Battlebus Tour of the Normandy D-Day Beaches

9-17-08 Bayeux

We both slept great until 6:00 am. Got ready and had our breakfast - baguettes, soft cheeses, homemade jams, yogurt, cereals, apple coffee cake, coffee, and OJ. Delicious! Left the B&B to be in Bayeux center to meet our Battle Bus tour guide and the 3 other couples sharing the full day tour. Our tour guide Allan, was a knowledgeable Brit, who has studied the Normandy invasions for 25 years and is a historical writer.

Stop #1- Allan drove us to the small town of St. Mere Eglise, where some of the first airborne paratroopers landed. We visited the Airborne Museum and church square.



Stop #2 - the 11th century Norman church in the tiny village of Angouville-au-plain that became a medic station for injured paratroopers. Two American medics ran the station after parachuting into the area themselves. They treated Americans, French and Germans alike just as long as they checked their weapons at the door. They ran the aid station unassisted for 3 days until help arrived to take the wounded to hospitals, several died in the church. We sat in the old wooden pews, blood stains still visible. The church itself, had many of it’s original windows blown out, the bell tower bombed, and the back door rammed by a tank. The shell that took out the bell tower, landed and cracked the church floor, stayed intact, while one of the medics threw it out the window, never exploding.



Stop #3 – Lunch stop at a small, sandwich shop owned by a British lady. We had a great ham and cheese baguette sandwich, bag of chips, candy bar, piece of fruit and a drink.

Stop #4 – Utah Beach, one of the smaller invasions beaches with the least amount of casualties. Here, there is a museum and lots of weapons and war junk displayed around the dunes.



Stop #5 – Point du Hoc, the main German battery protecting the beaches from invasion. The German guns, armories, buildings, foundations of buildings, or what’s left still stand from that day. The beachy hills and dunes at the top of the cliff are pockmocked with craters from the American ship big guns and aerial bombing. Eliminating the armory would make for a successful invasion on Utah Beach.



Stop #6 – Omaha Beach, the bloodiest battle of the Normandy Invasion. Allan told the stories of individual, first hand accounts from WW2 vets who survived that day. The crescent shaped beach had a battery at each end for flanking fire coming from both sides as well as from the Germans shooting from the top of the cliffs. The road at the top of the beach and barbed wire rolls were never depicted in any movie about The Normandy invasions. The majority of injured and deaths occurred on Omaha Beach.



Stop #7 – The American cemetery, a very beautiful resting place high on the bluff overlooking the ocean, lined with marble crosses, perfectly in rows, in every direction. The trees that circle the graves, all have their tops lopped off straight across, to signify the cutting short of young lives. To see the over 9,000 crosses, of mostly 18-early 20 year olds, was mind boggling, moving, and a powerfully sad experience. Reading the names and hometowns brought a realization of their bravery and of their horrifying ordeal. As we started walking the graves, the color guard began taking our flag down from the flagpole, the bugler playing taps in the background . . . I lost it.

The cemetery is one of the few places outside the US considered US soil. The US Government runs the cemetery and hires the help as US employees even though they are French.



Photo slideshow from Day 2

This ended our tour at 5:30pm, and back to the town of Bayeux. We quickly visited the Tourist Info center for maps and ideas of places to visit on our free day tomorrow. Back to the B&B, to rest.

Exploring the Normandy Coast

9-18-08 Bayeux

This is a free day. We take our time getting ready and eating breakfast round the large table with 3 other French couples, not understanding a word they said, but fun anyway.

We head out to the town of Longes Sur Mer to visit the German battery high above the beaches on the cliffs. The four concrete gun buildings were set in a semi circle for the maximum shooting range. This is the only German battery with the guns still intact, one bombed to bits on the ground. Ahead of the 4 guns was a concrete lookout at the edge of the cliff to give the gunners instructions where to fire along Utah and Omaha beaches.

Terry and one of four big German guns still intact


After roaming the battery, we drive to Arromanches, a small village atop the beach cliff overlooking Gold Beach where the British landed. After Gold beach was secured from the Germans, the allies towed in the mulberries to create an artificial harbor, allowing further supplies and men to be brought to land.

We then drove in to the town of Bayeux, with the town walking tour map in hand. As we started the walk, we noticed several good restaurants and decided to eat lunch at a creperie. We had ham, mushroom and cheese stuffed galettes, similar to a buckwheat pancake/crepe, very good. We continued with the walking tour which highlighted the 11th century Bayeux Cathedral. The cathedral was much bigger and more ornate than we anticipated for the town size of Bayeux. The walking tour also passed by the main shopping area, town park, some very old residential areas with wood timbered houses.

