The next visitors were the Cousin (her second visit to see us!) and her Husband. Funny…you go to France, announce that you have extra space, and people come to see you! Not that we mind. It is so good to have people that we care about come to share these adventures with us. We revisited many places that we enjoy taking people to: La Roche aux Fees, Corseul, Fougeres, Mont St Michel (I’ve now been there four times!), but the big thing that we did was spend a few days up in Normandy. We made a quick tour (one night) through Bayeux on our first trip here. This time we were going to focus most of our time on WWII sites (with a bit of my beloved Middle Ages/Medieval, of course). The Husband of the Cousin studied history in college and has a particular interest in WWII – this gave us an excellent excuse to organize an itinerary around some of these places.
It’s only about a two hour drive from Dinan to Caen, which was our first stop. I firmly believe in starting at your furthest point and working your way back. Not sure why I feel that way, but I do. Caen is a major city in the Normandy region, both in ancient times and today. It was the home of William the Conqueror (Duke of Normandy, King of England, builder of the Tower of London, first monarch crowned in Westminster Abbey, to name a few of his accomplishments), who is buried in the Abbaye aux Hommes in Caen. It was also the sight of a major battle, the Battle of Caen, during the early days of the D-Day invasion. The city was massively damaged during the battle in July 1944, but the Allied forces eventually won the city’s freedom. A fabulous museum/memorial was constructed in Caen as a reminder of the fragility of peace. If you find yourself with the ability to go to the Memorial de Caen ( https://www.memorial-caen.fr/ ), please make certain that you do. The explanation of WWI, and how the populace of Germany was susceptible to Hitler’s influence and how WWII came to be was the best I had ever seen. So much was there that we had never heard of! I think getting the perspective of a place so directly affected by the wars was invaluable.
Seriously, this place is worth going out of your way to visit. But plan to spend a lot of time there! We took nearly 5 hours to go through it, and we rushed through the last bit! I had hoped to get to Abbaye aux Hommes before they closed for the evening, but no such luck. Caen would be nice to spend a few days in sometime – I’ll add it to the list!
We were staying in Bayeux for the next two nights at the same hotel we were at on our last visit – Hotel Reine Mathilde ( http://www.hotel-bayeux-reinemathilde.fr/ ). They were kind enough to give us a suite! That king size bed was heaven after all these months in a double bed. The Cousin and her Husband were in the room right across the hall. And the water pressure was heavenly…one thing that Dinan and its ancient pipes lacks.
I’ll get into more about Bayeux in a bit. For now I’m going to move onto Saturday and our continued exploration of some of the WWII sites in the area. After an excellent breakfast(oh Lordy, smoked streaky bacon American style! Crispy! I think I’m a bit homesick…), we went out to the coast (which is only about 15 minutes outside of Bayeux) to Longues sur Mer which is the location of one of the few intact German gun placements at the Channel Sea. Longues sur Mer, on French road signs? Long s/mer. Turns out that many of the town names are so long that they have to abbreviate them! Have I told you that the surest way to annoying a French person is to call that body of water the English Channel? It is the Channel Sea. Back to the original subject…big, nasty looking guns. These are at the far north section of Omaha Beach, just south of Gold Beach. My official photographer failed me though – he did not get a photo of the gun that obviously sustained a direct hit from the battleships in the water. What does he get paid for????? Oh right, he doesn’t. Whatever.
Once we were done wandering amid the big guns, it was time to head a little further south down the coast to the Normandy American Cemetery. This is the one that you hear about, and see the rows upon rows of white crosses (and Stars of David). The previous time that we were here, it was late in the day on a gorgeous spring day. We were too late to see the the visitor’s center that time. I am so grateful that we had this second opportunity and were able to go through the displays. This talked mostly about the various people buried in the cemetery in addition to stories about D-Day itself. Once we were done inside we made our way to the cemetery.
It is hard to wrap your brain around what happened here. It’s incredibly peaceful and beautiful. What these people went through is unimaginable.
The following photos were taken on our first trip (May 2017):
We did not continue down the coast to Point du Hoc where a contingent of US Army Ranger battalion scaled a 100 foot cliff to remove the German defenses that were firing upon the ships and soldiers. I think we had reached the saturation point. So, on to cheerier subjects!
Bayeux. I love that town! Let’s start with a few photos🤩
Fortunately, Bayeux was not damaged in the war. There isn’t much that still exists from the time of William the Conqueror…mostly the cathedral and the Bayeux Tapestry. The Tapestry is incredible. Amazing. Stupendous. No photos though. The way it is set up to view is rather clever. Each person has an audio guide which takes you through each panel – this makes it easy to understand what you are seeing and keeps the people flowing through. What is the Bayeux Tapestry? So glad you asked. After William was crowned King of England in 1066, his brother Odo (the bishop of Bayeux) had a very long panel made of needlework that documented William’s journey to becoming King. If you really want details on that bit, it’s fascinating history that I will refrain from explaining too much of here. I can hear all the eyes rolling. Back to the Tapestry. Once completed (likely by a group of nuns) it hung in the cathedral for about two weeks each year. It miraculously survived nearly 1,000 years! Stunning.
And then there is my favorite building. One of my favorite churches of all time…the Bayeux Cathedral. There are still parts of the original cathedral (consecrated 1077) within the current structure. Most of the existing building dates from the 15th century. It is graceful. It is humbling. It’s nearly perfect in the way that Notre Dame de Paris is nearly perfect.
Underneath the church is a small crypt, likely part of the earliest church on the site (could be as old as 6th century). At some point it was filled with rubble, so when it was rediscovered in the 1800s it was in a remarkable state of preservation.
There is a wonderful light show inside the cathedral during the Christmas season. It tells the story of the Bayeux Tapestry with images and lights, but uses computers to create the images and color. It’s amazing! We were fortunate enough to be there the first weekend that it was performed.
What a spectacular opportunity that was! These pictures don’t even begin to capture the magic.
On our final day with the Cousin and her Husband, we drove them from Bayeux to the train station in Rennes with a quick stop in St James (along the A84). Until I was planning this trip I did not realize that there are American cemeteries all over Europe. It makes sense, I just hadn’t thought about it. There is one in Brittany – quite a bit smaller than the one in Normandy however (gratefully?).
It was a wonderful (and educational!) visit with the Cousin and her Husband. And it is difficult to believe that it is time to pack and make the Grand Migration. This time: stateside! I hope to get out this weekend and get some photos of the amazing Christmas lights that are up here in Dinan. It is gorgeous!!