40th Birthday Trip - Day 14 - Exploring Normandy

 AA and DD went to go get the rental car this morning at 9 am in order for us to explore Normandy and Juno Beach.  They made it back at about 9:30, we were all still eating breakfast. 

Once completed we loaded into our vehicle, we headed on the road.  About a 24 minute ride we made it to Juno Beach Centre.  This is the landing place of the Canadian soldiers of the allied invasion of German-occupied France in the Normandy landings on June 6, 1944 during the Second World War.   Lola watched 5 episodes of Band of Brothers on the trip to get ready for this day.

We entered the museum, and started our tour through the story of the landing of Canadians here.  The museum was pretty good, but too much reading for Lola and B.  We made our way through, from what Canada looked like before D-day, then through the journey of the arrival, and then all the way through to remembering the men and woman that lost their lives.

The kids got a card that we could answer questions in each room regarding the "kid" activities set up.  It was really well done.  At the end they collected 52022 points (which is the number of people who lost their lives), and then they each got a pin.  Lola was a little upset she didn't get a pin, as she helped participate in the challenges.  Lola doesn't know what else to say about the exhibits. (AA should have written this blog).  We found out that Manitoba was the first province woman could vote in and almost 10% of the Canadian population went to fight in WW2 in a voluntary manor. Lola also was interested in William Stephenson from Winnipeg, as he has a street named after him and we had no idea who he was. 

We also talked about MBM's grandfather who fought in the War, but wasn't too sure much about him, but later looked up his obituary and asked W, where he fought...but he entered through Italy.  But MBM had his uniform on her phone, so it was interesting to compare to some of the uniforms in the museum.

Maps of Brittan

Bailey Bridge Model 

We later found out that the centre only opened in 2003 which really wasn't that long ago.  We had to wait till 2:30 for the Bunker Tour, so after we finished the museum permanent exhibit and went to the gift shop that had a lot of "Canadian" things in it, we walked into town, Port De Peche to get some lunch.  On our way there we had to stop for 2 bridges that swung open to allow boats through, they were pretty neat.

We sat outside for lunch where the sun was shining, and it was a beautiful day (first one in a while).  We ate at L'R du Port.  The food was excellent, and DD really enjoyed the little salad (1 slice of tomato and some mustard seed dressing). AA and MBM had fish, B chicken nuggets with ice cream, because it was the pirate meal (kids menu), and B and Lola had the burger again...  DD had the chicken fillets with Normandy Sauce.  B and T were very excited there was a dog wondering around, and loved getting pets under the table.  We think the dog lived there.

Once we had lunch we headed back to met up for the Bunker Tour.  Our tour guide was from Ontario, and there is program at Juno Beach for Bilingual young adults to partipcate in, and she was on her second summer and very good. She explained about why the bunkers were there, and all about the Canadians who fought, as well as explained how the bunkers were used.  The group was rather large, but we managed (but not everyone would fit in each room).  There were even a group of 4 people from Manitoba there (besides us)

T even volunteered to be an assistant and he threw a rock into a whole in the bunker, and the rock came shooting out at his feet, even though they were ventilation holes, but designed that if a grenade was thrown in the hole, they would come right back out.  He got a Canadian pin for participating.

There were 2 types of bunkers we saw, one was a lighter one than the other one.  The light bunker we saw first, was not as strong, and had a hole to the top.  There was a trench that was built with cinder blocks sideways that they thing was sabotage. 

The second one was built out of a "catalogue" of bunkers, R666, and all the forms and parts would come together to be built very quickly.  It had 2 m thick walls, and only housed about 5 men. It was interesting that it was on really on the beach anymore, but that is because the sand dunes didn't used to be there, but changes in the water patterns caused the dunes to form well after the war.

R666

We then walked to the beach to talk about how hard it was for the troops trying to invade.  It was a 1.5m stretch between the 2 crosses, called Strongpoint.  After she finished her talk we walked to both sides, B and T decided it would be fun to collect sea shells (clam shells).  

It was very neat to walk the beach and remember those who where there. 

After we walked around, and B left the shells on the pile at the entrance to the beach, we headed back to the museum to look at the temporary exhibit.  It was on aviation, and the coolest thing in there was a parecute!  It was a little room, but some interesting things as the airforce is very strong in Manitoba. 

We left the Centre and headed to the Beny-Sur-Mer Canadian War Cemetery to just see.  What a beautiful well maintained cemetery.  They had perennials planted amongst the head stones, and it was so nice to see.  T didn't seem very interested, but in the car after we were leaving, he sure knew a lot of facts, like how many British shoulders were buried there, there was only 1 French solider buried there.  In total there were 2048 second world war burials, majority Canadian and 19 of them unidentified.  We thought it was interesting that the stones only had the day they died, and how old they were, and not their birth dates.  

After the cemetery AA took us to a Pegasus Bridge, but Lola and B had petty much enough, but they walked around this bridge, and the site of the gliders that landed with the British Soldiers, and then headed back to the car.

They drove back to Caen, parked the car and found a Place to eat by Tram.  The stop was by the Jean of Arch Statue they saw out the window the day before.  They snapped a few photos then headed to SA Se Su for some Vietnamese food.  Everyone enjoyed their meals, even Lola who got to eat the gluten free spring rolls!  (made with rice paper).  

Tiny little car when we were waiting for the Tram.

Headed to the grocery store near there in hopes of finding eggs which we did, got some more breakfast food, and headed back to the Airbnb by Tram.  

Kids went to bed, DD and MBM won the 2 games of Monopoly Deal, and DD redeemed himself playing cribbage.   DD and AA were enjoying their beer, and changed the plan for tomorrow, so we will see how it goes. 

The giant Spider DD tried to kill.