtually destroyed by Allied bombings before the invasion. Hitler didn't believe Rommel's report that this was where the landing would take place. Things might not have gone so well if he had moved more reinforcement troops here.

 

 

 

There was a parachute shaped pavilion exhibiting one of the gliders, the C47s that carried the paratroopers and towed gliders, plus tons of artifacts as well as video footage showing the town.


Next we headed to Utah beach where the landing was relatively easy compared to the unbelievably steep cliffs with no cover at Omaha beach. I will get a copy of Stephen Ambrose's book D-Day that the guide and group highly recommended. I have the video set of Band of Brothers about Easy Company who landed at St. Mere Eglise. Such sacrifices overwhelmed us at both the German cemetery (they were just following a crazy man's orders) as well as the rows upon rows of white crosses or Stars of David markers in the American cemetery. 60 percent of the families opted to move the remains to Arlington.




German cemetery





The beaches were pretty wild and windy today. They must have been terrifying to those thousands of soldiers who were seasick on the way in and being mowed down before they even got ashore! Very moving and worthwhile experience!

 

Love locks. Deportation memorial

 

Got the 7 pm train and was back in my hostel by 10. Glad I did this side trip both to Monet's beautiful gardens yesterday and today!