OMAHA BEACH, France — A silent moment on France’s most evocative shore, a thoughtful stroll over once-bloodied Normandy cliffs, a mug of cider with a Frenchman who remembers hearing the D-Day bombers as a scrawny child, hiding in his cellar.
Keeping the memory of the D-Day invasion alive doesn’t have to be about costumed, costly tours and pricey museums with mock exhibits. Simply being there, on the wide beaches still rimmed with ruined pillboxes and among the gravestones, may make for a more lasting memory.
President Barack Obama will pay homage to D-Day’s heroes and its fallen next month, 65 years after their epochal military undertaking helped lead to the Nazis’ demise. Just his presence on the bluff overlooking Omaha Beach, alongside French President Sarkozy, will send a message as strong as any speech: We will not forget.
For more ordinary visitors, straitened economic times don’t mean Normandy is off-limits.
Curl up in a guest house in one of the many peaceful seaside towns teeming with history. Picnic on local Pont l’Eveque cheese and some of the finest apples France. Take the train from Paris and climb on the BusVerts, a local bus that takes you to key D-Day sites for about $3 to $6 (2 to 4 euros).
Stretched across 50 miles of Normandy coastline, the five beaches where the Allies landed on June 6, 1944, percolate with exhibits and experiences around the anniversary.
Veterans from across the English Channel and the Atlantic make their way to memorial sites and ceremonies at Colleville-sur-Mer, Arromanches and Sainte-Mere-Eglise.
A two-hour train ride from Paris to Bayeux, is a cheap and easy launchpad for the D-Day beaches.
The three Pierres run one of the town’s many appealing guest houses, with attic rooms under the rafters overlooking a tranquil lane for about $55 (40 euros).
Head to the coast, to the Hotel du Casino, perched atop the western shore of Omaha Beach in Vierville-sur-Mer in a location that should cost much more than it does.
Walking along the beaches can bring D-Day alive. Investing in one good tour or museum will fill in the details.
The Caen Memorial is the most sweeping and comprehensive. The Memorial Museum of Omaha Beach at Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer displays weaponry dug up over decades from the sand and hedgerows. Be sure to get a Normandie Pass, which costs just $1.35 (1 euro) and offers discounts at dozens of museums along the coast.
The best free introduction to the invasion is at the visitor center at the American Cemetery on Omaha Beach. Audio of booming gunships accompanies the underground exhibit of dented helmets, ration cans and letters home.
On the grounds, nearly 10,000 American gravestones, white crosses interspersed with stars of David, are lined up with military precision.
To the east, near Gold Beach, are groups of British gravestones, clustered where the soldiers fell. At La Cambe in the west, brown crosses stand under shade trees at the German cemetery.
Among the invasion’s most remarkable feats was that of the American rangers who scaled the Pointe du Hoc, now a free, open-air museum of artillery bunkers and grassy shell craters.
And there are two new ways of reliving what is dubbed “the longest day.” The Vedettes de Normandie runs boat tours offering a view of the shore as the approaching soldiers saw it. Or you can paraglide with an instructor to land on clifftops near Utah Beach.
Memories of the invasion are never far away. Country roads crisscrossing the region bear blue-and-white markers, stamped with the name of a D-Day soldier.
If you go…
PLANNING: For commemoration events, www.normandiememoire.com. For general advice, www.normandy-tourism.org or www.bessin-normandie.com.
GETTING THERE: Four trains run daily between Paris’ St. Lazare station and Bayeux, $45 (32 euros) each way. The drive from Paris to Bayeux is about 160 miles, about three hours. Ferries run from Portsmouth, England, to Caen or Cherbourg.
GETTING AROUND: Bikes can be rented for $20 (15 euros) a day at the Bayeux Tourist Office. BusVerts — www.busverts.fr (in French only) — run several times a day between Bayeux and Omaha Beach, Sainte-Mere-Eglise, Arromanches and other sites, $2.70 to $8 (2 to 6 euros) each way. Pick up tickets and a schedule across from the Bayeux train station.
NORMANDY AMERICAN VISITOR CENTER: www.abmc.gov/nvc/index.php. Open daily, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., except for Dec. 25 and Jan. 1.
OTHER ATTRACTIONS: The 900-year-old tapestry in Bayeux (at the Centre Guillaume le Conquerant, rue de Nesmond). The church at Ste.-Mere-Eglise, which has a model of the paratrooper who was suspended from its roof by the strings of his parachute.
HOTEL DU CASINO, rue Percee, Vierville-sur-Mer, 011-332-31-22-41-02. From about $90 (65 euros) for a double.
HOTEL LES TROIS PIERRE, 22 rue des Bochers, Bayeux, 011-332-31-92-34-38, www.les3pierre.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
