Next day started at Bayeux. Initially at the Battle of Normandy Memorial Museum.
This is a big, somewhat “dry” museum, which goes through the whole of the action throughout Normandy, rather than just the D-Day landings. A bit “educational” in style, but with some fascinating stuff, including a section on General de Gaulle. Bayeux was the first city to be liberated and de Gaulle made good use of this fact politically, walking through the streets being greeted as the conquering hero. Good film presentation as well.
In the same grounds was the Memorial Garden to War Reporters. A simple peaceful place, with names engraved on vertical stones. I was absolutely staggered by the number of reporters who have lost their lives reporting wars.
Opposite was the largest British War Graves memorial and Cemetery nearly 5000 buried here. It was still full of 70th Anniversary wreaths, etc. Beautifully kept by the War Graves Commission. I paid my respects. THANK YOU seemed a bit inadequate really.
Now a complete change of tone ! Off to the seaside mecca of Arromanche. What a teeming seaside town – a bit like a French mini-Blackpool ! Absolutely stuffed with visitors. I had hoped to go into the D-Day Landing museum, but the queue was at least 50 deep – no thank you ! Will go in the low season, me thinks.
You will probably have seen the programmes on the TV during the 70th celebrations, where all the presentations were done in front of the Museum. The TV does not give ANY IDEA AT ALL about the scale of the Mulberry Harbour and all the loading ramps, etc. ENORMOUS ! Luckily the tide was out, so I could pic some of the remaining concrete sections. Built to last 100 days, there are still bits left in reasonable order.It was actually better going up above Arromanche itself and look down from the cliffs. Then the scale of things can be seen a bit more clearly. I was suitably impressed – gobsmacked even !
On the top of the cliff was the Arromanche 360 circular Cinema, which gave a 30 minute summary of the landings. A bit weird in “circlorama”, but interesting enough.
Then it was off along the coast road and GOLD Beach. My Itinerary pointed me towards one of the actual landing points. One of the pic’s below shows the view they would have got of the road as they came off the beach. The beach is very shallow her, which was probably one of the attractions. However, this meant that the defenders could lay all sorts of traps for the incoming landing craft. Not clear from my pic is that there was a German gun battery overlooking this beach, which caused havoc. A guy called Stan Hollis was involved in action which saved many lives by closing down the battery. His memorial is on the side of an old tram stop. Before the war, a narrow gauge tram wound its way along the coast.
I walked along the sea wall for some distance. many beach/holiday houses, ranging from the downright scruffy, to the superbly permanent and luxurious. I even managed to converse over the garden fence with a guy who normally lives in Marseilles. His English was non-existent and my French is not much better. We understood each other perfectly !
Asnelles is another of those sea-side places with the main road 200 m away from the coast itself. A glorious monument to its liberation at the main crossroads. I have been most impressed by how all the memorials have been kept in pristine condition. I know it’s just after the 70th anniversary, but even so, there is obvious real pride in keeping it all tidy.
This itinerary was very rural in nature, but everywhere you went, each village seemed to have some form of memorial, or there was a particular action that marked it out. Also, I have not seen so many farms built round courtyards etc, as there are in this part of France. It is impossible to think how different the English countryside is, just ( relatively speaking) a few kilometres distant.
