Normandie et Bretagne

Thursday

We drove a few hours to get to Arromanches, which is the town that was “ground zero” for D-Day. This is where Port Winston is, which was the port built by the allies during the D-Day invasion. If D-Day were to work, the allies would need supplies and food after they got a hold on French land, and to get those things they needed a port. Germany controlled all the ports on the coast, so the Winston Churchill had the brilliant plan to build the port in England, and then take it over to France. Thousands of laborers built it in England in pieces, not knowing what it was for, and then it was taken across the English Channel and sunk into the ocean and assembled during D-Day. Much of it is still there and you can even see some of it at high tide. It was actually really resourceful – they used old, almost broken battleships and sunk them in the water, making the Germans think they were winning, but they used that as an underwater break for the ocean as the outside of the port. It was the first pre-built harbor.

We saw a museum at the top, on the cliffs that overlooked Arromanches and Omaha beach, and there was a really sobering video there that had footage of D-Day, and it was 360 degrees, all around you, and it was really impressive. (The D in D-Day stands for Day, like H hour or S Sariah. In France it’s called Jour J.) Then we saw a museum right along the harbor and there are flags in the town of France, England, Canada, and the US.

Then we went to the WWII Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial, which we just called the American Cemetery. There are 9,387 white marble crosses (and stars of David) for the Americans who died on the beaches in Normandy, in about the 4 months around D-Day, and some of the bodies were sent back to their families in the ‘50s. These are just the Americans, and just on the Normandy beaches and just those whose families decided to let them rest there. Imagine how many people died total on all the beaches, and how many allies died in WWII, not to mention the Holocaust and even the number of the other side. It was staggering to see so many crosses; I cannot even imagine how many that number of people is.

Continuing with our war focused day, we finished up at Point Du Hoc, which is where 225 US soldiers were sent to scale these cliffs occupied by Germans during the invasion which is where the Germans were most fortified. Only 90 were alive at the end. There are bomb craters covering the tops of the cliffs, and destroyed German bunkers. It’s actually amazingly beautiful, like the rest of Normandy. It was sunset when we were there, and the craters have grass growing in them and it’s easy to choose to not remember what happened here when you’re watching the sea change color. I feel sort of guilty for thinking it was so beautiful, but it was. You can’t picnic here and it’s viewed as a gravesite. You can climb in the bunkers and down the craters (half sphere, perhaps 15 feet in radius on average, maybe 10 feet) and it is really very quiet.

Friday

The first city to be liberated after D-Day was Bayeux, which is where we saw the Bayeux tapestry, which I’d not heard of before but certainly recognized upon seeing it, but maybe because it’s so famous and is used for many examples of tapestries now. It is 70 metres long, and less than a metre tall. It is a “document” that tells the story of the Battle of Hastings: it starts with talking about King Harold (not yet king) and his adventures (accidental) in Normandy and him swearing loyalty to William (then called William the Bastard, not William the Conqueror. History added that little amendment) but then Harold becomes king and breaks his oath, so William comes after him in the battle where Normandy takes England. There was this incredibly cheesy video and almost as cheesy audio guide that was still useful as it took you through about a metre at a time (metRE is French, metER is not) and explains what’s happening.

Then we (sort of randomly, it seemed) went to Dinan, which is in Bretagne (Brittany) and is a medieval town. That means it’s very stone-oriented  and has a very distinctly medieval chateau. (How you tell the difference between an medieval chateau and one from the 14-18th centuries: medieval ones are usually on top of a hill, have ramparts, are meant for defense, are not decorated or beautiful, and are boring, gray stone. If the chateau in question lacks all or most of these details, it is likely NOT a medieval chateau.) We wandered around the cobblestone streets with the stone walls blocking us from the stone houses, and after visiting the stone chateau we walked into stone shops and eventually ate in a stone creperie. You see, Bretagne is famous for its crepes; it is the Mother of Crepes, if you will. Most famous are the galettes, which are the non-sweet crepes that you put eggs, cheese, meat, etc. in and they are fabulous in Bretagne.

Saturday

On our way home we stopped and spent 4 hours in Mon St. Michel, which is my favorite geographical anomaly of the trip. It is an island part of the time…when the tide is up (which is all day except for 90 minutes) it’s an island, and when the tide’s out, it’s not. It has one street, and is one of the top 4 pilgrimage sites in Christian history. There’s a monastery/abbey at the top, and it’s basically a big rock that is sometimes an island, too. It’s cold and windy at the top (and rainy, like everywhere in Normandy/Bretagne, especially in winter) but it was very pretty and quite impressive. Now there’s a land bridge for cars to drive to it, but it wasn’t always there and it’s known for its quick tides. Every year people die in the tides because they’re either not careful or they don’t believe what they’ve been told, which is this: if you are standing by the island when the tide starts to come in, and even if you RUN to the rest of France, you cannot outrun the tide. In the summer they have beach visiting hour and half, and that’s the safe 90 minutes when the tide is fully out. Pretty impressive.

It’s interesting to me (this has nothing to do with Mont St. Michel) how much people’s lives are still focused around WWII. Not so much in Paris, but in other cities where you can still see damage from WWII or where everything is new because the rest was destroyed. It’s still a huge part of people’s lives – people spend their whole lives now working at memorials, or if they aren’t doing that then they’re always surrounded by reminders that the war happened. I think it’s good that they haven’t erased the war, though it is a depressing thought to dwell on it all the time. I guess they get used to it, like you get used to anything. I am glad we didn’t have all this happen to us in the US. I hope it never happens.