Four days in Normandy - Days 4 to 7

Etretat sea stacks and arches

After a day in Etretat looking at limestone coastal erosion of amazing caves, sea-stacks and arches defying gravity and the power of the sea we've had a heavy dose of WWII Operation Overlord and the Normandy beach landings.

Even Etretat, although not one of the beach landing sites, still had evidence of German fortifications as, all along this coast was Hitlers 'Atlantic Wall' that, he thought, had sealed France off from any chance of invasion from England. It was, nonetheless, a beautiful and picturesque coast with the most amazing limestone arches and caves, tunnelled and modified in places by the Germans, but still amazing.

Looking down to Etretat beach from the clifftop walk

We took a walk through the old town, along the beach and through a cave and tunnel to another beach with more rock arches, but in a place that is cut off by a rising tide every day. Notices warn people not to venture out to the cave any later than 1 hours after low tide. Our timing was fine as it was only about 2:00pm and low tide was not until after 4:00pm so, with a fair number of other people, we scrambled over rocks, through a cave and tunnel, using a rusty old ladder and knotted rope descent onto the other stony beach and took the same amazing photos of sea stack and rock arch as most others. We completed our walk up and over the headland to see it all from above, so had a good few hours out before it turned from a quite hot sunny day to a very wet and windy night.

Our route from Etretat to Ouistreham took us to this free ferry crossing over the mouth of the River Seine. We had put 'No Tolls' into the Sat-Nav, so it took us off the free motorway just before a suspension bridge (that was a toll bridge) and through an industrial estate before announcing 'Board the ferry'. Quite exciting.

A bottle of fizz at our Ouistreham campsite. A sparrow even hopped into Big Ted

It was still fairly windy on Sunday as we packed up and headed off to see the Normandy beach landing sites, first stop for two nights at Ouistreham, near Caen. In fact the cross-channel ferry to Caen actually stops at Ouistreham and we'd booked into a campsite only 2km from the beach and ferry terminal and were slightly unnerved to see a group of immigrants camped out outside the campsite waiting, we were told, for an opportunity to climb on board an unsuspecting lorry or motorhome heading to the ferry and England.

Pegasus bridge. We even drove over it in Big Ted on the way here

The campsite was relatively secure so we hoped (and in fact were) OK. We'd noticed a ferry in port all day and, on the evening of our second night there an English motorhome and then a caravan turned up on our site just as it was closing for the night. They were not happy as they had booked for the night crossing back to Portsmouth but had been told it wasn't running due to a 'technical problem', so they'd had to book in on the campsite to get the 08:30am sailing. They reckoned the 'Technical Problem' was lack of bookings and it certainly seems fairly quiet everywhere, but not good for their reputation to cancel sailings if it was the case.

This aerial photo in the museum shows the three gliders landed next to the bridge. Precision placing!

This photo, also in the museum, shows the gliders having landed

We got our bikes out for the first time and, after arrival on Sunday, rode out along a proper cycle route alongside the Caen canal to Pegasus bridge and the really excellent museum there. We probably don't need to say much about the history of this bridge as it's a very well told and heroic story of troops being sent in on gliders to land near the bridge on the night before the invasion of 6th June 1944, take it intact and hold it then clear land to allow 350 other gliders to land, who would then go on to destroy other bridges to prevent German reinforcements getting to the landing beaches and hold the left flank until reinforcements arrived.

At the bridge

The bravery of coming into land into enemy controlled territory in a glider that you know is a one-way ticket and that you've got to hold until relief arrives, if it does, is awesome. As we know, they did, they held on and their action became pivotal in winning the war. The nearby museum was superb as, not only does it tell the story, it does it in a human way by telling the lifestory of some of the men who took part, explaining who they were, their families and what happened to them. The whole thing is very moving and we can absolutely recommend a visit here, but expect to come away very humbled and know that we today are but a fraction of what those people were.

The old German bunker, now a museum in Ouisteham

On Monday the day dawned cold but sunny so, this time we took the bikes 2km north, past the ferry terminal and out towards the beach codenamed 'Sword' in the D-day landings. As most people know, the beaches were divided into five sections and, from west to east these were codenamed 'Utah', 'Omaha', 'Gold', 'Juno' and 'Sword'. The USA had 'Utah' and 'Omaha' sectors, Canada had 'Juno' and the British with 177 Frenchmen had 'Sword'. 'Gold' sector was also a British sector but no troops were landed there as this was the area where the Mulberry, artificial harbour, was built to get supplies ashore (more on that later).

One of the exhibits in the museum

On the way to the beach we stopped off at the 'Musee Le Mur de l'Atlantique' or the Atlantic Wall museum, which was a heavily defended German barracks, that had to be taken early on. It's been left pretty much as it was with waxwork models in German uniforms and very good information panels inside and, again the bravery of men going in to flush out the Germans is just amazing. Along the beach is the 'Eternal Flame Memorial' overlooking the beach, which today is a lovely seaside beach and to think of how many people died trying to cross it is very emotional.

The eternal flame memorial at Sword beach

At intervals along the beach information boards outlining the life of an individual Frenchman who took part in the invasion, many of them going through huge upheavals and stress, finding themselves in England, being trained for months and then being shot and instantly dying as soon as the landing craft doors opened on the beach. It's just so emotional reading all this stuff and words fail.

Peaceful 'Sword' beach. Imagine the destruction, bombing and death that occurred at this spot 74 and a third years ago

Todays campsite at Arrowmanche, with the Mulberry harbour visible out to sea

Today in beautiful sunshine we headed out of Ouistreham and along the coast to Arrowmanches and the beach codenamed 'Gold', arriving at a clifftop Aire costing only €6/night and with amazing views down over Arrowmanches and the sea with the remains of the Mulberry artificial harbour poking out. We headed straight to the close-by 360 degree cinema that shows actual footage from D'day from USA, British, French and German archives.

Some remains of the Mulberry Harbour on the beach

There were a few seats inside, but really you wanted to stand up so you could keep turning round to look at the different action all round. It was very well put together and, once again, very emotional, covering major speeches from Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and General De Gaulle and very much of a human element as well as a lot of noise and action. It was well worth the €11.50 entrance for two (I got a €0.50 old person reduction!).

One of the Mulberry platforms

We walked down onto the beach, along the front and, while waiting for the tide to go out, went into the museum of the landings, giving detailed information on how the Mulberry harbour was built and used, which was just amazing. Conceived by Winston Churchill, the whole idea of building a harbour of concrete sections in southern England, towing it across the channel and sinking it in the right place, all during a battle in hostile territory and all within a couple of weeks is audacious and just goes to show what we humans can accomplish when we have to. We nearly didn't go in as we thought we were 'museumed out' but we're so glad we did.

This photo in the 360 degree cinema shows the Mulberry harbour in use

So tomorrow we head away from the beaches and on towards Brittany, but we'll never forget what we've seen and the bravery of the people who fought for what we now often take for granted. We must never forget.

And this was a photo taken today from our campsite of what is left

This is a section of the floating roadway used to ferry equipment from the ships docked in the harbour, you can see how long they were in the black and white photo above. When Churchill conceived the idea of an artificial harbour in 1942 (all major harbours in northern France were so heavily defended they were impossible to take from the sea, so he thought up the idea of floating one over from England - in the middle of a war zone!), he said it must float up and down with the tide, but must be anchored in position. The problem of anchoring a floating platform must be mastered, he said. Allan Beckett was the man who solved it and this was erected in his memory