Bayeux to Caen to Paris (Day 18, Part 1 of 3)

 

Our final full day of our trip was a long one!  It started early and ended late.  We were up by 6:00 a.m. to check out and drive to Caen, about 30 miles from Bayeux.  There we had to find a "station-essence" (gas station.)  Our rental car agency wasn't open, so we had to find a place to park our car and drop the keys in a drop box.  I took pictures of our car to prove that we left it in good condition!

We were fairly close to the Caen train station and we boarded the 7:00 a.m. train with just a few minutes to spare!  It was a two and a half hour train ride which gave us time to sit and enjoy the scenery.

I was happy for Google Translate.  We didn't want to get off the train too soon or too late!

 

I knew our time in Paris was limited, but I also knew we did not want to carry our luggage everywhere.  Our train from Caen arrived at the Paris St. Lazare station.  That evening we were taking the Eurostar train from Paris back to London.  We would pick up that train at the Gare du Nord station.  Of course these stations were in different parts of the city!  I had reserved a City Locker close to the Gare du Nord station.  This was about 15 Euros (less than $20) and completely worth it!  We took an Uber to drop off our luggage and it took over 25 minutes to go less than two miles.  The city was busy!

Next up:  The Hop-On Hop-Off Bus!

Evening Stroll and Dinner in Bayeux (Day 15, Part 4 of 4)

 

 

After we had settled in to our room we headed to the town of Bayeux for dinner.  Our chateau was less than 2 miles away but we felt like we were in a different world.  Not that Bayeux was super crowded or busy, but our chateau was another level of mellow.

Bayeux was founded as a Gallo-Roman settlement in the 1st century BC.  The city was largely destroyed during the Viking raids of the late 9th century but was rebuilt in the early 10th century.

 

Bayeux was the first city of the Battle of Normandy to be liberated.  On June 16, 1944 General Charles de Gaulle made the first of two major speeches in Bayeux in which he made clear that France sided with the Allies. The buildings in Bayeux were virtually untouched during the Battle of Normandy, the German forces being fully involved in defending Caen from the Allies.  

We wandered in to a couple of restaurants before we settled on Le Drakkar.  They seated us upstairs along with a bunch of other English speaking people.  Our server was a sweet young French girl who did a great job.  We both had pasta and then had the dessert sampler.

We walked some more after dinner, just enjoying the town. 

 

These pictures were taken after 9:00 p.m.  The sun didn't set until 10:00 p.m.

 

If you look closely, you will see that we are both wearing our coats.  We were so glad we brought these - we needed them for our entire stay in Bayeux.

The next day was a biggie - The American Beaches of Normandy and the American Cemetery.  We have so many pictures and I have so many thoughts and emotions from that day.  It was good but sobering.

Château de Bellefontaine, Bayeux (Day 15, Part 3 of 4)

Our travel agent, Paula, really hit it out of the park when she found our lodging in Bayeux!  The Château de Bellefontaine was stunning!  This is an 18th century castle with its own moat!  (I realize I used explanation points for all three of these sentences, but it really was amazing.)

The grounds were beautiful.

 

 

We loved all the irises!

Our room wasn't ready when we arrived, but the weather was beautiful so we found a couple of lounge chairs and just listened to the frogs.

In the distance is the Bayeux Cathedral:

Some of the neighbors:

We made it in our room and it was worth the wait!  It was larger than our London hotel room and our cruise ship cabin combined.

An amazing view:

A spacious bathroom:

They have quite a list of amenities available.  We didn't order any of the "Free of charge" children...

This was a wonderful location, on a beautiful piece of property. It is within walking distance to the center of Bayeux.  This was the perfect place for the end of our trip.

Pegasus Memorial (Day 15, Part 2 of 4)

Our lodging for the next three nights was in Bayeux, about 80 miles from Le Havre.  About 55 miles from Le Havre we stopped at the Pegasus Memorial.  This would be the first of many D-Day museums and memorials that we would visit in the next three days.  Our journey began on the right side of this map.

