Ballard's Tour de France: June 16, 2014: Normandy D-Day Beaches

Today we took a step back in time to June 6, 1944. The beaches of Normandy are now quite tranquil and the towns picturesque. At first glance, it's hard to imagine the devastation, the terror, and the loss of lives that occurred on these beaches 70 years ago. If one looks closer, however, one can see areas still pockmarked by the bombs that were dropped here, areas littered with rusted German guns and bunkers, and the remnants of a quickly constructed harbor to aid in the disembarkation of equipment and supplies.

Our first stop today was the town of Arromanches, the site of the British landing at "Gold" beach. We viewed a powerful 20-minute movie containing actual D-Day footage about the 100 days of fighting in Normandy. With our thoughts attuned to the events of that fateful day, we walked into town and along the peaceful beach that was once soaked with blood so many years ago.

We continued our history journey and next visited the American Military Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, the site of the American landing at "Omaha" beach, nicknamed "Bloody Omaha" for how many young men died there in the early morning hours of June 6th, 1944. Again, it was such a powerful experience as we read stories about some of the individual men who fought and died there and then saw all the crosses stretching as far as the eye could see. More than 9,300 young men are buried here.

We didn't leave the museum and cemetery until after 6:00 PM, but only because they were closing and kicked us out. From there, we drove up the road to Pointe du Hoc, the site of intense bombing prior to D-Day as the allies attempted to destroy the German bunkers and guns trained on Omaha and Utah beaches. This area is still filled with huge craters created by the hundreds of bombs dropped here.

We were a very quiet and contemplative group as we headed back to our hotel tonight. Tomorrow, we're traveling to Honfleur, but with a stop in Caen first to visit the war memorial museum there.