Another day out, driving around the D Day sights, this time we headed south and found the Omaha and Utah beaches. As usual for this holiday we just drove to the general area where we thought the sight we were looking for should be. As we drove towards the coast there were the signs for Utah beach, so we started to follow them. In a village along the way (Sainte-Marie-du-Mont), I spotted an interesting looking church and stopped for a photo, as the tower looked a bit different from the norm.
While taking photos I discovered Sainte-Marie-du-Mont, was the scene of military engagement between the American 101st Airborne Division and the Germans on D-Day, June 6, 1944. Then Dot pointed out a dummy hanging in a parachute from a shop front and an armoured pickup around the corner, I took some more photos before we continued to the beach itself.
We arrived at the car park behind the museum at Utah beach, the parking, unlike yesterday, was free but the museum wasn't. There are many D Day museums in Normandy and all I found, charge an entry fee, if you visited them all it would be expensive.
Anyway all I wanted to see was the beaches, to see where it all took place and if we wanted to see hardware, there were armoured vehicles and guns all over the area to view. It was cold and windy on the beach and after a look round the monuments, we were glad to get back to the car, we then drove a bit further along the coast and parked up for our picnic lunch.
Where we parked there was a tank in the car park and a way through the dunes to the beach. It was still cold, so Dot got the food ready while I had a walk to look at the beach. I found the remains of another temporary harbour, I think there were six of these Gooseberry temporary harbours, two of them became the Mulberry harbours. I think this one may have been Gooseberry 1.
After Lunch we continued along the coast stopping off at intervals for photos, we got as far as the small village of Le Havre, checked out a campsite there and then headed back to look for Omar Beach.
Heading north to find Omaha Beach (the beaches actually run east - west), we first stopped in Isigny-sur-Mer to look at the river and found an Aire there. Next we sopped in Grandcamp-Maisy on the coast, the weather must have been improving as we walked along the pier, this is a place we will have to visit again as we missed all the D Day history there.
On the road out of Grandcamp-Maisy, we had to stop to see what the big silver statue was for, we parked up and wandered over for a look. It was the World Peace Statue, by Chinese artist Yao Yuan, I believe it was unveiled during the 60th anniversary celebrations for D Day.
We found Pointe du Hoc by accidental and it was one of the highlights of the day. Pointe du Hoc (or Pointe du Hoe as it was known by Americans after a spelling mistake), is a promontory situated between Utah Beach to the west and Omaha Beach to the east and in 1944 it was covered with German gun emplacements.
A USA Ranger battalion took Pointe du Hoc on D Day and it is now owned by the USA government, it has a memorial and museum, as well as all the old gun emplacements and shell/bomb craters. It takes quite a while to walk round the entire site, and the full story is tragic, history shows there was no real need for the taking of Pointe du Hoc. Its a long story see here, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointe_du_Hoc
We then drove to Vierville-sur-Mer, then down to and along the coast, we parked up to view the D Day monument on Omaha Beach. Les Braves by Anilore Banon, I have seen photos when the tide is in, and it looks better with the see around it
We drove back out the way we came to take a photo of one of the landing bridges, that is by the side of the road close to the Omaha Beach.
On the way back to the campsite we stopped at a bar in Cerisy-la-Forêt for a beer, this was the closest bar to the campsite, about three miles away. Opposite the bar we spied a small shop and popped in for some bread, I also got six cans of Kanterbrau, I drank them all that night back in the mobile home.
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