Omaha Beach

The French living in Normandy must feel like the British and Americans came in 1944 and never left. Every little village has a D-Day museum of some sort and each museum is surrounded by shops that peddle books and post cards and mementos to the visitors.

This is OK with me. I was one of the visitors.

Theresa and Katie and I drove the coast road from the cemetary down to the beach. That would have been Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944. Today, the Normandy coast has found its calling as a summer home for vacationing Parisians. The beach front is peppered with "vacation colonies" and campgrounds. In the months of July and August, the Parisians come in droves to Normandy beaches to enjoy three weeks of vacation in the sun. (Parisians either head South to the Mediteranean or North to Normandy.)

We ate a dynamite lunch in a seaside hotel-restaurant. Then Theresa and Katie went shell hunting on the beaches. The opening picture, though not the best, shows the two of them in a moment of pause. The remaining pictures below give a feel for the coast. As you might judge from the clouds, there was rain rolling in on this particular afternoon.