It’s an easy 3 1/2 hour drive from Paris to the D-Day beaches in northern Normandy. Although the battle ended 60 years ago, the remains are everywhere from the souvenir stores to the museums to the countless cemeteries. For a more in depth view on the war check out Gretchen’s blog. Gretch is a big WWII European theater nut and all I know about the D-day invasion I learned from her.
We booked a room at the Chateau L’Isle Marie. About 10 minutes from St Mére Eglise and Utah Beach, this 12th century estate, a mixture of modern conveniences (like showers) and a utopia of 19th century bric a brac is run by the British/French ancestors of the original owners. They also have some really nice apartments for rent in the newly renovated old Military Hospital. The estate is in the middle of a swampland; very much in the country, and late into our second night there, a crash through the open window woke us up. We weren’t sure what it was, although our first thought was a ghost. After a few minutes of a thorough thrashing of the walls, Gretchen turned on the light and we got a good look at a very large barn owl, I’m talking a 3 pounder with at least with a 3’ wingspan. Unfortunately though, owls are nocturnal, and the light really disoriented the bird even more. I admit that for most of the adventure, I remained under the blankets (occasionally pulling them over my head when the owl swooped over me), watching a naked Gretchen snapping a towel at the bird, trying to get it to fly back through the open window. The room was filled with lots of antique bottles, vases, paintings and such. The bird crashed into one closed window after another, one mirror to the next, from the bathroom to the bedroom looking for an escape. I can understand why it flew into the glass but I still have no idea why it flew into the portrait of Simon de la Houssaye’s grandmother? We were amazed there weren’t broken vase chards all over the floor. We were amazed we didn’t wake up everyone in the Chateau. We opened every window in the room, and eventually the owl managed to fly out to freedom. During the war, the SS occupied the Chateau. We wondered what an SS officer would have done if an owl flew in; probably shot it. We also wondered what kind of story the owl told his friends and family about the large wingless creatures with no feathers.
On our first evening in Normandy, we made a visit to St Mére Eglise, one of the objectives of the 82nd airborne paratroopers during the D-day invasion. It was also made famous by the movie “The Longest Day”. In the movie, Red Buttons portrays Pvt John Steele, the poor soldier who’s parachute stuck to the church steeple where he remained for two hours pretending to be dead as the battle ensued below. Today, there’s a manikin suspended from the steeple as a memory of John Steele. In fact, John Steele is also the name of the favorite local hotel and watering hole. The real John Steele, a small, rotundo fellow, was made a local hero and in the airborne museum very close to the infamous church manikin, there are countless photos of this little man with the mayor, the local dignitaries and of course the most beautiful women of Normandy.
We spent the next day starting on the hills of Point du Hoc, an incredible imprint of bomb craters that have forever changed the visible landscape, then onto the American Cemetery, one of the most peaceful places I have ever been to in my life. The symmetrical white marble grave markers look as if they were placed there yesterday.
The canons with a 19km range remain in the pill boxes. It’s a pretty eerie site.