As expected, there was nothing to post yesterday as it was a run errands and drive day. But here’s a picture of the old city I took from the balcony at the hotel in Carcassonne. It really is magnificent.
Yesterday’s errands took longer than I thought they would, so we only drove for about 5 1/2 hours before stopping for the night. We planned to get a little closer to Normandy, but it was already after 5pm and I was getting tired. Luckily, the rest stop where we pulled off to find a hotel on booking.com, actually had an Ibis Hotel on site. It’s only the 2nd rest stop we’ve seen with a hotel. The Ibis chain isn’t great, but it was clean and they had a handicap room and a lift. Sold.
This morning we got an early start as we still had a 4 1/2-hour drive, which actually took closer to 5 hours due to construction and a rest break in the middle. Our first stop was the American Military Cemetery in Normandy. We’ve been there before but wanted to visit again. The cemetery covers over 172 acres and contains the graves of almost 9400 military dead, most of whom died during the landing or the following operations.
Because this is the most visited overseas military cemetery with over 1 million visitors per year, no one is allowed to walk among the gravesites as in other cemeteries. Written requests must be submitted for wreath laying requests. The one grave Peter would have liked to see is Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., the son of President Teddy Roosevelt. TR, Jr., was the only general to land by sea with the first waves of troops on June 6th. He was one of the first men off his landing craft at Utah Beach and continued to lead his troops from the beach. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions. Here’s a picture of the marker I found on Wikipedia.
Here are a few other pictures we took at the cemetery.
The inside isn’t as ornate as some of the others we’ve seen.
Then it was on to Omaha Beach Memorial. We’d also seen this in 2018, but since we were only a few minutes away, we stopped by again.
The sculpture is called Les Braves and it consists of three elements:
The wings of Hope: So that the spirit which carried these men on June 6th, 1944, continues to inspire us, reminding us that together it is always possible to change the future.
Rise, Freedom! So that the example of those who rose against barbarity, helps us remain standing strong against all forms of inhumanity.
The Wings of Fraternity. So that this surge of brotherhood always reminds us of our responsibility towards others as well as ourselves.
We only spent a few minutes here before heading across the street to the Operation Overlord Museum. There are many D-Day museums in the area, most of which we saw in 2018. This one was closed the last time we were here, so we decided to pop in for a visit. The museum had hundreds of photos, stories and dioramas.
Our final stop before heading to our new flat was the German Military Cemetery. I visited with mom in 2006, but Peter and I missed it in 2018. As you can see, it’s not nearly as impressive as the American cemetery, but it’s very well maintained.
We arrived at out new flat late afternoon and settled in very quickly. It’s a beautiful 2BR house in Carentan, in the middle of the peninsula. Like every other town on the Cotentin Peninsula, it was the site of a major battle between June 6th and June 13th. The 101st Airborne Division (the Screaming Eagles) were involved in the battle. For all of you Band of Brothers fans, episode 3 (Replacements) is about this battle.
The city center is only a couple of blocks long, but it has a market and a boulangerie, and that’s all were going to need. We’re staying until Friday morning when we head back to Paris to drop off the car.
Not sure what we’re going to do tomorrow, but I’m sure we’ll find some way to keep ourselves busy and out of trouble.
I am curious…..are you keeping track of how many miles you are driving on this adventure?
I’m not, but Europcar is. All I have to do is look at the receipts to find how many miles I put on the car. For the first car in southern England and Wales we drove 1499 miles. In Scotland and northern England, it was a little further at 1649 miles. France will be much greater as we covered a lot more territory. With the first 2 cars the longest drive we had was 4 1/2 hours (day we had the flat tire). Our longest drive on this trip was over 6 hours. The last two days I drove 10 hours total. Of course, the driving here is much easier as most of it has been highway rather than the 2-lane roads in the UK. It was also more expensive as it’s mostly all toll roads. Just yesterday we spent over $50 on tolls. We take this car back on Friday but I’m guessing we drove at least 2500 miles. The car in Netherlands/Belgium won’t be as many miles as we only have it for 2 weeks and the countries are quite small. In fact, I thought about not getting a car and doing everything by train but changed my mind. I’m so glad I did. No way can I handle a 24″ suitcase, 2 backpacks, Peter and a wheelchair on a train.
That’s alot of miles, but then again, you have traveled across countries!