L'ete a Paris: World War II in Normandy

Monday morning we hopped on the bus and drove off to Caen, France. It was a typical french town with a few exceptions. It had a great WWII museum and a strong connection to the events of the war itself.

We went to The Peace Museum of Caen on our way down. It was very interesting. There were 4 parts to the museum- the Nobel Prize Gallery, the time period before 1945 (WWII), the period after 1945 (Cold War-present), and a temporary exhibit on Mein Kampf. It was all very well put together with lots of newspapers, artifacts, and video clips on display. There were booths in one part of the museum where you could sit and listen to the testimonials of individuals who survived different attacks and bombings in their hometowns around the world. These individuals were all children at the time from cities such as London and Berlin to tiny villages in Japan. It was crazy to hear from each of them how similar their experiences were at the time and despite how far apart geographically they were.

After the museum we checked into our hotel and had sometime to explore the area before dinner with the class. We discovered that the port outside our hotel was a stop on a sailboat race that was taking place throughout Europe at the time. Unfortunately the boats didn't arrive at this stop until the morning after we left but everyone was busy getting ready for their arrival! Aftter dinner, overcooked steak, french fries (again!), and some really eggy creme brulee, we found an Irish pub that we invaded for a bit. Brought us back to Ireland for a bit. The girls that went with me before and I all split a pitcher of some Irish cider and then we ordered a baby Guinness shot, still delicious!

The next day we drove to the coast to see the Mont Saint Michel! It was beautiful, but the image I had in my head was that of the island when the tide was in, and unfortunately it was out while we were there. Oh well, its still beautiful! We hiked all the way to the top, and many many stairs later we started our tour with the fabulous Pierre-Jean. I love that guy. He carried a nerf sword around so we could all follow the group through the abbey, it was hilarious. Then he got in an argument with another tour guide who was yelling and being very rude. He is a feisty little man! haha The inside didn't impress me as much as the outside architecturally, but it was still interesting to hear about the various uses for each of the rooms. Apparently on one of the top levels there were lavatories where you just went off the edge of the building onto the grass of the garden below. I just want to know how the women managed.

The next day we drove out to the Ponte du Hoc. This was the cliff between Omaha and Utah beaches that the US rangers scaled at night to take out the German forces atop the cliff. We got to see the large craters in the ground from all of the air raids and gunfire. There were also still quite a few bunkers in tact enough to walk through and it was very interesting to walk through there and envision the set up that the soldiers had to work with. After the cliff we went to the American military cemetery in Normandy. It was really something seeing all of the white marble crosses lined up in rows like that. If you stood at certain angles looking at the rows it was almost dizzying because of the scattered pattern they made. We also found the markers for the graves of Preston and Robert Niland. They were two of the brothers from the family that Saving Private Ryan was based upon.

Then we went to Omaha beach to eat lunch and explore a bit. It was very hot out so walking in the water was quite welcome at that point. Though I still hate sand! Its disgusting! Blahh! It was beautiful though and i do love that pretty blue water! It was very interesting though to see how public the beach was. It was almost as if nothing tragic had ever taken place there. Many of my classmates were upset that it was not preserved or memorialized better, but my professor made a good point. She said that some people view the use of the beach as a thank you to those who died their. They gave their lives so that the people of France could freely use that territory as they pleased once again. I prefer to think of it that way and there were several monuments in place along the extremely long beach. Then there was even a very nice ceremony in which the nation anthems for the different allied countries who participated in the war were played as their flags were each raised individually. It was a really nice gesture, and I really enjoyed getting to hear all the different national anthems. Its something that I'd never really put much thought into before, but each one is distinctly unique with its own set of emotions that are portrayed. A great experience.