On the triple occasion of the 80th anniversary of D-Day, an exhibition of Ian Patrick’s portraits of Normandy veterans at the Army Museum at the Invalides in Paris, and the publication of the expanded second edition of D-Day Portraits: Héros Anonymes – Anonymous Heroes, his collection of portraits and first-hand accounts of veterans of the Invasion of Normandy who have returned over the years, I sat down with Ian to discuss his relationship with Normandy, with WWII veterans, and with the veteran who first awakened his interest in the “anonymous heroes” of the invasion that changed the course of the war: his father.

Ian Patrick is an American-born photographer, now a dual citizen, who moved to Paris in 1979 after launching a successful career as a portraitist in New York, where he photographed such well-known cultural figures of the time as Bob Marley and Andy Warhol, among others. It wasn’t until Ian was living in France that his father, William Patrick, when visiting, told him that he had taken part in the Invasion of Normandy 1944. Together, in 1980, they visited Utah Beach, where his father had landed six days after D-Day. Since then, Ian has returned frequently to the D-Day Landing Zone to photograph veterans of the Invasion of Normandy. With the disappearance of the generation that fought in the Second World War, his 44-year project of photographing veterans is coming to an end.

What do you remember of the first time you visited the D-Day Landing Zone?

It was 1979. I’d done a photography job in La Rochelle, and since my assistant and I weren’t in a rush to get the car back to Paris, we drove up the Atlantic coast and cut across to Normandy. I remember seeing the sign for Omaha Beach and driving down to the beach and saying, “Well, there’s nothing here!” We drove up and down the beach a couple times, unimpressed, and then went up to the cemetery where we got the jaw-drop view of the tombs and the channel beyond the cliff. But we didn’t spend much time in the area because we had to get back to Paris.

Then the next time you went back was with your father?

Yes. In 1980. My father flew over on a military plane, which he could do for free as a career military man. He flew from California to Dover, Delaware, from Dover to the Azores, from the Azores to Ramstein, Germany. Then he took the train to Paris, Gare de l’Est, and walked over to our apartment by the canal [Saint-Martin]. Sometimes he’d just show up, without letting us know he was coming. But this time we knew he was coming because he wanted to meet Véronique, my fiancée at the time, before we got married.

After a few days in Paris, he was bored and he said, “How about taking me up to Normandy?” And I said, “Sure, Dad, but if it’s Calvados [apple brandy] you want we can get it in Paris.” And he said, “Yeh, I’d like some Calvados, too, but I’d like to visit Normandy because I was there in the war.” I said, “You never told me about that.” He said, “Well, let’s go up there and I’ll tell you all about it.”

At the time I had a “Quatrelle,” one of those funky little Renault cars, that wasn’t exactly a bomb on the road. Dad didn’t want to go on the freeway but on the smaller national roads because he figured he’d recognize all kinds of stuff. As soon as we got into Normandy, which you do fairly quickly from Paris, he started noticing signs for Calvados and he asked me why were there so many of them. I told him that there are lots of farmers who make and sell Calvados. He said, “Let’s go get some.” We were still two hours from the beach. We went into one, where I introduced my father and told the farmer that he wanted to try some Calvados. The farmer said, “Here’s 7 years, 10 years, 15 years.” My father said, “Let’s start with the 10 years.” He tasted it and he said, “My god, this is so much better than the stuff we had during the war. Get three bottles of that.” I said, “Three bottles, Dad?” He said, “Yeh, one for you, one for me, and one for right now.”

So we started drinking it at 9 o’clock in the morning and by the time we got to Utah Beach, we were feeling “in our cups,” as they used to say, and he started talking to me about his time in the war. He landed at Utah Beach on June 12, so the beach had been won by then, of course, but there were still corpses around. My father had started off the war as a pilot but blew his eardrums out, so they put him on the ground, which he was really disappointed about. He was an armorer, making sure that guns were perfectly in alignment and worked and the bombs properly place, anything to do with ammunition. They had a special place on the airstrip where they could lift the tail up and fire at targets to make sure that the guns were aligned correctly. What’s incredible is that they actually had gun cameras on those machine guns and rockets so that same evening the films were developed and they would project them in the barn of the farm where they were staying and write down what needed to be done. And they saw the carnage they were creating for the Germans.

