(Written on June 12 by Devri)
I got up early, but since I’d gone to bed early, I was finally feeling rested. I showered and got dressed and then got busy folding the laundry. Brian woke up and showered, and we got busy packing up. We got the kids up, begging them to get going quickly. We actually had food in the apartment for breakfast, and I think most of them got something, but those who didn’t get anything were able to eat later.
We got to work stripping beds, and I recruited Michael to start vacuuming while Brian got the rest of the bags packed up. When he was ready, I sent Michael and him down the stairs with our luggage to meet our tour guide. Brian said he was a little upset with us for the bigger bags than he was expecting and for us being late (we threw the “cleaning surprise” under the bus). We need to remember that Rachel takes a REALLY long time getting up and moving in the morning.
We were finally loaded and on our way to Bayeaux. Our guide asked how we ended up in Caen as most of the sites are closer to Bayeaux, and I felt a little dumb at not doing more research for the area. He told us how Caen had basically been destroyed in the war, and that Bayeaux was small and untouched and so beautiful. I told him it was probably because of the trains. He explained that the train goes to Bayeaux, and I just finally said, “It’s because I didn’t know any better.” He lamented about hitting some rush hour traffic and losing time on our tour driving. He was also surprised that we had a to catch a train in Caen just before 5 pm. “What?!” he said.
“Well,” said I, “the tour online said it was only an 8 hour tour, so we figured 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. is 8 hours.”
“Bah, they make us be strict on Get your Guide with the times.”
Well, I guess we’ll just miss out on some things.
This makes him sound rude, but I honestly think he felt bad that we wouldn’t get to see as much during our short time with him.
Once we all made peace with us staying the night in Caen, we had a great tour.
Olivier mentioned that he had lived in the states for a while in Florida, working for the “big rat.” He said he initially started working in the French Pavillion at Epcot, and then was the first Frenchman to work on Pirates of the Caribbean. When Disney built the park in Paris, he came back to France to help get Pirates started here. He mentioned that he worked with the imagineers to get the animatronics synced up with the French dialogue, and that it was a bit of a nightmare! He heard we loved Disney and had plans to go to the park on Saturday, and he said, “I wish I had known!” He also heard that Rachel really loved the parks, and he gave her a Ratatouille pin. He won her over after that, and she rode next to him the rest of the day, occasionally peppering him with questions about the Park.
It was raining by this point, so we started at the American Cemetery. Until planning this trip, I hadn’t given much thought to the war cemeteries, but in doing research, I wondered how they had time to bury everyone in neat, orderly rows in the middle of a war. The truth of the matter is that they didn’t. They buried them basically where they fell, and then after the war, the French and Americans carefully exhumed the bodies, placed them in steel caskets more properly, and let the families decide if they wanted them shipped home or buried in the American Cemetery in France. The cemetery in Normandy is where they placed them in the years after the war.
Our guide, Oliver, took us first through the garden of the missing. There are beautiful roses planted in artistic hedges leading up to a semi-circle stone wall etched with the names of the men who were missing in action after the D-day invasion. Some of the names had little bronze plagues at the end which showed that they had been located. While there were quite a few plaques, most are still unaccounted for. Most were from a division that were in a ship that was sunk in the channel. When they went looking for it later, they also found a civil war ship sunk right next to it: the CSS Alabama.
From the garden, we walked up into the memorial. There is a large scultpure of a man coming out of the sea, and a reflecting pool on the grounds in front of it. The pavement has large stones compacted in cement. The reflecting pool represents the ocean where the attack originated from, the sculpture represents the unconquerable spirit of the young men who fought there, and the pebbles represent the sand of the beach.
From there, he gave us time to explore the cemetery and Visitor’s Center. Each grave is marked with a white Latin cross or a Star of David. Our guide told us that the soldiers had a “C” on their dog tags if they were Catholic, a “P” if they were Protestant, but they didn’t want to put “J” for Jew in case those soldiers were captured by the Nazis. They did that at first but then found out that captured Jews were killed on surrender, so they started hiding the fact that they were Jewish on the dog tags. So, when they were buried, they didn’t always know who was Jewish, and I guess they’re still working on figuring it out. From the cemetery, you can see the Channel. It is a lovely resting place for all of these brave men. Olivier was also really happy I called it “the Channel” instead of the “English channel” as some mistakenly call it according to him.
