Josh and Rachel Take a Trip

Josh was feeling pretty yucky, despite medicine, so we stayed at the B&B until about 2 pm while he slept off his illness. Then we popped into the car and took off for another hair raising adventure.

When the idea of France was becoming a reality as our honeymoon, I decided I’d very much like to see the beaches at Normandy. There are actually 5 miles of them - you can start at one end and work along the coast to all of them. Since we only had two days in Normandy and we only had a few more hours before most of them closed, we went to Omaha Beach.

France is grateful to the contributions of Americans during WWII, and has given this land to the US to use in memorial of those who died to bring about their liberation. The US flag flies here, and the 9,387 buried here face West, toward their homeland. Per Rick Steves: the dead of D-Day were buried temporarily until the 1950s, when they were exhumed and their families decided whether they should stay in Normandy or return home. There is a disproportionate number of officers, since their families believed they would rather be buried alongside those they served and commanded.

There are several beaches, and all have retained their code names from that military landing. Omaha Beach looks calm and peaceful now.

The mosaic ceiling in a chapel at one of the lots in the cemetery that looks out over the beach. After seeing lots of amazing (but ancient) artwork in France, seeing modern elements in such an old medium added gravity to what it represented.

Nothing drove the point home more than all the boys, though.

The bronze statue Spirit of American Youth.

The Garden of the Missing. The names of those men never found are listed here. Inscribed above the 1,557 names reads:

Comrades in arms whose resting place is known only to God. Here are recorded the names of Americans who gave their lives in the service of their country and who sleep in unknown graves. This is their memorial, the whole Earth their sepulcher.

I wish my photos did the place justice. It was immense and so sadly serene. Having seen the exhibit on it at the War Museum in France and the pictures throughout so many history classes; then physically being there… it was a moving experience. What a price to pay.