Étretat

After a relaxing four days in Bayeux we left today for Etretat further west on the Normandy coastline. We visited Arromanches - the village on Gold beach, one of the British Invasion sites and the site of a military marvel code named Mulberry. The problem for the Allies was that all the deep water harbours like Cherbourg or Le Havre were incredibly fortified so instead of attacking them on DDay they built - over two years - two portable harbours that they towed across in pieces and assembled at Gold and Omaha beaches. This consisted of an outer breakwater of scuttled ships then a line of large reinforced concrete caissons inside that were sunk in place once they arrived. Then they placed small sections of spans on top and across to each one to make roadways to the beach from the off loading ships. Impossible to explain the magnitude of this enterprise - look at the first archival picture of the completed harbour.
We passed through some more wartime sites of the Airborne British Squadrons before heading to Etretat which is village set in a lovely bay on the ocean amongst the white cliffs of the Alabaster Coast - but more of that tomorrow.Read more