back in Paris

In the end I did not oversleep the trip. I went to Normandy to all the D-Day sites, which I have never done. My preference is usually to arrange my own trips, but in this case I decided to sign up for a tour bus from Paris. That turned out to be wise for just the reasons I expected: the sites are very spread out, and it’s better to be with a guide who knows exactly what happened where.

I want to reflect on today and write a longer post, which might take awhile (maybe I’ll squeeze it in tomorrow). But what I saw was the following: (1) the museum in Caen (which is pronounced roughly like the second syllable of “Lacan”); that museum covers the whole war, and some of my reactions to it might surprise you; (2) two major American sites, including Omaha Beach; (3) Juno Beach, the Canadian invasion point. We drove by one of the British beaches (I think it was Gold, not Sword) but didn’t stop at either, for reasons that were never made clear.

It’s only 3.5 hours from Paris to the beaches of Normandy, which is less distant than I had imagined.