Perusals of a D day trip
Two days in Normandy courtesy of Brittany Ferries is a splendid investment. I had a few days left before returning to work and another of those ideas that I'd never got round to lodged itself in the forefront of my mind. Do a trip to the Normandy beaches and learn a little bit more about the sacrifice made on D day to save Europe. I was pleasantly surprised by the Brittany prices, £65 return for a voyage that takes a good 5 and three quarter hours each way, and the 8.15am ferry gets you there by mid afternoon. If you want to take your car it costs a lot more and I decided against it. It would be a lot more worth it if you were going to France for an appreciable time, perhaps a month, but certainly not for two days. I hired a car from Enterprise cars in Caen for about €95 all included, although I paid an extra €10 for tyres and windscreen protection.
Brittany Ferries chucks you into Normandy at the port of Oustreheim just upriver from Caen, and there you catch a bus for €1.45 into town, a half hour or so journey. Beats a taxi any day. The bus deposits you in the 'centre de ville' or at 'la gare' or the rail station, whichever you prefer. Well, as the car hire place was next to 'la gare' there was no question.
Let it be said that a conversation outside a loo led to the beginning of a beautiful relationship! Now normally if I told you I indulged in a profitable conversation outside a toilet you would give me a funny look, but this was different. Before the car hire I thought a loo stop in order and duly found a queue in la gare. Now Caen is a fair size rail station but there only appeared to be two cubicles and one was out of order. This was not looking good! In front of me an American was thanking a French couple for talking to him. They appeared to have given him priority in the queue. Then they engaged me in conversation and were trying to help me get my turn as it were. We practiced our French and English on one another then after the loo break they engaged me in further conversation, in the end buying me a coffee and giving me all their contact details. Is this the ongoing gratitude the people of Normandy feel for their liberators 70 years ago?
So I landed on my feet on the first day despite the odd hiccup. I had booked a car with Enterprise Cars the previous night and it had been a slightly tortuous phone conversation as firstly I could not hear the girl very clearly on the other end of the phone but also she had a foreign accent which whatever one may say can cause communication problems. In the end we got there, and I was happy I had my car sorted although not hearing from Enterprise by email or text before collecting the car.
On reaching the car hire office opposite la gare the nice French assistant looked for my reservation in 'Caen' on the computer without success. It suddenly dawned on me that the lady the previous night may have booked me a car somewhere else and I was right! She had indeed managed to book me a car in Cannes in the south of France rather than Caen in northern France. So much for my French pronunciation. Slightly problematic as Cannes was a long way to go. But Enterprise saved the day! Amazingly a gentleman had just returned a car to the office which was the one for me!
I still had to finalise my accommodation as being a last minute dot com. Ikind of guy. I travel to new destinations on the spur of the moment which makes life a bit more spontaneous but sometimes you can run into little glitches.
I still had not heard from the B and B I had tried to book the previous day. I fancied a bit of rural luxury in some classic French B and B stuffed with freshly made croissants, jugs of coffee, sheep and cows floating outside in the morning mists and obscenely soft and enveloping beds. In the end I sat in the cafe next door to the car hire centre and booked a room in a hotel with good reviews just down the road. I had already checked it out on the Internet in the UK. And that was a good decision as it was a great hotel at £57 for two nights, excellent value even though I had to share a shower although had my own sink and toilet. The room was clean, the bed comfortable, and the location quiet although right in the city centre. It all looked freshly decorated and overall was excellent value. It would be churlish to criticise but although the shower was modern and spotlessly clean anybody with a circumference more than a stick insect would be bumping and banging against the sides and door, even the roof, especially when drying oneself. The danger here would be sending the door crashing open against the wall at an unearthly hour. But ten out of ten overall for value and comfort, well done Hotel de La Paix. Many recommendations!
The icing on the cake was the evening. It had been a poor day weather wise, grey and a little wet, but the evening was amenable to a stroll. You literally fall out of the hotel into the city centre where the usual large church sits at the centre of the main intersections, and to the north the massive ramparts of William the Conquerors castle fortification. It is all ramparts, gates and towers but the scale is worthy of a big city, dominating the town centre like an elderly matriarch. I wandered the site checking the helpful signage relaying the history. It's a good spot for snaps as it occupies the high ground giving you a good city panorama.
Later I sauntered through the old town as you do looking for a good photo, and was just about to snap a street-shot when a young guy hailed me. He suggested I take the photo of a particular street to get the right light effects. He seemed friendly enough and then I asked him about restaurants and he invited me to join him and his friends as they were heading for a good one. An unusual invite but soon I was chatting to a group of four, two guys and two girls as we headed towards gastronomic heaven in Caen. What a nice way to end the day, the guy who had first engaged me taught children to swim for a living and was also a surfing dude, one of the girls had just returned from Sardinia, the other girl was apparently on holiday and I'm not quite sure what the other guy was doing as there was a certain amount of mirth around the discussion. I felt honoured to be invited like this by total strangers. This would just not happen in the UK!
