Beaches, Dday, white flags

Point du Hoc
see all photos »

Upon arriving in Bayeux, Alex and I really had no idea where to go. We managed to find a small hotel in town, which charged a reasonable rate for two of us, so we just stayed there for the few in which we were in Bayeux. Bayeux is a charming little town, with not a whole lot to do, aside from the D-Day beaches, which was a nice change from Paris. Alex did the Omaha beach tour the first day, while I enjoyed a day to relax.

After a night of cheap wine, I headed out to Juno beach, with our infamour tour guide named Ed, who was basically a walking encyclopedia about WW2. Juno beach was amazing, as I´m sure you´ll gather from the pics. It was much much flatter than I assumed it would be, but it was awesome nonetheless. We also went to the Abbey des Ardennes, where the Hitler youth murdered 25 Canadian soldiers in cold blood after the Normandy invasions. I tried to get on the Omaha beach tour in the afternoon, but it was full, so I booked it for the following day. Alex left for Biarritz, so I had the place to myself to relax and enjoy.

Point du Hoc
see all photos »

The Omaha beach tour was also awesome. We started the afternoon off by going to Point du Hoc, where the Rangers attacked German gun battery positions on D-Day (think the beginning of Saving Private Ryan). Very very cool. After a couple of other sights, we headed to the American war cemetery, where all US soldiers, save the ones who were not repatriated, were buried from the European campaign. It was, needless to say, a very moving experience, as the graves seemingly never end. This marked the end of the tour, and I took the night train from hell from Bayeux to Biarritz.