Our Random Thoughts: D-day beaches and beautiful villages

Au revoir Honfleur et bonjour Bayeux! We woke up early in Honfleur to head into the city centre for market day - a beautiful organic market by the old wooden tower. It was really yummy. Jake and I watched a woman make crepes...Sofia had her daily fill of fresh fruit...and we took in the sights and smells. fabulous! then it was back to the hotel Monet to check out and make our way to the D-day beaches and Bayeux.

Here you can see our lovely hotel in Honfleur. It was a beautiful spot - just outside the centre so it was a nice quiet space. it was a very easy walk into town and it was nice to be up the hill away from the water - gorgeous views!! You can see our room on the far right side of the image - just behind the fence.

This is what happens when you let your 7 yr old take your camera for a bit - we must have 30 self portraits like this.

Arrival at Hotel Churchill in Bayeux. Again, another fantastic spot - thanks to Andre! It is owned by a lovely couple who have visited Canada and loved it! they went to northern Quebec and loved the isolation and cold. can you imagine? They went with friends who loved it so much they packed up their family and moved there. Through the archway you can see in the bottom of the photo is a path to the high street. Luckily it was market day in Bayeux too!

The pathway opened to this lovely sunny street filled with beautiful fresh foods - you can see by the way people are dressed that it was windy and cool.

We stopped for a yummy lunch along the main street. Jake enjoyed many glasses of pineapple juice while Sofia stuck to her favourite - apple.

At 1 o'clock we met our wonderful tour guide at our hotel. We started with a visit to one of the many landing beaches along the coast. This is a tank found near the beaches.

One of the many monuments along the beach.

You can see the kids with our guide - she was so wonderful, patient and knowledgeable. This is an old machine gun post that would have been used against the Canadian soldiers as they landed and came ashore. The Germans also used the local water system to flood much of the land to make it that much more difficult for the Canadians. You can see one of the water ways behind the kids. The tower at the bend once housed a German sniper and when the Canadians were finally able to disarm her they had lost so many lives.

Our walk out toward one of the landing beaches - you can see it's very very windy! We were lucky enough to have a small tour. It was just the 4 of us and one other gentleman from Welland, ON. He was traveling Europe on his own and had specifically come up to Bayeux for the day to do the tour. We did the tour on May 1 which is labour day in Europe and many things are closed. We were very lucky that our guide offered to do the tour for us anyway - she didn't get her labour day holiday.

The next few show the kids in a bunker - it was damaged during the fighting but rests in its original spot. Jake began the day, at the tank, thinking that war was very cool. "A little like a video game", he said. I wasn't very impressed by his comment but waited until further into the tour to probe him again on his thoughts. At this bunker he had a quiet moment and said "mommy, it seems really scary. I can't imagine coming ashore in that ocean and having someone here shooting at me."

Our tour also included a stop at the Juno Beach Centre. Andre and I were very impressed by all the war memorials and monuments in Normandy - we were also rather impressed by the Canadian "presence". I have to say the kids felt very proud and we were almost embarrassed that we had to go to France to honour the Canadian soldiers. I still feel there was more in France than we do in Canada. shame!

Jake left his mark on the comment book

We specifically did the Canadian landing beaches tour (there are also tours for the US and UK landing beaches) so we saw many Canadian flags on our journey.

There is an interesting story about this house. It was a German base - our guide suggested it was an office where payroll was processed for the German soldiers. This was the first house liberated by the Canadians as they came ashore at Juno Beach. In the process the officer in charge of payroll realized he needed to get out - but didn't want to leave his fellow soldiers' pay cheques behind. So, he stuffed his pockets and jacket with all the cheques he could grab. As he ran from the building and was fired on the cheques stopped the bullets and he survived! You can see the memorial to the Canadian soldiers on the building. If you look at this link you can see a photo of the original house as the Canadians landed.

Our second last top was a Canadian ceremtary. It was so peaceful and beautiful and so very sad. So many people - so young! As we sat pondering the names, hometowns and ages of these soldiers Jake said "i'm very sad for everyone who faught and died in the war. We are so very lucky they did that for us". Our guide explained that UK, US and Canadian soldiers have white headstones and German soldiers have black. There are directories and grids for the cemetaries to help visitors locate loved ones. The grounds were immaculate and the flowers were beautiful. Apparently the Canadian cemetaries are among the few with flowers at the graves.

The tour was so amazing and we all learned so much. The Canadian soldiers were trying to get to Carpiquet Airfield to shut it down. It was a 20-25 km hike from the shore inland, I can't imagine walking that distance in June, carrying 100 lb of gear and being shot at all along the way. The soldiers weren't able to keep to their original timeline because of extensive German defenses and efforts to liberate every town as they passed. They took a break en route and stopped in the main square of this village below. Sadly, the Germans surprised them and over 100 Canadian soldiers were taken prisoner. Many of the soldiers were Nova Scotia Highlanders. You can see the flags and poppies.

We had hoped to see the air field but it was closed due to the National Holiday and the weather was cold and windy...We'd decided that since the subject had been rather heavy all day we'd let the kids run around the grounds of our last stop for a bit. You can see the goofys below.

Beautiful central Bayeux - our hotel is just off to the left bank of this water.

Yummy family dinner.

There was so many beautiful lanes and cobbled streets.

And of course Bayeux Cathedral - original construction from the 11th century! It was absolutely stunning. These photos were taken after a very long and cold day - so we went home to bed and decided to leave the discovery of Bayeux for the morning. Somehow the kids still had energy to jump. HA

After a wonderful sleep and more food we set out to see the Bayeux Cathedral and the Bayeux Tapestry. I wasn't able to take any photos of the tapestry but it's truly amazing. This website helps.