Normandy and its History

Mont St Michel - Friday 4th April

A day off!  The first one since Porto and that wasn’t a rest, so really it’s the first day off since Castell de Ferro on March 12th!

The weather forecast was for full sun all day and it started off sunny but clouded over though it was warm. 

Rio escaped - again. My fault, I was brushing him outside and he slipped through my hands.  He thought it was wonderful as there were lots of birds to chase. The trouble was that the birds were flying through the hedge and across the road. Fortunately it is a very quiet road but that didn’t stop us worrying. He ran all round the site and had a “wonderful” time 😡. There was also a tiny lane opposite the site and eventually he ran off down there. I followed him and he thought we were going for a walk. Then I heard a splash and he had leapt into a stream, a deep stream. The bank was quite high but he managed to clamber up and appeared through the undergrowth absolutely soaked. He just stood there while I put his lead on. Back at the van we got the shower out for the second time. While all this was going on a French lady started shouting at me - “attachez,, attachez” I told her in my best English - I would if I could!

We waited for the group to arrive and the first one got here at about 1.30pm and the last about 6.30pm!  Most had stopped to visit Mont St. Michel, we have been there before so didn’t go.

It was nice to meet everyone and we sat out - yes SAT OUT and chatted until dinner time then again afterwards.

This photo was photo shopped!

Utah Beach - Saturday 5th April 

A leisurely start to the day. People set off when they were ready. 

It was a nice drive - driving in the sunshine makes such a difference. I just loved the houses that were built of stones, some stones were thin ones and some were larger square stones. 

We went to the Airborne Museum in Sainte Mere Eglise. We left Rio in the van with a camera on him. It was the first time we had left him for any length of time. He had a little whine and eventually fell asleep in his bed - what a good boy. 

Anyway back to the museum. It was was built by a French association and focuses on the role of American paratroopers in the D-Day landings, particularly those of the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions, and opened in 1964. It was housed in three different buildings and was excellent.

We were walking through a dark cinema and I walked into a black bench straight across my knees. It was very painful and swelled up during the afternoon. 

We drove to our aire at Utah Beach and took Rio for a lovely run on the beach. As you can imagine he was in seventh heaven. 

I found it very hard to imagine the scene back in 1944 even though I had seen many films. When you are there it almost feels surreal. 

Even though the sky was blue and sun shining there was a nasty cold wind which meant that no one sat out.  We watched the film, The Longest Day, in the evening. A lot of it was set on Utah Beach and Sainte Marie Eglise including the patachutist who got caught up on the church tower.

82 miles

Utah Beach - Park4night

Bayeux - Sunday 6th April

The whole group set off for the DDay Experience (not to be confused with the DDay Museum) where we had a tour booked. It was only a 15 minute drive. 

The first part of the tour was a simulator. It started with us, as parachutists, being briefed about what was going to happen when we landed in France. It all sounded rather scary!  We were then taken to our plane, a Dakota, and strapped in down the sides. It felt very realistic. We taxied to the runway and took off. Where the windows were there were screens showing the area around us and we were rocking around and the sound was amazing. We then came under attack and the plane next to us got a direct hit and burst into flames.  We were then hit and the engines were on fire. We had to crash land in a field and quickly evacuate the plane. It was all very realistic. 

The second part of the tour was a 3D film about DDay and paratroopers. I’m ashamed to say that I fell asleep 🥱. Richard said that the film was good. 

We saw a Rupert!  Rupert was the nickname for a dummy which was filled with sand and pushed out of aircraft with a parachute on to divert the German forces.  Some even had detonators attached to them which exploded on landing making it look as it a parachutist was burning his parachute.  We knew about Ruperts as we had seen them on The Longest Day.  

There were lots of exhibits and a shop selling real uniforms and equipment. A bit surreal really. 

From the Experience we drove to La Pointe du Hoc where the Americans scaled the cliff to knock out the German outpost but when they got there the Germans had gone and left dummy guns. I was looking forward to seeing it, but it was no dogs and as we had already left Rio for 2 hours we didn’t think it was fair to leave him again. 

We drove to our site, a proper site!  It was lovely with separate pitches, so vans were not on top of each other. 

It was another day of blue sky and sunshine but with that chilly wind again. 

What to do tomorrow - that is the question!!

53 miles 

Bayeux