Day 11: Normandy

Another early morning and we couldn't find a cafe open to eat breakfast in :-(. So when our ride for the Normandy tour showed up, we left hungry.  Luckily, there was a planned stop about halfway to Normandy for breakfast that we didn't know about.

Normandy is about 200 miles from Paris, so we had a long day of riding in store for us.  

Our first stop was at Pointe du Hoc.  This was an area that was just cliffs above the ocean.  The Nazis had bunkers and guns here to protect the beaches.  The Rangers had to take out these defenses.  There were a couple of bunkers that had been left to view and plenty of bomb craters.

Our group then drove to Omaha beach.  It was amazing walking on the beach that the soldiers needed to take in order for the while operation to work.  In my mind I kept playing the opening scene from "Saving Private Ryan".   

Our next stop was the American Cemetary in Normandy.  Another solmon visit.  

Our next stop was at Arromanches, also known as Gold Beach.  This beach held the man made port that was used to allow the allies to bring in the rest of the troops to retake Euope from the Germans.  My grandfather's infantry group was brought through this port.  Parts of the port are still visible.  We also had lunch in this little village.  

Our last stop was at Caen-Normandy Memorial Centre which was a museum that had exhibits that focused mostly on the D-day invasion but had exhibits about WW II.

Another 200 miles back to Paris and another full day of touring done.