Carentan to Port-en-Bessin – 67km

Another good night’s sleep, but no rain – luckily as I left my washing out! Camping late doesn’t give you much time to get your washing dry! Got away by 9:00. Had to return my shower smart card to get my €10 deposit back. It took a while, I think they were confirming that I hadn’t exceeded the two  six minute showers per day!! My plan today was to get to Omaha Beach, but there were a few things I wanted to see before that. I had a nice ride to the German War Cemetery. It had a nice feel, with the plaques flush with the grass, and a few blocky crosses between graves overseen by a cross on a hill. The most striking thing was that each plaque marks the grave of two soldiers. Howver, the number of plaques just for “a German soldier” or “two German soldiers” was quite upsetting. I suspect it was the price paid for being a defeated occupying force, but nonetheless..

Cycling around the countryside there are lots of monuments to American soldiers, saying that they were killed in action and buried at this point by the locals. However, all these bodies were re-intered at the American Cemetery that I will visit later. I also passed the site of the first temporary airfield build after the invasion. I’ve seen film of the troops laying miles of wire mesh to strengthen the ground. Its said that you can still see this wire making many fences around the area. I haven’t spotted any.

I then headed to Maisy Battery. I’d spotted it on the Internet and was looking forward to it. It was the main  German Battery that could reach both Utah and Omaha beaches (the 150mm guns had 13km range). It was discovered in 2006 after being lost in farmland for decades. Walking down the trenches, between the gun emplacements and going in the buildings (bunkers) pretty much untouched for 80 years (just damper, colder, darker and even worse than in 1944) was a real experience.

It was a nice Heath Robinson presentation, a million miles from yesterday’s museums, but really captured what it was like, and what the purpose was. Incidentally, it is rumoured that the main bunkhouse had all the wages for the troops in the area ($4.8m in 1940 money) and it mysteriously disappeared after it was captured by the Americans. Could be a film there!

After leaving Maisy, it seemed that there was much more traffic around (not south east of england levels, but more than previous days). Everyone was going to Point de Hoc, a geman battery on the cliff tops. On D-Day the US Rangers scaled the cliffs to take the gun. It was a bit busy (and I needed to lock the bike and walk) so I took the “Voie Vert de la Liberation” an amazing cycleway along the cliffs and down into Saint-Laurent-Sur-Mer.

Saint-Laurent-Sur-Mer is where Omaha beach starts, strecthing east. Its a massively wide sandy beach. There are houses at beach level, but the land rises steeply behind, so potentially a difficult beach to land on (or move away from). I had lunch in the D-Day Resturant (you cannot move without bumping into a tank, a museum or a themed business) as its really touristy. I think it is well meant rather than opportunistic. On one pub in a town yesterday, there was a painting (maybe a photo, I should have stopped) of two veteran soldiers embracing, and a separate message of ” Thank you for our freedom”. It brought tears to the eyes.

On that subject, I headed up to the American Cemetery which has graves for nearly 10,000 soldiers. It was very busy, so lacked the sombre atmosphere of the German Cemetery, but is beautifully kept and the crosses en-mass give the scale of the lives that were lost. Interestingly, only the date of death of the soldier (the Germans showed a birthday- where known), but did include the regiment and town. There are 307 unknown graves, against about 1,500 missing soldiers.

I was obviously overcome when I left the Cemetery, as I decided I knew better than the sat-nav, and a no-entry sign as I bombed down the hill to the beach. Thinking I would just follow the seafront. There is no seafront, it’s just cliffs. I struggled back up the big hill feeling a bit of an idiot! I had (wrongly) assumed the no entry sign was to keep the masses of tourists off a tiny road

My next target is Gold Beach. I haven’t mentioned it, but Utah and Omaha are the beaches where the Americans landed. Gold and Sword beaches were the British, and Juno the Canadians (in broad terms). Anyway I am leaving the American zone, and it does feel like that. With the “Stars and Stripes” flying everywhere and I even passed a themed wartime shopping mall, advertising “Dollies Donuts”. I cycled into Port-en-Bessin about 4pm. It had been a cooking hot day and I felt like stopping for the day. A Huit-a-huit shop (8 to 8 – is that a service?  late start, early finish hehe!) provided an exciting meal of Normandy chipolatas (from the butcher!), a bolognaise sauce and tomatoes as the vegetable! This will go well with my pasta mountain in my panniers.

Port-en-Bessin is a nice seaside town. I sat on the harbour wall, trying to get my Garmin to navigate me from details on my quickly running out phone. There was a monument to the Royal Marines, so we must be entering the British zone.

The campsite was very close, and once again it was full (except for cyclists! I like this!). I cooked dinner, which came out pretty well, and then sat back to listen to the Olympics on the radio. Yesterday, I heard the historic double gold medal swims by Léon Marchand. Apparently yesterday the French newspapers had a head line with a play on words for the Longest Day – with his name – [guessing “Le Leongest Jour ;)” for his record four swims in 10 hours. The Longest Day film was referenced a lot in Saint-Marie-Eglise yesterday, when the film crew was in the main square for months.

The other omission in my blogging is the level of amenities in each campsite. I’d forgotten my lessons learnt on my Loire trip. Camp 1 €16 toilet paper (tp) – No, Camp 2 €16 tp – Yes, Camp 3 €13 tp – No, Toilet Seat – No!!!