30/6/2010-Tour of Gold and Sword Beaches and Bayeux Tapestry

In the British Cemetary. Don't think there are more fitting words to sum up the loss of life here.

Retail therapy at L'Occitane. (Anne this picture is for you!)

Dad napping at the museum of the Bayeux tapestry.

Dad and I on Sword Beach.

The gang on Sword Beach.

The circa WWI guns that the Germans were using.

Today we went on another coach tour of D-Day sites. This was only a half day though. We had a different tour guide. Not as good as the other one, Sylvan, but still very knowledgeable. We had another American family with us like yesterday. This one was from New Jersey as opposed to Ohio. They reaffirmed my thoughts that I only like mid-westerners (minus the occasional exception I suppose). At one point the New Jersey man, a high school principal said when trying to decide whether our group should go see a 15 minute movie that tries to give you a real inside view of what the soldiers would have gone through during the landing on a 360 degree movie screen-like an Imax I imagine, “I’ve seen every movie made about the war. You’re not going to show me something I’ve not already seen.” He also corrected the guide’s English (which was very good and much better than the American’s French I would bet). They’re the ones that give us bad names.
We went on a bit of a walkabout through the country side and saw Chateaux. We then saw some more coast fortifications and this time the guns (which were all leftovers from WWI-I didn’t realize those were the guns the Germans were using) were still attached.
We went and saw both Gold and Sword Beaches which were both landed by the British. My Uncle Ron landed on D-Day at Gold Beach. He was injured shortly thereafter.
In the afternoon back in Bayeux we did a bit of retail therapy and then went to the Bayeux Tapestry. (For all you, like me who didn’t remember learning about it in school, a Mid-evil scene depicting the entire story of William the Conqueror’s conquest of England in 1066 in embroidery on linen. It is 76 ½ yards. Long. It was amazing. (reminiscent of the Globe Theatre experience. Is there a sarcasm font on here?) In other words…Bored out of my gourd, but Mom loved it. Dad and I found some lounging chairs out in front of the building and took a nap while she finished going through the exhibit. Even the gift shop was boring. I didn’t even know that was possible. Too much culture for me.