Bayeux is ideally situated as a base to visit the five British, American and Canadian D-Day beach landing sites – Utah, Omaha, Gold, Sword and Juno. The terrain is fairly flat as well so it has been possible to cover ground on bicycle as well as on the motorbike. We cycled from camp through beautiful countryside to Arromanches Les Bains, the site of the first British landings on D-Day at Gold Beach. This beach is also the location of the artificial port or Mulberry Harbour, a series of floating concrete caissons, like huge containers, towed from England and sunk in place to act as a harbour and enable supplies to be landed. The caissons are still in place and clearly visible and it’s even possible to walk out to them at low tide. At the top of the village, with beautiful views over the beach, there is a recent and peaceful D-Day 75th anniversary garden with very well done sculptures/ artwork /memorial. The figures of soldiers are created out of washers and have the effect of seeming to fade away.
We cycled further along the cliffs to Longues-sur-Mer, the site of a German battery with the guns (we’re talking large cannon size) still intact in each gun emplacement, a rare find apparently. Our cycle ride really gave a sense of the ‘bocage’ or hedgerow landscape which caused such problems for the Allied troops and slowed their progress inland considerably and which meant every foot gained was a major victory. The hedgerows concealed the German troops and weaponry very effectively as well as causing the Allied tanks problems.
We ventured further afield on the motorbike, heading to the American landing sites at Utah Beach, which Joe had not previously visited, and Omaha Beach. It’s good to see that these sites remain largely uncommercialised and peaceful and each one has its own memorials and war vestiges on show. The majority of visitors appear to be French and, indeed, our fellow campers are mainly French and Dutch, with a few Belgians, Germans and Italians, but we haven’t seen any other Brits. In between the two beaches we stopped off at Pointe du Hoc, another strategic landing point where the troops had to scale cliffs before before advancing. There was certainly challenging terrain all along the coast.
Port en Bessin-Huppain was important as a fuelling supply point during the war as the Pluto pipeline under the ocean from the UK came in there. Today it’s a busy fishing port, best known for scallop fishing or coquilles St-Jacques.
Having seen the Commonwealth War Cemetery in Bayeux, we were able to compare it with the American War Cemetery near Omaha Beach, another beautifully maintained location. We had been the only visitors at the Bayeux cemetery but the American cemetery was much busier.
Our final visit on a war theme was to the newly opened Normandy British Memorial, so new that there are no signs to find it in the small village of Ver-sur- Mer, another strategic landing site at Gold Beach. This memorial which opened on 6th June 2021, no doubt with much scaled down arrangements, commemorates in a single memorial the 22,000 British men and women involved in the Battle of Normandy. The memorial was designed by Liam O’Connor who also designed the Bomber Command memorial in GreenPark. Whilst the landscaping is still fairly stark and will mature in time, the memorial design and location was stunning and incredibly moving. The site looks out over the sea, with the Mulberry Harbour visible on one side and with huge stone arches framing the sea and commemorative sculpture. There are no doubt many veterans who will be hoping to visit this wonderful memorial as soon as they are able to.
Thank goodness there are people to maintain these important sites. Hopefully there will never bethe need for others.
I agree Mary x
I do hope you visited some of the museums, big and small. In one, there’s a small-scale replica of the Mulberry Harbour and details of its construction. I found the differences between the cemeteries interesting: imposing symmetry of the Americans, the nostalgic domesticity og the Engkish with a tiny garden for each grave, and the sad sombre heaviness of the iron-coloured ‘rocks’ of the Germans. I found the size of the craters truly awful: not something conveyed in pictures.
I appreciated your picures, as well as the description, of the recent structures as I visited many moons ago.
Look forward to more.
Maggie
Hi Maggie. Yes, the Musée du Débarquement at Arromanches is great We agree with your thoughts on the different cemeteries. We didn’t go to the German cemetery but Joe has visited previously and described it just as you do. The symmetry and lining up of the crosses in the American cemetery, as you say, is incredible. At Pointe du Hoc Joe recalled that you could previously walk over the craters and they seemed more overgrown. Now you have to follow a path around them but you can certainly still appreciate the size of them. xx
Just heard the latest news – sadly you’ll have to quarantine on your return. Vaccinated or not.
Do hope you are nowhere near the dreadful floods which have hit Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and now norther France. Thousands of people are missing.
Do take care, you’re very precious. Love Mary & Ray 💋
Yes the news will be a blow for anyone who’d been hoping to come to France this summer. I guess the rules may well change again over the coming months before we have to head back to the UK. We’re now in central France so away from the flooding problems but it’s terrible to read about the scale of those. It’s dry here but rivers are still noticeably swollen. We will certainly take care xx