I visited Caen and the Normandy landing beaches yesterday. Everything I read said I'd need more than a daytrip from Paris to really appreciate all that there is to see and fully understand the history. I can definitely confirm that's true. Unfortunately, I only had a day - but thankfully with a skilled guide, I was still able to take in a fair bit of the history.
Unlike Vimy Ridge, I don't think anyone needs a recounting of D-Day. It's one of those moments that everyone remembers, and it's amazing to me how one day can so impact the memory surrounding an entire region. While life goes on, and builds up around the area (what's with the big houses with bay windows and the Hotel/Casino overlooking Omaha Beach?), it is still unmistakably the place where so many thousands died in one dramatic moment in history.
Even 60+ years later, it's hard not to be moved standing in the American Memorial Cemetary at 4:30 while they lower the US flag to the playing of Taps. Clearly everyone there felt the same way, as a hush fell over the area and lasted quite a while. It's equally hard not to be awed, and strangely proud, standing on Omaha beach looking up at the high cliffs, still littered with German gun emplacements, that the Americans had to contend with when they landed that day.
"Never in the field of human conflict, has so much, been owed by so many, to so few!" - Winston Churchill
Pictures.
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