11th October - Rouen to Omaha Beach

This morning I was up early to start my tour of Normandy. I had to be down at the Cityrama office at 7am (no sign of Bruce Willis this morning) ready for departure. Our first stop was the city of Rouen. I pronounce it Roooo-en, but in French it is more like Raaaghwn...apparently when you can say the name of this place correctly...you can speak French!!! We went first to look at the Cathedral but were unable to go inside as they were renovating the bell tower and had closed the cathedral for the week. It was ashame because this was something I had been interested in seeing...I'll just have to come back! We then moved along to view the city hall....and then it started to sprinkle. Paschal our guide took us through the streets to explain the Norman architecture of the city...and then it began to rain...really rain! Many of the group had been caught out without raincoats and umbrellas. We made our way to the clock and took shelter under there for a few minutes and then ran down to the St Joan of Arc Church. We saw the large cross built on the sight where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake on 30 May 1431. We then had free time to wander the streets and buy a coffee. Thankfully the rain stopped so I was able to walk around and snap a few pics.

Next we visited the town of Honfleur for lunch. This town is known for its old, beautiful picturesque port, characterised by its houses with slate-covered frontages. It was painted by many artists including Boudin and Monet. The Sainte-Catherine church, which has a bell tower separate from the principal building, is the largest church made out of wood in France. 

After lunch we headed for Omaha beach and the sites of the D-day landings in 1944. Omaha Beach is the code name for one of the five sectors of the allied invavsion of German-occupied France in the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944, during World War II. From what I heard about this mission on the tour, was that it was a bit like Gallipoli where nothing went right at the landing, and many US soldiers were killed. The American's on the tour were very interested in this area and the American War cemetry. I have to say that Americans do military cemetery's very well! There were thousands of marble headstones of soldiers that had been killed on D-day, some stones had names on them, others merely read 'Known only to God'. It was incredible to see. We stopped overnight at the Novotel in Caen.