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Published: August 9th 2009
Memorial building
The Memorial in Caen, France is a WWII museum and point for booking tours relating to the D-Day landings.Day 14: Sunday, July 5, 2009
CAEN, FRANCE Awoke 7:00 am. Paid the 6 euro (8.40 USD) to have breakfast at my hotel. The breakfast was ok. I thought it pricey for what I got. They offer the following: Cereals (3 kinds), Yogart (fruit or plain), orange juice, coffee / tea / hot chocolate, and 3 kinds of bread (croisant, roll, sliced bread). Maybe I'm just cheap.
Today's plan is to tour Normandy. As many will know, Normandy has become synonymous with the WWII Allied D-Day landings that occurred there on June 6, 1944. The allies entered fortress europe by bombing the coast, dropping paratroopers, and assaulting the beaches code named Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword. Many lives were lost, but it gave the allies a foothold in France that ultimately led to victory. Today, the Normandy area has numerous tours, museums, cemeteries, and monuments related to WWII. I have always been facinated by WWII and wanted to visit. Yesterday I purchased the tour at
Le Mémorial and scheduled it for today. I had also scheduled a cab to pick me up as the hotel manager informed me that the buses don't run early on Sunday.
Sunny
Sculpture at Memorial
Sculpure titled "Non-Violence" found in front of Memorial building. morning. Cab was right on time. At first, I thought the cab driver was taking me for a ride (so to speak) because we seemed to be taking every back road there was. I'm thinking: "where is this guy going?
Le Mémorial is the other way." But, he did well. We arrived at the Memorial at 8:37 am. Plenty of time until the tour starts. The cab cost 16.40 euro (22.97 USD). Ouch. I think cab driver charged me for distrance he had to travel to pick me up at my hotel.
As people gathered, I met a few of the others who would be on the tour. There was Pan from Houston (Texas; USA), with his wife and son. Then there was Ula from Copenhagen, Denmark. Our guide was Lisa, a young German woman who spoke english quite well. Once everyone had assembled, we piled into our van/mini-bus and were off.
We passed the town of Creully which is one of the few towns in the Normandy area that escaped damage. It had been quickly taken by the British and Field Marshall Montgomery setup his tactical HQ there.
Our first stop was the remains of the
artificial harbor constructed by the allies
(1). Not only did the allies need to get ashore, they needed to ensure a means of getting supplies ashore. Therefore, they built artificial harbors (one for US beaches, the other for British beaches). Though the docks are now long gone, portions of the breakwaters can still be seen. The breakwaters consisted of sunken ships and
Phoenixes. Other than the breakwaters, there wasn't much to see.
Gold Beach was next. This is one of the beaches assigned to the British on D-Day. There is a raised platform where one can get a good overview of the landscape. Short stop and we were moving again.
Along the way we passed a school named after
Ernest Hemingway. He was a correspondant during WWII and came in on the seventh wave on D-Day
(2). Can't recall if there was any other reason for the school being named after him.
Inland we got to see four German gun emplacements up close. A couple of them were still in surprisingly good condition, yet another suffered severe damage as the result of a bomb. To see the meter thick (I'm estimating) reinforced concrete fractured and caved in, it's amazing. While
Gun Emplacement
German WWII gun emplacement in Normandy. This one is intact. walking down the grassy slope, my feet slipped on the wet grass (it had rained last night) and I landed on my behind. I didn't realize it until later, I had also sustained a pretty good bruise on the back of my arm. Aside from the bruise and some grass stains, nothing damaged except my pride. 😊
The
Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial is a large cemetery overlooking Omaha beach. Of the places one can visit in Normandy, I think few bring home the sence of loss more than this cemetery. When you see all the head stones, perfectly aligned, in rows that go on and on, one begins to grasp just how many had fallen. You can talk about the numbers of fallen, how the water ran red with blood, and so on, but most of this has been wiped clean. The beaches show little sign of the past. But here is something tangable. It can be seen and touched. Each one of these headstones represent an American soldier. We were given plenty of time to look around and reflect. Though large, this cemetery could be much larger. In earlier wars, soldiers were typically burried where they fell. However, in WWII, the
Damanged Gun Emplacement
German WWII gun emplacement at Normandy. This one was damaged by allied bombing on D-Day. United States gave families the option of having the remains returned to the USA for burial. Many families took this option.
Returning to our van in the cemetery parking lot, there were some fancy show cars near by. Our driver was very excited about them. Using our guide as translater, I found that the driver was very fond of cars. He had gone to the Caen retro auto show and listed the Cobra as his favorite. I came to realize our driver was a pretty funny guy. I didn't understand a word he said, but bits and pieces would come through. He'd get quite annimated when we got behind motor homes or campers. On the little roads in Normandy, if you got behind one, you were stuck there, going at their pace. This drove him crazy. Not road rage crazy, but he would do just about anything to not be behind a motor home. I found it all very amusing.
We passed the Omaha Beach museum on the way to our next stop. In front of the museum was one of the landing boats, a sherman tank, and artillery gun. Unfortunately, we didn't stop. Instead we went on
to Omaha Beach. Sandy beach. Nice day. A couple out walking their dog. Aside from the woman being topless, you wouldn't notice anything unusual. Yet this was a very bloody beach during the invasion. Very hard to imagine that now.
Leaving the beach, we passed portable bridging material that sits alongside the road. This is the bridging material that allowed the allies to quickly cross where permanent bridges were knocked out.
