- Point du Hoc, where the US Rangers scaled the cliffs - only to discover that the guns had been moved!
- the US Cemetery - where just under 10,000 young men are buried - and Omaha Beach where the National Guard members were mowed down to the tune of thousands (think Saving Private Ryan)
- Longues sur Mer - where the only remaining German gun battery remains
- Sword Beach, where the British ingeniously built a harbour by sinking concrete barriers for a breakwater and the constructing floating transportation docks, called Mullberrys (or Port Winston) - which coincidentally enough was a byproduct of the disastrous landing by Canadian troops at Dieppe in the early 1940's which taught the Allied forces that it wasn't going to work to storm any heavily defended port (which would be needed for the invasion to offload supplied and equipment)
- the Canadian Cemetery - which, as cemeteries go, was lovely in that it had lovely tended shrubs and flowers
- the Abbey D'Ardenne - where about 20 Canadian soldiers were murdered as prisoners of war shortly after the landing
All of all, it was a wonderful experience - and very informative. We all had our favourite sites - Conor's was the Canadian cemetery - and the poignant inscriptions on the crosses, Ben's was the Abbey and mine was the German gun battery.
Tomorrow we are off the Mont St. Michel and then Giverny and finally on to the bright lights of Paris - which Conor and Ben are dying to see.
