Normandy day 1

This weekend CIEE took us to Normandy.  I've only wanted to go there for half my life so it wasn't like it was a big deal or anything... But really, it was an amazing experience. I wish I would have had more time to go through the museum and the cemetery and visit more little places connected with the invasion... but I'll go back someday, for sure.

On Saturday, our first stop was at the Caen museum and memorial.

This is part of a peace memorial outside the museum. There were contributions from about 15 countries I think, all in their own languages, pledging peace.

 A Hawker Typhoon hanging in the museum.  It's a British single-seat fighter-bomber.  It was important to the Second World War because it was the only plane capable of keeping up with the German planes, and was especially good for night-time and long-range fighting.

Soldier supplies.

I really loved the museum at Caen. I could have spent all day there with a notebook.  The first part took visitors through a timeline from victory (particularly in France) of the First World War, down through the events that lead to Hitler's coming into power. I say down through because it was arranged in a spiral around a giant globe, which visitors later learn is a dark room with a single photo projected on the wall with the sounds of a chanting/saluting crowd or army:

I believe it had the desired effect. (Terror/awe)

The part of the exhibit concerning the holocaust was horrible, as one would expect.  The museum as a whole (and this weekend in general) got me thinking about war and why/how/who decided that the way to settle conflicts was through violence.  I was in disbelief looking at the guns and bombs on display, because I can't imagine people inventing things like that for the express purpose of killing other human beings.  Philosophical debates ensue....

Continuing on:

Imagine waking up to this in the morning.

We also watched a short film about the D-Day invasion with images of the present day beach interwoven.  The differences between the obstacle-strewn battlefield and the tranquil sand are quite striking.  It's hard for me to watch those soldiers run onto the beach, knowing they face death, and see some of them continue to run while others are struck down immediately.  Unfathomable.  I literally cannot imagine the kind of courage it would take to do something like that.

The aspiring potential museum curator in me wanted to take notes on everything to figure out what exactly the museum was trying to accomplish, why the administration made the choices it made, and map out the "big idea" with supporting details. Plus that would help me retain the information! But alas, not enough time...

Anyway, our next stop was the Arromanches 360 degree cinema, where we saw a 20 minute film about D-Day, again mixed with images of Normandy today. I teared up a little (a lot).  Then we were able to go down on the beach (Gold Beach).  The tide was in so we couldn't get close to the remains of things, but we did see people swimming (which was crazy because it was so cold!).

Those things out there in the distance are the remains of landing vehicles.

The final stop of the day was the German bunkers.  Really kind of terrifying.

View from inside a bunker.

After all that, we went to the Hotel and had dinner and played some cards (Go Fish!) and went to bed. Stay tuned for my post about day two.