Thursday 20 June 2019

France for D-Day 75th Anniversary

The trip had been long in the making - a change from our usual long weekends away in Ireland and, for me, the first time riding a bike in mainland Europe. The trip took place over the second week in June and coincided with the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings of WWII, enough to see in itself nevermind when added to the scenery of Normandy. The ferry crossing from Dublin Port takes around 18 hours and left more than enough time to get suitably excited! We drove from Armagh on the main roads through torrential downpours to be left standing waiting on the Irish Ferries' W.B. Yeats in hot sunshine for several hours; the advantage of being on a bike is that you are first on, followed as we were by a couple on a loaded scooter who looked like they couldn't be happier, even if this thing belched smoke and fumes in the faces of anyone following it.
The bikes ready to board at Dublin Port
The first adventure took place before we had even docked, with the huge vessel redirected by the French Harbour Masters to check on a small yacht that was struggling in high seas off the French coast; apparently all was well - to the amazement of the crowds that had gathered on the decks to watch. The little craft bobbed violently in the swells and whoever was skippering it had bigger cahones than I! At best it looked precarious, at worst damn terrifying!

We docked and disembarked in Cherbourg, cutting our way through the queued car traffic to the Gendarmerie manning passport control and we were through. No reason to panic over the anticipated checks for high-vis vests and other items that one is told one must have to journey in France. Immediately apparent is that the surroundings are not exactly picturesque; Cherbourg is a large industrial port and has the associated infrastructure around it, mainly large industrial estates and Route Nationale[s] that we soon found ourselves on. Leaden skies and chilly temperatures did not help the aesthetic. We had to have our wits about us, firstly due to other bikers (a contingent on Harleys) who pulled out immediately in front of me from a standing start for them at the side of the road, forcing me to swerve, to an errant bus driver who thought he would weave in lanes to stop bikes overtaking him (which must have been somewhat concerning for his passengers nevermind us!).Our plan was to head for the accommodation as quickly as possible, just south of St. Martin-de-Cenilly. We passed Valognes and then Carentan and Saint-Lô before heading south-west on the D38 through small hamlets of Canisy, Quibou, Dangy and finally St. Martin-de-Cenilly.
 
Good Coffee in Gavray and the Start of the Trip Proper
Heading for coffee in Gavray
What looks like a relatively small distance on a map of France is, in fact, rather large - we were just south of the peninnsula of land on which Cherbourg tops, showing in tangible terms the vastness of France. By the time we arrived at the Gite, we were drenched - this was compounded by the need to withdraw money for the deposit; so a further journey 7.5km south to Gavray and an ATM was required. Gavray became, though, a town we would travel to most mornings for coffee prior to heading north for the D-Day sites. By this stage we had already seen and passed hundreds of period vehicles (Willis Jeeps, personnel carriers, motorbikes etc) and was a sign of things to come. The next morning we grabbed some of the most phenomenal coffee I've ever tasted in Gavray, now bustling with the Saturday market full of fresh French produce.

Our route northwards was to the Airborne Museum in the famous Sainte-Mère-Église; the sat-nav took us on the D7 towards Contances before the arrow-straight (Roman?) road D971 through Raids and Sainteny. Period vehicles were everywhere and, in truth, we had completely underestimated the scale of the celebrations, perhaps naively thinking that as it was after the 6th (the actual anniversary), things would have dwindled - if anything they had ramped up for the weekend!  All the villages we passed through were of similar postcard perfect architecture, like stepping back in time and, with the jeeps driving about complete with those in the in period uniforms, it was akin to post-liberation, it genuinely felt like a snap-shot of that time.
 
Sainte-Mère-Église and D-Day Anniversary
Sainte-Mère-Église
Sainte-Mère-Église was a hive of activity; the streets were thronged with people including elements of the current Airborne U.S regiment - all there to see a parade (that we didn't know was taking place!). The Sainte-Mère-Église (Church of St. Mary) has a dummy paratrooper hanging from the spire, a reference to the events of 1944 when John Steele of the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment landed on the roof and his parachute was caught; he could only watch the fighting below, pretending to be dead for two hours before being captured - he later escaped and rejoined his division which retook the town from the Germans (the story is portrayed in the film 'The Longest Day'). It is also one for the first settlement centres liberated after the D-Day landings. The town is thought to have been founded in the 11th Century, and retains the pretty architecture and narrow streets off the main thoroughfares that seems to characterise this part of France; the earliest records from c.1080 refer to it as Sancte Marie Ecclesia (Church of St. Mary). The current name has also been translated as Holy Mother Church.