The Bayeux Cathedral


Time for an ice cream cone, and as we savour, we decide to go back to the Pointe du Hoc from our BattleBus tour from yesterday. Terry felt rushed only given a half hour to see all the bombed out areas and wanted to see more. We took the scenic coast road through several small villages and very narrow roads, nearly missing corners of homes as you pass by. We walked around the very cold and windy Point du Hoc, Terry took tons of photos and made sure he saw every little nook and cranny of bombed bits of twisted metal and concrete.

Driving back to B&B, we notice that all the small towns look alike. Every home, building, and wall is built with the identical centuries old white stone, and no other decorations of color on the house itself. The color comes from gardens and flowers. The Norman’s are simple farm people who shun physical wealth and are perfectly happy with their spartan lifestyles. In fact, our tour guide Allan explained that when the Germans took over all the beachside homes along Omaha, blowing some up for artillery areas, the Norman’s welcomed it. Seems the beachfront homes were owned by wealthy Parisians as vacation homes.

Photos from today

Exhausted but happy with our days so far, tomorrow will be another long, good day.

Mont Saint Michel

9-19-08 Bayeux to Mont Saint Michel

Our drive from Bayeux to Mt St Michel was an easy 1 ½ hours , so we take our time packing and leaving at 10am. We arrive at our B&B greeted by a brown tabby named Max who wanted pets every time we saw him, we were happy to obligue. Our B&B is beautiful, just 1 mile from Mt St Michel in the little town of Bouviere. We settle in and decide to hit lunch before venturing to the 2-3 hour visit of the Mt. Found a pizza place and had a salad each and split a pizza. The pizza crust is made from a crepe, wood fire grilled in an oven and topped with tons of toppings, it was delicious and very filling, exactly what we needed.

Seeing Mont Saint Michel for the first time is an awesome sight for sure, a large abbey built atop a seemingly too small island.



There is one main drag going all the way to the top or you can walk the wall ramparts that gradually wind around and up thousands of stairs to 300’ above sea level. We got our workout today. We enter the abbey and read the fascinating history as Terry takes photos of all the unique architectural details and roof tops. There are still 30 residents living on the Mt. island itself, a few are monks. There is also a couple hotels, eateries, and a multitude of tacky, souvenir shops along the main drag that ruined the ‘ historical feel’. We scaled every stair case and explored every nook and cranny making sure we saw every bit of the Mt. We descended back down through the main drag and went back to the B&B to rest a bit in the back garden on lounge chairs, we both could have gone to sleep.

Photos for today.

We went back at dusk to get a few photos from afar, had a snack of fruit and crackers and went to bed.

Amboise - Our home base in the Loire Valley

9-20-08 Mt St. Michel to Amboise

We eat breakfast at 8am and are greeted by not only Max the kitty but also Luna, his female counter part who was not friendly, she was prissy & hissy, with a French accent – LOL!

The drive to Amboise took us on some pretty small, one track country roads. They are big enough for one car with no center lines. If another car approaches, you both pull over into the gravel and grass shoulder to pass each other. We kept seeing McDonalds signs but never saw one, they boast WIFI, so we were tempted to pull into one just to use it, we may still do that in the future if we continue to have no access at the B&Bs.

The drive was pleasant and about 4 hours. We stopped at a large grocery called Super U, which I suppose is their version of Walmart, but looking very 7-11ish. Sold some furniture, appliances, clothing, food, toys and soaps in very limited quantities. Bought more fruit and the much coveted COLD milk to guzzle.

We checked into the B&B, Ginette is a most gracious hostess. I wish I could say the same about her fox terrier, Ollie, he looked at me sideways, snarled and nipped at me but seemed to take to Terry just fine. Between Ginette’s little English, our little French and our trusty dictionary, we get along just fine. We unload and head into town to eat some lunch. It is now about 3pm, little did we realize that ALL restaurants are only open from noon-2:30 and then don’t reopen until 7pm for dinner.

Our Amboise B&B and the road leading to it

We finally found a little sandwich shop still serving, and had a doner kebab and fries. A kebab is lamb, shaved very thin and piled on a large, heavy bun type bread with sauce of your choice. Not what we really wanted, but it was good and filled the hole. We found the Laundromat, today being one of 4 wash days, and relaxed and visited with other Americans from Sacramento and Seattle. Back to the room for some much needed rest and settle in. Asked Ginette about internet access and she gave us an Ethernet adapter that works through the power outlets, and is similar to dial up. We try to send some emails but are having problems. I was able to post the first days of the blog though, so go figure.

The next 3 days will be jam packed running around the valley seeing all the aristocratic chateaus and castles.

