Normandy/Normandie/Normandía - Day 2

Enjoying my French Breakfast

Day two was our day of failed transportation. Originally, the plan had been to try and fit in the American Cemetary/Omaha Beach, Arromanche (which has a museum and is new Juno Beach, I think), and Pegasus Bridge. Well, thanks to BusVerts only running two routes per day, we only made it to the American Cemetary and Omaha Beach, and that was with a taxi ride.

Not that only doing Omaha/the American stuff was a bad thing, because we spent about 3 hours there anyway. We started with the museum, which tells both the general story of planning and execution of various aspects of the Normandy landings, but also highlighted some specific stories of men who are buried there (aka a giant weep-fest). The most striking part, however, was the cemetery itself. Basically, its this lush, landscaped green field with white crosses perfectly in rows as far as the eye can see. The visual/spatial arrangement of the crosses, even though its just in rows and columns, is impressive because from whatever angle you look at it from, they all look to be in correspondence with each other. There is also a chapel, which has a mosaic on the ceiling that depicts Columbia, or possibly Lady Liberty sending her boys off and the Marianne (female embodiment of France) comforting them/taking care of them in death.

Comrade Stalin is taking a photo of you

My favorite thing about the Battle in Normandy - Americans baffled by les bocages - giant hedges. Unfortunately, I did not get to see any in real life while I was there.
Dunno if that wooden post is important. I'd like to think so.

The mosaic in the chapel

Seems weird to smile in front of the cemetery sign. Oh well.

So, originally we had thought there'd be enough time to catch a Bus Verts back to Bayeux and then to Caen, and then onto Arromanches. Well, we did catch the bus to Bayeux, and there was a bus from Caen to Arromanches, but no bus to get us between Bayeux and Caen in time. So, we ended up eating lunch at this adorable cafe that said "Welcome to our liberators" on the door. Tartes Trois Fromage, cup of coffee, and Tarte Normande warmed me up since it had been raining like no other.


Back in Caen, we called it a day, eating leftovers for dinner and watching A Very Potter Musical, after we spent the day talking about a) Harry Potter and b) that new kid on Glee. It was a serendipitous event.

EDIT: Another thought I came up with that I think is pertinent to share.

From my Facebook: Sam and I agreed that its nice they have a German flag up there. We debated the politics of historical remembrance of WWII at each memorial. There was German family in the American Cemetery, and we wondered how they felt about the characterization of the war. We imagine some interpretations have now softened because of the advent of the EU and French-German cooperation. I think it's perfectly appropriate to have a German flag at the memorial to recognize that ordinary Germans (not dehumanized and lumped as Nazis/embodiments of evil) died there, too.