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Omaha And Mont Saint Michel

Arriving in Caen earlier than I intended, I couldn’t check in to my hostel that was a bit out of town until 3pm, so to make use of the time I headed back into the centre and visited the Chateau de Caen. Chateau seem to be a very loose word in France. Translated it literally means “Grand House” but from what I’ve seen it doesn’t matter whether the house was built in the 1700’s like Versailles or in the case of the chateau at Caen, a fortified castle built by William the Conqueror in the 10th Century. Now days, the walls of the castle have been repaired along with most of the buildings within, and it has now become the cultural centre for the town with museums and auditoriums housed inside. The original keep with moat is the only building to not have survived to some degree and remains a jumble of broken fortifications giving just the hint of what it once looked like.

The main two reason for coming to the North of France, and specifically Normandy, required a full day each to visit. The first was to be the D-Day Beaches located to the North and North West of Caen. On the coastline at the North of Normandy is where the tide of the German invasion and occupation was turned. In 1944 a campaign was launched by joint forces from the British, Canadian and American militaries incorporating Army, Navy for transport and sea support, and Air Force for paratroopers and large scale bombings. Landing on five beaches, Operation Overlord was the definitive point in World War II that started the retreat of the Nazis and their eventual capitulation. From Bayeux to the North west of Caen, one of the bloodiest battles of the war was waged on the landing beach of the Americans code named Omaha. Over 9000 Americans graves are commemorated in the cemetery overlooking the coast with another 1500 names engraved on a memorial for those lost without a official resting place. It’s daunting walking amongst thousands of perfectly lined up white crosses and Stars of David stretching as far as can see over the grassy hill.

The second day saw me moving in the same direction to a town called Pontorson, the launching pad for trips to Mont Saint Michel. Rising up as a solid rock pillar out of the sand flats and ocean, the original abbey built on the top in the 10th Century was a pilgrimage site for many during it’s early years. Slowly added to, and with a little town springing up within it’s walls, it grew over the centuries to become the fortified fortress it is today. It is the only area of France never to be conquered, whether from the English or the Germans. Walking around the outside of the out cropping on the sand flats of the delta of a river mouth, you can see why. At anything other than low tide the island would have been cut off from the mainland by the ocean, although now days it has a spur created for the thousands of tourist buses that pour through the gates every day. The inside of the structure is just as intriguing with narrow, winding lanes slowly working their way up towards the Abbey, and others veering off at angles to worn stairs leading to small gardens and balconies. The Abbey itself is still used for worship and, although not ornate with stained glass and beautiful vaulting, instils the sense of strength and durability that the whole complex portrays.

"Suddenly you are five years old again. You can't read anything. You only have the most rudimentary sense of how things work; you can't even reliably cross a street without endangering your life. Your whole existence becomes a series of interesting guesses." - Bill Bryson

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