Onwards to Omaha – Wednesday, March 11, 2009
After waking to a discovering the fact I must have had a nosebleed in my sleep, I quickly made my way to Gare St. Lazare. Today I would be traveling to Bayeux and Omaha Beach via Caen with SNCF. After grabbing some breakfast and accidentally boarding the train that just came from Caen (I wondered why it was dark and empty), I made my way to the correct platform and settled into my seat for the next few hours. There was a pretty decent load on the train, and I simply passed the time looking out the window occasionally while reading a book I had received on the D-Day invasions. With the exception that the conductor never checked tickets (despite walking through the car multiple times), the ride was pretty nothing out of the ordinary. The train arrived in Caen where my connecting TER (regional) train was waiting opposite of the platform. From here it was a quick 15 minute ride before I got off in Bayeux (I recorded the view from my window
here, if your interested).
Upon arrival in Bayeux, I had to first get oriented. All I pretty much knew was that the train station was on the edge of town and I needed to get to the center. Luckily, it was pretty straight forward, so I made my way to the tourist information center. I finally had the staff explain the bus schedule to me (I gave up trying to decipher it back at home with all the different conditions of service) and made my way towards the bus stop. Along the way I found myself taking a leisurely walk through the quiet streets eventually purchasing a lunch of a ham and cheese baguette. As I look back, since I had an hour I probably should have used this time to go and see the Bayeux Tapestry, but I guess that will be saved for a future visit.
As I sat at the bus stop eating my baguette and listening to music I started to notice that the local school must have just got out for the day. Eventually, the bus stop was getting crowded and it seems that those were the only users of the bus system on the day besides myself (just like when I spent a few hours in Liechtenstein last year). When the bus showed up and I got on board, I tried to pay the driver 1 Euro, as that was what the tourist center had told me would be the fare. The bus driver was confused and with a language barrier I was starting to hold up the rest of the bus from getting on. Eventually he just charged me the full fare, and I just accepted it for that. Definitely not one of my finer “public transit in a foreign country” moments. Thirty minutes later I walked off the bus and found myself outside the gates to the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial.
I headed straight for the fairly new visitors center first, passing through the near empty parking lot, only to find myself having to go through a security screening before I could enter. After picking up a map, I headed downstairs to the small museum, took my time going through the exhibit and then finally heading back outside. The first thing I saw was the beach, which after taking in for a minute headed to the left and made my way into the cemetery grounds via the Gardens of the Missing which pays tribute to all those soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines whose remains were never recovered, before stepping up the main memorial. Here stands a statue which is reaching up to the heavens flanked by maps depicting the assault by allied forces on D-Day, including not just the ground routes, but also the naval and air routes as well. I spent a while studying the routes and trying to recall what I had learned previously about the invasion. Beyond the main memorial looking out to the cemetery grounds there is first the reflection pond, then the graves of over 9000 servicemen, a small chapel, and at the opposite end two statues, one that represents the United States and one that represents France. I found myself taking my time walking around, visiting the chapel, and eventually heading towards the beach. Before I headed down the trail from the cemetery, I remarked this cemetery felt different compared to other military cemeteries that I have visited in the US. Maybe it is because of the location and the reason those who are buried here for or my interest in the history of the Second World War.
Soon enough I was walking on the beach eventually discovering the remains of a German artillery battery just to the east of the cemetery grounds on the edge of Easy Red and Fox Green sectors of the beach. I explored the two artillery bunkers that remained to a limited extent due to each being flooded and climbed on top for a decent view of the beach. Wandering around some more I found two more entrances leading into the hillsides: one being what I am guessing was an observation post or to direct artillery fire and another small dark bunker (storage or for personnel maybe?). Also I noted that the landscape, while covered in thick grass, is still scarred by the battle that occurred 65 years ago where the artillery landed from allied ships. I guess I had figured that most due to nature that many craters would be erased by now, but I was definitely wrong.
After I was finished exploring these remnants of the war, I eventually made my way back to the cemetery passing a monument to the 1st Infantry Division along the way. Since I still had another hour or so to kill before the bus came back I found myself walking around the cemetery a bit more until I left shortly before closing time at 5PM. After an extremely quiet 20 minutes waiting for the bus to come and then an equally as quiet 30 minute bus ride (had to be when I was the only passenger) I was back in the center of Bayeux. The town was even more quiet now it seemed and eventually I was back at the train station waiting for the train that would take me back to Paris. In the future (hopefully next summer) I definitely want to come back to this area, and rent a car or something just to make it easier to get around to multiple sites. It would have been nice to see more of Normandy, but the bus system isn’t nearly frequent enough to really be of any use other than just going to one destination.
After sleeping for about an hour and a half on the train I was back in Paris and it was time to make my way back to the Eiffel Tower. From the train station I first headed towards Place de la Concorde and observed the Egyptian Obelisk before making my way to the Seine. I walked along here all the way to the Eiffel and it was fairly relaxing except for the fact that I knew I was getting a blister on my foot but I pressed on and the pain was definitely worth it when I reached my destination. Apparently I had timed it just right and light show on the tower (really just sparkling lights) commenced as I was standing in line.
Unlike my visit the previous day I, today I wanted to go to the observation deck at the very top of the tower. After a couple of elevator rides to the top, I exited into the interior observation deck. But looking through a glass window and saying "Washington, DC is only 6,176km in that direction!" was not what I was here for. I then joined the crowd on the outside observation deck on the floor above. The view from here was incredible! As I looked out in all the directions into the city of Paris, I was able to find all the famous landmarks lit up for the night. Many I had already seen, but I also scoped out the one that I would be making my way to on the next day, such as the Arc de Triomphe. I also noticed a large number of antennas at the top of the tower...I never knew it actually served as a tower in that sense. The rest of the night involved me getting dinner and taking the metro back to my hotel sometime around midnight.