D-Day Landings and the Battles of Normandy

In June-August of 1944, the beaches of Normandy became a killing field, and the site of a victorious operation to push the German army back.

This June, we visited the D-Day landing beaches of Normandy. The area involved is huge, all along the coast of the Calvados and Manche departments.

The second photo is of Arromanches, where the allies succeeded in building a massive artificial harbor -- you can see some of the remaining concrete floating platforms. What an awesome technical feat that was.

The top shot is of the sculpture titled "Les Braves" on the beach code-named 'Omaha Beach', at the town of St. Laurent sur Mer -- it was installed in 2004, to mark the 60th anniversary of D-Day. Its really stunning.

To cap off an impressive weekend, we happened upon Omaha Beach just as the flags of the allies were being taken down for the evening. When we asked the two gentlemen charged with the duty if we could take their photo, they welcomed us, asked us where we were from. They stopped what they were doing and went to the American flag. One of them took our camera, and the other helped us take down the American flag -- an odd feeling, I have to say. The gentleman who helped us explained that he is the Mayor of St. Laurent sur Mer, the town on the beach where 'Omaha Beach' is located. Quite an impressive and memorable experience.