Friday, April 28
This morning we were greeted with many happy faces and some sad, homesick ones!! Everyone is completely exhausted after walking som many hours for days and getting very little sleep. Bed time has been around 1:00 AM and we have to be up early for all of our sightseeing. Exhaustion plus the stress of being immersed in French is very draining after three days pounding the pavement in Paris. And to top it all off, we had a FULL day field trip planned for today!
We all met at 7:45 at the bus stop near the school. We got on the coach bus and hit the road to begin our day of visiting D-Day sites. We started at Arromanches-les-Bains with a movie created with footage from D-Day and the 100 first days after the landing. It was very emotional for many of us to see the faces of those who were present on D-Day in Normandie. After the film we had some time in the gift shop and for looking at the view of the bay where the Allies built a huge port in only 10 days to bring in supplies and troops. Arromanches is on Gold Beach and some parts of the port still remain.
Jumping back on the bus, we continued our tour at Longues-sur-Mer, where we were able to enjoy the beautiful yellow colza fields next to the green grass fields, and the blue sea. This wonderful view was the backdrop to a number of remaining German artillery battery. The Allies were supposed to bomb them the night before D-Day, but for some reason it didn’t happen so the German were able to fire on the approaching soldiers and many died there.
The next stop was at Coleville-sur-Mer. We started with our picnic lunch that our exchange students packed for us and then went in to see the American cemetery. We were able to see the wall of names of soldiers that went missing on D-Day, and then the graves of the almost 10,000 Americans who died on that day on the beaches during the landing. Unfortunately we were not able to meet any WW2 veterans this year, and it is of course becoming more rare to encounter anyone who was there on that day in 1944 who is still with us today. We were able to make a quick stop on Omaha beach, which was the site of the most deadly battle on D-Day (as depicted in the movie Saving Private Ryan), and is now a beautiful beach.
Our final stop was at the Point du Hoc, where we could see the pock-marked landscape that remains from all of the bombs that were dropped on that day. We could imagine what it was like for the Allied solders who landed there to fight the Germans, but also the families who were living their life in this place at that time. They were occupied by the Nazis and then liberated by the Americans, Canadians, and English, though this liberation came with much destruction and death.
Madame Hue sporting her new BHS sweatshirt!
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