Normandy

July 28th -- Today we decided to take a day trip to visit the D-Day beaches in Normandy. We opted for a car so we would have the ability to drive between the various towns and beaches. Luckily there was a Hertz location directly across from our apartment. We picked up our car about 8:30am this morning and headed north. We successfully navigated our way out of Paris and onto the highway. It was a fairly non-eventful drive with the normal potty breaks and food stops. We decided to stop first in the town of Caen, which houses the Caen Memorial Museum. By the time we arrived at the museum, it was lunch time. We headed upstairs and had lunch in the museum cafeteria. In addition to being considered the best WWII museum in the area, they also offer free childcare. So after lunch, we dropped the kids off in the playroom and then Amy and I headed into the museum. It begin with a walk down a long spiral walkway that traced the path Europe followed from the end of WWI to WWII. The bottom level of the museum provided looks at how WWII was fought. It was a very detailed and interesting museum. One could spend an entire day inside looking at all the memorabilia. However, we navigated the space in about 1 hour just in time to catch the 1:20 showing of the movie Jour J (D-Day). It was a powerful movie that showed the build-up to D-Day, the landing and then the march towards Berlin. After the movie we quickly visited the wing that covers the Cold War era. It was neat to retrace some of the history that we also explored in Poland and Germany, 20 years after the end of the Cold War era. From here, we picked up the kids and began to make our way to the D-Day beaches. Given that it was already mid-afternoon, we decided to head straight to the American Cemetery. After a few wrong turns, we finally made it to the cemetery about 4pm. It was a beautiful, sunny day, so it made the cemetery, with it's white crosses and Stars of David headstones, seem to glow. The cemetery is set up on the cliffs above Omaha beach, so you also have some great views of the ocean below. We also visited the memorial that has a semicircular "Garden of the Missing" with the names of the 1,557 soldiers who were never found. We left the cemetery and got back in the car to drive down to Omaha beach. In addition to being an important historical site, it is now a fun, family beach where the kids could have some fun. It is a little weird that this beach, that was a place of such tragedy 65 years ago, is now no different than one of many beaches you would find in Florida. Other than a memorial statue and the flags flying around the memorial, you would not know this was an important historical location. From here, you could also see Utah beach, with its steep cliffs. Seeing the area gave me an even greater appreciation for the difficulties of the two locations the American troops had to conquer. We all changed into our bathing suits and enjoyed some good quality sand-beach time. The kids played around in the sand and water for a while. Amy had fixed sandwiches before we left this morning, so this kids had dinner on the beach. We then cleaned up and loaded back up in the car for our trip back to Paris. We left a little after 6 and finally arrived in Paris a little after 10pm. It was a great day with a good balance of historical perspective and fun!