This was our first D-Day tour. Our original itinerary for this day, June 7, had us landing at Caen, then driving to Arromanches-les-Bains to see the 360° theater, and then the German gun battery at Longues sur Mer, before going on to Omaha Beach. However, landing at Caen required the boat to go up a very narrow waterway with several locks on it, and the night before, our captain had informed us that the predicted high winds would make it difficult to navigate the locks; so we were going to land at Honfleur, which is farther north but much easier to get into. This meant that the drive to Arromanches took more time than expected, which is probably why we didn’t visit the gun battery. We would see plenty of German gun batteries later in the tour.
The gallery for this post is called Omaha Beach. Feel free to look at all the photos.
We started out on main roads, but eventually had to transfer to what a British friend of mine once called the “gray squiggly roads;” in that stretch of the French coast there are no main roads within about 3 miles of the coastline. Arriving at Arromanches, we all trooped in to the theater. I have only one photo; it really wasn’t possible to shoot still pictures of it.
Arromanches, introduction at the 360 degree theater
Watching the screening, however, was really overwhelming. These looked like real video of the war, with sound, and it was deafening and scary. After the show, there was quite a bit to see. Here’s the coastline, south from Arromanches, which is about half way between Juno Beach and Omaha Beach.