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| "Here rests in honored glory a comrade in arms known but to God." |
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| Jewish grave marker |
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| Normandy American Cemetery, Colleville-sur-Mer, France |
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| Monument at the American Cemetery: Water to represent the invasion from the ocean, sand in the pavers to represent the beaches, and a bronze statue called "Spirit of American Youth Rising from the Waves" |
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| "You can manufacture weapons and you can purchase ammunition, but you can't buy valor and you can't pull heroes off an assembly line. -Sergeant John B. Ellery, U.S. 1st Infantry Division |
We took too long in the cemetery, so after using the restrooms, we didn’t have much time in the Visitor’s Center. Thankfully, there wasn’t a ton there. We made our way back to Olivier in the van. He asked, “What did you notice about the headstones?” We thought about them for a minute, and I said, “There are no birthdates.”
“Yes,” he said, “Ike didn’t want the youngest men receiving more compassion than the others.” I do hope there is a master record on site somewhere with their birthdates though.
From the cemetery, Oliver took us to Omaha Beach. He explained about the invasion, and showed us a map of the different D-day invasion sites, what was planned, and what actually happened. He pointed out where the German bunkers and guns were, and about how big a difference distance wise low tide is between high tide. We were there at high tide, and the water went right up to the sea wall. The invasion happened during low tide, which meant that they had 500 yards of open beach to run through before reaching any kind of cover. They did this on purpose so that they could avoid the many gnarly hazards the Germans had left along the shore that would have sunk many of the boats.
It was a stormy morning on D-day, and a lot of the men arrived on shore seasick. They landed off target, and they had no way to communicate together, so it was a bit of a disaster. They thought they could take certain places by the end of the day, but many of them took longer, and the battle dragged on into August.
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| Omaha Beach at high tide |
Today marks the 6th anniversary of Dad’s passing, and I couldn’t help thinking of him while being in Normandy today, seeing the places he had so passionately studied while he was alive. I wrote his name in the sand right next to the sea wall steps, trying to write and take a picture before a wave came and got my shoes wet and erased it. It took a few tries. I wanted to send a Marco Polo to my family. Somebody always starts a group text thread on June 12, and I can’t get regular texts right now. It’s really hard not to get them today, and I miss the extra support, love, and empathy from them. Michael wrote a new “Kirk” in the sand, and I quickly recorded it and watched as those Omaha Beach waves washed it away. Oh how he would have loved being with us today! We still miss him so much!
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| My dad's name in the sand of Omaha Beach on the 6th anniversary of his death. He was obsessed with World War II. |
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| Omaha Beach from the sea wall |
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| Monument at Omaha Beach |
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| German gun at Omaha Beach |
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| One of the German guns that fired at the invading allies on D-Day |
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| A grave marker hidden in the bushes near Omaha Beach |
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| Sea Wall and Omaha Beach |
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| Re-enactor on a WWII era motorcycle |
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| Re-enactor on a WWII era U.S. Army jeep |
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| Omaha Beach |
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| Omaha Beach |
Michael may or may not have pilfered some sand from Omaha beach. And Brian may or may not have told the kids to be really careful that they didn’t get their shoes wet in the water, and then didn’t pay attention himself and got his right shoe soaked. He may or may not have cried about it, but deep inside I think he thought it was pretty funny. (Brian: in full disclosure, I wrote this)
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| One of the portable harbor's brought in on the D-Day invasion |
From Omaha Beach, we next headed to Pointe du Hoc, which has been left basically untouched since the war. Oliver told us about the Rangers who had been trained in England to climb cliffs in preparation for scaling the cliff walls. They’d been trained to climb 200 meter cliffs in England, but this one was only 100 meters (only! ha!). They scaled the cliffs, and found that the Germans had pulled back. They were running low on ammo, and they found a cache of German ammunition that fit German guns. They decided to pick up the German guns from the ground and use them, but apparently, other units recognized the sounds of the German guns, and there was a bit of friendly fire on them before the other units figured out what was going on.
We got to go into 2 bunkers at Pointe du Hoc and look out over the cliffs. It is between Omaha Beach and Utah Beach.