Chateau hopping day in the Loire Valley

9-21-08 Amboise

We have a delicious breakfast of baguettes with butter and homemade jams, yogurt with cereal mixed in, coffee and hot chocolate for Terry, he loved that. That is a pretty standard French breakfast only we notice the French dip their bread in hot tea.

We leave around 9am for Chenenceoux, just 19 km from Amboise. This stately hunting chateau was built by King Francois 1 and as a home for his mistress, Diane. His coat of arms are plastered everywhere you look, a fire breathing salamander and the letter F with a crown on top. Quite the egotist, if you ask me. His wife, Catherine found out about the mistress and kicked her out. She remodeled the chateau with a huge, 3 story entertaining hall that spans the river, a unique feature of Chenenceoux.



The fascinating kitchens were nothing but the best for the time including a butchery to carve all the animals after being killed, a huge pantry room to store supplies for the winter months, a servant dining room and lastly the gigantic kitchen with ovens and stoves. Just awesome, especially decorated with time period copper pots and pans, unusual utensils, and unknown to us type tools and contraptions, I guess used for carving. There was even a large copper pot with a snout protrusion to roast pigs.

The red velveted bed chambers oozed of gold and wealth as do most palaces. The cornices, crown mouldings, and full wall tapestries were extremely ornate showing animals and hunting scenes.

The surrounding gardens next to the river were gorgeous and perfectly symmetrical as were all gardens from the time. Our walk back to the car took us through a tunnel of shaded trees. We bought a baguette sandwich from the vendor at the entrance and had a picnic with other goodies we had stashed in our snack bag in the car.

The next stop is a feudal castle and town called Fougers.



We arrive about 1:00, to find it closed for lunch until 3, hmmmm, a tourist sight closed for lunch? We take some outside photos and move on to Cheverny, about ½ hour away. Again, we only take outside photos and walk the cute town, knowing we need lots of time to see our last stop, the grandest of all chateaus, Chambord.

Again, seeing Chambord for the first time, with it’s shear size and varied rooftop turrets, unusual chimneys and roof lines is overwhelming.



We walk around the chateau as Terry clicks photo after photo. The place is mind boggling huge. We enter the courtyard, to find a rather plain, gravel filled entrance, through the massive stone arch doors to see a double helix spiral staircase, most likely designed by Leonardi Da Vinci. The historians and not real clear, but it has his earmark all over the design.

Francois 1 was also behind the beginning building of Chambord, to have an even more stately hunting lodge than Chenenceoux. His trademark salamander and F crown grace this chateau as well. Building stopped and started on Chambord for a century because of wars, deaths of kings, and sat empty and abandoned for 70 years! It was finally restored, bought by the French govt. and is now a historical monument.

We walked up each flight of stairs, seeing all the royal bed chambers, drawing rooms, salons, yada yada and all the other rooms the royality just had to have for this reason or another. They really knew how to be self indulgent, never ceases to amaze me even as many palaces all over Europe that we’ve seen. We finally climb the last bit of helix stairs to the roof top, Terry’s photo heaven. We descend back down, going in circles what seemed like forever, making me somewhat nauseated.

More photos from today.

We leave Chambord and head back to Amboise just knowing we NEED a decent dinner tonight. We’ve been running on empty and grabbing food when we can. We find a small restaurant that opened at 6:30, so we waited the few minutes. Terry got the Lasagne salad special and I got chicken, mushroom, artichoke, and gorgonzola pizza with a salad on top! Very unusual but so good. We were famished and ate like we never had before. We also had a glass of Amboise rose wine which was very good.

Full and happy we went back to the B&B, turned on the French TV to see some 60s show called Cosmos 99 with Martin Landau and Barbara Bain, French dubbed in - hilarious! We literally flopped into bed at 9pm.

A Free Day in Amboise

9-22-08 Amboise

We are pretty exhausted and decide to see just the one sight in town we both want to see – Chateau du Clos Luce.



This is the guesthouse built next to the Amboise Chateau, that Francois 1 offered to Leonardo Da Vinci to live in the last 3 years of his life, he died in the house. Francois 1 was a forward thinking King and paid Da Vinci to flee Rome and live there, giving him full reign of the house. All he wanted in return was to talk to and pick Da Vinci's brain, knowing what a genius he was. They became very good friends and Da Vinci painted and invented to his heart’s desires until his death. The house now displays some of his drawings, works and inventions built from his original drawings including, a parachute, helicopter, airplane, car, paddle boats, war machines, machine guns, tanks, etc.

