Day 3 (May 6, 2013) - D-Day Beaches

Since I am the best wife, I decided not to make Peter wait to see the D-Day Landing beaches, primarily Juno Beach.  So we set out for the coast and along the way we stopped in Cruelly.  Cruelly was liberated by the Royal Winnipeg Rifles on May 6^th, 1944.   Our stop here was actually not by design but rather as it was lunchtime, we were hungry and saw that people were sitting on the terrace we pulled over, parked and walked over.  Little did we know as we walked up to the door of the Hostellerie Saint Martin and asked if we could sit inside (as there were no seats left on the patio) whether or not the restaurant was good or not, but we took that the patio was full to be a good sign.  The waitress came over and advised us that the appetizer was fresh salmon or a salad, so we took one of each, the Entrée was…rabbit…gulp…now I must share a memory of when I was a child, we were out for dinner and after dinner we were asked how Trish and I liked dinner and only then were we told it was rabbit…so here I was at a little bistro in Cruelly and the lunch offering was rabbit…so what could I do but say without missing a beat “parfait”…Whilst Peter looked shocked and he too then had to agree to having the rabbit…that or nothing…and incidentally the dessert was a fruit cup with vanilla ice cream…So how was it?  The entire meal was delicious…I just had to avoid thinking of little rabbit foo-foo…but like dinner after touring the second largest beef plant in Canada…I decided to just eat it…the rabbit incidentally was slow roasted, tender moist.

While we waited for our lunch, the owner came over and asked if we were Canadian and then he walked over and took a picture off the wall and showed it to us it was from just after the war and in it William Lyon MacKenzie King and signed by him.  The owner was really proud.

From Cruelly, we drove on to Courseilles sur la Mer or Juno Beach and the Juno Beach Centre.  This unfortunately was not as impressive as we had expected.  First, the beach area is built up with condominium developments, second and the biggest disappointment was the Juno Beach Centre.  We paid 15 Euro entrance and unfortunately we walked through a couple of small exhibits and in less than 15 minutes we were out with nothing else to look at.  Although, we were impressed with a particular hall that had the stories of current day immigrants to Canada and one of the highlighted stories is one of Peter’s customers who is also a heart surgeon at the Heart Institute.  Disappointed, we walked out to the landing beaches…it wasn’t an easy feat but I got out on to the beach as well (the sand was so deep my wheels sunk in and I was perpetually stuck but we made it.  Peter walked out to the shoreline (the tide was out) and even found a piece of sea glass.   While we were on the landing beach, there was a group of French high school students being led by a French tour guide and we listened in exasperation as he explained that the Canadians couldn’t swim so when they got off the landing boat they drown.  This isn’t exactly accurate…while some of the boys couldn’t swim; those that drowned most likely did so because of the weight of the packs and equipment, also despite what the French tour guide was explaining to the students, yes the Canadians had high casualties, there were also a good number that made it and survived the landing to go on to liberate many French villages.

After Juno, we ended up going to Omaha Beach as Peter really wanted to see a battery… but was a little disappointed with the battery on Omaha…so I did what the “best wife” would…I googled to find another battery but this one is also the only surviving battery that still has it’s guns.  Peter was impressed but he couldn’t get the pictures he wanted as he kept ending up with flaring in the shots from the sun…so I suggested we go and find something to eat and wait for the sun to set.  Now the sun sets late here (9:30 before it starts to set) so we had a bit of time to wait.  We headed to a nearby town called Arromanches, to a little bistro, were we sat with two gentlemen in their 070s, one from Michigan and the other from Texas, although he was originally from France.  They were great company and regaled us with stories and honestly were very much like the Hecklers from the Muppets.

After dinner we headed back to the battery (Longues sur la Mer) and then I sent Peter to the battery while I sat in the car for over an hour while he waited to the perfect shot with the light just right…

Bonne nuit!

The pictures are a bit out of order but I can't figure out how to fix that.. 1. Juno Beach, 2. The Battery at Longues sur la Mer, 3 & 4- Creully, 5. Juno Beach and 6. the Battery at Longues sur la Mer.