The Airborne Museum is one of the main destinations in the town (with much of its tourism based around WWII), and is spread across a flat field with several buildings housing separate exhibits. As with the streets, it was packed - at times uncomfortably so - there were a lot of Americans there, presumably representing their Grandfathers who had fought as part of the landings. There was also a current German military contingent, which I thought was nice to see; perhaps a representation of the loss of life on both sides and ultimate futility of war - my mind cast back to the ending of the film 'The Memphis Belle' that pays tribute to bravery on both sides. After passing a Sherman Tank, we made for a building that houses a glider, complete with dummy paratroopers. The exhibit also houses a collection of photographs, some harrowing, of the landings and the inevitable aftermath. There are also a fascinating collection of used objects such as undetectable glass mines, knives, radios and, most poignantly, helmets complete with bullet holes; bringing home the fact that it was on someone's head when the bullet entered, a loss of life that even behind the glass screen suddenly becomes very tangible and very real.

Dakota at the Airborne Museum
The second exhibit houses a complete Dakota (there are used aeroplane propellers at the entrance and a symbolic Olive tree) alongside a collection of arms from all sides of the war, uniforms and yet more photographs of the landings. The scale of the plane is huge, and one can only imagine the skies full of them. There is a collection of field medical equipment that resembles a torture kit, rather than something that could offer relief and succour. The third exhibit was a sensory experience; you enter what seems like the side of a plane to be faced with more dummy paratroopers, except you are in the moment - the plane is vibrating, its dark and outside are flashes and bangs representing flak. There are radio comms going on around you....it is the moment before the jump. After a few moments decompressing on the grass, we exited the museum to immediately be caught up in a large parade, so opted to sit down and have a drink to let it pass; the small bars and brasseries were buzzing with activity and people. We travelled south on the D14 and then D514, again passing numerous jeeps and other WWII vehicles, to Grandcamp-Maisy and due east to Omaha Beach at Vierville-sur-Mer. Omaha was the code name for one of the five sectors of the Allied invasion and specifically refers to a stretch of coastline 8km long from east of Sainte-Honorine-des-Pertes to west of Vierville-sur-Mer. The objective was to secure the beachhead thus linking with the British landings east at Gold Beach and VII Corps landing west at Utah Beach.

Omaha Beach and Pointe de Hoc - the Force they Exude
One of the Omaha Beach memorials atop a German gun position
The site is perhaps made famous through its depiction in film and TV; Band of Brothers and Saving Private Ryan to name but a few. As with those depictions, nothing really went to plan with the landings, despite it forming part of the largest armada ever assembled in human history. Even though it was a clear and sunny day, for me there was a dark undercurrent that pervaded the place - you are in a place that witnessed death on an epic scale - the presence of the monuments act as moments for sombre reverie. On the beach itself were some families playing and building sand castles and, for me, it seemed incongruous; immediately behind them are sealed but complete German concrete gun emplacements (Widerstandsnests) with the gun loops still in situ. I couldn't help wondering what still lies beneath the sands - yet conversely maybe their leisure time on the beach is a very real representation of the very thing that was being fought for? For me, though, there was an internal conflict that was broken by the low-pass of two Black Hawk Helicopters. With it being (apparently) high summer, the nights were long and we had lost track of time, leaving Omaha around 6.30 for the hour-long journey back to the accommodation. The roads were, in the main, a joy to ride on, riding on the right-side of the road soon became natural and second-nature; indeed it seemed intuitive rather than something to worry about.

Omaha Beach also incorporates more sites and monuments than the beach itself; one of these is the infamous Pointe du Hoc that we visited the following day, taking the same route that flanked Saint-Lô in moist and exceptionally humid conditions. The first thing that struck me about Point du Hoc is the poc-marked and cratered ground that surrounds it; remnants of the artillery shell craters that formed the sea and air bombardment of the site.
The artillery craters at Pointe du Hoc
Pointe du Hoc formed part of the Atlantic Wall defences - originally built in 1943 to house captured WWI French guns, the site was augmented in 1944 with H671 concrete casements, H636 observation bunker and L409a mounts for 20mm Flak 30 anti-aircraft guns. The location was bombed in April 1944, after which the Germans removed the 155mm guns. Although the Germans had removed the main armament from Pointe du Hoc, the beachheads were shelled by field artillery from the nearby Maisy battery, on the fire support plan of heavy cruiser HMS Hawkins, during the assualt by the US Rangers shelling was provided by the battleship USS Texas, and destroyers USS Satterlee and HMS Talybont.

