France: Paris to Normandy

Well, the JB has taken to driving again like a duck to water.  Even though, he’s driving a foreign car, on foreign roads and it’s a manual left hand drive, he’s managed to get us both safely, and without incident, from Paris to Normandy yesterday and all around the D-Day beaches today.  Ken did help him though.  Who is Ken you might ask?  Ken is our guide, he sits in the car, without complaint, even though he’s in the front with us, and tells us that in 500m we should bear left or that after the next right in 400m we ought turn right.  Yes, Ken is the voice in our GPS and quite possibly the reason why we are still a happy couple. 

Yesterday we caught the Roissy bus from Opera Garnier to CDG airport where we were collected by shuttle and taken to the Peugot leasing terminal.  Expecting to find a 3-door Peugot 206, we were pleased to find that we had been upgraded to a 5-door 207 with only 2km on the clock.  Here she is.

The JB as James Bond

Driving affords us opportunity to do so much more travel on our own terms.  For instance, our accommodation tonight is at La Foulerie about 20km from the nearest town, it’s a little farm with horses, a donkey, dogs and cats and our hosts Jean-Luc and Irene are lovely.  It feels like the type of French provincial home you see at the movies or read about in books.  After spending the last two months in cities, it’s really great to be in the country.  Just delightful. 

This morning we defrosted our little car and headed up to Omaha Beach, one of the points of the D-Day assault on June 6, 1944.  It was the point where some of the biggest losses of life occured due to the exposure troops had on the water, and the terrain soldiers had to overcome before then fighting the Germans at the top.  Quite an impossible feat.  We then drove down to Pointe du Hoc which is where the German stronghold was.  It’s amazing and a bit creepy that the ruins of the elaborate network of tunnels just lie open for visitors to wander through. 

After this we headed down to Port en Bessin which is a small provincial fishing town located between Omaha and Gold Beaches.  We wandered through some of the relics which lie there still, before moving along to Arromanches les Bains, Gold Beach.  This is the point where all the Army engineers brought ashore the barges and requirements for the Pegasus Bridge – the main source for Allied troops to receive supplies and replete troops.  It was a truly enlightening day.  Some pics.

Bayeux Cathedral

Omaha Beach

Fancy a climb up one of these limestone cliffs?

One of original relics still in the bunker: 88mm gun used by the Germans

Remains of a barge used to bring supplies ashore for Allied troops at Omaha Beach

Omaha Beach

View inside a bunker at Pointe du Hoc

Steel door to a bunker at Pointe du Hoc: steel was over an inch thick

Most bunkers still feature the original perimeter barbed wire

Labyrinthine network of bunkers and tunnels used by the Germans at Pointe du Hoc

Slim granite column at Pointe du Hoc commerating the battle of D-Day

Provincial fishing town: Port en Bessin

Tide out at Port en Bessin beach

At Port en Bessin

Pontoon relics of Pegasus bridge on Gold Beach

Pegasus Bridge relics rusting out at sea: they litter the beach particularly so at low tide (oh and yes, that IS a tractor towing a boat to the water edge)

View inside one of the pontoon relics

Gold Beach

So, not so many jokes in today’s entry but there’s not really much to laugh about when at the D-Day beaches.  It’s been such a worthwhile experience.  Reading about and watching films on D-Day don’t really resonate until you stand on the beach and get a true sense of perspective; listening to crashing waves, walking along rocky beaches etc.  There’s a sense of eerieness about the whole place and it offers insight into the feat undertaken by Allied soldiers. 

 

Tomorrow we explore more sights in the Normandy area; down St Malo way.  We only posted an entry tonight because Jean-Luc and Irene offered us free internet access.  Not sure where we’ll next write from but until then stay on the right side of the road.