When he arrived on the 12th, the airstrip where he was assigned, which was just behind Sainte Mère Eglise, was still being finished by the Corps of Engineers. It was being made so that their P47s wouldn’t have to go back to England to refuel and rearm. He was there until the end of August, after the Germans had been hammered in the Falaise Gap. From there he went to Le Mans, then Nancy, then Saint Dizier, and also provided support for the Battle of Hürtgen Forest and the Battle of the Bulge. They put special pouches under the wings to drop ammunition and supplies to the men who were stuck in the Hürtgen Forest. They then moved into Germany.

I knew practically nothing of this before going to Normandy with him. I knew that he was in the war but he never talked about it. He was a career army man but he never talked about the war. I lived on army bases as a kid and saw army stuff all the time. When you’re a little kid you play army but you don’t necessarily ask your father if he ever killed any Germans or stuff like that. It was with our trip to Normandy that he started talking about it.

Why do you think it took your father so long after the war to come to Normandy given that returning there came to mean so much to him?

My parents came to Paris in 1950 on their honeymoon from Austria, where my father was stationed. My mother was already pregnant with me. I have photographs of him in his uniform at the Eiffel Tower—in those days you had to wear your uniform when you traveled. They also went to Nice. After I was born, we lived in Austria and later we lived in Germany. We’d go on vacation to the French Riviera or the Italian Riviera. They liked going to Vienna as well. But Dad never talked about the war. After we moved to the U.S., they loved coming back to Europe because they lived a long time here. But Normandy wouldn’t have been a place that he would think of going with my mother. So when he came to visit alone that time, it was an opportunity for him to go and for me to go with him. My mother had no interest in the war. But when she came with him later, she realized the effort and the massiveness of the invasion and… you can’t help, even if you’re opposed to the military and to war, you can’t help but take your hat off to those people who were a part of it and who lived through it. My parents returned may times, especially my father.

That trip with your father, to whom you dedicate “Anonymous Heroes,” your book of veterans’ portraits and their first-hand accounts, must have been the spark to your interest in photographing veterans.

Yes. We drove up and down the Utah Beach that first time. He showed me certain bunkers where he would tell me what kind of shell had hit it to make the hole or the mark on it, using all this military jargon. He was into ammunition because that was his job. Then he wanted to find the farm where the airstrip had been. Of course, the strip was no longer there, and there was no sign marking where it had been. Also, most farmers in the area didn’t want visitors. But we drove into one farm in my “Quatrelle,” where we met a lady named Alice. It was lunchtime, and she and the family came out with their napkins in their hands. “Oui, Monsieur?” she said to me. “Excusez-nous,” I said, “Mon papa est vétéran…” and right away she said to him, “Entrez, monsieur.” So we went in and they brought out two plates and we sat down to eat with them. My father was in tears, he couldn’t believe it. Their welcome was so sweet. At the end of the meal, the farmer went out to the barn, or wherever he went, and he comes back with a half-full dirty old bottle of dark alcohol, and written in chalk on the bottle was “1944.” He gave us each a little snort of it. It was absolutely delicious and my father started crying again. He said, “This isn’t the kind of stuff that we had in 1944. What we had was green rotgut, whatever we could find that the Germans left behind.” From there we went into Sainte Mère Eglise and we meet other people who then invited us in for coffee. My father couldn’t believe the welcome we were receiving. I took some pictures of him on the beach and in different places.

