Normandy Beaches

My friend Bob's brother was visiting Paris, so we had Sean and his girlfriend Amy stay with us.  They were going to Normandy for a private tour and invited us to join them.  Free tour?  What's the catch?  There's no catch.  So I got a day off work and got train tickets.

The driver was going to pick us up at the train station about 1pm.  We got there a little early, so we went into the restaurant right at the station.  This is what we saw on the front door.  It's not what I was expecting.

We grabbed a semi-average sandwich and headed off toward our first stop, which was Pointe du Hoc.  The tour guide gave us a great history of France and WWII.  It was a perspective we don't hear much in the US, including occupied France vs. free France and how the Resistance operated.

I'd never heard of Pointe du Hoc before the tour.  I was amazed.  The short story is that 225 Rangers were the first to hit the beach, had to scale a 90 foot cliff wall and take 6 guns that could shoot at Utah and Omaha Beach.  They succeeded, but only 20 survived.

Prior to the push on the morning of D-Day, the Allied Forces heavily bombed the area of Pointe du Hoc.  It had been flat prior to the bombing.  This is how it looked when the Rangers made the climb to the cannons.

There were craters 20, 30, or more feet deep.  It was amazing to see, especially the blown up bunkers.  Here is the main bunker where the Rangers made their climb and a look at the size of the cliff they faced once they hit land.

From Pointe du Hoc, we headed to Omaha Beach.  As we stood there, I tried to imagine running from the water toward oncoming fire.  I couldn't.  I'm not sure I could do it.  The way the tide was, it was close to 300 feet from the water's edge to the base of the incline.  With all of the gear on your back, the many obstacles that were on the beach, and running straight at well hidden enemies firing at you, it's amazing more people weren't killed.  With this picture, look at how small the people are at the beach near the parking lot.

Omaha was a very sobering experience.  From there, we went to the American Cemetery.  Our guide walked us around and gave us a brief history of the cemetery and then let us roam around for a while.  The grounds were beautiful.  Over 9000 are buried there.  The tombstones were amazing, and the surrounding greenery was spectacular.

There is a chapel in the middle of the graves that was beautiful.  Here is the ceiling.

The Spirit of American Youth is centered around maps showing the Allied movements in Normandy that continued throughout occupied France.

Behind this statue was an area dedicated to the missing.

Here are the kids sitting on the wall at the cemetery with the beach in the background.  For it not being a "fun" outing, they did well, learned a lot, and said they enjoyed it quite a bit.

And here are Sean and Amy.

We ended the trip at Longues-sur-Meir, which was a German gun battery containing 4 150mm guns.  Two of the guns were still in very good shape, so we got to go in and see it up close.

Here are Sean and Amy.  Even though we only got a day to spend with them, we had a blast.  They are very fun, and we're very grateful that they decided to share this day with us.  It is an experience I will never forget.

I'll finish this up with a photo taken by my wife.  I took many pictures of the tombstones at the American Cemetery.  I knew the shot I wanted to get, but just couldn't do it.  She took what I consider to be the perfect shot of the day.  She's awesome.

To everyone that has served in the military, or is currently active, I want to say Thank You.  Thank you for doing what I know I couldn't myself.

God Bless You All.

Dali Museum

We took time on Saturday to go to the Dali museum.  Dali spent a lot of time in Paris and his museum there is a collection of a number of great works of his.

Before heading there, we wanted to see where the Moulin Rouge was, which isn't too far from the museum.  It was a cool building, but the surrounding area was... interesting. 

Just across the street is a giant vent that the little guy decided he would jump up on.  He's huge!

From there, we started walking up toward the top of Montmartre.  The top of the hill used to be covered in windmills, but there are only a few left.  Here is one looking up the street we were on. 

And as we kept going, we found another one atop the Moulin de la Galette. 

And just a little further up, we found a man pushing his bike while carrying a glass bowl of fish on his head.

Eventually, we got to the Dali Museum.  It was a great museum, featuring his drawings, sculptures, glassworks, and paintings.  They were arranged in groupings according to various series that he did, including The Bible, Alice in Wonderland, and various others.  His work was amazing.

The kids enjoyed seeing some of the craziness that Dali is known for.  We headed back down the hill and had some ice cream.

Fete de la Musique

Every June 21, Paris holds a Fete de la Musique.  It's a day of free concerts all over the city.  After work, I met up with the family at one of the parks and we headed out.  As we walked through, we could already hear some music.  We swung by and listened for a bit. 

We then headed toward one of our favorite areas of the city, the Latin District, to grab some food.  On the way, there were a number of bands playing on the sidewalk, in front of stores, etc.  Rock bands, pop bands... a little of everything.  Here was a hard rock band setup outside of an upscale women's clothing store.  Seriously.

After we grabbed some wonderful gyros, we headed out for more music that included an Italian women's choir...

A jazz band that frequently took beer breaks...

and a local rock band that was very good...

From there, we walked across the street to Notre Dame.  There was a 17 member men's choir singing there.  It was beautiful to hear. 

From there, we walked to Hotel de Ville.  As we were in front of it, we heard someone playing guitar and singing, so we followed it.  The guy singing kind of sounded like Paul Simon.  It turns out he's an American living in Germany named Chris Paulson.  He was just playing with a basket for anyone wanted to give him some money.  I think we stayed there for 4 or 5 songs until he was done.  We ended up buying 2 of his CD's. 

It was great to see such diverse groups, and we barely even scratched the surface of what the city had to offer.