Utah Beach and the Airborn

Some years back I parachuted into France and heroically secured the town of St. Mere Eglise. It was very intense.

This of course was in the xbox game Call of Duty. Ever since then, I've wanted to go see St. Mere Eglise in person. I know that's lame, but it is what it is.

So here I am in front of the église:

If you look above my shoulder and to the right of the clock, you can see the fabric of a parachute on a church spire. Hanging from that parachute against the wall is a fake John Steele. This is sort of a permanent re-enactment of what actually happened to the real John Steele of the 505th.

Inside the church you can see this stain glass window with paratroopers on it.

This glider was pretty interesting. Lots of guys had white-knuckle rides in these in the early hours of June 6. It's a simple craft, fabric skin over a tubular skeleton.

Just looking at these rations made me really hungry. The mouthwatering packaging makes them irresistible.

Here I am standing on Utah Beach. Beyond the sand, the terrain is quite different than Omaha.

Ella enjoyed the sand for a few minutes. The Utah Beach museum is behind her.

If there is one thing they do not have a shortage of here, it is museums. They have far more museums than bathrooms, though the bathrooms are cheaper to get into than the museums. Come to think of it, I might start a business and put a D-Day museum inside a bathroom.

Looking down on Arromanches, where the remains of a Mulberry harbor can be seen.

If you've seen the Chevy Chase movie, National Lampoon's Vacation, you may remember the amount of time they spent at the Grand Canyon in Arizona. It was the same thing at Arromanches for us: look, bob your head twice and then head back to the car.

We had to drive back to Caen to return our car and catch the 3 pm train to Paris. But first we had to fill the tank with fuel, and there were no gas stations to be found.

After driving in circles for an hour, we eventually found a station. By that time our train was already half way to Paris. Pas de probleme! We found out we could use the same tickets on the next train at 5! Which is what we are doing as I write this.

Ella inspects the work that Mama is doing. She is not satisfied!

So that ends our side trip to Normandy. It is a very beautiful region, and the D-Day sites were worth the trip.