Amidst the beauty of the Norman-style cottages, the apple cider mills and lovely picturesque stops like Honfleur and Deauville, there is a vast treasure of history to be studied by all ages. As a baby boomer for whom World War II is a history lesson, great black and white movies and songs of lost love, this visit to Normandy was a real eye opener.
At the Mulberry Musuem in Arramanches, one is taught things never learned in school. If not for a brilliant plan devised by Winston Churchill, the D Day Invasion could have proved even more sorrowful. Had we not been able to get supplies and tanks (to be placed on hugh concrete blocks) from England, surreptitiously delivered to the Omaha Beaches by night and underwater, all those brave men would have died in vain. Because those who survived were able to chase back the Germans and free Paris, the war was won by the Allies!
At the somber but beautiful American Military Cemetary, one can actually see the incredible heights the Allied Forces had to climb after surviving the beach landing. It was an extremely moving visit.
We also visited the Longues-sur-Mer- battery, one of the only batteries of the Atlantic Wall with the guns still in place. The site bears the marks of the fierce combat by British troops the night prior to D-day. The German guns fired at the fleets near Omaha and Gold which began an artillery duel, until the battery was silenced on the morning of June 7th
If you have enough time in this region of France, go and see Honfluer and Eretat. Etretat is best known for its 70 meter high picture postcard white cliffs, and the arches and tunnels in the cliffs that jut out to sea, and a large rock needle (picture below.) Both the cliffs and village are the scenic highlight of the region and not to be missed if you are visiting this part of Normandy. These cliffs and the associated resort beach attracted artists such as Eugène Boudin, Gustave Courbet and Claude Monet. In Etretat you may wish to visit The Chapel of Notre Dame de la Garde, built in 1854 in homage to sailors and destroyed in World War II. It was rebuilt in 1950.
