<< Last Morning in Cabourg

10/21/26 - D-Day in Normandy

We arranged for a guided tour of the D-Day beaches. We had visited the memorial museum in Caen the previous day, so this was going to be our outdoors touring day. Our first stop was Utah Beach with its German gun emplacements and the remains of the artificial harbor built to aid the invasion.

Our next stop was another set of German guns up on the bluffs over the landing beach. Our guide Sebastien told us that his grandfather had been conscripted by the Germans and forced to build these bunkers. He and the other conscripts tried watering the cement, but the Germans caught them and warned them. The D-Day invasion is more of a presence in Normandy even after all these years.

Then we went to the American Cemetery with its graceful monuments and broad array of grave markers. It was a gray day and raining lightly to match the mood of the place. We wandered the walkways and admired the reflecting pool. We paused to look down from the bluffs at the beach below.
























Keywords: france

Keywords: france