The last leg of my journey took
me along the beaches to Vierville sur Mer and eventually
to Pointe du Hoc,
where I made lifelong commitment to never join the
military for any reason. I ended up at Maisy Grandcamp
where General Bradley landed in 1944.
Vierville sur Mer has some easily accessible and
some not so easily accessible German fortifications
which are largely intact. They are not marked so
you will have to find them the old fashioned way.
That means looking, cuz the locals aren't going to
tell you. I'm not going to tell you either. But I
will show you - on a different page.
As I approached Maisy I found this
little stone structure with the grassy roof.
I thought it
would make a good shelter for the night. So I
went inside to have a look...
This is a typical German pillbox with
U.S. Navy improvements. It's past the stone tower,
just outside of Maisy. Unlike the Navy you will miss
it if you don't look carefully. It being flat and
all.
One of the things
which particularly struck me as I walked through
Normandy was how the
little flowers grew amongst the ruins of war and
added a kind of joy to the destruction. This would
be in addition to the joy of just the destruction.
That is it would be a bonus joy.
Maisy is
a picturesque Norman fishing village turned Allied
base, turned tourist hot
spot. It has several hotels. The going rate in
town was €55.
Honestly though, the hotel back in St. Laurent
was better and wayyy cheaper. The beds in Maisy
feel
like cold flat slabs. The bed in St. Laurent felt
like my bed back home.
The sea weed is worth looking at. That's all I'm
gonna say about that.
There are some nice little French bars here, populated
by nice French drinking buddies. Bring extra smokes.
On the other side of Maisy from where
we came in are thse little sea breaks and a series
of German pillboxes which are quite impressive.
Bullet holes (big
ones).
This is why
TV is better than real life.
Below: Looking out of the box.
This is what 60 years of salt spray does
to high quality German steel.
At the end of my adventure my Skechers
(SN 6617) were still holding up after 4 years. Best
shoes I've ever own by the way.
Rendre visite à la
Cimitiére Americain en cliquant ICI
!!!
Rendre visite à la
Vallée de la Loire en cliquant ICI
!!!
(Dreamweaver MX helped)
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