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Published: April 2nd 2013
We booked a full day tour (8-6) through Overlord Tours that covers 120 miles and most of the big sites (and little ones too!). Now is when I mention that we did not escape Old Man Winter here....France, just like us in the NE is still experiencing a very late winter. So, I have had to purchase an extra fleece and a hat for today's adventure because it's 30 out with a STRONG wind that makes it feel like it's in the 20's....frigid.
Our group of 20 loaded onto our mini bus and headed for our first stop, the Batteries of Longues-Sur-Mer. The entire Atlantic wall were lined with these types of batteries, containing 152 mm German Naval Guns behind a control bunker. There were 4 at this location and the last 2 especially were in pristine condition. Matt was already in heaven, and I imagine more photos were taken today than the entire first leg of the trip!
Next was Omaha beach, which is where the biggest losses were seen on D-Day. When you listen to what "the plan" was for the overall D-Day attack, and then hear what really happened....oh my. I can't believe we ended up
pulling through! You think of Omaha and Utah beaches as being fairly small and close together, but Omaha beach is 4 miles in length. It was high tide when we visited, so we couldn't actually see the beach, but it is so hard to imagine the chaos of that day.
We then visited the American Cemetary, which really is really stunning and such a statement of the impact of the war, D-Day, etc. It's 172 acres and contains the remains of 9,387 servicemen and certainly conveys that feeling of honor, peace, and serenity.
Point Du Hoc was our next stop and my personal favorite except for the fact that you need to focus on the word "point" and realize we were out in the ocean and up high....this equals unreal freezing winds!! I wish we would've wanted to be outside longer to really enjoy all that it had to offer. This is the location that the Rangers scaled the 100ft cliff to try and take down the Germans who could fire at both Utah and Omaha beaches from there. It was heavily bombed first, so what is really neat about the area now are the huge craters from
where the bombs were and bombed out bunkers...it's pretty incredible!
After a quick stop for lunch, we headed to Sainte Mere-Eglise. This was the area where the 82nd Airborne were scheduled to jump and land, but instead it ended up being the 101st Airborne landing here miles away from their landzone. It has a church famous because one of the paratroopers shoots ended up getting caught on the steeple and he was captured by the Germans but escaped a couple of hours later. They actually have a fake paratrooper hanging off of the church permanently. It's really sad about the paratroopers actually....50% of them were killed on D-Day. Saint Mere-Eglise was also the first town liberated on D-Day. They have a great museum there as well that actually has a full size Waco glider and C-47 transport plane.
Other stops on the trip included La Fiere which are all of the inland areas that are naturally flood planes. They have systems in place to hold back the water, but the Germans kept them intentionally flooded to protect the coast. This is also where a lot of the 82nd Airborne landed and with their 90lbs of gear ended up
stuck in the mud, or worse drowning. Utah Beach, which only took us 47min to capture. We also saw a couple of locations that served as temporary hospitals.
It was such a great day and I personally learned so much! Time to go back home and re-watch Band of Brothers and Saving Private Ryan! We ended up back in Bayeux at 6:30pm so decided why deviate from a good thing and had dinner again at L'Angle.
Matt: For a starter, the soup I had the night before, Sea Bream with chorizo, rice, and a green herby foam, and Normandy Cheese.
Me: Partially cooked salmon with celery root & apple for a starter, veal with spatzle for an entree, the goat cheese, and a napoleon type tart for dessert.
Another lovely meal!! We headed back to the apartment and took advantage of that great bathtub before hitting the sack.
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