La Vie Est Bonne: Bayeux Day 1 (Part 2 for today)

After checking into the B&B, we took off in the car for the D-Day locations. First up was St. Mere Eglise. Here is the info on it during WWII. "On the night of June 5, 1944 parachutes were seen in the night sky and began landing in and around the town. It was the 82nd airborne division. The Germans opened fire and ordered the locals into their houses. The Austrians left and only a few Germans continued the fight. The town was taken by members of the 505th led by Lieutenant-Colonel Edward C. Krause. At 04:30 the stars and stripes were hoisted over the town and St Mere Eglise was on of the first towns to be liberated in France. The town was made famous by the paratrooper John Steel and by the film "The Longest Day". John Steel managed to land on the church and his chute caught on the steeple. He hung there while the fighting continued on the ground for two hours before being cut down by the Germans, taken prisoner and later released by the Americans. An effigy of John Steel is usually to be seen on the church. (See upper left of spire in picture to the right and below.) Inside the church there are two stained glass windows, one shows the Virgin Mary surrounded by paratroopers, the other shows St. Michael (patron saint of the paratroopers)."(http://www.normandy1944.org.uk/ste_mere_eglise.htm)

Here's the inside of the church. I couldn't get pics of the two paratrooper stained glass windows because the light was just too bright. But you can probably find pics of them online if you're interested.

There are LOTS of celebrations going on in all the little towns all over Normandy so there are military personnel (French, American, etc.), tanks, jeeps, etc. all over the place. Here's a Sherman tank rolling down a street in St. Mere Eglise in front of the Paratrooper Museum.

Here's a pic of a C-47 Dakota that carried the paratroopers across the English Channel and into Normandy (see the HBO mini-series Band of Brothers).

There are also WWII veterans all over the place in every town. This is a man we met in the Paratrooper Museum. Tammy is talking to him (and his daughter). He was a medic who took care of soldiers during the Normandy invasion. He said he saw some "incredible" things (meaning terrible).

The pic to the right is of a Horsa Glider plane. Many of the 82nd Airborne paratroopers came in on these gliders. It looks like it's made of aluminum, but it's actually fabric stretched over a wooden or lightweight metal frame. It's amazing. We got to walk through it!

This is a re-creation group (not reenactment group) that set up next door to the museum. This is a very popular club or hobby in Europe. So we got to walk through authentic tents and see other gear and equipment! Very cool!