Normandy Day 3-Bayeux and Arromanches

Previous Normandy posts: Day 1, Day 2

Today was a super busy day. We didn't get out of the house until 10:30, yikes! Not how I wanted to begin, but oh well. We arrived in Bayeux to see the famous Bayeux Tapestry that is almost 70 meters long, and depicts the story of William the Conqueror and the Battle of Hastings, 1066. The kids loved that they got their own speaker set to listen to, as we walked through. The length of it was amazing, and it was pretty cool. I never would have known what was being depicted had it not been for the audio. I don't know how the people of the time did. Other than that, I was "Ehh" about it. Everyone swore we had to see it because it was amazing. It was ok, and not really worth what we paid in my opinion. But again, that's me. The kids were excited to buy a small princess for each girl and a dragon for Zach as we left. No pictures from there, as they weren't allowed.

Then my plan was to leave, but Jon said let's walk and see the Cathedral. I should say that we were so cold, because I had plans to visit the beach, and assumed we'd all want to walk in the water a bit, so we all wore shorts or capris. Thankfully I'd thrown sweaters in for everyone! The wind was bad all day. So we get to the Cathedral. It's as big as Paris' Notre Dame. It's massive, Gothic style, and just absolutely fabulous. We spent a while walking around, and lit candles in one chapel that had several flags, including the American, and encouraged us to pray for peace and freedom for all, so we did. The chapel really had me moved to tears, as there were poppy wreathes and an American flag inside, along with memorials from 1944.

Jon and kids in front of Cathedral. Sorry, problems turning it.

 Candle of the remembrance chapel

 The chapel inside

 The kids and I in front of the altar.

Afterwards, we went back to the car, grabbed our lunch to eat while driving, and drove to Arromanches. (Another great link.) This is where they built an artificial harbor to get all the supplies in for the war. There were actually two, code named Mulberry A and Mulberry B, but A was wiped out to sea almost immediately during a storm. This one survived until Nov. 1944, and really helped win the war. It was fascinating to see this beach, surrounded by the Atlantic Wall that Hitler built, between two villages. There are still some pieces there, including part of the Harbor wall way out in the water. They are 2 km away, and you could fit 1,000 football fields in the space of this harbor. They had dioramas demonstrating how it all worked. It was seriously fascinating.

The kids touching the English Channel.

 The Harbor wall, 2km away.

 Our family in front of a piece of the bridge still on the beach.

A funny piece of this part of our trip was we were out walking on the beach. We wanted to go one way, but we looked to be surrounded by shallow (like 1-2in) of water. I thought "Oh, we'll be fine." and started to walk in it. Thankfully I went first, because I sank! My feet were immediately covered in mud, and this was much different than beaches I normally go to. I walked to another area, and tried to rinse off, and it just stuck so bad. Even when I got home, I had mud cakes under my feet and in my flops. Jon and the kids could not stop laughing-and snapping photos. Thankfully I kept my humor and laughed as well.

Me in the mud... Can't turn it, sorry!

After this, the kids were done, but it was only 4pm. I bribed them with gummy bears and we set out for one more place, the Batterie de Longues Sur Mer. This place had 4 Batteries that belonged to the Germans, that were still there today. The first one was pretty destroyed, so you couldn't go in. The other three however all still had guns and you could walk in to them. I read that they took 7 men to load and shoot them. They could shoot up to 12 miles away with almost perfect accuracy. The last one you were able to climb on top of and you could see the hooks where they would hook camouflage tarps to hide them from the planes. They survived for a while (less than a day, few battles) but eventually the ships were able to take them out.

Afterwards, Jon wanted to walk down this road to get closer to the water. Down there, we saw another bunker that looked just like one we'd seen in Saving Private Ryan, where there's a thin area for the soldiers to shoot out of. It was pretty amazing, as we got to walk in the top and the bottom, and all around it. Next to us were these huge fields of yellow rapeseed flowers, with several red poppies along the edge of the field.

  Jon and kids with one of the 3 remaining guns

 This is like the one I mentioned from Saving Private Ryan.

Us in front of it

The side facing the beach. Along the bottom is the small gap they'd shoot out of

 Abby on top of the Batterie

 me and Zach in front of one of the 3 remaining guns

Rapeseed with one poppy

While coming back, Abby got scared. The kids were able to make a reflection on the ceiling with the sun, and decided to say it was a spider. Abby believed them, and got scared. She put her hand on her head to protect herself, and for 30 min kept asking and begging us to get rid of it. We tried to convince her it was gone, and she wouldnt believe us, until Zachary finally distracted her some other way. To end the day, we came back to the farmhouse, where the kids played in the yard while Jon grilled. Zach declared at dinner that the thing we saw the most was trees haha!