Ten Days - France; D-Day History, Worrall Traveler Day (WTRD 5) June 11, 2018, France Day 4

Lest we forget our history and allow it to be repeated.

Today we spend the entire day visiting the museums, American cemetery, and beaches of Normandy where Allied troops of World War II, landed on June 6, 1944 to either end or succumb to the German takeover of France and Europe.








It is a story of determination, strategy, persistence, planning, competence, communications, engineering, training, courage and sacrifice of soldiers, in the air, on land, and on the water, simultaneous fronts.

Our empathetic emotions are on overload as we trace the steps that led to D-Day and the ultimate 'hell' and blood bath" that took the lives of 3,600+ Americans on Omaha Beach.  We are in awe of those who gave the ultimate sacrifice to liberate Europe, "ensure" democracy, and to bring what they thought would be the beginning of the end to all wars.

Surely there could be no other meglamaniacs like Hitler....until the present day when it seems we may have one in our own country  .  We also feel  a kindled understanding of how ordinary German citizens "allowed"  the atrocities of war and seeming "acceptance" of their leader. They probably had no alternative or courageous representatives to check the unfiltered power of a hell-bent leader.  Hmmm?

We feel their anxiety  having events spiral out of control....where classes of people are demonized, refugees are separated from their children and held in detention centers, free press is called "fake news" and propaganda becomes the 'real news", allies are turned into opponents, democracy and truth are besieged, and our government of "we the people" being usurped by wealth, greed, and corruption.

We empathize with all of the civilians caught up in the tragedies that lead to divisiveness and distrust of friends and neighbors ultimately leading to conflict and war.  And we empathize with soldiers who fight for what they "believe" to be a righteous cause that will ultimately define them through violence and bloodshed as either right or wrong in their beliefs. We are overcome with sadness for then and now, and know that we cannot falter in our persistence of freedom, liberty, and justice for all,  or we will forfeit that for which  our WWII vets so gallantly fought.

When drawn into World War II in 1941, America and Allied troops could see no immediate end to the war.  Churchill understood that the only way to win the war would be to mount a seemingly incredible offensive that would require masterful and strategic collaboration of the allied forces.

Behind Disembarkation Day (D-Day), there was prolonged period of planning and preparation by leaders, military, and the civilian workforce.



A temporary harbor would need to be constructed expediently in enemy held territory to deploy the men, supplies, and armor needed to defeat the Germans who had successfully been storming Europe for five years.  The harbor was built beforehand from a model and pieced together in place, first by sinking ships as anchors and building a seawall on their windward side, then constructing peers and ramps to land. That those from top to bottom could keep such a mammoth undertaking of preparation for two years a secret was an amazing accomplishment in an of itself.

The initial assault utilized 5000 vessels, 10,000 aircraft and landed 176,500 troops and 20,000 vehicles on the beaches of Normandy in the firs 48 hours!  One wonders in today's culture of satellite and drone images, Wikileaks and Internet if anything can stay secret for long or that we would have the collaborative will to work with our allies or they the trust to work with us.

The French are still very grateful for allied troops and their liberation from  Germany. American flags along with other allied forces are proudly flown.  Museums are filled with people of all ages.  Many school groups from France and England visit Normandy to learn their history and to understand why history must not repeat itself.

They are still attached to history through proximity while Americans seem to forget anything not proximate to the here and now.

The sea is whipped up today, it is overcast with periods of rain, not unlike and perhaps even more favorable than the  conditions our allied forces faced.

Omaha Beach Cliffs

It would all seem unrealistic if the skies were blue and the beaches filled with sun bathers.  There are only a few people on the beach today.  We hear only the sounds of the sea, sea birds, and the imagined sounds of the past.

Arromanches -  Debarquement - Disembarkment Museum

Coleville - Overlord Museum
Coleville - American Cemetery Museum
Omaha Beach - Omaha D-Day Museum.

We found a geocache on "bloody Omaha Beach" then returned to Nonante and the farmhouse where we are staying.  Our host Chantel was preparing dinner for us this evening.  

Dinner was scheduled for 8:00 pm.  We arrived about 7:45 and had a few minutes before dinner to be introduced to the farm animals besides the friendly dogs.  We met three donkeys, a bunch of chickens, and a horse that is a boarder.  Chantel's payment comes from a percent of any prize money the horse wins in local races.

Our supper was wonderful from apperitif to dessert, and included pate and avocado salad, sea scallops and rice in cream sauce, fresh peaches with vanilla ice cream and hand whipped cream. 

Tomorrow we leave for Mont Saint Michel with a stop in Bayeaux to visit the Tapestry Museum that depicts the story of William the Conquerer.