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| World War II German Bunker at Pointe du Hoc |
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| World War II German Bunker |
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| World War II German Bunker |
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| World War II German Bunker with charred ceiling |
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| Point du Hoc |
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| Point du Hoc, Utah Beach is on the other side of that out-cropping |
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| Exploring at Pointe du Hoc |
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| Another Bunker at Pointe du Hoc |
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| Pointe du Hoc German Bunker |
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| Pointe du Hoc German Bunker |
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| Big gun at Pointe du Hoc |
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| Fire! |
After Pont du Hoc, our guide took us to Sainte Marie Englis, the first liberated city in Europe. Sainte Marie Englis was liberated by the paratroopers from the 101st and 82nd Airbourne Divisions. One of the paratroopers got hung up on a spire at the church, and he was stuck up there for 2 hours. He played dead so that the Germans wouldn’t shoot him, but they figured it out eventually and captured him. Two days later, he was able to escape. The Church has a paratrooper mannequin hanging from that spot to honor all the Paratroopers. We got to see him. We didn’t see much else there, but we did get to eat a delicious lunch. Brian, Michael, and I got real French Toast (we found out the French don’t use cinnamon), while Rachel and Gabe got a croissant egg, ham, and cheese sandwich. The French toast was amazing!
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| Sainte-Mère-Église, 1st French town liberated by the Allies in 1944 |
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| Church of Sainte-Mère-Église with the paratrooper on the roof |
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| Plague in Sainte-Mère-Église about "Operation Overlord": "The eyes of the world are upon you." |
All too soon, we had to leave, walking past really cool looking museums. One day is just really not adequate to explore here.
Finally, we went to Utah Beach. Here, the American Forces met with little resistance as the Germans didn’t think the allies would attack here. In fact, Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. thought they had made a mistake and landed in the wrong place when they met such little defense. It’s not to say they met no resistance; just much less than they were expecting.
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| Utahans at Utah Beach, Normandy, France |
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| On Utah Beach with France in the background |
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| Utah Beach with the Channel in the background |
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| Michael at Utah Beach |
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| Gabe and Rachel at Utah Beach |
All too soon, we had to leave. We checked out the Naval Memorial, and the landing craft replica before rushing back to our van.
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| D-day Navy Memorial |
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| Michael and Devri in front of the U.S. Navy Memorial at Utah Beach |
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| German fortification captured by American forces on June 6, 1944. |
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| Replica of landing craft used during the D-day Invasion, Utah Beach |
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Replica of landing craft used during the D-day Invasion, Utah Beach
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| D-day Memorial at Utah Beach |
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| World War II Tank! |
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| Inside this glass house is a WWII Airplane |
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| Olivier, our guide, with Rachel talking his ear off about Disney |
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| Sainte Marie-du-Mont, Normandy |
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| Sainte Marie-du-Mont Church |
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| Sainte Marie-du-Mont, Normandy, France |
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| Driving to Bayeaux, France |
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| Michael, Devri, Gabe, our guide Olivier, Rachel, and Brian in Bayeaux, France |
Olivier dropped us off at the train station in Bayeaux (Brian had bought a ticket from there to Caen so we could have a little more time exploring.) We said farewell, and got on that train, and then caught our train to Paris where I have been summing things up since getting situated. Our Bayeax train didn’t have assigned seats, but our longer Caen to Paris train did. We all decided we like assigned seats better; they are far less stressful.
I need to pack up so we can get off and figure out how to get to our apartment near Disneyland Paris.
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| While waiting for our taxi in Paris, I noticed this odd townhouse wedged in between the traditional Parisian architecture. |
(written June 13)
We made it to Paris and then decided that we would rather pay the extra money for a taxi than have to fight for space on the train. We grabbed food at McDonald’s (because were getting tired of the cafe sandwiches.We’ve eaten more McDonald’s on this trip than we have in the last year!). After eating, we found the place where taxi’s hang out and waited for a taxi van. It took an hour from there to get to our apartment in Paris. Brian had to walk a block to find the office to get our keys and instructions, and then we had to go through multiple locked gates and doors, into the complex, up the elevator and finally, we found our apartment. It’s a two room apartment with 5 beds (one of which is the sofa sleeper), so the kids were happy that nobody needed to share a bed.
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Michael's reaction when he found out we'd be staying in this apartment for 3 nights
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We got Gabe to bed and started a load of laundry. Brian headed out to get food for the next day, and I did some unpacking and organizing while waiting for the load to finish. It finally did, and I noticed that the washer didn’t spin out very well, so I did a quick rinse and spin cycle. It stopped early with an error. After that, I tried the drying cycle, but I accidentally started another wash cycle, and then it stopped due to an error. By then, Brian was home, and we fought the dryer for a bit longer until we realized there was nothing we could do and got to work wringing out our clothes and hanging them on lines in the kitchen. We had flashbacks to our night and early morning in Bari, and I kept telling myself that this time would be different because we have multiple nights here and they should dry by the time we leave. Still, it meant we were up much later than we anticipated. We made it to bed a little before 1, thus dashing my hopes to stay on top of my sleep needs.
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