Observation of the day: Thank goodness for Churchill.
VM: On Thursday, we sadly bid adieu to our Giverny maison and temporary French pet menagerie at 6:30am. We departed early as we wanted to visit the D-Day Beaches, the site of history’s greatest amphibious assault, before staying the night in Mont St. Michel. It was an ambitious trek but we both wanted to see these historic places that literally changed the course of World War II and frankly, defined the world’s geopolitical landscape as we know it today.
But, first, we had to master the French toll stations. The French highway system is very good but they charge an absolute arm and a leg to use these roads. We knew we would have tolls but couldn’t find anything ahead of time to tell us exactly when, how much, etc. etc.
Needless to say, our first encounter was like a Keystone cops routine. There are no warning signs to tell you a toll is coming & more importantly, NOTHING and we mean NOTHING to tell you how much it is until you are right at the toll. So when we pulled up to the first toll that required 3.40EU we scrambled to get coins together to pay. And then for some reason, the machine didn’t like one of our coins so we had to scramble some more. Needless to say, we are grateful to the trucker behind us who was SUPER patient as there was no helper in sight and nowhere for us to go with a truck behind us and a gate in front of us.
After this daunting first time, we then felt like pros but we had to stop to try to get lower denominations for these machines as every darn fee is different – 5.60EU at one, 3.20EU, 2.10EU at another, etc. etc. They do have a “fast pass” kind of card, but I can’t for the life of me figure out where you can buy one & no one at the rest stop could explain it either. So we hoarded change to make each stop as painless as possible!
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| This sleepy French beach town was the sight of Churchill's strategic genius -- the temporary Mulberry Harbour. |
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| It is quite something to see the remainders of Mulberry Harbour at Arromanches. |
By 9:30am we found our way to Arromanches. This port town played a significant role in the liberation of Western Europe as it is here Churchill had the vision to build the artificial port known as Mulberry Harbour. As we have commented in our earlier blog
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| A sobering and amazing view of what happened here nearly 75 years ago. |
when we visited England, Churchill was a bit of a polarizing figure but he was a brilliant war strategist. He was truly the man behind the Allied push into occupied France. As JM says, if it weren't for him, we all might just be speaking German about now.
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| There are "red poppy" memorials left for soldiers lost. |
Mulberry Harbour’s huge concrete blocks were towed over from Britain in June 1944 and served as a base to deploy armaments and troops up and down the coast in France’s Normandy region. Overall, 2.5 million men, 500,000 vehicles and 4 million tons of supplies arrived via this temporary harbor. Amazingly, segments of the harbor are still visible in the water today.
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| The Allied forces landed all up & down the Normandy coast. |
Knowing we didn’t have time to fully explore the many museums in this area, we chose to visit the Arromanches 360 experience (http://www.arromanches360.com). While Rick Steves’ guide recommends doing this last, we felt this visual explanation of the war and the region would help bring perspective to our day. And that it did. We highly recommend it if you visit this area. Produced from archival footage from the U.S., Britain, France and even Germany, this 17-minute movie is intense and left us both emotional. We read the history books, we watch the Hollywood movies, but when you see it up close and personal with real everyday people who made incredible sacrifices in the name of freedom and democracy, it becomes really real.
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| It is mind-boggling to think of the coordination & communication this took in the days before computers and Smartphones. |
One of the facts we both learned was what an incredibly coordinated effort this was with ALL the Allied forces. We had both heard a lot about the U.S. landing at Omaha and Utah beaches, but not heard about the Canadians at Juno Beach and the Brits at Gold Beach and Sword Beach. In less than a week, the Allies linked these beachheads and pushed forward. All up and down the coastline, they were deployed over the next three months, and slowly but surely they pushed the Germans back. They then surrounded the Nazis until little by little; they liberated western France and then headed to Paris and finally, Germany.
Thinking of the small towns we had just driven through ourselves, it was incredibly moving to watch archival footage of the reception French civilians gave to the Allied troops as they worked towards their mission, especially since the 75th anniversary is just around the corner in June. War is ugly but humanity is beautiful.
We were moved to think we were traveling down the very roads our soldiers
took through these small French towns. As they ready for the upcoming 75th
anniversary, the towns have have banners commemorating actual soldiers and their
company.
From here, we drove on down the coastline, reaching Omaha Beach and its magnificent memorial by about noon. It is difficult to describe the feeling of stepping on the places where you know so many men lost their lives and where such heroic feats were made. I found myself thinking about veterans who have returned here and how difficult it must be to recall those memories as so many of their comrades didn’t make it past their first steps on the beach.
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| A remarkable tribute to our brave men and women who landed at Omaha Beach. This sculpture, representative of the watercraft which brought them here was created by a French artist. It was installed at the 60th anniversary of the D-Day Landing. |
Nowhere is this more evident than at the American cemetery at Omaha Beach where we visited next. It is a big site, covering nearly 175 acres and contains graves for nearly 10,000 of our U.S. soldiers who lost their lives in the D-Day landings and the corresponding operations. They also have a wall for the “missing in action” with a little more than 1,500 names.
