Le Havre, France is our last port for our British Isles Cruise even though it is not IN the British Isles.
If you decide to just hang out in Le Havre, it has a few somewhat interesting things to see at this mostly industrial/shipping port town. The arrow in the photo below points to a sculpture made out of shipping containers, and you can also see the spire of St. Joseph’s cathedral to the far left. I understand that it is made entirely of concrete – with lots of stained class. People interested in architectural design will appreciate its interior resemblance to a lantern.
The Le Havre cruise port offers the closest port for visiting Paris or Normandy Beaches. We chose to go to Normandy.
We booked with Overlord Tours for a private tour to primarily visit the Omaha sector of Normandy Beaches and the American Cemetery. The motor coaches and private car/vans for the Princess sponsored tours were lined up and ready to greet passengers. Our Van met us just around the corner from the parking lot here:
Our van could accommodate up to eight guests, but we opted to just keep it for the four of us for two reasons: Everyone can get a good view from their seats AND to avoid uncouth people we don’t know who might have Covid cooties.
I guess we had a third reason, too, by keeping it private, we could go at the pace we wanted without regard for other passengers who might have wanted to spend wasted minutes taking photos of grains of sand from every angle.
This day made me reflect on the appreciation of sacrifices made by so many for the freedoms we enjoy today. We had a great guide, Christian, who is retired from the French Navy, and he really made the history come alive for us. I cannot recommend this tour highly enough.
Beach of “Bloody Omaha”
I did not remember about all the obstacles that the Germans had erected all along this beach. They planned for a possible invasion by sea by staging all kinds of impediments in the water at low tide so that they would be invisible to invaders at high tide. Our guide showed us this diagram to illustrate. There were still examples of the hedgehogs to be seen in the area.
Our guide had a book of photos he used as he recounted history to us. This helped me to mentally travel back in time from this very location with him.
Monument to the medics who stayed on the beach amidst gunfire to assist the wounded. (And there were way too many wounded and dead on the beach.)
From here we traveled to the American cemetery overlooking Omaha Beach.
Our guide gave us each a well-used map of the cemetery so that we could identify monuments and specific grave markers.
Sobering view from the cemetery to Omaha Beach
We left the cemetery and as we were driving, we passed by the original location for the cemetery for American soldiers before it was moved to the current location.
We made a brief stop at Mulberry harbor, another view point for Omaha Beaches.
Pointe du Hoc – where American Rangers courageously scaled sheer cliffs while under constant fire.
Saint Mere Eglise – this community was popularized by the movie, “The Longest Day,” when a paratrooper was pretending to be dead for two hours while hanging from a church tower. He was taken prisoner by the Germans but later escaped. They have a mannequin of him hanging from the church today.
There are several monuments in the square. This one focuses on the sacrifices of the Americans during World War II.
We ate lunch here seated in a courtyard. The sign says, ” This plaque is to commemorate PGC Cliffort Maughan who parachuted into the garden of this house…..He was taken prisoner by a German soldier billeted in this house, who then in turn surrendered to him. PFC Maughan went on to fight in Normandy, Holland and to survive the war.” It also lists other men whose ,”heroic actions that night helped to change the course of history.”
12th Century church at Angoville Au Plain- Here two American paratrooper medics tended to 80 American and German soldiers wounded during the first day of the Normandy invasion. This village was overrun by troops of both sides several times during D-Day.
D-Day has a significant meaning to anyone who lived through it or had parents/grandparents who had loved ones serving during World War 2. June 6, 1944 is one of those dates I memorized (and forgot) for History Class in High School, but my Dad and his generation would not forget – they lived during that time. I can’t imagine waiting for the news stories by radio and newspaper like they did. If they had the same technology we have today, they would have been glued to news broadcasts and possibly would have watched the entire bloody fighting as it happened. The ones who lived and died through this invasion saw things I shudder to imagine. I am glad for them that families and friends could only imagine those horrors from home and did not have live images imbedded in their minds from CNN, FOX, BBC, and every online news agency on the planet.
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