Oh My Word!: Arromanches

After spending Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday running around Paris and Versailles at full speed John and I were very very thankful for a couple of days at a slower pace. We had scheduled to rent a car Thursday morning in Paris and, after John turned a 10 minute walk to the rental place into a walk, subway ride, more walking, and then a subway ride BACK to where we started, we were on our way to Arromanches and the D-Day beaches. (I have been told that I am always to be in charge of map handling now. Probably a good choice.)

The drive to Arromanches was so beautiful, just like every drive that we have taken in France. Amazingly, as soon as you leave Paris, it turns to farmland. Beautiful, old farms with beautiful, fat, black and white cows and golden hay bales. I am always shocked at how different France is from one region to the next and this was veeery different from the palm trees and beaches of the South of France.

Arromanches is a tiny town that served as the Ground Zero during the D-Day landings. Now, it is a very touristy little place that I really wouldn't mind living in... for a few months a year... before it got really cold in the winter. It's just too cute. John and I hiked up to the cliffs the American troops came up, went back down, drove to the German bunkers, and then went to the American Cemetery and Museum. We really didn't have as much time as we would have liked but we had to head off to our next destination. Really, the whole area is just so lovely that it is hard to remember what happened there not so long ago.

A view down the main street in Arromanches.

We walked to the farthest cliff you can see. Fantastic.

The leftovers from the man-made bridge are very visible still.

See? It's just gorgeous.

Some of the best weather that we had on this trip. It didn't last.

German gun bunkers. There are 4 of these and each one still has an intact gun. They were part of Hitler's Atlantic Wall defense and could shoot 12 miles into the sea accurately.