Not Your Ordinary Day at the Beach

Damn time zone made me sleep in again today!

This was our day to actually tour the beaches of Normandy.

We started out this morning at Juno Beach Centre. On the way over, I

noticed the tide was out.

Now I understand the expression  'high and dry'!

High and Dry at low tide

Juno Beach Centre

Reunited at Juno Beach Centre

We viewed a short movie at the beginning of the museum portion of the tour. The room gave the impression of being inside one of the landing craft as you viewed the 360 degree video of the landing and some of the details leading up to it.

After the video, the doors opened into the museum. There were many, many very interesting exhibits in the museum. In fact we had to leave the museum for the tour of the beach, and return to the museum later.

We started out by looking at some of the obstacles placed on the beach used to impede the allied advance.  These tetrahedrons were strategically placed to be underwater at high tide to cripple incoming ships, and to impede tank advances at low tide.

Obstacles

Kathleen did a great job guiding us around the grounds. One of the most interesting exhibits was a German bunker. The walls of the bunker were made of reinforced 6 foot concrete walls. When in operation, the bunker had a periscope coming out of the top. The detail and features that went into the design of the bunker was very impressive.

Bunker as viewed from the beach

Marty inside the bunker checking for dust

We saw pictures of the bunker dating back to the 1940's. At the time the bunker was in use, it was right next to the water at high tide. Over the years, the wind has created sand dunes between the water and the bunker, and the weight of the concrete has caused it to sink into the sand.

Outside of the bunker is a large display with a poem written on it. The poem was actually a secret message. The french resistance knew where the D-Day events would happen, but they did not know when they would happen. The arrangement was, when this poem was read on a BBC broadcast, it was a signal for the french resistance to start destroying key infrastructure such as rail lines, phone lines bridges etc. in preparation for the assault. Kathleen said that to this day, the poem is like a national anthem to the french.

Kathleen telling us the story of the poem

From Juno beach we drove to the site of the British landing at Gold Beach. At this point, the British created artificial piers to dock ships and unload their cargo of vehicles and supplies. Looking out into the channel, you can still see the remains of many of the pier components sitting like monoliths in the water.

One of many piers as it was on D-Day

Pier anchor section on the beach at low tide

Bridge Section used to  span the pier anchors

Pier anchor and some very small people

A picture from inside the gaping hole in the pier anchor

Further down the beach was the sight of the American landing at Omaha Beach.

Omaha Beach

At this point, we were pretty much running out of steam and headed back to Courseulles for a nice dinner at a local restaurant and a final visit with Janet and Don.

Tomorrow we will drop off the car at Caen and take the train back to Paris in preparation for our flight home on Monday. But before we throw in the towel, we plan to tour the Louvre Museum tomorrow afternoon.

I'll let you know how that turns out tomorrow.