Our alarms went off at 4 am, but I’d been awake for over an hour! We dressed quickly and hit the road by 4.20. Google said it would take us around 50 minutes to be at the Memorial at Utah Beach and we needed to be there well before dawn to be sure of getting a parking spot. Sure enough, we hit the queue of traffic around 5km short of the beach and followed the cars in front down the sandy headlands. As we approached we saw the cars in front pulling in parking on the verge, we were only 900 metres away by this stage so decided we’d follow suit rather than attempt to find a spot closer. It was a good decision.
It was very cold but we were well prepared with down jackets and gloves and joined the stream of people walking down to the beach. The sky was just starting to glow pink as we walked onto the sand.
There were already many hundreds of people there, some down near the shore and some standing up on the peaks of the dunes. After a while the jeeps and military trucks came barreling down the sand and parked together , facing out to sea.
We walked up and down the beach,trying to keep warm before the sun finally peeked over the horizon. There was a constant stream of people feeding the crowd on the beach, but it’s a very long beach so they could spread out and give everyone plenty of space to enjoy the coming dawn. It really did feel special being there, remembering the young men who surged up the beach in 1944, with the words of Eisenhower in their heads. His final orders had said – “The eyes of the world are upon you. The hope and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you.”
There was supposed to be a commemorative landing by US Navy seals, near the memorial. But , I. What we are finding is a pattern for the festival, the plans and what eventuates don’t always match! Once the sun was up the jeeps and trucks started to head north up the beach, on so the thousands of people on the sand followed them. We walked with them for a while and saw the parachutists dropping waaaay up north on another headland , just as we turned back towards the car – we were keen to be ahead of the crowd so that we could make a break for Sainte Mere Eglise before was inundated.
Sainte Mere Eglise was the first village liberated on D Day, and so it holds a special place in events such as this.the town is the home of the huge Airborne Museum, which we had visited in 2011 and is the primary location in the western part of the Normandy beaches for ceremonies , activities and festivals related to D Day . The centre of the town is totally blocked off for several days on the “anniversaries”, with parking areas set up outside of town. And we’d read of huge traffic jams of people trying to get in over the last few days, so we wanted to get there early!
We had no trouble leaving Utah Beach, we were well ahead of the crowd and, despite a roadblock here and there we made it to Sainte Mere Eglise not long after 8 am . A short walk into town and we made a beeline for the nearest cafe for coffee and a croissant.
after that we just wandered around the town enjoying the atmosphere and to see what was going on. The church towers above the main square, hanging from one corner of the church roof by a snagged parachute is a figure dressed as a 1944 parachutist. John Steele was a paratrooper whose regiment had been dropped, in error, directly over the town. The church stands next to the town square and today a large area was cordoned off. Inside this area there were some military trucks and jeeps a few re-enactment soldiers and a TV crew led by a coupe of elegantly dressed French journalist . We stayed to watch as they interviewed a variety of people including a couple of elderly veterans . We didn’t realise it was live until a guy standing next to us opened up his phone and brought up the live stream of what we were watching before us!
The town was getting busier and busier, the shops doing a lively trade in souvenirs and a queue outside every cafe. We wandered down to take a look at the town hall and then headed back out the other side of the town to visit Camp Geronimo.
This was the biggest and best of the re-enactment camps that we’ve visited. They had half a dozen tanks as well as a horde of other vehicles, replica command tents, medical tents, foxholes and more. Inside some of them there were guides giving talks about what went on in each tent, all in French of course so not very useful for us. However they were drawing a good crowd.
when we went back into the main square they had started a live stream on the huge screen beside the stage. They were showing the events happening down the coast at the British Normandy Memorial where the first of the major ceremonies were taking place. King Charles was there with Macron and Rishi Sunak and a handful of British vets. We had seen the chairs and stage being set up there a couple of days ago so it was interesting to watch the results.
We had planned to visit the Airborne Museum here but the queue to get in was way too long. We had visited it previously in 2011 so we decided to give it a miss this time. We had started our day so early it wasn’t even noon yet so , having seen all we wanted to see in Sainte Mere Eglise, we decided to drive up to Cherbourg-en-Cotentin. We thought we’d take a look at the Liberty Museum. However on arrival it was about to close for 2 hours for lunch! It’s set on a groggy hill above the town so we did stop to see the wonderful view down over the port. We could see one of the ferries cruising away, they go to Dublin as well as Poole and Portsmouth from here.Down in the town we stopped in for lunch at a cafe and went for a little walk along the river.
By this stage we were flagging after our early start to the day, so we made tracks back to the hotel. We put our feet up and watched the live stream of the International Ceremony that was happening at Omaha Beach, lots of western leaders and representatives!
We finished the day with some local beer and wine in the garden again, and then went into the town to try to find the “really cool food truck place” that we’d overheard some Americans talking about. It was in the old station area and was excellent! There were about ten food stalls with various cuisines and a little bar. We enjoyed some really good burgers and congratulated ourselves on having negotiated the 80th events very successfully. It’s been such an experience and I’m very glad that Neil wanted to come.
