La Fiere B&B and the bridge over the River Mederet
The B&B we are staying at has quite a history. It dates back to 1180 when it was a viking property. In WWII the Germans used it as a command post prior to the D-Day invasion. The 82nd Airborne parachuted in and took the little bridge early on June 6 and despite german counter attacks were able to hold it which enabled the Allies to cut connections for german reinforcements.
The couple that now own it have had it for 2 years and have pushed the connection with the Airborne and Parachute regiments. They have a lot of memorabilia and the lady owner’s american connection seems to help – whilst we were there all the other guests were american (they have about 5 rooms in total).
After a lovely breakfast, our first destination for the day was south to Mont St Michel about a 90 minute drive. With the holiday traffic our host gave us his inside knowledge on the best route and we had a good run there. When we arrived there were already a lot of people around and getting through the small laneways at the bottom part (lots of shops – who would have thought !) to get to the top was already a tricky business with the crowds.
Mont St Michel
We headed straight up to the abbey to do a tour. It is an enormous structure and with the huge crowds quite a contrast from the silence it would have experienced in the days of the monks!
After the tour we edged our way back down the laneways and back to the car to head back to St Mere Eglise and the beaches. Unwisely we decided to try the “A” road (motorway) back and before long were crawling along in a traffic jam. As we had now become adept at navigating farmer Pierre’s fields we dived off the motorway on a small lane and with Adrienne scouring her maps we were soon back on moving “D” roads and on our way to St Mere Eglise again.
A model of John Steele
hanging from the church
In the town we parked next to the church in the middle of the square – this is where D-day paratroopers were landing right in the middle of german troops and one, John Steele, got caught on the church spire and watched as his buddies were shot as they landed in the square.
We visited the Paratroopers Museum then had a lovely lunch of fresh baguettes in a little cafe on the square then checked out some of the shops.
Bunker remains along Omaha beach
After lunch we headed out toward Omaha and Utah beaches. We stopped first at the remains of a german battery at Crisbeque which was one of the last parts of the “Atlantic Wall” the germans had put in place to defend the anticipated Allied invasion. It is about 2 km inland from the beaches. This battery was not actually completed at D-day, with some gun emplacements still being constructed when the invasion began. It did manage to sink one of the Allied gun ships with a direct hit but also suffered major damage itself. We strolled around the site and some of the bunkers had been re-created with models to show how they were at the time.
Point du Hoc
We then got out to the beaches and drove along very close to them and there are remains of bunkers and gun positions all along the roads in some places. We went a bit further north and visited the American Military cemetery which is above Omaha beach – which was the worst in terms of casualties and difficulty in landing for the Americans. The cemetery is huge with thousands and thousands of white crosses covering the manicured lawns. The grounds around have been planted with american pine trees.
Sunset watched by “Iron Mike”
After this we went to Point du Hoc where the American Rangers had to scale the cliffs to destroy the gun batteries at the top – and when they got there they were empty.
Although we had plenty of options we could go on to, it was getting late and we had a bit of a trek back so we headed to St Mere Eglise arriving about 20:00 – just before sunset again. While Adrienne and Liam put their feet up I went for a walk again to take some sunset shots around this lovely place. There is a memorial to the airborne and parachute troops across the road form the B&B called “Iron Mike” – representing all the soldiers who fought – your “average Joe”. He has a great spot overlooking the river and nearby marshlands and I took this shot to bring down another very busy day.