On our third day we visited Giverny and Versailles. On our fifth day Gigi drove us to the champagne region. We visited two champagne houses courtesy of Southern Wine and Spirits, the company Drayton works for. Our last full day was spent exploring more of Paris.
Gigi picked us up for a 2 1/2 hour drive to the beaches of Normandy, where the allies landed on D-Day during WW II.
We drove through the small rural village of of Colleville sur mer near Omaha beach. We stopped to take photos of the Church of Notre Dame which was badly damaged in 1944. It dates from the 12th century and has been restored to its original state. The village is home to 182 people.
Patricia and I loved the houses, churches and flowers we saw driving through Normandy.omaha beach
Our first stop was a town called Arromanches where we walked around, saw vehicles form the war, and Gold Beach where the British landed on D-Day. We picked up sandwiches to eat in the car.
Our second stop was Longues-Sur-Mer, between Omaha and Gold Beach, where we explored 2 of the 4 bunkers.
The Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in France are located on the site of the temporary American St. Laurent Cemetery, established by the U.S. First Army on June 8, 1944 and the first American cemetery on European soil in World War II. The cemetery site, at the north end of its half mile access road, covers 172.5 acres and contains the graves of 9,387 of our military dead, most of whom lost their lives in the D-Day landings and ensuing operations. On the Walls of the Missing, in a semicircular garden on the east side of the memorial, are inscribed 1,557 names. Rosettes mark the names of those since recovered and identified.
Pointe Du Hoc