8 August ’05, Monday.
Today we checked out of our campground and headed out to the Normandy Coast. Our first stop wasn’t at the coast, but at a grocery store. If we are going to eat tonight, we are going to have to stop and pick up something. We stopped at a large store called
E’lecleric. It is a store that supplies more like a very large Fred Meyers. It has everything, so it seems. Anyway, we did our shopping and then headed out for the coast…we thought. As it was, we found we were heading off in the wrong direction after traveling about 6 or 7 miles, so finding a very small and narrow “back road”, we wound and wove our way back to the road we should have been on…we kept cool and enjoyed the back country for a while. Getting back on track, we found our way to Arromanches. Arromanches sits right between the D-Day landing sites of Omaha and Gold Beach. There is no doubt that this village and all the others along the beach got the hell kicked out of them during the Allied invasion. Today, you would never have guessed the damage they sustained as they have turned this village into a well run “tourist” town and doing it well. Arromanches is a “hot” tourist town, and I mean hot. People, cars, and buses were everywhere, and parking was at a premium. We were one of the fortunate ones, as we found ours right away. Walking through town and seeing a few sites that the area has to offer, and we were back on the road to our next little village along the coast. As we drove along, we noticed a lot of the Nazi bunkers and of course some of the jeeps, tanks, and other war machines that were left behind. Then, we found the “Normandy American Cemetery”. This cemetery is the largest I have been to, with 9,387 service men and women interred, and covering over 172 acres, is one of 14 permanent cemeteries that are on foreign soil. We were very impressed with the overall beauty and serenity of the cemetery, and felt very humble to have had a chance to see it. Continuing our drive down the coast and leaving the first part of Omaha Beach, we found a campground that sits directly above the center of the landing site, so we have stopped here for a couple of days. Already, we have walked down to the beach and into the small village and back, had a barbecued hamburger here at the van. Tomorrow….more beach time
Today we checked out of our campground and headed out to the Normandy Coast. Our first stop wasn’t at the coast, but at a grocery store. If we are going to eat tonight, we are going to have to stop and pick up something. We stopped at a large store called
E’lecleric. It is a store that supplies more like a very large Fred Meyers. It has everything, so it seems. Anyway, we did our shopping and then headed out for the coast…we thought. As it was, we found we were heading off in the wrong direction after traveling about 6 or 7 miles, so finding a very small and narrow “back road”, we wound and wove our way back to the road we should have been on…we kept cool and enjoyed the back country for a while. Getting back on track, we found our way to Arromanches. Arromanches sits right between the D-Day landing sites of Omaha and Gold Beach. There is no doubt that this village and all the others along the beach got the hell kicked out of them during the Allied invasion. Today, you would never have guessed the damage they sustained as they have turned this village into a well run “tourist” town and doing it well. Arromanches is a “hot” tourist town, and I mean hot. People, cars, and buses were everywhere, and parking was at a premium. We were one of the fortunate ones, as we found ours right away. Walking through town and seeing a few sites that the area has to offer, and we were back on the road to our next little village along the coast. As we drove along, we noticed a lot of the Nazi bunkers and of course some of the jeeps, tanks, and other war machines that were left behind. Then, we found the “Normandy American Cemetery”. This cemetery is the largest I have been to, with 9,387 service men and women interred, and covering over 172 acres, is one of 14 permanent cemeteries that are on foreign soil. We were very impressed with the overall beauty and serenity of the cemetery, and felt very humble to have had a chance to see it. Continuing our drive down the coast and leaving the first part of Omaha Beach, we found a campground that sits directly above the center of the landing site, so we have stopped here for a couple of days. Already, we have walked down to the beach and into the small village and back, had a barbecued hamburger here at the van. Tomorrow….more beach time