France Day 3: Bayeux (June 19, 2012)

Well my video camera is buried somewhere in a field near a place that Angela and I named Hidden Bridge (Angela is reading Anne of Green Gables right now so everything has to have a poetic name).    I have been back twice to look for it.  I am very sad to have lost it, but at least it has a lovely final resting point near Hidden Bridge.  The good news is that I didn't lose my passport or my wallet of money AND I still have my iPhone!!!  So, when we were done looking in the field I pulled out my iPhone and told Angela to do the frolicking she was doing yesterday and filmed it on my phone.  Angela was right yesterday when she said at least it wasn’t my passport or something else that was more valuable and harder to replace.  All I really lost were a few silly memories and a camera that could be replaced for less than $100.  There are a lot worse things that could happen in a foreign country.

So, when we were done re-enacting our frolicking and tripping (skipping) we walked to a monument dedicating the liberation of Bayeux by British forces on June 7, 1944.   Incidentally, Bayeux was the first city in France to be liberated and then became the headquarters of the French Republic.  

Then we went to the place where we met our tour guide.  We went first to Gold Beach (Arromanches).  This is where the British forces built a temporary harbor for the invasion. Fascinating how they did it!

 Remains of the temporary Harbor.

 The Flags of the Allied Forces.

Then we went to Longues-Sur-Mer where we saw German fortifications from the Atlantic wall that were used to defend themselves against the D-Day invasion.  The German forces here surrendered without a fight probably because the majority of the soldiers were Polish men drafted into service.  Our guide told us that the soldiers manning these guns were all deaf from the sound of the guns and that they probably had burns and blindness from the force of the guns when being shot.

We saw the American Cemetery that over looks Omaha Beach where over 9,000 soldiers are buried.  It was a very moving experience.  In the cemetery there is a chapel and on the ceiling of the chapel there is a mosaic that portrays the ocean, the beach, the soldiers and angels.  There is one in particular where a soldier is dying in the arms of an angel.   I feel a great appreciation for the sacrifice made by so many young men.  Our guide told us that the average age of those buried there is 21.  So young, and they sacrificed so much for the freedom of mankind.  And the 9,000 that are buried there are on about 30% of those that died there.  The other 60% were sent home to be buried by the request of their families.

When I was on my mission in the Philippines I went to the American World War II Cemetery in Manila where there are something like 40,000 American soldiers buried.  I think what was so sobering was having had that experience and seeing all of those white crosses and Stars of David in combination with those seen today.  In completely different areas of the world and yet the same result.  It really gave me a scope for how huge the conflict was and how much we were spread out trying to preserve freedom.  

 

Then we went down to Omaha Beach where the American forces landed and had quite a difficult time.  There were a lot of lives lost there.

After the cemetery and the Omaha beach we went to Ponte du Hoc.  Another place where American troupes landed on D-Day and fought.  It is quite a heroic story about 200 or so rangers who landed there and fought more than 200 Germans for 2 ½ days before getting reinforcements.  When the reinforcements came there were only something like 85 rangers still alive.   It is amazing to me that we succeeded in our D-day invasion.  I think the guide said that of the first 600 troupes to land on Omaha Beach 500 were killed.  And there were certainly plenty of things that went wrong that day.  It is amazing that the allied forces succeeded.

 So, it was an afternoon where we saw some gorgeous Normandy countryside and beaches, but it was also a somber and a reflective afternoon.

We had dinner at a creperie in town.  They had gluten free crepes.  They are actually called gallettes and are dinner crepes.  They are made with buckwheat. Yay!  I saw this on the sign outside and said this is where we are having dinner.

Bayeux is a great place.  I highly recommend it for anyone coming to France.  Tonight we are going to have our nightly picture review and then shower and prepare to travel to Paris tomorrow.