Today’s post, written by CJ Ball ’18, to recount Monday, March 6, 2017:

Today was our second in France, and our first real day spending the whole 24 hours in the country. To start off our day, we had to eat breakfast from our hotel at 7:15 in the morning, which is way too early, especially for a spring break day. The morning was worth it, though! Our first visit was to Caen-Normandie Memorial, an exceptional museum about World War II, particularly about D-Day. The museum had plenty of exhibits, following chronological order, spanning from Hitler’s rise to power, all the way to the Cold War. After touring the museum, we saw a short film about D-Day, showing how the Allied Powers liberated France from Nazi control.

Pointe du Hoc

Omaha Beach

After the visit to the museum, we took a ride over to two of the actual war sites from D-Day: Pointe du Hoc and Omaha Beach. At Pointe du Hoc, the terrain of the earth is filled with craters, with leftover remnants of German bunkers. One really cool part was a giant crater, where a bunker blew up, sending a huge piece of stone (the size of three couches) flying 30 yards away. After visiting the sites, our group visited the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial, which pays respect to the American troops who gave their lives during the war. The piece of land is actually American soil, as the French gifted it to the U.S., to show gratitude and respect towards the efforts in D-Day and the rest of World War II. The cemetery concluded our trip for the day, as we picked up some snacks on the way home and wrapped up the day back at our hotel.

Pointe du Hoc