D-Day Beaches & Villages: Success Against Great Odds

We left Paris via train for Bayeux in Normandy to stay for two nights, spending a full, thought-provoking day on a tour of the D-Day landing area.

We stood on the soft, pebbly sands of Omaha Beach, very peaceful, very pretty at mid-tide, with our backs to the English Channel, looking up towards the hills and remnants of concrete bunkers (gun batteries of the Atlantic Front - some of which we climbed down into later), being visually and mentally guided back to June 6, 1944 . . . thinking what it must have been like to come ashore amidst enemy fire in a strange land and fight your way across these sands and up those hills, trying with your life to overcome obstacles and make a difference in the world. And, as we all know, they succeeded.

We drove from spot to spot on the Beach Road, a main thoroughfare through Normandy and the road the troops used towards their mission, hearing stories and gaining insights from our guide Peter.

Peter: One of the worst crimes of the Nazis was “stealing the minds of German youth,” causing a generation to be brainwashed to their cause.

With a sense of awe, we located Colleen’s Uncle Mike Kelly’s grave marker at the American Cemetery: Plot F, Row 15, Grave 18. He was in the 507th Infantry Parachute Division - later we read about the 505th, 507th, and 508th at Ste Mere-Eglise Airborne Museum.

Marble crosses and their shadows lined up with precision at the American Cemetery with Omaha Beach in the background.

Often tears welled up throughout this day, especially at the Airborne Museum when coming upon a memo from a paratrooper: “There is no better place to die.”

Paratroopers jumped out of airplanes (of course - but when we think that planes were a fairly new concept at that time, that’s even more remarkable), landing in the total darkness of dawn behind enemy lines, needing to quickly determine where they were and locate other troops, while fighting off Germans they encountered. Their job was to make the villages safe for those coming ashore later. And again, as we all know, they succeeded.

At Pointe du Hoc, we gazed upon a landscape full of craters and picked our way across destroyed circular concrete bunkers, and then looked straight down the steep cliffs which Rangers scaled in order to take out German troops there. Seems an impossible task, and yet, again as we all know, they did it. So sadly, out of 225 Ranger only 90 made it.

Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1941: “We, and all others who believe in freedom as deeply as we do, would rather die on our feet than live on our knees.” 

We drove through many other towns in Normandy, noting their memorials to their dead and their symbols of appreciation to the Allies - Longues sur-Mer, (sur-Mer is French for “on the beach”), Commes, Port-en-Bessin, Ste Honorine, Colleville sur-Mer, Ste Lauren sur-Mer, Beuzeville (the only town in this area that did not suffer a casualty - so they erected a memorial to a pilot of a plane that crashed in a nearby field), Foucaville, Le Grand Chemin, Ste Germain, Ste Marie duMont, Angoville au Plain, Carentan.

Now that we’ve actually walked on these beaches and explored these towns, their names will no longer be impersonal settings on a page of history. They succeeded here, and now we and others can live with the freedoms we have today. This day of re-living history was fascinating, sobering, and inspiringly enlightening.

The Seine at Night

A Seine River boat cruise capped our last night in central Paris. After dark we re-discovered the City of Light. La Tour Eiffel dazzled in shimmering magic as we left the dock right on the hour. Take a look!

From the river we caught lit-up glimpses of memorable experiences during the last few days in Paris:

• Musee de Louvre - Arriving early one morning, we saw Mona Lisa, Winged Victory, Coronation of Emperor Napoleon, and Venus de Milo in this impressive former palace before the crowds arrived to shoo us out. The enormous building was aglow after dark.
• Notre-Dame Cathedral - A gorgeous building, a very special 700 year-old house of worship. We couldn’t see our favorite gargoyles in the dark, but the towers and spires were a sparkling wonder!

Rose Window at Notre-Dame Cathedral.

• Musee d’Orsay - Weary, and at the end of a long day on foot, we still marveled at the collection of impressionist and post-impressionist paintings by Monet, Renoir, Manet, Degas, Sisley, Van Gogh … in the same city where these very works were created and where the movement began. At night we enjoyed the sight of this former train station and it’s enormous clocks glowing from within.

Oh, and then there's the Palace of Versailles. We didn't see it of course on our nighttime boat tour, but it evokes very special memories. The Hall of Mirrors is a sight to behold indeed!

We don't know the little boy, but he's clearly as mesmerized by the crystal chandeliers and windows and mirrors as we are!

A Night at the Opera in Paris!

What a scintillating, amazing city! How can so many famous streets and astounding monuments and impressive palaces and enormous museums and bridges and buildings and churches be in one place?! 

Turns our our apartment is a hop, skip, & a jump from the Eiffel Tower, so we high-tailed it out the door to find it as soon as we got ourselves settled in. We were already feeling giddy about having an apartment in Paris for gosh sakes, but when we turned a corner and saw the top of the Tour de Eiffel for the first time we jumped up and down and hugged each other with glee! Had to wipe a little tear away!

One of the MANY awe-inspiring places in Paris we viewed from the bus the next day (yes, we had worn ourselves a little thin with exploration on foot in the rain and wind the day we got there) was Opera Garnier. Um huh, it's the palace (too luxurious to call it a building) with a massive dome and underground lake and huge chandelier that inspired Gaston Leroux to write a story called The Phantom of the Opera.

Well, of course we were enchanted and decided to go back later to see what we could see. Turns out there was a performance going on that night. We managed to decipher that there would be an opera by Mozart (an all-time favorite!) called L'Enlevement au serail (never heard of it!) and that we could get obstructed view seats in an otherwise sold-out house for merely 10 euro. Which we jumped at, although with our very limited French language skills we weren't exactly sure exactly what we were jumping at! We just knew we were going inside the sumptuously dazzling place to see an opera! In Paris!

We soon discovered that Opera Garnier is as beautiful inside as it is outside and that our seats were in a box (!) just above the main level, nearly next to the stage! 

Best part yet: The enormously talented performers sang their parts in German (um, not our 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or even 4th language). But not to fear because there were subtitles above the stage to translate for us. And of course those subtitles were in - you guessed it - French! (I'm putting my comprehension level at oh, about 12% - but I think Diana's was much higher!)

A night at the opera in Paris! What's next?!!!!!!

Off to France!

Today I leave on another adventure, this time exploring France from the Mediterranean coast to the English Channel - and many things in between - that is, as much as can be squeezed in while still savoring it!

I'm traveling once again with my friend Diana, who has been a part of both Italy and Scandinavia trips over the past few years. We're each a bit intrepid, and together we feel we can handle whatever comes our way. And there's always plenty of that on these journeys! We've been learning to speak a little French, but are pretty sure as soon as we get there we probably won't know any at all!

Itinerary, in brief:
Nice - on the French Riviera for a few days
Avignon - in Provence for three nights
Paris! for five or six days or a week!
Bayeaux - in Normandy for a day or two
Amboise - in the Loire Valley for a day

Need to run catch a plane! Au revoir, mes amis!