We have driven across France towards the Normandy coast. Huddled beneath huge pine trees in the Bayeux Municipal Campground. The wind and rain are fierce tonight, but we are sheltered by the trees (unless a branch comes down! Annie and the kids visited the Tapestry yesterday afternoon. We marketed it to them as the biggest comic strip in the world. But despite some hesitancy they all enjoyed it, particularly the audio commentary: Joseph even went through three times, and Patrick picked up another gold medal.
The main reason for our visit to the region is to trace the Normandy landing in 1944. We drove up to Arromanches-les-Bains next to Gold Beach. Outside the museum there we noticed a group of old soldiers dressed in blazers and medals, and we started a conversation with one of them. He was a British vet who landed on the beach with a group of tanks and armoured vehicles. Told Jospeh that when he found out where they were going he had “two changes of underwear”. He and his brother had served in North Africa and were among the first onto the beach here. Both survived and his brother emmigrated to NZ after the war where he had a shop in Rotorua! Another old soldier told of 35 men in his landing craft, 13 of whom survived the day: He was here to look for a friends grave. Both men had been 18 or 19 at the time.
We also visited Omaha beach where Ellen and Patrick build a large circular sandcastle, and the German gun emplacements at Longues-sur-Mer which were part of the Atlantic Wall. Even after 65 years this is an eerie, windswept place, that feels as if the soldiers have only just departed.
-Brian
