DDay Beaches and Bayeux

Tuesday, April 25, 2017
Secqueville-en-Bessin, Normandie, France
We had another wonderful breakfast this morning:Valerie made scrambled eggs from her own eggs, homemade apple juice, warm baguette and fantastic croissants that literally melted in your mouth...homage jams and apple jelly, wonderfully thick yogurt with fresh strawberries, kiwi and bananas...coffee and hot milk and chocolate almond cake that was out of this world..
It was cloudy, windy and cold to start the day...after breakfast we set out for the D Day beaches...we drove the small local roads to Cully, Le Fresne Camily, past the Chateau at Fontaine Henry which has had the same family owning it since the XII century....it's huge and more like a tall moated castle than a typical Chateau.Then to Basly where there is a Canadian marker honoring the troops that Liberated the area, to Cresserons and finally the beach at Lion sir Mer which was part of Sword Beach where the Brits landed. It's relatively flat and very windswept.. Then south along the coast to St Aubin Sur Mer and Bernieres-Sur-Mer where Juno Beach starts...there is Canada House right on the beach at Bernieres-Sur-Mer where the first Canadians landed... The house is the one in all the photos of the attack.. It's all decked out in Maple Leaf flags and memorials now. Then on to the Juno Bach Museum at Courseuilles- Sur-Mer...it's supposed to be the best of the many museums but there were tons of school kids already there so we drove on...the memorial area is nice but the town is quite touristy and tacky.
Then on to Arromanches-les-Bains and Gold Beach where the Brits landed, then further down along the beach to Omaha and Utah Beaches and finally Pointe du Hoc where the US Rangers scaled the cliffs to take out 4 huge German gun turrets.....many casualties as the Germans eventually abandoned the guns and retreated a bit to counter attack... The US park is quite interesting as they have left all the rusting guns and she'll pocked turrets as well as all the shell holes from allied bombing... It was sunny by the time we arrived and it was great to walk along the cliffs....there were tons of tourists and school kids.. we didn't go to the cemeteries...instead we drove to Bayeux hoping to see the Tapestry but we arrived a bit too late so we walked around the old town and checked out the very old Cathedral.. There is a walking tour in English but the wind was so cold and it became cloudy and miserable so we found a bar to have a cider and thought we would try one of the restaurants.... Instead we drove the back roads to Creully and ate at the same restaurant as our first night...the Hostellerie St. Martin....had the same menu and it was great again... Much cheaper than if we had eaten in Bayeux. The same writers were there and we enjoyed our meal.. We had missed the Chateau in Creully so after dinner we walked up to uptake a look... It's huge...more like an old castle with a moat and tall turrets...dates to the X century so it's pretty old.. On the way home we found 2 other Chateaus....one in Lantheuil and an old mill in Cainet/ Le Fresne Camilly.. Every time you go through a village it seems there is a large chateau or castle or Manor house as part of a walled farm....and so many canola fields...the hills are a patchwork of green and yellow..we also found a Canadian Marker for a RCAF aero drove near the Chateau at Lantheuil....after the invasion there were a number of air bases developed to support the troop movements through the area..
Walter has started the fire as Valerie is out for dinner at her brother's and we are getting ready to leave tomorrow for Bordeaux. We both would have enjoyed another day here to explore more of the back roads .....we will just have to come back..
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