Visit to the D-Day Beaches

1. Maria in front of the D-Day Museum in Caen

2. Natalie doing a backbend on Omaha Beach

3. Maria and friends barefoot on Omaha Beach

4. The American Cemetery

5. The German Cemetery

Saturday, March 28th

We went on an excursion with our school to the D-Day Beaches in Normandy. First we went to the D-Day Museum in Caen, which was very interesting. They had a movie with footage from the invasions--it was so sad to watch all the men running up the beach getting mowed down.

We visited the American cemetery--which is actually owned by the US. There are about 10,000 white crosses over the graves. We found a few from Oregon.

Next we went to Omaha Beach (one of the beaches where the Allies invaded). It was beautiful and sunny, so a bunch of us took off our shoes and played on the beach. 

Then we went to the Pointe du Hoc (a cliff overlooking the water), where there are still huge craters all over the ground from the bombing of the Germans by the Allies. We got to explore the German bunkers, some of which are more intact than others.

Our last stop was the German cemetery, which is much different than the American one. There are twice as many people buried in the German cemetery and they only have plaques in the ground to represent the soldiers. There are some short black crosses in the cemetery, but the whole place feels much "dead-er" than the American cemetery.

I am planning to write my research paper for my history of France class here on the D-Day invasion, so it was really interesting to visit all those places.

-Natalie