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| They are readying for the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings. |
One of the scenes that struck us both in the Arromanches movie was how many German soldier prisoners of war the Allieds took upon the liberation. I asked one of the cemetery team members what happened to all these men and as we suspected, it depended on the rank. The lower ranks were actually put to work and were largely responsible for helping bury the dead and to help with rebuilding. Shortly thereafter, they were allowed to go home. As we have heard before, higher-ranking soldiers were charged for war crimes and were imprisoned.
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| There are no words, we just must never forget. |
Once we had recovered from the Cemetery visit, we drove on to see Utah Beach. It is a wide beach that goes on for miles and reminded us of our own Atlantic coastlines. Again, we were impacted at the thought of thousands of soldiers landing here, including paratroopers, all in the name of toppling the Nazi regime. All in all, about 35,000 soldiers landed here with more than 3,000 casualties.
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| Everywhere there are reminders of the joint effort of the Allied forces. The flag on the far right is that of the Normandy region. |
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| The Utah Beach is vast. |
Overall, we are both glad we took the time to visit even if it was just for the day. Interestingly, this is apparently a big area for camping and we encountered MANY large campers (French & other European in origin) on the narrow French roadways as they explored the area.
By 4pm, we made it to Mont St. Michel. Long on HM’s bucket list after seeing Impressions de France far too many times at Disney’s Epcot (if you are interested, you can see it yourself here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYmRiRcKZ30), HM had begged to see this magical place.
The wonderful and worst part about Mont St. Michel is there is only one way in and one way out. Completely surrounded by water most of the time, you can get on the island via a complimentary bus, horse-drawn buggy or walking. We parked our car in the special “hotel” parking lot, grabbed our smaller overnight bags and while we were a bit drawn to the more romantic horse ride, the heat, the crowds and the need for food & water pushed us (well, mostly VM) toward the faster bus option.
When we arrived, the tide was out. This meant the muddy flats stretched for miles and visitors were walking all around the Mont. Within hours, these same flats were covered in water. Mont St. Michel supposedly has the highest tides in Europe. It really is a breathtaking sight.
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| No, it's not Hogwarts, it's Mont St. Michel. |
We literally plowed our way through the main gate to the Tourism office to inquire about finding our hotel. While there are not many hotels to stay in on the Mont, I had read a recommendation to stay on the Mont directly as all the visitors go home by end of day and you have the island virtually to yourself in the evening and early the next morning before the throngs of visitors arrive again. And, thankfully, this is exactly as it turned out to be.
With bags in hand and many a “excusez-moi” uttered, 10 minutes later we were at the front door of our home for the evening – Hotel Guesclin (http://www.hotelduguesclin.com/fixe/home.html). While not a fancy spot, this is what I would characterize as a typical 3 star European hotel. In this case, a family runs it with a few loyal employees who have worked with the family forever. I had found them through a guidebook but had to book directly with them. As an example of the family-run nature of the place, I had first emailed last October and when they finally replied they explained that they were all on holiday and could I please call back in late November. This made me laugh as it’s the antithesis of the “heads in beds” mantra I have come to know in the hospitality industry in the States and other spots I visit – never wanting to risk losing a reservation. But I like that they prioritize their time off figuring if we don’t come, someone else will.
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| When we arrived at Mont St. Michel, the tide was out, and visitors were out exploring the muddy shoals. |
And interestingly, they don’t worry too much about the language barrier. We had our hostess hustle and bustle when we got there speaking rapid fire French to us until we finally were able to say “McCarty” and she just handed us the room number 14 key!
We enjoyed refreshing in our room and watching out our bayside window as the tide started to roll in and the tourists started to roll out. By 6:30pm, our stomachs were grumbling and since a Trip Advisor consultation told us our hotel was one of the best places in the village to eat, we just went one floor down.
I chose an omelette soufflé which was delicious (as was the cold half bottle of Sancerre!) and HM stuck with steak that while not the best she’d ever had, it hit the spot. Best of all, we had lovely service throughout our meal with all family members really attending to all the guests. Easy to see why they didn’t have any open tables, but they ALWAYS accommodate their hotel guests.
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| It was fun exploring once the crowds thinned out. |
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| Welcome to our crib! |
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| The nuns had garbage duty at the Abbey. |
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| Even the dogs get to visit the Mont. This sweet Labradoodle named Emily came with a camping family from Brighton in England. Her cute young master was so proud for us to meet her & give her some love. We were happy to oblige. |
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| There is soldier presence at the Mont. They are polite and welcoming, but their machine guns are not. We were grateful for their protection. |
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| No words. |
After dinner, we worked off our two desserts of ice cream and crème caramel (their version of flan) exploring the Mont with only a few others. It was really cool. All in all, Apple recorded that we went 34 floors and just shy of 6 miles!
Needless to say, we gratefully fell into bed by 10pm to a peaceful sleep induced by our open bayside window and the chilly ocean breezes and sounds lulling us to sleep.
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| A full moon rising at Mont St. Michel. |
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