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This cute little town saw some major fighting during WWII because it was right on the D-Day invasion track. We got there a little late because we stopped in Bayeux to see the tapestry that told the story of William the Conqueror’s Battle of Hastings in 1066. It was made out of wool thread on a very long linen cloth (70 yards long). It was so intricate that I kept looking at the expressions on the horses’ faces and all the different clothing that was on the solders and the maidens not really believing that this amazing piece of cloth could have survived for the number of centuries that it did. Incredibly, the museum allowed photos, so I took an inordinate number of pictures. There were 71 scenes and each of them as beautiful and colorful as it would be had it been sewn today. I wonder where it was hidden during the war. I’ll have to see if I can find that on the computer.
We drove to the little town of Arromanches on the English Channel to see the D-Day beaches or as much as we could in the time we had. First we went to the 360 degree theater and saw a very interesting telling of the war. While they were showing present day video of the town, they were also showing what occurred during the D-Day invasion. Pretty amazing and stunning comparisons! Then we walked along the beach area, or actually high up on the cliffs. Unbelievable that the allies could scale those cliffs and take out the German Army. We drove along the coast between Omaha and Gold Beaches and saw so many iron and metal parts of ships, sunken blocking debris, and parts of the giant wall that was built left over from the war. The Normandy American Cemetery farther down the coast in Colleville was remarkably beautiful despite the reminder of the thousands of lives lost in just a few days, and we walked around in silence. Having spent so much time on WWII in my US history classes made me appreciate a little more, perhaps, the terrible times so many of the WWII veterans who visited with my students had to endure. I am even more grateful.
Getting out of the Normandy area and finding the autoroute was confusing; we talked about the difficulty of the troops who had been fighting here in finding their way from town to town. It’s like a huge maze with little roads going this way and that, and signs are plentiful, for sure, but they are villages with 100 people, maybe, and not knowing the small towns around us, we easily got lost and drove in circles for awhile. Then we caught sight of somewhere we recognized, and we were off to Giverny.
We drove to the little town of Arromanches on the English Channel to see the D-Day beaches or as much as we could in the time we had. First we went to the 360 degree theater and saw a very interesting telling of the war. While they were showing present day video of the town, they were also showing what occurred during the D-Day invasion. Pretty amazing and stunning comparisons! Then we walked along the beach area, or actually high up on the cliffs. Unbelievable that the allies could scale those cliffs and take out the German Army. We drove along the coast between Omaha and Gold Beaches and saw so many iron and metal parts of ships, sunken blocking debris, and parts of the giant wall that was built left over from the war. The Normandy American Cemetery farther down the coast in Colleville was remarkably beautiful despite the reminder of the thousands of lives lost in just a few days, and we walked around in silence. Having spent so much time on WWII in my US history classes made me appreciate a little more, perhaps, the terrible times so many of the WWII veterans who visited with my students had to endure. I am even more grateful.
Getting out of the Normandy area and finding the autoroute was confusing; we talked about the difficulty of the troops who had been fighting here in finding their way from town to town. It’s like a huge maze with little roads going this way and that, and signs are plentiful, for sure, but they are villages with 100 people, maybe, and not knowing the small towns around us, we easily got lost and drove in circles for awhile. Then we caught sight of somewhere we recognized, and we were off to Giverny.
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