We woke up to a beautifully sunny but chilly and windy day in Caen this morning. Jackets definitely required! Our first jaunt was to the Caen Memorial Museum, which is basically a WWII museum with an emphasis on D-Day and the whole invasion of Normandy. After a little trouble with the GPS in the car we finally made it and stepped out of the car onto General Eisenhower Esplanade! That's right! The people of Normandy love Americans (and all the Allies really) so much that they named it for him! I can't tell you what a treat it is when we're far from home to see a little reference to a piece of Americana. (It was similar to when we ran across the John Kennedy Museum in Berlin.) Here's a pic of the outside of the museum.
It's a really beautiful building with the flags of the major members of the Allies out front.
There's a large amount of green space, as well as gardens, and walkways around the museum, and it's dotted with sculptures (for example a five foot high gun with the end of the barrel twisted into a knot).
Off to the left of the building is a commemorative row of stones that are behind glass. Each stone has a quote from the WWII leader or general of an Allied country. The USA's was a quote from Eisenhower's "letter to the troops" that immediately made both of us teary eyed. "The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you." June 6, 1944
Inside, the museum is just beautiful. It's very similar to a lot of the modern historical museums we've seen in other European cities. It's got a big open main hall (gallery) when you first walk in with a replica of a British Spitfire fighter plane hanging from the tall ceiling. Very cool! Then all of the exhibits are really modern, and interesting, and visually stunning. Here are a few pics of some exhibits. They don't truly show how cool the exhibits are, but at least you get an idea.
In this pic I'm standing next to a deactivated floating marine mine that was chained somewhere in the English Channel during the war and washed up on a beach in 1987. Amazing!
OK. That's all for the museum. Part 2 will be about a beautiful abbey.
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