We found the restaurant, The 'Verandah,' but unfortunately it was booked up so we had to make do with an ordinary pizzeria type place. No worries, it was just great to have some friendly company. Afterwards they invited me for a drink and we hit a bar filled with a fairly, but not very young clientele. Whilst there I was accosted by quite a merry Frenchman who asked me if I was German and then proceeded to tell me about his great experience in London on the music scene.
As I only had the car for two days my rough plan was to take the car down the coast for the first day as far as possible to cover as many of the D day beaches as I could. The guys I dined with recommended that I head up to the coast, don't worry so much about the eastern end of the beaches but get to Arromanche and then perhaps to Omaha Beach, this is the interesting area.
Parking in the middle of Caen is free overnight by the way and there are numerous spaces. I deposited my car fairly late both nights I was there and you are ok until 9.30am in the morning when you have to start paying on the meter. So that prompts a not too late getaway. That first morning I headed for Sword Beach at Luc sur Mere and then basically headed west with the odd retracing of my steps. I stopped off at Douvres La Deliverande, a very pleasant small town/large village for a coffee and croissant breakfast. The car park was free in the centre. This is one thing I am warming to in France, it is easy to park in built up areas and there are plenty of parking spaces, although admittedly it's not Paris.
A car in this area gives you great flexibility and you can just fly around from one monument, battlefield or museum to another so easily as everything is very accessible on good roads and relatively well signposted. I would very much recommend it. The weather was great and you can combine a bucket and spade holiday in a lovely area with oodles of history to lap up.
Berniere sur mere, a little further west from Luc sir Mere was the scene of one of the most iconic images of D day where the Canadians came to shore at Juno Beach and experienced heavy losses. The house that stood on that shore (La Maison des Canadiens, Place du 6 Juin) was in those photographic images and is now given over as a memorial to the 6th June 1944. A guy in the garden with a glass of wine and a book invited me in and took me on a quick tour. He was like a caretaker and guardian of the site and was full of stories about the history of the house and what happened on D day. There is a bit of a museum in there with some mementoes, the odd soldiers uniform and other artefacts.
He pointed along the shore to the German battery which I had missed. They designed the batteries to strafe along the shore rather than straight out to sea, so that protection was given by the concrete on the seaward side against incoming fire. This would give the Germans a wide tranche of incoming soldiers to aim at. The guy told me about a German sniper who was caught by a Canadian and offered him money to save his life. This Canadian in his old age had come back to France years later and visited the house, but when asked what happened to the sniper in the end did not answer. Snipers are high value captives or targets so you can imagine what happened to him.
This area now is a prime seaside spot, and of course it was before the Germans came when rich Parisians came and built their villas and gardens on the coast. The coast is now given over to tourism and the beaches are great, beautiful golden sand and a tide that goes way out. A nice place to come apart from the history. In Courseulles-sur-mer is the Canadian museum for Juno Beach, well worth a visit. Courseulles is a pretty little port with the usual smattering of bars, cafes and restaurants, and also has an attractive marina. Beware however the swing bridges which can open at the most inconvenient time to allow the marine traffic through. This does not stop the through motor traffic, but if you are hot footing around between the town and the museum on foot may face a bit of a delay. The very moment I decided to leave my cafe after lunch and cross the bridge virtually the whole marina decided to go out to sea to fish or whatever, and we had to wait for a long line of boats to leave.
The Juno Beach museum (7 euro entry) is just over the bridge from the town centre, dedicated to the Canadian contribution to the Normandy landings. It is a modern building looking out to sea which you can't miss, standing in an open space which is sprinkled with pieces of old military hardware, characteristic of this area. The museum trail starts with a short film, then you head into the museum proper, which is a much more comprehensive coverage of Canadian history of the time leading up to the war, the large scale immigration of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, the history of the Great Depression and how it affected Canada. In fact a full social and economic history followed by preparation for war. Plenty of time is needed to do the museum justice, I would say you need a good couple of hours. The museum trail finishes with another film.
The Canadians on landing in Normandy were given the job of sweeping up the coast of France East/North East to clear the channel ports, and they ended up liberating the Netherlands which was quite a feat given the watery nature of terrain. There is consequently quite a bond between Canada and the Netherlands and a sizeable group of Dutch have emigrated to Canada anyway. It was near this spot where the Canadians landed after the Normandy invasion that General De Gaulle set foot on French soil again. Also both the King and Winston Churchill alighted here after D Day.
Next stop Arromanche! Up to now the coastline is pretty flat and uneventful, but as you leave Courseulle and head west the roads wind through more undulating territory, until, high above the town of Arromanche, and just before you enter it, you get to a terrific viewing point looking out over the cliffs and out to sea to what remains of the famous Mulberry Harbour. I counted 35 concrete blocks of different size out to sea arranged in a huge semi circle around the harbour. This harbour was called Winston Harbour as the then prime minister had a big say in the idea. Because the allies did not have a captured deep water port at the time they built this massive harbour, constructed in sections in the UK to act as an artificial deep water port for bringing in men, vehicles, supplies and munitions on a massive scale, using artificial roadways from the harbour to shore. A massive storm soon after D day destroyed the harbour at Omaha Beach for the Americans, but the Arromanche harbour survived the storm and played a huge role in the supply operation.
