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Published: June 14th 2013
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American Memorial
This place just left me in awe On this my final day in Paris I wanted to go to the beaches in Normandy and see all that awesome that was still there. So I got word of a tour guide that gives good tours of the American beaches and I booked a last minute trip with them for this day. It was a little annoying though because I had to be up there at 0900 and that meant if I took the motorway it would still be like 2-3 hr ride. So no side roads today just the big slab of eh whatever. So I headed out and it was raining again but I overcame and adapted and it stopped a little outside of town. Naturally I lost one of my favorite parts of my bike and that is a little thing called a riders rest. It attaches to the throttle and makes it easier to control the throttle. Seems insignificant but it really is a nice thing to have. Anyway I rode out to Sainte- Mère- Église and met up with the tour guide. The first part of the tour was in his home and he went into great detail about the history and reasoning behind the
Airborne Museum
All throughout the museum they used actual items from the war, no reproductions everything is real as the day it was used. whole D-Day operation and it was really interesting and helpful later when we went out and saw the places. We then moved off to the Airborne museum in town where they have a C-47 that was used in the dropping of paratroopers over the town. And they have one of the two remaining gliders from the entire operation, (the other is in the Smithsonian). The museum was set up really cool and they had a ton of authentic gear from the war and the paratroopers that landed there. Then we were off to the beaches. First stop was Utah beach, it was a huge beach and using ones imagination I could see the amount of pain in the ass’ness that it would have been to cross that beach. And across the way you could see Omaha beach so it wasn’t that far away at all. We then moved off to Point Du Hoc where wow just wow, the land of the entire area is so messed up from all the artillery that was dropped there. There was more explosives used at this one location that both of the nukes used in Japan combined. The land was just so wavy with
Point Du Hoc
See how messed up the land is from all the artillery dropped on it. all the craters and busted bunkers; it’s quite the sight to see. The cliff the rangers had to climb was quite the spectacle as well. Sheer cliffs rocks and ocean below these guys were seriously an amazing bunch. So we left and went to Omaha beach and this beach stretched what seemed like forever, again I was amazed at what these guys were able to accomplish that day. Between the bad weather, bad landings, wrong location of landings, and just the firepower they came up against its amazing. After that we went off to the American memorial at Omaha beach and this place will give you chills no matter your stance with the military, it is beautiful and well-kept and just walking around in the area you feel a sense of pride in your fellow paratroopers. That was the end of the tour and we went back to Sainte- Mère- Église for some espresso, (The French can’t make coffee for crap). The ride home wasn’t too bad it was late in the afternoon so I decide to take the motorway back to Paris. It was ok on tolls because they have motorcycle lanes so you only pay like half price.
American Memorial
Just a few of the many gravestones When I got back I went out to a nearby pub and had my dinner and beers and concluded my stay in Paris and France for that matter, because tomorrow I was off to jolly ol’ England.
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