This weekend ISA took about 50 students from all three of its schools here in Paris, l'Institut Catholique, La Sorbonne, and the American Business School to visit the region of Normandy. Specifically, we went to Omaha Beach, the Cemetery, and Point du Hoc on Saturday and Mont Saint-Michel on Sunday. We left Paris at about 8:00 AM Saturday morning and arrived at about 11:00 AM or so in Caen, Normandy that day.

Our first stop on Saturday was the Memorial Museum of Caen. It was pretty interesting but I was a little disappointed with it. I had hoped that they would spend more time giving you information about the D-Day landings themselves but instead they gave an overview of World War II from the French perspective. It was informative and fascinating in its own way, but it wasn't what I had hoped we would see. It's a great museum for those who are new to this era in history. In their defense though they were under renovations and where adding new material and exhibits. However if you have had a pretty good background in WWII and are visiting the beaches I would recommend a museum in Bayeaux which is specifically for D-Day and the landings.

After lunch we drove out to Omaha Beach Cemetery, which is right above the beach itself. I had already been here for a short period of time back in the summer of 2006 and I wanted to actually see the beach this time, so I went down to the beach first. It was low tide so there was about 150 yards of open beach which about the level of the tide when the landings took place. The beach itself at this level looks massive and the bluffs look like mountains almost. One can only imagine but never fully comprehend what the soldiers must have felt during the landings. Even for someone, like myself who has studied the D-Day and the landings, it is difficult to understand what happened there. Each company, platoon, squad, down to the individual man, was fighting their own personal battle just to stay alive.

The Cemetery is located on the top of the bluffs above the "Easy Red" sector of Omaha where the 16th INF of the 1st INF DIVISION was supposed to land. The Cemetery itself is massive with 9,387 graves; 4 women, 307 unknown soldiers, 3 Medal of Honor recipients (whose lettering is outlined in gold), and 33 pairs of brothers who are all buried side by side. There are just some many rows of graves. They stretch on seemingly endlessly across the Cemetery eventually turning the green grass into a see of white. Walking among the grave stones I glanced at each of the names, their unit, the date they died ( or were found), and their the state they were from. I wondered what their life story was. What was it brought these men who were my age, younger, or a little older than me together almost 66 years ago to die together in an unknown land far from home to save us, America, and the world from tyranny? How many were eagle scouts? How many were only sons? Who lived near my hometown? Who graduated from VMI? What made them fight?. Although it was the graves of the Unknown Soldiers who struck me the most. Every so often on can be seen among all the names. It reads...

"HERE RESTS IN HONORED GLORY

A COMRADE IN ARMS

KNOWN BUT TO GOD"

Next we went to Point du Hoc which is just a few miles down the beach from the Cemetery. It is amazing to see because much of it remains at is was left after the battle. However now it is overgrown with some bushes, green grass, and has many paths (both intentional and tourist) weaving to and fro over the top of the moonscape from shell hole to shell hole and bunker to bunker. Much of the German fortifications were destroyed during the battle and pre-invation bombardment, however it is still possible to walk inside some of the remain structures. Although I would recommend a flashlight for it is quite dark and there are some holes inside the old structures. It is hard to imagine now, because all the trenches are gone or filled in with dirt, but during the battle there was an intricate trench system all through the installation connecting all the bunkers to the six gun emplacements and the observation post on the point. I think that Point du Hoc has to be my favorite of the landing zones because of how unique the topography is, the difficulty in the operation, and the fact that so much of the battlefield appears to be the same as it was right after the battle. In comparison the Omaha Beach is very much overgrown with many new houses and a resort, not to mention that almost all of the bunkers and fortifications have been destroyed and removed. All three sites are well worth at least a day to explore.

We left the beach area by 3:40 PM and drove to an apple farm where they make the legendary Calvados. It was very fascinating. The group was split in half with one half going on a guided tour while the other half was "blessed" with some free samples. We all were given the opportunity to taste first the Apple Juice, then the Pear Juice, next came the Cider, then the Pommeau (which is one step fermented past cider), and finally the Calvados ( the last step in apple fermentation). The apple juice, pear juice, and cider were all very good. The Pommeau was a little thicker and smoother than the rest but of course had more alcohol. Calvados is interesting...it is very strong but then again I'm not the seasoned alcoholic. I would definitely put it in something life coffee ( which we had a taste of...although it was more like a cold late with a swift kick at the end). All in all though it was a nice end to a very long day.

Caen is a very beautiful city, if my memory serves me correctly, because we only really got to see it at night this time. I ate at a French pizza place with some friends we had a good time I think since we stayed there for about an hour and a half. We each (well all but one...) got a 8-10in pizza. I got the "Chef" which is basically the equivalent to a meat lovers pizza in the U.S. I had bacon, ham, a special sausage, and lots of cheese, oh and some onions. It was really fantastic!

Sunday began with everyone getting wet as we loaded onto the bus. There was a significantly large storm that blew over France and Spain. Although I didn't find out until last night that 45 people had died and there was extensive flooding along the West Coast of France. It rained the entire way to Mont Saint-Michel.

When we finally got there it was raining sideways, I am only half joking. I was one of the last people off the bus and discovered that everyone was running to Mont Saint-Michel because the wind was blow the rain into us at about 20 mph so it felt like hail. We made our way through the village and up the hill to the abbey. We had a guided tour of Mont Saint-Michel. However, I was too preoccupied taking pictures to stand and listen to what the tour guide was saying. Although I wish I had stopped to listen more because he was one of the those rare tour guides that makes the tour fascinating and entertaining. Mont Saint-Michel is absolutely beautiful! Even in the rain it was really pretty. But I think that rain gives old structures a more natural and calming feel though and I get some of my best pictures from rainy buildings. The sun came out soon after the tour was over and we made our own ways down the hill through the village to shop, eat, and explore. It is amazing that there are people who still live there and there are hotels throughout the village, which is much larger than what it looks like. There are so many nooks, streets, and small passageways that take through the residential part of the village that would easily take a day to find all of them and a week to photograph them. It was very cool though to see it in sun light after the storm. The view is amazing! especially with the tide almost all the way out, the bay floor itself can be seen. The coastline is very pretty too with farmland as far as the eye can see. It's a must if you ever come into Normandy.

That wraps it up. We saw so much within a very short period of time which was very fun but almost all of us left feeling like we could have spent more time.