More photos of Clos Luce and Amboise

We leave and start up the main drag of Amboise at 1:00, vowing not to miss the lunch hour. We popped into an Italian resto, Terry got gorgonzola spaghetti, me parmesan stuffed type tortellinis, in a soup type sauce – it was great and we ate every bit. We walked across a bridge over the river to a small island to get a good photo of the Amboise Chateau. We heard it was nothing special inside so opted not to visit. Strolled over to the famous choclatier in town, but everything looked to froo froo for our taste. Instead we went to the SuperMarche grocery and got a German Milka bar – YUM! – and more COLD milk and bananas.

Back to the B&B, to finally send our emails and for me to catch up and post the blog. Voila! Tomorrow, we will try to leave at 8am for the 4 hour drive to Oradour and Sarlat.

Oradour-sur-Glane and Sarlat

9-23-08 Amboise to Sarlat

Ginette accommodated us by having breakfast ready early so we could leave by 8:30. She was such a sweet lady, constantly bringing us things and moving nice lawn furniture in front of our room to sit. She always insisted on packaging up leftover baguette or bread at breakfast for us to take for ‘picnic’ as she would say. After about every sentence, she would say, VOILA!, so that is why I said that in the prior post. We really liked her a lot and she really knows how to pamper her quests and run a great B&B.

On the road again, about an equal mix of small country roads and highways, as we make our way to Oradour-sur-Glane. We drive to the new town of Oradour, buy a sandwich and eat outside the entrance in a park area before touring WW2 martyred town of Oradour.

Oradour-sur-Glane was a small town of about 600 people, who were murdered by the Hitler’s German SS Waffen troops on June 10, 1944, just 4 days after D-Day. They wanted to set an example to other towns not to resist the Germans and side with the Americans after the invasion. The Nazi’s looted every house and business, shot every man, woman, and child in cold blood, before torching the whole town. The French Govt has left the town exactly as it was from that day as a remembrance and memorial. One word etched in stone as we entered the town, “Remember.”

Typical street in Oradour


We strolled the burned out streets and buildings, all labeled with plaques of what business it was and who owned it. We saw a bakery, butcherie, dentist office, seamtress, hair salon, all with supplies and tools the Germans left behind they didn’t want. Just about every home had a burned up sewing machine. Many cars were left in front of homes and in car garage repair shops, all burned and rusted.

We turned one corner and saw the church, we both knew that the women and children were rounded up and killed there, it was hard to enter. And there was no way we could bring ourselves to take photos inside the burned out church, it was too sad. About the same time we entered the church, a dozen or so French soldiers were also touring the grounds, they were even sniffling as they walked the church.

Around the corner, was the street that led to the cemetery and memorials. Again, we couldn’t bring ourselves take photos as we saw face photos of whole families who had been killed. At the back of the cemetery was an official memorial listing the names and ages of everyone in town, ranging from 12 days to 80 y/o. It was a very, sad and heart wrenching sight. As we exited the cemetery, Terry and I both could not comprehend how 200 Nazi’s could be in the frame of mind to kill babies and old people, they had to be psychopaths. It was mind boggling at the thought.

We left Oradour, in a somber mood, reflecting on the surviving family members from other towns, who still go back to Oradour to tend to the memorials by placing flowers and notes. It must still be so hard for them even after all this time.

Back on the A-20 highway for the 2 hour drive to Sarlat. We arrived at our B&B at 4:30 and was met at the door by sweet Alain, who kept apologizing because she didn’t speak English. We laughed and said we didn’t speak much French either, but as always, no problem, we managed. We unloaded our bags, and drove the couple kms to town and parked on a steep hill neighborhood. The whole town of Sarlat is hilly, with narrow medieval cobbled, streets. Every turn had an interesting building, roof line, square, alley, and cats who had ½ size curly tails , think pug. They must have all been related in some way to carry on that weird genetic trait, just like the bunch of 3 legged cats we saw in Rome. We walked the town walk, seeing every little street and cranny so Terry could snap photos of it all.

Sarlat Street and square


It was now dinner time, so we decided to try a resto recommend from Rick Steves book. I can’t remember the name of the resto, but it was great. Terry had a potato and cheese fondue plate, surrounded by all kinds of freshly sliced ham type meats. I had a small salad and a tartiflette, which was like a ham and cheese au gratin potato casserole. We stuffed ourselves, it was so good! We have finally found, after getting used to the time change, we sleep better if we have a decent meal in our stomachs before bed. No more waking up at 2am starving-LOL!

Today's photos.

Back to the B&B, and we are met at the door by friendly, Francoise, Alain’s husband, who does speak a little English. He wanted to know all about us, where we had been, where we were going,. We were tired and wanted to go to bed, so we politely excused ourselves as the conversation winded down and flopped in bed.

Today was interesting because we went from Renaissance chateaus, to WW2, and then back to Medieval times.