Concrete fortified position at Pointe du Hoc
"The assault force was carried in ten landing craft, with another two carrying supplies and four DUKW amphibious trucks carrying the 100-foot (30 m) ladders requisitioned from the London Fire Brigade. One landing craft carrying troops sank, drowning all but one of its occupants; another was swamped. One supply craft sank and the other put the stores overboard to stay afloat. German fire sank one of the DUKWs. Once within a mile of the shore, German mortars and machine guns fired on the craft. These initial setbacks resulted in a 40-minute delay in landing at the base of the cliffs, but British landing craft carrying the Rangers finally reached the base of the cliffs at 7:10am with approximately half the force it started out with. The landing craft were fitted with rocket launchers to fire grapnels and ropes up the cliffs. As the Rangers scaled the cliffs, the Allied ships provided them with fire support and ensured that the German defenders above could not fire down on the assaulting troops. The cliffs proved to be higher than the ladders could reach."

The main sites have been left, thankfully, intact and provide a stark reminder of the fighting that took place - the timbers on the interior roof lines are still charred from either flamethrowers or grenades that were used against the German position, the walls are also riddled with multiple bullet hole scars. Again, there was much to take in and absorb, and again this was disturbed by several low flyovers by three Chinook Helicopters and then a large [Hercules?] type plane.

The American Military Cemetery
Even on motorbikes, we could do little about the mile long queues of traffic on exceptionally narrow roads trying to approach the Normandy American Cemetery (Cimetière Américain de Colleville-sur-Mer), the air-head BMW's - parched from the non-movement - began to exhibit some displeasure! We parked some distance away and walked the rest of the distance with a sizeable crowd. 

The American Cemetery (Normandy)
The cemetery covers some 172.5 acres overlooking Omaha Beach and contains the remains of a little under 10,000 dead. The burials are marked by white Lasa marble headstones, 9,238 of which are Latin crosses and 151 are Stars of David. The cemetery contains the graves of 45 pairs of brothers (30 of which buried side by side), a father and his son, an uncle and his nephew, 2 pairs of cousins, 3 generals, 4 chaplains, 4 civilians, 4 women, 147 African Americans and 20 Native Americans. 307 unknown soldiers are buried among the other service members. Their headstones read 'Here Rests In Honored Glory A Comrade In Arms Known But To God'. The Wall of the Missing has inscribed the names of 1,557 service members declared missing in action during Operation Overlord; 19 of these names bear a bronze rosette, meaning that their body was found and identified since the cemetery's dedication. As with most things now becoming apparent on this trip, the scale hits hard; it is literally a sea of white headstones as far as the eye can see and another genuinely tangible reminder of what happened here. 

Saint-Lô - The 'Capital of Ruins'
The journey back to the accommodation passed through the small village of Formigny, complete with its 15th Century church that paid more than a passing nod to earlier Romanesque styling (with chevron carved decorations and rounded arches). There was soon torrential rain via the D29 for a stop off in Saint-Lô; it's fair to say that we didn't see this town at its best - it was exceptionally dark and dreary and there are better days to see it. However, walking through the centre towards a shop for supplies, the rising bedrock outcrop atop which stands ancient looking walls and the shell of a cathedral immediately stood out. The city came from the name Briovère between the confluences of the Vire, Dolée and Torteron Rivers. This original name comes from 'Bridge on the Vire River' in Gaulish, unsurprisingly the town was built on and around ramparts. The town started life as a Gallic fortified settlement, occupied by the tribe of the Unelli of Cotentin

Saint-Lô ramparts and cathedral
The town was conquered by the Romans led by Quintus Titurius Sabinus in 56 BC, the town was subsequent beset by invasions throughout history: the region was the scene of various Saxon invasions during the 3rd Century. The Franks didn't establish an administrative power there, although Briovera was nevertheless entitled to hammer coinage. Historian Claude Fauchet claimed that "the Coutentin, at the same time as our Merovingian kings, was inhabited by the Sesnes (Saxons), pirates, and seems to have been abandoned by Carolingians, as variable and too remote for correction by our kings, to the Normans and other plunderers of sea...". Sainte-Croix Church was consecrated in 1204, this Romanesque building is the oldest in Saint-Lô and believed to be on the ruins of a temple of Ceres, it has undergone many modifications over the centuries. Only the gate and the first bays remain from the Norman period. Christianity grew quite late - there were only four bishops of Coutances before 511. A pilgrimage was conducted and the city took the name of Saint-Laud, and then the name Saint-Lô which has been known since the 8th century. 

Saint-Lô in 1944 and present day 'The Capital of Ruins'
During the Liberation, Saint-Lô suffered two series of air attacks during the Battle of Normandy; the first was the bombardment of the city by the Americans during the night of D-Day 1944. The first American air strike killed almost eight hundred civilians. Allied planes continued to attack the power plant and rail facilities daily for a week. A second series of air attacks began on 17th July during the Battle of Saint-Lô - one of the three conflicts in the Battle of the Hedgerows, which took place between 7th -19th July 1944, just before Operation Cobra - only on this second occasion it was bombed by the Germans, giving rise to its description by Samuel Beckett as the 'Capital of Ruins'. I knew I had heard of Saint-Lô, but it is only post-trip that its significance has been brought to the fore. Another site that if one had time, would be worthwhile exploring - like so much of Normandy and, I suspect France in general, you could spend months just in one area and be constantly finding new things and being generally beguiled by what the area has to offer. 