Today there is a car park here with a viewing platform to survey the harbour. There is also a section of the old artificial harbour roadway displayed, as well as a panoramic 360 degree D day 'experience' with associated shop. You can wander to the cliff edge and along the coastal path to admire the views as well, and there was a welcome mobile snack bar by the car park selling ice creams. Unsurprisingly it was a busy spot.
Down in the town a little further on there is a museum right on the sea front with items of military hardware displayed outside and around the seafront square which is also a car park. The beach is very fine, with bits of the old Mulberry harbour embedded in the nearshore as a reminder, the town being an attractive place for a sea side holiday in its own right. It was busy, obviously a popular tourist spot.
I mustn't forget Longue sur mer where the Germans had a set of massive guns arrayed in a line on a grassy stretch a little distance from the coastline and pointing out to sea. There four huge emplacements, each one having a long, meaty, bronze coloured barrel protruding from a huge protective shell behind which you can see the remains of the gun furniture. A large protective dome of concrete covers each emplacement, and it is possible to walk onto the top of them as I did. There is a car park there and also an old Russian cannon is displayed supposed to have been used by the Germans in WW2. The battery is located off the main route near a sleepy little French hamlet.
Pushing on a fair bit further west, eventually you get to Omaha, where the Americans took severe punishment at D Day. By the time I got here it was around 9pm, too late for the American cemetery which is supposed to be a very worthwhile visit but closes at 6pm. I shall hopefully return another time. There is also a museum nearby. However you can easily get to the beach even at 9pm at night, and as dusk approached I was able to park up on the sea front and witness the memorial to Omaha where 2400 American casualties were suffered on D Day. Here the flags of the allies are lined up along the beach atop of their white poles, and a very modern memorial of silver steel shapes has been constructed on the beach front. Here you can walk along the promenade and ponder the terrible price that was paid on this lovely summer beach 70 years ago. Again the area is now devoted to tourism.
I took the dual carriageway home to Caen that evening, a journey which seemed to take quite a while indicating I had gone a fair way along the coast. In fact the next day when I returned the car I had done nearly 200km. It was a smooth drive back to Caen but unfortunately not being use to the French road signs I took the wrong turn as I left the motorway and had to do a big circuit to come back into Caen. Never mind! My sense of direction worked fairly well.
Next day I return to England so mustn't strike out too far. I decide to see the eastern beach i.e. Sword beach and do a museum, in this case the German bunker at Oustreheim (Le Grand Bunker Musee du Mur de L'Atlantique, entry 7.50 euro) looks a good bet, having been a rather obstreperous barrier to the British advance for a while and promising to be an interesting collection of artefacts. So off I went to Oustreheim, then up the coast to check the memorials at Hermanville sur mere, bang in the middle of Sword beach, which was the responsibility of British forces. It was a baking hot day, one to slap on the sun tan lotion, the beach was filling up but I had to
The British and commonwealth military cemetery is here in this little resort. Just off the main road along the coast as you head west, you take a left turn and head a little way inland to a lovely village centre with an old church on the right. I had to ask the way as I took one or two wrong turns and ended up in residential cul de sacs! Anyway once you get to the village centre you take a left to get to the cemetery which lies in a peaceful and well tended plot away from the settlement. It has about 1000 graves and it is well worth spending time walking past the gravestones and reading the messages. Extremely worthwhile to ponder the sacrifice of so many in such a lovely spot. Also in the village and on the main road is a well which was used to refresh the invasion forces.
Headed in to Ousterheim a bit later and spent about an hour at the Atlantic bunker museum (Le Grande Bunker du Mur de L'Atlantique, entry 7.50 euro). This was a real German stronghold on D day, a centre of communications for the Germans hidden amongst the surrounding residential property. There is so much to see here, with various items of military hardware outside and a treasure trove of World War Two artefacts inside. To be honest, you need more than and hour to do it justice. Some of the original machinery, fittings and signage is still here, and there are some tremendous life size models of how it used to look, such as the bunk room, communications centres, armaments store and surgical areas. You see how amazingly well equipped such an important bunker was with medical supplies, etc. The bigger bunkers had the capacity to carry out surgical operations. There are several floors, and you gradually make your way to the top where a range finder room has large slits looking out over the harbour, beach, estuary and present ferry terminal.
Just about got the car back to Caen in time and rushed for the bus which leaves from outside the front of the station. But there was plenty of time at the ferry terminal for a sandwich and a beer before embarking for Blighty. Being a superb afternoon it was eminently sensible to sunbathe on the upper deck as we admired the receding French coast with its fine sandy beaches. Entertainment was provided on the ferry with live televising of the Andy Murray/Rodger Federer tennis semi final although the result was disappointing unless you are one of the 'Feds' who believe that Roger is the perfect God given tennis player who epitomises the beautiful game.
Portsmouth is an impressive entrance to the UK, and going out or coming back a great photo opportunity with the Isle of White and the indented Solent harbour with great views of the Portsmouth waterfront, the naval dockyards and what's left of Britain's Royal Navy. All part of the holiday!