 

We paid our entrance fee to the museum and were directed to a viewing room.  There we watched a short film of the 6th Airborne Division landings on D-Day.  Our guide then took us outside to view the original Pegasus Bridge.  

 

Originally called the Bénouville Bridge after the neighboring village, it is a road crossing over the Caen Canal, between Caen and Ouistreham in Normandy.  It was renamed in honor of the symbol worn on the sleeves of the men of the airborne division - the flying horse, Pegasus.  A replacement bridge was built in 1994 and the original was left on waste ground. The bridge was then sold to the museum for the symbolic price of one Franc.

On the night of  June 5, 1944, a force of 181 men, led by Major John Howard, took off from RAF Tarrant Rushton in Dorset, southern England in six Horsa gliders to capture Pegasus Bridge, and also "Horsa Bridge", a few hundred yards to the east, over the Orne River.  The object of this action was to prevent German armor from crossing the bridges and attacking the eastern flank of the landings at Sword Beach.

 

 

Horsa gliders could carry 28 fully equipped soldiers, along with two pilots.  They were towed from England by bombers and released over the landing zones.  These were made primarily of wood and were designed for a one time use.

 

Five of the Ox and Bucks's gliders landed as close as 45 yards from their objectives starting at 16 minutes past midnight. The attackers poured out of their battered gliders, completely surprising the German defenders, and took the bridges within 10 minutes. They lost two men in the process, Lieutenant Den Brotheridge and Lance corporal Fred Greenhalgh. 

 

 

Greenhalgh drowned in a nearby pond when he was knocked unconscious as his glider landed. Lieutenant Brotheridge was mortally wounded crossing the bridge in the first minutes of the assault and became the first member of the invading Allied armies to die as a result of enemy fire on D-Day. 

 

These missions were accomplished with great success before dawn on D-Day but with heavy losses. More than 2000 soldiers paid the ultimate sacrifice and now lie at the Commonwealth War Graves cemetery at Ranville several kilometers from the museum.

 

This is a picture of the Pegasus Bridge on June 9, 1944.  Three of the Horsa gliders are on the right in the picture.  This is where they landed!  On a night that was stormy, one that saw so many losses, the fact that these three gliders landed so close to their target is truly miraculous.

 

Of the six Horsa gliders, five were on target, but one landed way off course.  The fourth glider was lead by Captain Brian Priday.  He knew from his training that they were in the wrong location.  He said, "It is true that we landed by a waterway and by a bridge, but they were not the ones I had learnt to recognize so well over the weeks beforehand from photographs and models." He then had to make a decision - they weren't able to take the bridge they had trained to take, but they would take that bridge!

 

This is a statue of Brigadier James Hill, a World War II Commander, who joined the British Airborne Forces at an early stage, fought in North Africa and went on to play a vital role in the D-Day landings.  There is a lengthy article about him on the Pegasus Archive (here) recalling his many actions during the war.  But I thought this tidbit was worth sharing:

"I wanted all of my brigade to go to church at least once a month, but some of the chaps didn't like this very much. So to motivate them I would make them carry 60 pounds of equipment to church, which they stacked up outside under guard before going inside. After the service I would take them for a 20-mile march. I thought that might motivate them to enjoy their time at church a bit more! The interesting thing is that, after D-Day, a number of people told me what a difference those church visits had made. When we were crossing the North Sea on D-Day it was a pretty rough night, and sitting in those planes were men of 22 who had never seen a shot fired in anger and were now flying into enemy territory. Up against something like that, even an atheist wants to pray."  

 

We went back inside the museum and viewed many of the items on display.  This display of a Bible is amazing.  The plaque is partially covered, but it says that this Bible was given by two ladies to F.G. Milward when he left his village to join the army.  They had written John 3:16 on the flyleaf.  You can see the page folded at that passage.  The blood stains are from his comrade who was wounded in battle.

 

Parachute colors were used to identify what was being dropped.

We spent about two hours at the memorial, then headed to Bayeux.  We were in for a pleasant surprise when we checked in at the Chateaux de Bellafontaine!