Bayeux (so much more than a tapestry)
Our final day again commenced in driving rain, by this stage, though, no-one cared. We had seen a lot and there was more to see. Our journey was almost due north-east initially on the D38 which then turns outside Saint-Lô to morph to the D972 that becomes the D572, again arrow-straight, and plunging through Cerisy-la-Forét (the Cerisy Forest). At this stage I was struggling to see with a mixture of the rain, a fogging visor and, as if that wasn't enough, rain on my glasses from when I had opened the visor in a vain attempt to let air in to de-mist it.
Walking in search of coffee in Bayeux
I had memories of Bayeux from my youth, I remembered it being profoundly pretty, and it remains so. Founded as a Gallo-Roman settlement in the 1st century BC under the name Augustodurum, Bayeux is the capital of the former territory of the Baiocasses people of Gaul, whose name appears in Pliny's Natural History (iv.107). Evidence of earlier human occupation of the territory comes from fortified Celtic camps, but there is no evidence of any major pre-existing Celtic town before the organisation of Gaul in Roman civitates. The town is mentioned by Ptolemy, writing in the reign of Antoninus Pius, under the name Noemagus Biducassium and remained so until the time of the Roman Empire. The main street was already the heart of the city. Two baths, under the Church of St. Lawrence and the post office in rue Laitière, and a sculpted head of the goddess Minerva have been found, attesting to the adoption of Roman culture. The city was largely destroyed during the Viking raids of the late 9th Century but was rebuilt in the early 10th Century under the reign of Bothon. In the middle of the 10th Century Bayeux was controlled by Hagrold, a pagan Viking, who defended the city against the Franks. The 12th-century poet Benoît de Saint-Maure, in his verse history of the dukes of Normandy, remarked on the Danish commonly spoken at Bayeux. 
 
The 11th century saw the creation of five villages beyond the walls to the north east evidence of its growth during Ducal Normandy. William the Conqueror's half brother Odo, Earl of Kent, completed the cathedral in the city and it was dedicated in 1077. However the city began to lose prominence when William placed his capital at Caen. The term 'Normans' used to define William, his court and the invasion of 1066 is a derivative of 'North Men' / 'Norsemen' referring to the Viking settlement and lineage of the Norman Knights. We, of course, visited the Bayeux Tapestry which is an exceptionally ornate and superbly executed embroidered cloth nearly 70 metres (230 ft) long and 50 centimetres tall, depicting the events leading up to the Norman conquest of England culminating in the Battle of Hastings. It is thought to date to the 11th Century, within a few years after the Battle of Hastings. It tells the story from the point of view of the conquering Normans, but is now agreed to have been made in England - not Bayeux. It is likely that it was commissioned by Bishop Odo, William's half-brother (although there are a plethora of other theories and ideas as to who may have commissioned it). In 1729 the hanging was rediscovered by scholars at a time when it was being displayed annually in Bayeux Cathedral.
 
The interior of Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Bayeux
After coffee (and for Dee the best tarte tatin I have ever seen), it was like an excited child that we made our way to the imposing and exceptionally impressive cathedral (Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Bayeux - 'Cathedral of Our Lady of Bayeux'). Early medieval architecture is something I cannot help by 'geek out' on and this is one of the best examples of a Norman-Romanesque building. The site is an ancient one and was once occupied by Roman sanctuaries. The present cathedral was consecrated on 14 July 1077 and although following serious damage to the Cathedral in the 12th Century the Cathedral was rebuilt in the Gothic style which is most notable in the crossing tower, transepts and east end, it retains many Romanesque features such as the crypt and decorative elements that clearly are a reference to what went before. As with all medieval cathedrals, the height is both impressive and symbolic and for me there was a sharp intake of breadth at the scale of the building. They are meant to impost and meant to instil some sort of reaction spiritually - for me whilst not necessarily a religious experience, they are nevertheless spiritual. We could have wandered Bayeux's pretty streets for days, but the trip was now drawing to a close, we were soon on the road southward to the accommodation to pack for an early start the next day back northwards to Cherbourg and the ferry home. 

I cannot recommend highly enough a trip to France; the people were exceptionally friendly and helpful, despite my [very] broken French. The roads were agreeable, the towns pretty and even in damp weather, there is little to dampen spirits. France....you were phenomenal!

France Trip Videologue

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