The Normandy Coast is perhaps most famous for the world-changing events that took place on the 6th of June 1944, when the Allied forces landed on the beaches of Nazi-occupied France. The landings, horrific as they were, are considered a success and a turning point in World War 2. To avoid backtracking through the French countryside we decided the best way to tour the beaches was to get a train from Paris to the top end of the western-most beach; Utah.
Getting off the train and cycling through the 'bocage' towards our campsite on the beach, we immediately began noticing American, British and Canadian flags flying alongside the French tricolour - the locals are obviously still very grateful for their liberation more than 70 years ago. In some places, the German, Polish and Norwegian flags also flew.
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| Flags on Omaha Beach |
As we cycled down the coast we started noticing bunkers and concrete walls - parts of Hitler's 'Atlantic Wall' - and eventually arrived at the northern end of Utah Beach. As we checked out a few of the bunkers we overheard a tourist (whose nationality I won't disclose - take a guess) loudly complaining about the French insignia painted on the tanks that had been mounted as memorials. If he'd read the information board at the entrance he would have realised that this part of the beach was an important landing point for the Free French forces. His attitude didn't really seem in keeping with the spirit of international cooperation that the area had and we quickly moved on...
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| An American memorial at Utah Beach |
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| German Cemetery |
Visiting the German Cemetery was an interesting experience. It was modest compared with the American and British memorials we later visited, but an important reminder of the millions of young German victims of Hitler. The main statue, perched on a mound with a view over the cemetery, was a of a mother and father mourning their lost son. It was hard not to be moved while standing on top of the memorial and looking down on the thousands of gravestones.
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| A calm Omaha Beach on a sunny summer day |
On the way to Omaha beach we stopped at Point du Hoc, where US Rangers scaled 30-40m high cliffs to disable German positions that had views over nearby Utah and Omaha beaches. The ground around the bunkers is still covered in craters from Allied bombing, although only a couple of the bunkers had taken direct hits. The crumbly, loose cliff faces looked difficult enough to climb - it must have been nightmarish to have to scale them under fire and with Germans cutting the ropes from the top.
We continued along to Omaha Beach and eventually arrived at the American Cemetery. The cemetery also has a very good visitor centre with a complete run-down on the D-Day landings and the Battle of Normandy.
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| Longues-sur-Mer |
After a quick visit to the impressive German gun emplacements at Longues-sur-Mer we turned inland towards Bayeux. Normally, I'd say that tapestries are one of the most boring museum exhibits around, second only to ceramics. However, the Bayeux Tapestry was apparently a must-see so we thought we'd have a break from WW2 history and go to have a look at it. It turned out to be pretty good - an audioguide talks you through the 70m tapestry and was more entertaining than I thought a bit of embroidery could be.
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| Normandy countryside |
We carried on heading east; checking out the amazing remains of the Mulberry harbours around Arromanches-les-Bains, and the memorials at the British (Gold and Sword) and Canadian beaches (Juno).
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| Remains of the Mulberry harbour - it's hard to imagine what this was like in June 1944! |
Crossing the Pegasus Bridge, an important early objective for British paratroopers, we left the main D-Day beaches behind, although signs of the fighting in the Battle of Normandy were still ever-present.
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| Pegasus Bridge |
When we got to the mouth of the River Seine we turned inland, and set our sights on Rouen where we'd booked an Airbnb for a couple of nights. It was nice countryside with limestone cliffs on the banks of the sign and long straight roads centered on distant church steeples.
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| Bridge over the River Seine |
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| Rouen Cathedral |
Rouen is infamous as the place where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake. The location where this occurred is marked with a memorial in the central square, however the entire area seemed to have a problem with drunks and homeless and wasn't the nicest place to hang about. After an epic French lunch of oysters, rabbit, goat's cheese salad and tarte tartin we had a look at the slick Joan of Arc Museum. We also visited the Rouen Cathedral, where as I sit writing this now, a memorial is showing on the television for a priest killed by Islamist extremists is being held. The priest was murdered in a nearby town two days after we left Rouen - another reminder of how lucky we are in little old New Zealand.
The next day we were on our bikes again, fueled by fresh camembert and baguettes, heading towards the Belgian border.
- David
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