Blogs from Arromanches-les-Bains, Lower Normandy, France, Europe - page 2

I shake you warmly by the hand. So, we are in the absolutely beautiful country of France, and I do emphasize beautiful. Sadly, pictures are not uploaded, but someday they will be. Hold on to hope. Wednesday, July 13. Rainy and cold. We drove 4 hours to a campground outside Paris with free internet. Thursday, July 14. Bastille Day (Independence Day) in France. We walked 5 minutes to the train station and went off to Paris. Our first stop was the Louvre, which was free that day. We waited in line for 10 minutes, went first to the Mona Lisa, and looked around for a while. We got to see sarcophaguses, sphinxes, and moat. We came out at 12:15 and sadly missed a military parade that happened just outside (we heard the planes). We headed for ... read more

Drove 3 hours through the Normandy countryside to visit some of the D-Day Beaches. First stop at Arromanches-les-Bains, the western-most point of GOLD beach, and the site of Port Winston. This is where the first artificial harbour was set up on June 6, with 17 old ships, and 115 Mulberries (football field size concrete blocks) towed across the channel and sunk. Then on to Longues-sur-Mer, where remains an intact German batterry of 4 150mm guns, with a range of 20km. The observation post was set 300m in front on the cliffs. These guns bombarded both the landing fleet and GOLD & OMAHA beaches. Next to Colleville-sur-Mer, and the largest American war cemetery. Overlooking OMAHA beach, some 9,000 Americans are buried there, marked by white marble crosses or Jewish stars. A sobering sight and memorial to the ... read more

The French don’t have the reputation for being the most open and friendly race in the world so you can imagine my shock the first time I received a random 'Bonjour' walking around in France. Admittedly my previous experience on French soil was a vist to Paris when I was 20 and probably not the most culturally aware, however take my advice - get the hell out of the capital and wander around the villages of Normandy to see the real France and real French. Operation Invade Normandy was hatched by Bruce as a research trip to visit the little village of Brix the birthplace of the name Bruce. This of course meant that Bruce got to organise the transport, accommodation and itinerary and myself and his friend Mike from Cambridge got to turn up. Meeting ... read more

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 ... read more

As I approached Arromanches les Bains my first sight was the 360-degree cinema which was on top of the hill overlooking Arromanches and gold beach as it was named at the time of the D-Day landings on the 6th June 1944. I'd visited the cinema a few years earlier so I decided not to waste the lovely weather but continue into the town center. I rode down to the car park by the museum and pulled up at the barrier where the attendant said something to me and once again I didn't understand a word until I told him I was English. He then explained it was free parking for bikes providing I parked in the areas painted yellow. These areas weren't specific areas bike parking spaces just areas which were too small for a car ... read more