D Day Beaches and the Band of Brothers Tour

Saturday 9 September 2006

We packed up and left Paris today.  Took a 12 PM train to Caen arriving around 2 PM.  We picked up the rental car and drove to our hotel in the center of town.  It's just as confusing as Paris but we did it with Jean's great map reading.

Strolled around town and decided to have a early dinner (around 6 PM).  After finding out that the restaurants don't start serving until 7 at the earliest, we just bought a sandwich and had a picnic in the room.

We booked a "Band of Brothers" tour for Monday.  Tomorrow is Sunday and we plan to visit the local Caen WWII museum and drive out to the landing beaches on our own.

I remember Dick Winters (commanding officer of Easy Company) saying in the book "Biggest Brother", that he thought the French were rude, arrogant and lazy.  I've found no reason to disagree with his observations, although this certainly doesn't apply to everyone we have met or encountered during our travels.  Ask about this sometime if you're interested.

Sunday 10 September 2006

(Pictures of D Day beaches, Caen, Band of Brothers tour)

We got up early (6AM) and drove to the D Day beaches.  It was a great way to start the day.  Jean navigated us out of the city and to the beaches (30 Kilometers to first beach) without too much anquish.  I think she told me to stop complaining only once!

We were the first to visit the American Cemetery and had no other visitors for the first 20 minutes of our 1 hour stay.  I can only say it brought tears to both Jean and I.

We then drove up the coast to the National Guard memorial that sits on a German Bunker with the field artillery piece still inside.

Next was Point Du Hoc, the most impressive of the battle field areas.  It's where the Rangers climbed up the steep cliff to knock out bunkers overlooking Omaha and Utah beaches.  The point was given to the U.S. by the French and is now maintained by the U.S.  It has numerous bombed out bunkers and bomb craters from D Day.  It is kept just like it was left on D Day.  You can see some of the craters in our photo's but it doesn't give the site justice.

Then we stopped at a monument for the 1st Infantry Division, the big Red One!

Lunch at a Omaha Beach Golf Course and back to Caen to visit the War Memorial.  Then back to the hotel for a short rest, dinner and call it a night.

Monday 11 September 2006

Here are the Band of Brothers Pictures

Did the Band of Brothers tour wth 6 others in the tour group.  If you liked the mini-series or the book, it was fantastic.  We walked the roads, went to the towns, and even met one of the French residents and owners of Brecort Manor, where Easy Company took out the four German artillery pieces on the morning of D Day.

The countryside was beautiful and we got out and actually walked down streets and visited the actual fields of battle.

Back to the hotel for a great dinner and packed to leave Normandy and France tomorrow.