Normandy-Everything Else

"Le Cottage"  A cute little French cottage that we rented for our stay.  It was built in the 1820s.

The inside fit all 11 of us.

Davis at Le Cottage.  There was a great sports field and play area behind for the kinder.

More cute buildings from the 1820s.  It is amazing that they are still standing considering where they are located in Normandy. 

Lots of pure white cows in the Normandy area.  Darin tried the local Camembert cheese; it didn't have a strong taste, but smelled quite a bit like feet.

Hedge rows. 
These were very difficult for the Americans that were fighting here.  It was interesting to see them lining all of the roads, it was more understandable as to why they caused so many problems.

Eifle Tower. 
We didn't have time to stop and see it this trip.  Normandy was about an 8 hour drive from our house.  The French road tolls are terrible!  We paid about 60 euros each way to drive to and from Normandy.  Sometimes we would only drive for about 15 minutes in between toll stops.  It was terribly annoying and expensive!

Normandy-La Pointe du Hoc

This was by far the boys' favorite place out of the WWII sites we visited. 

Pointe du Hoc was preserved as it was at the end of fighting.  This area was stormed by elite US Rangers using ropes and ladders to scale the cliff with heavy casualities.

It is an area filled with bomb craters.  Bomb craters that are super fun for a bunch of car tired boys to run around in.  Up and down for an hour.

The area is very uneven and definately a place that was heavily bombed during the war.

The cliffs that the Rangers needed to scale.

The sword monument

Exploring

Normandy-Beaches

Utah Beach

Windy and chilly

Navy Memorial

This horse and buggy kept running back and forth on the beach.

Super windy

Anya found a chunk of seaweed that she used to scrub the sand.

Scrubbing and scrubbing until it turned into a full sand-angel moment.

Omaha Beach

Boys with swords

Normandy-Ste Mere-Eglise

Over 13,000 US paratroops were dropped into the Cotentin marshland; the US 4th division came ashore on Utah Beach and linked up with them.  Story tells of a US paratrooper who landed on the cathedral, he lived.  If you look at the cathedral below you will see that they still have a "paratrooper" hanging from the top. 

 

Inside the cathedral.

Stain glass from inside the cathedral showing paratroopers landing.

As we were leaving a group of German soldiers were visiting the site, taking pictures and touring around.  We were wondering what their thoughts might be.  Interesting.

Normandy-American Cemetery

Overlooking Omaha Beach

The resting place of 9,386.  Sobering.

Normandy-Batteries de Longues

*the first of many vacation posts to come...

The only German battery still to have its guns. 

The Normandy area was surrounded by fields of red poppies.

Looking through the fields at the batteries.

The German observation post on the edge of the cliff.

On the cliff by the batteries.   In the background you can see (kind of) the artificial Mulberry Harbour in the water.

Darin has loved learning about WWII for nearly forever.  This trip to the Normandy area was on his "MUST DO" list.  It was wonderful to get go there with him and to see these amazing sites.  It brought tears to my eyes (not just because my allergies were the worst they've been in years while there) to see this beautiful and peaceful area and to think of it as a place of war and death not that many years ago.  Families were changed because of what happened in these places and it was an honor to be there.

Deutsch Dienstag-Mourning

3 months. 

That is how long my neighbor, Frau Weber, wore black after her husband died.  April 1st to July 1st.

It is nice to see some color on her again, but her tears still flow easily.  Such a sweet little lady.


(We've been on vacation, but are back and I have some amazing pictures to post...soon.)