Normandy Days 1-2

The first order of business when we arrived at our hotel in Bayeux was for me to take a bath. I smelled like a mixture of spilled milk and circulated airplane air. I've never been to France before, but Mommy says this is the biggest French bathroom that she has ever seen! Mme Florence (the B&B owner) was a great host and even had a pack-n-play and changing pad ready for me. You can see more of the hotel here on her website.

We first visited the town of Sainte-Mere-Eglise which hosts the museum dedicated to the paratroopers that landed in the Normandy region before the D-Day invasions. One paratrooper did make a famous landing on the top of this church, but now a dummy has taken his place. The monument of the cross in front of the church is an ancient Roman landmark, and the church dates to the 11th century.

Our next stop was in the town of Grandcamp-Maisy where we visited the Ranger Museum. It tells the story of the American Rangers who had to conquer the Pointe-Du-Hoc on June 6, 1944. It is a quaint beachfront town and we enjoyed stopping here.

Next, we drove to the actual site of Pointe-Du-Hoc. After seeing this place in person, it is hard to imagine the job that the Rangers on this mission had to complete. They had to land their boats in rough waters, scale the cliffs, and then destory the German arms located at the top. Some of these weapons were massive and could travel over 20,000 meters out into the sea! This picture is not from Mommy's camera, but the aerial view shows all of the craters that developed from continued bombing by the allied forces.

Posing in front of one of the German guns that was strategically built partially in the ground; this one was never completed before it was destroyed by American forces.