Normandy D-Day Beaches

Visiting the D-Day beaches was one of my "must do's" after we found out we'd be moving to Paris, and so I was really excited to finally get to see such an important part of history. But since we were in Bayeux, and after reading about the sights around the area, we decided to go to the two biggest ones suggested: The Bayeux Tapestry and the Bayeux Cathedral.

I had no idea until the night before how important the Bayeux tapestry was to our understanding of French and English history. If you look up any of the major players around that time (1066) like William the Conqueror, Edward the Confessor, or Harold II, it's all images from the tapestry. And it's not actually technically a tapestry, as it's actually an embroidered cloth.

I'd seen other tapestry's before, like the famous Unicorn one in the Cluny museum, but I was actually really really impressed by this 70 meter (230 feet) long story of the Norman conquest of England. Or in other words, why half of the English language has French origins and why I can read French so easily!

There's a really engaging audio guide that talks you through all the scenes on the tapestry, and then upstairs are some models of the tapestry to explain how it was made (a 1000 years ago!) and life in that era. There's also a film explaining the events of the famous 1066 Battle of Hastings which changed the course of history forever.

The cathedral is then very close by, and was amazingly spared destruction during WWII due to a chaplain getting word to the allies that Bayeux wasn't a Nazi stronghold and didn't need to be bombed. It was actually one of the most impressive churches we've ever been to (and we've been in a LOT of churches) and the stained glass was incredibly impressive. If you're remotely in the area and are remotely interesting in church's, it's definitely a must-do. It's the same size as Notre Dame, but older, and dominates the tiny city of Bayeux.

Because we were running behind schedule we skipped the WWII museum in the city, and went straight to the beaches. I really want to go back next time we're in Paris and do a full 2 days in the area since there's so much to see, but I feel we got a good sampling of all the history that area contains.

The first place we visited was Pointe Du Hoc which is a series of cliffs between Omaha and Utah beaches where the Americans made landfall on D-Day. It's where lots of German weaponry was located, and you can clearly make out the massive and numerous bombshells left from our bombers trying to destroy them ahead of time. You can walk through the Nazi bunkers they set up, see the machine gun concrete bunkers they used, and explore where they had their observation posts to communicate to the massive guns to shoot at ships. Over half the Army Rangers who led the climb against the cliffs were killed or wounded, but the area was captured that same day. It was incredibly powerful and they had filmed interviews with some of those brave soldiers who fought that day.

The next stop was the American Cemetery. It was incredibly moving, and I really wish we could have spent more time there. Unfortunately I misread the closing times on the website, and we got there very close to closing time, so we had to rush through the exhibits in order to have some time among the almost 10,000 grave sites of the soldiers who lost their lives fighting for the freedom of Europe. It's an incredibly powerful place and is a reminder of everything that is sacrificed during war.

Heading further East, we stopped at the Longues Sur mer Battery where you can view the actual anti-naval artery that the Nazi's set up to protect against an invasion of France. You could touch the actual weapons that they touched, and walk along the bunkers. It was very surreal.

Our final stop was the cliffs over Arromanches where a massive artificial harbor was setup right after D-Day to transport goods into France. It was INCREDIBLY windy and thus cold, and felt like we were in a hurricane simulator. But it was really neat to see the sunken ships and concrete still visible even today, and I'd love to go back to see the museum and 360 movie there that explore the D-Day invasion.

At this point the sun was starting to set so we started our way back to Paris. It rained on us a bit, but we also got an amazing view of a very bright half-rainbow which lightened our spirits after such a depressing subject day. And finally after a very long weekend we finally made it back home.