Apologies for not posting earlier!  Our Gite is so far out in the countryside that internet is not available and we have yet to find an internet cafe.  Will do better in a couple of days.  Flight from Atlanta to Paris was great, met Heather and Patrick in the airport and took off  in our rental car.  Charlie is reacquainting with driving a stick shift but we haven't suffered any severe whiplash!  We have been around  at least several hundred roundabouts....  The Normandy countryside and villages are beautiful and quaint. 

On the way to Normandy, we drove the general route that Dad's unit followed as he went across France, but in reverse---we drove through the area north of Paris where he fought with the 113 Calvary between 26 August 44 and 1 September 44 their mission being to clean out remaining German units that were left after the fall of Paris on August 25.  We crossed the Seine at St. Germaine en Laye where his unit crossed.

Our arrival day was pretty well spent driving into Normandy and finding our Gite—a small apartment down a single lane which is charming and suits us so well—cows out back and the owner's pigs nearby!  It is located just outside a village called Graignes which has a compelling World War II history—on D Day about 150 paratroopers landed in the flooded fields bordering the village by error and gathered in the village of Graignes.  They were attacked by a SS Battalion and after several days of combat were forced to flee and/or surrender.  The Germans took reprisals on the village people killing many including their priest and murdering all the wounded paratroopers they had captured. 

Sunday we went into Bayeux for a tour of Omaha Beach, the American Cemetery and Point Du Hoc.  We had a great guide from Overlord Tours.  To walk on the beach and see the ground our troops had to cover was sobering to say the least.  Shaun, our guide, provided maps and photographs of D Day to help us visualize the horror the soldiers faced as they came ashore.  My Dad's unit came in on the 13^th of June and we remember him saying that bodies and equipment still were on the beach.  We drove through Vierville directly behind Omaha Beach where his unit assembled after coming ashore.  Later we will go to the nearby village of St.Clair where Dad's unit first saw action. We also visited the German fortifications and gun locations on the high ground above the beach. 

Omaha Beach

Shaun asked the group if we had a special reason for coming to Normandy and of course we told him about Dad.  The other two couples were from Bedford, Virginia, so they were interested in the Bedford Boys.  We told Shaun about the photo of the 803^rd TD Bn. tank destroyer in the intersection at St. Lo being Dad's, asking him if he'd ever seen it......when we stopped at the next location he dug through his maps and photos and pulled out the very same Signal Corps photo that we have and that Dad carried all those years in his wallet.  He occasionally does tours to St. Lo and uses the photo -- he was excited to get some personal information about the soldiers in the TD to use in future tours. 

The time we spent in the American Cemetery was both sad and proud.....over 9000 graves, every state represented, every walk of life and education level, every rank; all buried together none standing out more than the other.  Their names on the side facing West (or home) so from the entrance you only see Crosses or Stars of David, not names or ranks.   We located Dad's Co. B Company Commander, Sidney Vincent from Virginia who was killed in St. Lo.  In our brief time of just wandering around we saw two other graves of soldiers from the 803^rd TD Bn.  The grounds were beautifully landscaped and the Crosses went on forever.

Monday we drove South to Mont Saint Michel and spent several hours touring the Abbey.  The weather changes hourly it seems—heavy rain and wind on the way down, then clearing and warming up, then more wind and rain!  Yesterday, Shaun said in Normandy each day can have three seasons.  We drove back up the coastal road for a while and visited some really charming villages that had their own war stories.   Back “home” late, Pat cooked supper-- tomorrow St. Lo and several locations we know the 803rd was fighting in and around.  

Mont St. Michel

Street in Norman Village