The City of Caen and the D-day beaches of Normandy

We paid a visit to the lovely city of Caen in Normandy as part of a trip to see the D-day beaches at Normandy.  Caen is only 2.5 hours drive from Paris, through the Seine and Eure river regions of north central France.  The Orne river flows through Caen as shown below.  William the Conqueror made Caen his home and home base, he built an abbey there and is buried in the abbey.

We started our visit at the Caen Memorial museum, which tells the long and difficult story of World War II and France's part in it.  The museum is thorough in its history, frank about the Vichy government and the horrors of WW2.  The city built this museum at the behest of its mayor, who lived through WW2, and wanted it set on the current site, which held the bunker for the command post of General Richter, commander of the German army in Normandy.  It also is a beautiful museum.  The photo of the entrance contains a quote:  Sadness bruised me; brotherhood lift me up; from my wounds has flowed the river of freedom.

We then went walking in Caen proper to see the sites.  There is an old castle in the city, inside of which is a large area that includes the local art museum and other buildings.

Château Caen, built by William the Conqueror

Museum of Art, Caen

Across the street is this lovely Gothic church of St. Peter, and a building in the old wood style that was common until World War II when Caen was nearly destroyed.

Nearby is the city hall, part of which is the abbey for monks built by William the Conqueror and the location of his tomb.

Caen city hall

William's abbey

Two guys dress for Carnival

Student Carnival Parade 

As it turned out, it was also Carnival day for students and easily half of them were dressed in costume, some elaborate, some creative, some mundane.  (The university in Caen is quite large).  They were mostly drinking to excess, and the local police were out in droves, though very tolerant!  Near the city hall the students had a parade.  We guessed about five thousand young people were there, some of whom we talked with, and while they were a bit under the bottle, they were very sweet.

We walked off to our hotel and discovered the race track of Caen known as the Hippodrome Caen (the Normandy region has a history of horse racing).  We also had dinner in Caen at a very lovely little restaurant called La Petite Marmite.  Chuck thought it was the best meal he's had in France!

Race Track in Caen

A tour of the D-day landing area

The second day we took a guided tour of the D-day landing beaches near Caen and also visited the American Cemetery where over 9,000 American soldiers who died during the invasion are buried (they are other cemeteries for British, Canadian, French and the many other countries' soldiers.   Our guide was a local woman who was born well after WW2, but she said that for the people of the area, the remembrance continues as families have memories of how hard the dark years were and the many who died before, during and after the liberation invasion.  This visit was not for the most part a pleasant one, but rather one at which to learn and remember.

One of these sites we saw is now a farming field, but the first, at Point Du Hoc (near Utah beach) has been left as it was after the invasion with bombed out gunneries and huge craters in the ground.  225 specially trained rangers aimed to take this point; only 90 made it as the others were shot down in the landing.  The 90 who got there found that the big guns were not on the point but had been temporarily moved inland.  

We also visited Omaha beach where another pair of monuments are placed.

Another stop took us to this spot where a full bunker is still visible as are a lovely farmer's canola field:

Finally at Arromaches we saw an engineering marvel.  Because the Allies needed a harbor (they moved 156,000 men and 20, 000 vehicles onto the beaches in 12 hours) and didn't have one, they made an artificial one, the remains of which can be seen in the photo below.   The Allies brought 50 or more large cement caissons (hollow inside) and sunk them to form the harbor; they also scuttled some ships to fill in the gaps.  Also visible is a view down the beach.

 Visiting the American cemetery was even more sobering than the other sites, where rows of crosses and some Stars of David go on for acres.  There is also a monument to the spirit of American youth at one end of the cemetery.

This visit is evidence of the great sacrifice of many people, both soldiers and civilians, as well as how tragic wars are.

On our way back to Caen, we were able to see more of the lovely countryside of northern Normandy, shown below as well as the castle below in the village of Creully.