All is Well with the Worrall Travel Rs in Nonante, France

Ten Days - France; Road Trip through Normandy, Worrall Travel R Day (WTRD) 4 , France Days 3 of 10

Road Trip through Normandy - June 10th, France Day 3 of 10

Well, I made up for sleep last night.  I was so tired I could hardly send out the blog last night and did a terrible job proof reading.  Got a kick out of re-reading it today with the typos.  Auto correct took the word monastery and split it into Money stairies.....like that made sense.  

Garyn had given me his pre-Apple Watch, Fitbit, and it had recorded only about 6 hours of sleep in the  last 72 hours. After a hot bath, I was sound asleep at 9:00.  It was still light out, and Russ was sitting outside watching the river go by.  He woke me at 8:00 pm this morning!  

Now here's a unique experience for me.  When Russ woke me I was in the middle of a crazy dream. Usually, I have no recollection of what I dream, but I immediately started recalling all of the details and it was like a Monty Python movie.  I started to tell Russ and broke into uncontrollable laughter. Poor Russ!  He just looked at me as if I had totally lost it!  Still chuckling.

Our host Christian had prepared a wonderful breakfast for us of crepes, fresh yogurt,  plum jam,
cheese, ham and of course a morning baguette and a soup-bowl-size cup of coffee with milk.  The dining table for six was set for the two of us facing the patio and river beyond.  Everything was delightful.  This would be a nice quiet place to spend a few more days.

A Meander Through the Normandy Countryside

Our broad objective is to experience the lesser traveled roads through Normandy along the coast. We drove past stately river chateaus,

wove through picturesque small villages with quaint homes and gardens,

and small towns with very narrow roads where property rights of house corners took precedence over road right away.  Sharp right turns and pull overs often required folding in our passenger side- mirrors.  Narrow streets when parked required us to pull in the driver's side mirror if we still wanted to have one when we returned.

Our first stop on the way to the coast  was in Honfleur which turned out to be quite a tourist destination and quite busy on a bright and sunny, Sunday morning.  Honfleur is a yacht harbor city that we would have loved to have sailed Worrall Wind and spent a few days.

The harbor was quaint, colorful, filled with boats and people and hosted a turn of the 20th century double decker carousel with not only horses, but cars, elephants, and airplanes.

From Honfluer we continued toward the coast

and walked along the seabed of the ebbed tide of the Atlantic on the English Channel.  The shallow beach extends a great distance to the water's edge when the tide is out.

Apparently from the danger signs posted, when the tide turns, one must scurry quickly back to shore as the incoming tide moves swiftly.

As we did not have a tide table, we did not venture too far out to do some beach combing.

A walk along this beach gives insight into how allied forces during World War II had to engineer and strategize  their Disembarkment Day (D Day).  It is a relatively calm day, but the seas here because of the shallowness are very tempestuous in foul weather.  

The two greatest  adversaries to the allied forces were the Germans and the weather that could and did adversely effect the landing.  We ate our picnic lunch late in the day staring at the sea and watching people go by and people not going by but paused in the sand.

 Close to where we ate lunch, there was a photogaphy art exhibit on the high end of the beach where the artist, Valerie Leonard  was being interviewed, for the exhibition named Black Hell about surface coal workers and scavengers in northeastern India.  The photography was amazing and the story heartbreaking.  Check out the link to Black Hell above for a slide show of her photos.  They are astunning social documentary.

By now it was late in the day and we took a very back road through the village of Nonante....well not quite.  As we came to Nonante the road was blocked by a local exhibition of old farm tractors.  We got out of the car as we could drive no farther and observed the festivities and flea market that blocked our way but provided a cultural perspective the farming community in France.

We took a recalculated route to our accommodation in a farmhouse that was established in 1690 and one of the oldest buildings is a small rock building.

 The owner Chantel is a descendant and was born in the farmhouse that was reconstructed in the early 1800 after the first was burned to the ground in the French Revolution.  We are staying in the bedroom where Chantel's mother, an artist, commemorates her birth with a painting.

In addition to running a farm guesthouse that we found on AirBnB, Chantel raises chickens, donkeys, and cattle to sell for beef and dairy cow  She has been renting rooms out since 1989.  

After getting settled in our upstairs bedroom, we drove to the town of Bayeux to see the Notre Dame Cathederal (dedicated in 1077) and to have dinner.  We enjoyed a walk around town and visiting the cathedral.

With the exception of a few other tourists, we have the closed-up town all to ourselves.

Delightful three dimensional street art at the top of this stairway.

Chantel recommended several restaurants that locals enjoy, but as it was Sunday, these restaurants were not open.  Hours here in France are very respectful of people who work, closed on Sundays, and one-two hours for lunch when the shops close down. 

We found a nice little tourist restaurant and enjoyed escargot, French onion soup, and Salad Normandy, a 1/2 bottle of Bordeaux for dinner, and creme brulee for dessert.  

Tomorrow we revisit history and D-Day in Normandy.

All is Well with the Worrall Travel Rs in France.