When we plan these trips we always look for a central place to stay and day trip out from. This gives us a place to set up ‘household’ for a while and provides flexibility in our schedule to flex to how we feel and conditions. The town of Audrieu is serving as our central point on this trip and when the weather gods blessed us with a clear day we pulled the day along the beach card. The beaches however are all about D-Day.
Our first stop was at Pointe du Hoc, a promontory located between Utah and Omaha beaches. From such a point the German Army would have a great view of any invasion force thus making it an early target of the D-Day efforts. A US Army Ranger Assault Group was given this unfortunate but ultimately successful task.
Next we moved to Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer for a walk on just north of Omaha Beach and the location of one of the two temporary harbors built during the invasion (more on this later). This particular section of the beach was quieter than other sections but still gave you a good feel of the beach situation. We timed it to be near low tide and you could see how wide the beaches in Normandy could get.
The Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in Colleville-sur-Mer was our next stop where 9000+ Americans are buried. A sad and moving place it gives a great visual reminder of the sacrifice made something not so easy with number on a page.
Our final stop was in Arromanches-les-Bains which is at the center of Gold Beach and the location of one of the other temporary harbor built during the D-Day invasion. Rather than wait for the capture of a port city it was decided to build these harbors (called Mulberry Harbors) so supplies, etc could get to the invading forces quickly. The harbor at Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer was damaged during a storm within a month of D-Day and put out of comission. The Arromanches harbor ran for six months when permanent ports had been secured. Some of the breakwaters and pontoon bridge floats are still visible today. We also got a good demonstration of how quick the tides rise around Normandy, when we arrived we were able to walk up to a breakwater and some of the pontoons. We noticed though the wave were coming higher on the beach very visibly and had to keep an eye on the waves. Within 20 minutes the breakwater was no longer accessible and within an hour most of the pontoons were under water. Quite the change.
The Garmin continues its job of moving us around with great directions but its choice of roads on this trip continues to be down the odd back road. If it was not for the system I would think we were getting lost. This time though we had a beautiful sunset to accompany our drive thru scenic French towns and countryside. Some cows vaches took quite an interest in us tourists when we pulled over to enjoy the scenery.
There are a few more photo under The Beach Day tab on the upper menu.
Hi Helena and James!
