Day 4

D-Day Beaches
Point du Hoc
Omaha Beach
American Cemetery
Juno Beach Centre
Juno Beach
Canadian Cemetery
Various sites in the Canadian Sector

     Today was our full-day D-Day tour. We met our guide at 8:30 on a very sunny but extremely windy day. The wind did not let up all day, I feel like my face is chapped. However, it was a fabulous tour and our guide Sophie was extremely knowledgeable. We had a group of 8 for the morning tour of the American Sector and then in the afternoon it was just us for the Canadian Sector which was really nice. You can see more and ask a lot of questions with such a small group. The morning tour started out a bit bumpy when one young couple from Australia tried to bring their rental car down into tiny, busy Bayeux town centre. Of course there was not parking so the girl comes running to check in for the tour and her husband drives around looking for parking. He gets lost, finds some very expensive parking, doesn't want to pay it (wife had him on speaker phone at this point), wife tells him to just pay it, and then we have to go try to find him. At no time did the hapless duo use the computers they have in their hand (ie. their phones) to actually realize they were only a five minute walk from their hotel to the tour pickup spot. And, they had free parking at their hotel. When we finally picked up the lost husband he didn't even have the decency to apologize to the rest of us in the bus for taking 15 minutes out of the tour. This might not sound like much on a full day tour but it did rush us through the Point du Hoc site which was one of  the highlights of the day. Okay, rant finished!

     We started out at the Point du Hoc where the U.S. Army Rangers climbed up the cliffs on wet slippery ropes. The site is very interesting, there are big shell holes everywhere and big pieces of concrete blocks which are actually a German bunker that was blown up. There are still some bunkers and gun batteries you could go in. The views over the water were amazing. They have viewing platforms at the exact spots where the rangers came up so you can look down and see what they had to deal with.

     Our next stop was Omaha Beach where we actually got to step on the beach. Not going to lie, it was pretty amazing. It was really windy, much like on D-Day. Standing there looking out on the water I could see how difficult just achieving a landing was for the troops. Wide open to the German's shooting at them with nowhere to hide. It is a pretty amazing site. There is a very touching memorial buried in the water. Our guide described the events of D-Day in detail and it was interesting because she would point out exactly where troops landed and at what time. There are some interesting relics of the war on the way to and from the beach, tanks, floating piers etc.

     From here we headed to the American Cemetery. It is right on the coast, looking over the ocean. The crosses are very simple without flowers planted around them like at the Commonwealth cemeteries. The soldiers who were Jewish had a Star instead of a cross. They are not sure how many Jewish American soldiers there are buried there because many did not admit they were Jewish in case they were captured by the Germans. The cemetery has a big chapel building and a central monument with a large sculpture and maps showing the advance. It was quite a touching site.

     After the American Sector was finished we went back to Bayeux to drop off the other tour members and have lunch. We had packed a lunch but we were so close to our apartment that we ended up going back there for lunch and to put our feet up before meeting up with our guide again for our Canadian Sector tour. This one was more involved with more sites that the morning American tour. We started out at Juno Beach Centre which is a museum commemorating Canada's involvement in the war. I thought it was good - they detailed Canada before the war and our relationship with Britain. They had information on life on the homefront and details of the wider Canadian war, not just Juno.

     After this we headed to Juno Beach. Again, we got to walk on the sand where the soldiers came ashore. We got to see the iconic Canadian house that is in the background of all the pictures of Canadians on the beach on June 6th, 1944. Our guide gave us detailed information on the where and when of Canada's landings. We saw a few bunkers with shells still embedded in them. We got as many pictures as we could with the wind before moving off to explore other important Canadian sites. Our guide stopped at numerous placed of interest to Canadians. The most interesting was the stop at the Abbaye Ardenne where 20 Canadian soldiers were executed by a SS Panzer Hitler Jugend (Hitler Youth). They were tied to trees in the town square and shot (the trees are still there), and some were tortured and shot in the Abbaye garden. Bodies of dead soldiers were buried and some of the bodies were driven over and mutilated by the tanks. The bodies were found in the months after the war and the SS Commander was the first German to be tried for war crimes. He spent 8 years in prison in Canada.

     I knew a lot of the basics of the war, but our guide gave so many extra details I was taking notes on my phone so I wouldn't forget. It was definitely worth the time to come to Bayeux and spend a day on this tour. One of the best parts of the day was driving through so many villages with the beautiful stone buildings and churches. We would have liked to spend more time in the area. Perhaps we will return some day.

     After the tour, we had one last thing we wanted to see and that was the Bayeux Tapestry. It is a tapestry that is over 1000 years old. It chronicles the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. The tapestry is 70 metres long. We listed to audio guides as we walked around it. it is almost like a medieval comic strip. I was glad to have the audio guide otherwise I would have missed many of the details in the tapestry.

     After the tapestry we went and ate a a Kebab restaurant, Mark and I had the ass. kebab. I was actually embarrassed to order, I didn't know of ass. was short for something. But no, you just asked for 'ass. kebab', still not sure what it means but it was donair meat with a yummy salad filled with fresh vegetables. It was also served with fries, I gave mine to Mark and Joe. Joe had a sand. kebab which was donair meat on bread with veggies and salad. It was very good. The boys went back to the apartment and I did a little shopping, got myself a new dress. The wind was finally dying down so I went back to the apartment and convinced the guys to come walking with me. We checked out how to get to the train station and walked a bunch of back streets. Finally back home to blog and get ready for our flight to Croatia tomorrow. Goodbye France, hello Dubrovnik!