An Emotional Day in Normandy

Saturday, October 21, 2017:

This would be a long day trip to the land of

"The Longest Day," a journey to the D-Day landing beaches in Normandy.

While this would be my third visit to this solemn area of France, for Mark, Loren and Sandy it would be there first time.

Susie and Laurie opted to sit this one out in favor of shopping, dining and sipping some fine French grape juices in our absence.

Always an emotional and somber place to visit no matter the circumstances, it would be even more so today as for Mark and Loren, Normandy had special significance.

You see, both of their Fathers (Johnnie for Mark and Ralph for Loren) landed in the third wave of the invasion on that raw, torturous, gut-wrenching and heroic day, June 6, 1944.

Mark's Dad landed at Omaha Beach and was soon wounded while Loren's Dad came ashore farther to the west at Utah Beach. According to Mark and Loren, both of their Fathers rarely spoke about their wartime experiences but had passed on just enough information as to weave two phenomenal stories of pain, suffering and survival.

The drive would take about three and a half hours each way so we left early in the morning under the cover of darkness.

About 45 minutes into our drive it started to drizzle. Mark turned on his windshield wipers and after about two minutes of excellent work, the driver's side wiper just exploded off of our Ford nine passenger van.

We searched for an open gas station through our GPS that was both open and could help us purchase a new windshield wiper as more rain was coming today.

The first one we found was of the automated, self-serve style.

No help.

We dialed up another one but before we got to it both Mark and Loren spotted a small, lit up auto repair shop off to our left. Mark made a highly illegal u-turn and then drove through a convoluted series of parking lots to get to the auto repair shop.

It was open.

Using Mark's broken French and the the man inside's broken English, he directed Mark to the closest auto parts store but it would not open for another 45 minutes at 9:00 a.m.

Our man then asked to at least see the problem to be sure that he understood the gravity of our situation.

After a thorough inspection of our problem, he quietly re-entered his shop, got up on a chair, rummaged through some dusty boxes high up on a rack and, voilà, produced and installed the perfect replacement wiper blade for a Ford nine passenger rental van!

We asked him how much it cost and he said "It's free."

Mark gave him a huge hug at which point our man gave us a second, matching wiper blade to take with us just in case anything happened to the first one along the way.

So much for the "French people hate Americans and are thus rude to us" theory.

Windshield wiper karma.

The rest of our early morning journey was comparatively uneventful as we simply drove through some incredible, pastoral scenery along the north of France.

Our first stop would be in Colleville-sur-Mer.

We found a church
just before entering . . .

The American Cemetery and Memorial
at Omaha Beach

First we went through the
Visitor Center's
excellent exhibits

The displays and videos here gave everyone a clear sense of what heroic and tragic things transpired on this now serene location.

Incredible

We were all growing
emotional

For Mark and Loren the personal connection was obviously intense.

Both born after the end of WWII, they would not have been here today if there Fathers had not survived that day.

Over 9,000 American
soldiers did not

We went left

Omaha Beach

A great map gave us an
overview of the D-Day events

Another view of Omaha Beach

USA Flag high above the graves

Just a small section of the
American Cemetery

Men of many faiths died that day

Some remains were never
completely identified

Unfortunately, there were
too many of these markers

The D-Day Landing Memorial

Sandy and Loren inspecting the
D-Day Troop Movement map

The Great Seal of the
United States of America

Loren, Sandy and Mark
in front of the D-Day Memorial

Mark and Loren were both understandably moved. All that Sandy and I could do was hug and support them as best as possible.

We then moved on about 20 miles west to Utah Beach where Loren's Dad had disembarked.

It was about like this
for Loren's Dad Ralph

Loren, Sandy and Mark

Mark and Loren on Utah Beach

Calm today . . .

. . . but not 73 years ago

Memorial to the Merchant Marines
who piloted the troops ashore
on the famed Higgins Boats

Same statue,
different side

The Flags of the USA
and France side-by-side
at Utah Beach

A tribute to General Eisenhower

It was about 2:00 p.m. and we realized that we had not eaten today due to our early start.

Right across the Utah Beach entrance was a restaurant/bar/souvenir shop . . .

. . . Le Roosevelt it was called

Le Roosevelt was a simple fisherman's hut sheltered by the sand dunes before the start of WWII.

From 1942-44, it was used by the occupying Germans as a field office for their telephone exchange.

After D-Day, the U.S. Army's 1st Engineer special Brigade Communication Group took over the building as their headquarters.

Now Le Roosevelt still pays homage to the men who liberated France by having had veteran's of the D-Day landings who have visited over the many years write some tribute on their walls for posterity.

Great idea! 

There are many tributes
to the fallen all over Normandy

The Utah Beach Museum

We did not enter it.

The French saying thank you to
the men who liberated their country

Mark had struck up a conversation with the owner of Le Roosevelt who asked about our reasons for coming to Utah Beach.

Once he understood about Ralph and Johnnie, he insisted that Loren and Mark write a tribute on his wall to honor their Father's efforts so long ago.

They both did so at
this very spot

Two proud sons doing honor to their beloved Fathers.

So cool.

It was getting late in the day
and we needed directions to just
one more stop before our
return to Paris

We started from here
to our final stop,
 Sainte-Mère-Église

We passed through a couple
of more scenic Normandy villages
along the way

The church at Sainte-Mère-Église

Note the dummy of an American paratrooper hung up in his parachute on the church's steeple.

Facing terrible weather and heavy artillery fire, many of the paratroopers being dropped behind the German lines landed way off target on D-Day.

It represents a real American paratrooper, Private John Steele, who dangled on this steeple for over two hours.

Somehow he survived both this ordeal while fighting was raging in the square below him and the entire war itself.

In the epic, classic movie about the D-Day landings, The Longest Day, actor Red Button portrays Private Steele.

The entrance to the
700 year old church in
Sainte-Mère-Église

The church has a fine,
solid entry door

Probably not from the Home Depot or the local Leroy Mervyn for that matter.

The stained glass window

in the Sainte-Mère-Église

church that pays tribute to the

liberating paratroopers

We had had a full Normandy experience to be sure and it was now time to re-trace our steps and start another three and a half hour drive back to Paris.

Once in Paris, Mark decided to detour to give us all an unforgettable driving experience circling the roundabout at the Arc de Triomphe.

There it is!

And here is our circumnavigation

of the HUGE roundabout

A classic, orange French

Citroēn CV-2

The 2 stands for this romantic car's 2 horsepower engine.

Definitely not a muscle car.

At the Place Bastille roundabout

We made it home at 7:00 p.m., about 12 hours after we left.

Susie and Laurie were home, so after swapping stories about the day's events, we decided that we were all tired.

Knowing that we had lots of food in the apartment, we made the surprising decision to eat in, continue our detailed discussions about any and everything and stay in for once.

It turned out to be a good idea as we planned out Sunday's itinerary.

We only have two full days left in Paris before the six of us all fly home.

We plan to make the most of them!

Stay tuned . . .