The D-Day Beaches in Normandy

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We set off for Normandy in order to see le Mémorial de Caen, a museum that takes you from WWI through WWII, the Cold War, and today. It's meant to show how things got out of hand and it emphasizes peace as a means of understanding and preventing further conflicts. It was probably the most interesting museum I've ever been to - I would highly recommend it!

Lower Normandy is beautiful - it's very rural and green and quaint, but our goal wasn't to see the countryside. We were there to see all of the beaches from the D-Day landings. Over two days, we explored the coastline and saw them all: Omaha, Utah, Gold, Sword, and Juno. The beaches aren't nice stretches of sand, but instead, there's very little sand, and at high tide, there is little more than sheer cliff faces. To think that the soldiers had to scale the cliffs while the German were firing down on them is just incredible. In fact, the amount of planning and organization that went into the invasion is just mind-boggling. We got to explore what's left of the German bunkers at Pointe du Hoc, and you can climb down into the huge craters left by the mortars.

We also went to the American cemetery, which was a very moving, peaceful place. The cemetery is technically American soil, and it was relatively obvious: you had to pass through very tight security and metal detectors and once inside, the air conditioning was so cold! If they're going to insist that this land is American, I think they should have stamped my passport...

Once back in Paris, we spent a Saturday at Parc Astérix (a theme park outside of the city). It has a Gaulish-Roman theme, with some Greek areas thrown in there for good measure. It was quite good fun, but we were there along with the rest of France (I would not recommend going on a weekend in August if you don't like waiting in lines!)

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Photos

Pegasus Bridge
the first area liberated by the Allies

Omaha Beach on the right, the American Cemetery on the left
Colleville-sur-Mer