After a long bus ride, we first visited the D-Day museum - or as the French call it 'Jour-J.' The exhibit was very interesting. And I'm not one for military history, so that's saying something. I actually learned a lot more about the history of the war and of course the famous battle.
From there we drove to a cute little town called .......... on the coast. While the beach there was a part of the Normandy Invasion, it was not one of the beaches stormed by the Americans. Still, the town was a great place to explore. We ate lunch there before getting back on the bus.
the main street in town |
Our next stop was a group of bunkers that were used in the war. These were cool to look at, but honestly I wasn't much interested by them. Like I said, I'm not much of a military buff. But here are some nice pictures of them:
There was a hill beside one of them, so we were able to climb on top of it. |
However, there was the occasional Jew:
Although if there was no record of religion for the soldier, the simple cross was used.
We had a guide while touring the cemetery, who was really enjoyable. She told us many stories about some of the different people who are buried here. Most of them were very sentimental and wonderful. She also showed us a few famous graves:
Robert and Preston Niland: These two brothers are buried next to one another. They were the inspiration for the movie "Saving Private Ryan." Although the original story is slightly different from the movie plot...
Our last visit of the day was to the famous Omaha Beach. This was one of the five beaches stormed on D-Day. The taking of this beach was the responsibility of the Americans. While the objective of the invasion was eventually achieved, not everything went as smoothly as planned and there were about 3,000 American casualties.
Today it looks like a normal beach, as would be expected. However, walking along the shore, it is hard to imagine the kind of bloodshed that went on there 68 years ago.
There were randomly some horseback riders trotting down the beach. |
A bientot!