Mont St Michel, France

Sunday, June 18th - and Father's Day! We got up early and drove to Sainte Mere Eglise. We had a private jeep ride in a WWII Willy along deserted roads and hedgerows while hearing WWII stories.

The town played a significant part in the World War II Normandy landings because of its position in the middle of route N13, which the Germans would have used to counterattack Allied landings on Utah and Omaha Beaches. In the early morning of 6 June 1944, mixed units of the U.S. 82nd Airborne and U.S. 101st Airborne Divisions occupied the town of Mission Boston, making it one of the first towns liberated in the invasion.

The early airborne landings, at about 1:40 a.m., resulted in heavy casualties. Some buildings in town caught fire that night, illuminating the sky, and making easy targets of the descending men. Some were killed by the fire. Many hanging from trees and utility poles were shot.

A well-known incident involved paratrooper John Steele of the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment (PIR), whose parachute caught on the spire of the town church. He hung there for two hours, pretending to be dead until the Germans took him prisoner. Steele later escaped and rejoined his division when U.S. troops of the 3rd Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment attacked the village, capturing 30 Germans and killing 11. The incident was portrayed in the movie The Longest Day by actor Red Buttons.

We visited the south side of Utah Beach. We also toured the Airborne Museum and had lunch in St Mere Eglise. It rained during lunch. An English woman ran the pub and we had fish and chips. St Mere Eglise was how I remembered it when I traveled there with Mom twice before.

We backtracked to the German cemetery and also laid flowers there. It is also moving in a more Gothic way. We walked through a deserted museum there and it was an odd feeling. Mikel looked for the Janitz name in the books of those buried there. We didn't find his name.

We drove to Pont Du Hoc. It was raining while we talked there and went through the pillboxes and then we walked the cliffs. The terrain there is so tough and we could imagine the rangers trying to climb them in harsh conditions.

We saw a flash while driving and then started noticing traffic signs. There were places along the roads that automatically monitored speed and captured photos for tickets. We started worrying that we had been driving for days without knowing this and we could owe a lot of money in fees and tickets. Luckily when we got home, we only had 1 ticket for the trip.

We continued driving to Mont St Michel. Parking was different than when I was there before and the town had grown a lot. We took a shuttle across most of the bridge and then had to haul our luggage up lots of little stairs. We stayed at Mere Poullard on Mont St Michel. It was magical. We got there as everyone was leaving for the day. Anya got a tapestry pillow of The Lady and the Unicorn. Mikel got us two patches and he got also bought 2 Normandy patches while we were at the Airborne Museum.

We had an amazing dinner at the hotel. The cliff was part of the dining room. Anya found out she loved Norman coffee!

We took a bottle of wine with us and wandered around Mont St Michel. We laughed and talked and had an amazing time. It was surreal. Anya had her own small room in front of our room. She said it was a dream she never knew she had - to stay in a castle!Read more