On to more German fortifications and gun emplacements near Point du Hoc. This is a very different scene from the one earlier. It's obvious that this area was heavily bombed. Craters everywhere. Smashed bits of gun emplacements litter the area. It had to have been hell to be here during the bombings. Some of the fortifications are still in tact, but I don't think any came out totally unscathed. Along with the remains of Germany fortifications is a monument to the 2nd Rangers who had the task of climbing the cliffs and neutralizing the threat in this section.
We arrived back at
Le Mémorial around 1:45 pm.
I thought the tour was very good, but I was disappointed we didn't stop at a couple sites that we
Normandy American Cemetery
Monument at the Normandy American Cemetery. had passed. Our guide mentioned them, but then we went right on by. I guess it would simply take too long to stop at some of these sights. Sometime I'd like to return and maybe rent a car to visit sites we missed and see the area more indepth.
I walked back to Caen, though I don't recommend this. It's a long walk and not much to see along the way. Stopped at Jardin Des Plantes. It's a Botonical garden park. A couple play grounds, plants, some flowers. It's a good place to go relax and maybe eat your lunch, but not worth a special trip as a tourist.
Weather perfect today. Sunny, some clouds, light breeze, no humidity, temp in 70's or max low 80's (just guessing).
Quiet in town (Caen). People lounging in park. Of course, what else does one do on a Sunday afternoon? Great views of Caen from the walls of
Le Chateau Ducal. Rue Saint-Pierre is where market was yesterday. Nothing today.
Next stop,
Mont St. Michel. I picked up my luggage from hotel and got to train station around 3:45 pm only to find there wasn't a train to Pontorson Mont-St. Michel for a
couple hours. As Rick Steves says in his travel guide, the train schedule to/from Pontorson is tricky (my words, not his). Essentially, there are limited trains that go there. They seem to be concentrated in the mornings and evenings. So I had to wait around for a train. Briefly I was tempted to go to Bayeux as there were a number of trains going there, but instead I stuck to my plan. While waiting, it rained a bit.
The train finally came and I was moving again. I ran into Pan and his family (from the Normandy tour) on the train. He said they were returning to Rennes, where he has been living for work. They gave some good tips if I were to ever visit Houston, Texas. Regarding Mont St. Michel, they said it should take roughly 2 hours to make the rounds and that's about it. Don't expect to spend much more time there (they were right). Pan's wife went on to say I absolutely must visit St. Malo. It wasn't on my to do list, but her insistance made me think seriously about it.
We were on a regional train that made a lot of
stops at the various towns through the Normandy region, Bayeux, Lison, St. Lo, and so on. Rain stopped and sun came out. Very beautiful country side. Land is flat to lightly rolling. Farms with hedgerows separating the fields. Large white cows milling about. A few fields with large rolls of hay sitting out.
MONT-ST. MICHEL, FRANCE Arrived in Pontorson station around 9:20 pm and said goodbye to Pan and his family. I thought it got cold on the train due to air conditioning, but when I got off train I found that wasn't the reason. The rain earlier had really cooled things down such that I had to put on my jacket. So I've arrived, but where am I? There isn't much at Pontorson station. There is a small station and a little town, but there should be a bus that shuttles people to/from Mont-St. Michel. A girl who had gotten off the train informed me the bus will come in 10 minutes. It will cost 2 euro for the short trip. So we wait. Actually, the bus was already there, the driver was just waiting for the specified time. Once he was satisfied it was time,
Temporary Bridge
Segments of temporary bridging used by the allies during the WWII D-Day invasion are on display along one of the roads we traveled on our tour in Normandy. he pulled up and let us on the bus.
During bus ride, saw old windmill on hill to the right. Found out later that it's now a tourist attraction. People can pay to go in and discover the history of the windmill.
When going to Mont. St. Michel, options for hotels are limited. Rick Steves guidebook does a good job of listing them. You can either stay within Mont. St. Michel or there is a short strip of hotels (and restaurants) just before you get to Mont. St. Michel. Rick Steves recommended Hotel Verte, so I checked there first (or so I thought). They had no vacancies, but they suggested I try the Mercur. I did and ended up paying 94 euro (131.64 USD) / night. More than I wanted to pay, but I took it. It's a nice hotel, but it was after I'd already checked in and walked about that I saw my error. The hotel that Rick Steves mentioned is the "Vert" (not Verte), which is directly across from the Mercur. I could have gotten a room there for 67 euro (93.83 USD) / night. Bummer. Would have liked to use the laundry facilities at
German Defences
This photo shows German WWII defences. Notice the many bomb craters and damage to the fortifications. Vert, but the super market was closed and I didn't have detergent. Would have also liked something to eat, but the restaurants were closed. I was so hungry.
Took walk down street, to look at
Mont. St. Michel. Impressive! The area around is so flat so that Mont. St. Michel really stands out. It can be seen for miles. I will go first thing in the morning.
Notes & Misc Information: • USD = United States Dollars.
• Currency: The currency in the France is the Euro (EUR). The exchange rate was 1.40042 USD = 1 EUR or 1 USD = 0.71407 EUR as of June 29, 2009.
Sources: • 1. Artificial Harbor at Normandy:
http://www.usmm.org/normandy.html • 2. Ernest Hemmingway, war correspondant:
http://worldwar2history.info/D-Day/Hemingway.html
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Charlie
non-member comment
Good Job
David, I'm a member of the travel meetup group back in DC. This is the first blog I've read. It they're all ths good, I've been missing out on something. Interesting text and wonderful pictures. I've been to that area, and look forward to reading some more of your tales in North France. You have a talent for remembering deatils of your day. Do you take notes as you go along? Charlie