Normandy D-Day Area

May 20:  Up early in the morning to take a train ride to Normandy France, the sight of the Normandy Invasion.  It was a two and half hour train ride through the countryside to Bayeux, France.  From there we took a tour bus to see two Normandy invasion areas and an Normandy American Cemetery.  European countryside looks so much more interesting than American rural areas.  Yellow canola fields, light colored cows, old stone homes and barns--it all looked so antique like it was several centuries old.  The small towns with the stone buildings and the church with the tall steeple looked so much like my grandmother's Christmas decorations.

Parachute memorial of John Steele

 We checked out a World War II museum in Sainte-Mere-Eglise dedicated to the allied forces who fought in Normandy.  The church's steeple still contains a parachute memorial memorial in memory of Johns Steele and American paratrooper whose parachute caught on top of the church.  The incident was portrayed in the movie The Longest Day.

Afterwards we visited two Normandy beach landings:  Pointe-du-Hoc and Omaha Beach.  Pointe-du-Hoc is still battle scared after almost 70 years.  Bomb craters and German casemates are still visible till this day.  Omaha Beach, the sight where Saving Private Ryan is based on, is now a beautiful beach and a memorial site. 




Pointe-du-Hoc
Bombed out craters are still visible from WWII

A German Casemate





 

The Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial is the burial ground of thousands of Americans soldiers who died in World War II.  It is actually owned by the United States government.