Normandy Beach on Veteran’s Day: November 11, 2023

What a long and sobering day. For some reason, it didn’t occur to us until a couple of days ago that we would be visiting Normandy Beach on Veteran’s Day, or Armistice Day as they refer to it here. It was about two hours by bus to get to the English Channel from Rouen. First, we visited the Overlord Museum in Colleville-sur-Mer. They had one of the original Enigma machines, which the Nazis used extensively to code their messages. It made me want to rewatch the movie “The Imitation Game,” about Alan Turing, the Englishman who played a crucial role in cracking intercepted coded messages from the Germans. There are only about 300 of these machines left, mostly in museums.

After that, we visited the American Cemetery and Memorial which contains the graves of 9,388 Americans, and nearly 1,600 names on the Walls of the Missing, most of whom lost their lives in the D-Day landings and ensuing operations. I cannot even begin to describe what visiting it was like. The cemetery sits on a bluff overlooking Omaha Beach and is run by the American Battle Monuments Commission. Because it is Armistice Day, they had a ceremony for those of us visiting from America, which included a salute to the flag and singing the Star Spangled Banner accompanied by bells. Then they played taps and we had a minute of silence. I felt like sobbing. It makes me tear up just to write about it now.

After that we went to Omaha Beach and walked out on the beach. What I didn’t realize was how huge the beach is and how far the soldiers had to walk with all of their heavy equipment to reach cover. We walked down on the beach, but never even got close to the water. People who were walking out by the water looked tiny. It was low tide, but it was still just epic in scale.

Well, the jury is in and river cruises are really, really up close and personal for me. A lot of people are extremely nice, but it seems you keep seeing some of the same annoying people everywhere. For instance, L.J., who I alternately felt irritated with and sorry for all day. He and his wife, maybe Michelle? sat in front of us on the bus and he slammed his seat back in a reclining position so hard that he almost broke my left knee cap. Also, he made it completely known that his lunch at the museum was awful. But then he had a medical emergency at the cemetery and they had to call an ambulance. So I was nice to him after that and (oh, crap!) he and his wife, maybe Michelle, sat with us at dinner. Again, complaining loudly about the food and the service. Good Lord. Then, he mentioned his medical emergency and told his wife he hoped the cancer wasn’t back. Awkward moment for sure. Doug and I looked at each other and raised our eyebrows, but I think we both decided not to touch that with a ten foot pole. They are from Louisiana and he speaks with a Cajun accent. I think he may be slightly crazy. His eyes seem a bit unfocused.

Full disclosure: I brought only layers, so that is why my stupid white vest keeps showing up in pictures. It is one of my layers. L.J.’s medical emergency was that he got off the bus and was reeling around like he was about to fall down, as if his legs were not working at all. Pretty scary. I have not mentioned this to anyone here, but you all don’t even know L.J. So I think it is okay to tell you. Finally, I forgot to add a picture of Rouen yesterday of a restaurant where Julia Child was supposed to have had her first meal in France. Lovely place.