Left my E46.10 Ibis budget hotel at 0930 and bought a ticket for the Bayeux tapestry and Bataille de Normandie Musee. Huge group in front of me to see the tapestry longest queue to collect the audio players so opted out of this and jumped straight in. Tapestry is amazingly well preserved and well worth the visit.
Rode out to the battlefield museum.
Which had a lot of original artifacts and photos from the time along with weaponry and vehicles.
Off on the bike again to Caen to lay my eyes on the burial place of perhaps the most famous William of all. The Conqueror.
Then on to see the Pegasus memorial.
Shortly after midnight on the day before D Day, three Hamilcar gliders landed next to the Pegasus bridge over the Caen canal. This bridge was chosen as a breakout point for the expansion of the bridgehead to be formed on D Day.
The original swing bridge is now in the grounds of a museum.
Such was the expertise of the glider pilots that they were to land on the wire right next to the bridge and were able to engage the defenders almost immediately.
The first invasion casualty occurred whilst storming across the bridge. Next to the bridge is a cafe owned by the Gondree family. The owner came out to see what all the noise was and was told to take shelter in the cellar. The cafe is still in the hands of the descendants of the Gondree family. A 'coffee noisette' is 2 Euros.
Heading away from the canal, the countryside is completely flat and open.
With small towns flanking the road.
Passing by Sword beach and Juno Beach, parts of the temporary 'mulberry' harbour are still visible at Arromanches.
Many German bunker and gun emplacements are still in place.
I had hoped to get to Omaha beach but the combination of a road closure and the advancement of the day made this not possible.
Rode out to the battlefield museum.
Off on the bike again to Caen to lay my eyes on the burial place of perhaps the most famous William of all. The Conqueror.
Shortly after midnight on the day before D Day, three Hamilcar gliders landed next to the Pegasus bridge over the Caen canal. This bridge was chosen as a breakout point for the expansion of the bridgehead to be formed on D Day.
Such was the expertise of the glider pilots that they were to land on the wire right next to the bridge and were able to engage the defenders almost immediately.
No comments:
Post a Comment