After that I decided to go up there every year on the sixth of June, and I would take pictures. Many times, there were no veterans at all. I would go each year, whether my father would come to France or not. Years later, I went to a fair in a hotel in Paris promoting Normandy for the upcoming 50th anniversary [1994]. By that time I’d already done a number of photographs. I met the secretary of the Comité du Débarquement [Landing Committee] and showed her some pictures. She said, “Oh c’est bien!” Then she explained that not only was she a part of the Landing Committee but she was also the director of the Musée de la Tapisserie in Bayeux, and she invited me to show my work in the Salle du Chevalier, which is the vaulted hall that later became the giftshop of the museum. So that was the first exhibition of my Normandy work, which I’d been taking just out of my own interest until then. From then on, she would send me an official invitation to the June 6th ceremonies every year so that I had actual credentials to go wherever I wanted to photograph veterans.

I also then started to interview the veterans, usually calling them on the phone after meeting them since there was no time to interview them during the ceremonies. On the phone, they would speak differently, more freely, as though to themselves, since they were alone and weren’t perturbed by my presence. Sometimes they’d go off track and I’d bring them back with another question. I asked them to tell me about their experience, whatever was bizarre or sad or happy that they wanted to recall. Most of them didn’t talk about terrible stuff. Some of the ones who landed on Omaha Beach did, in a very cold manner. A lot of them didn’t want to talk at all. I just tried to let them tell me what they wanted to tell me.

I wasn’t necessarily meeting them at the ceremonies. I would attend the big ceremonies, and I might come upon a smaller one here and there that I only learned about when I got there. Nine times out of ten it was just serendipity that brought me in contact with a veteran. I have photographed veterans I happened to come upon in the cemeteries while they’re paying homage to a particular person. I got the shot of Major Howard at Pegasus Bridge because the owner of the B&B where we were staying during the anniversary that year [1993] told us about an event that was taking place there on June 5th. So we immediately went there, and there they were, Major Howard and a few men popping Champagne. There weren’t that many people. There were no guys dressed up as paratroopers as you’d see more recently. There was just Madame Gondrée at the café by the bridge when I was in there talking with Bill Millin. Some years when there were few veterans, I would do landscapes, which is why there are some landscapes in the show and in the book, photographs of ceremonies and of places that reek with history.

In my first show for the 50th anniversary there was very little text next to the portraits. Just who they are, were they are, basic facts. Then little by little, as I took more portraits and gathered more stories, I realized that I had material for a book, which I put together with the backing of the Military Museum at the Invalides [in Paris] for the 65th anniversary in 2009. That year I also had exhibitions of my work at the Invalides and at the Museum of the Battle of Normandy in Bayeux, near the British Cemetery. That’s the first time that I put together the photos with the text [first-hand accounts] at an exhibition as well as putting them in the book.

After that first edition I continued to meet veterans, and even since completing the new edition last year I’ve met others. For example, I recently met some Belgian soldiers who managed to get to England during the war and joined up with a brigade that took part in the Invasion of Normandy under British command.

How often did your father return after that first visit?

He would come every two or every five years. He would come for the big ceremonies and some little ones as well. Even if it wasn’t the sixth of June, whenever my parents would come to France they would usually drive to Normandy, even without me.

In the early years of his visits, my father and I would be at Sainte Mère Eglise and school children would come up to him and ask him for his autograph. My father said, “Why do they want an autograph from me? I’m just an old veteran.” I had to bug him to put on his medals. He didn’t want to wear them, it embarrassed him because he thought it would be showing off. He didn’t even bring them for the 65th [2009] though I thought he might. I hadn’t told him in advance, but he was going to get the Legion of Honor at the Invalides that year along with 50 other veterans. I didn’t want to tell him before he got to France because I knew that he would be angry about getting a medal now. Finally, I told him about it when he got to France. He was kind of embarrassed. He hadn’t brought his medals, so I called my sister and asked her to dig through the drawers in his bedroom to find them and to send them asap. She did, and the day of the ceremony I pinned them on him. He complained, “Where the hell did you get those?” But he was enthralled by the whole thing, a big ceremony—he thought it was incredible. Then we all went to Normandy for the 65th anniversary commemorations. They reserved a train for the veterans, red carpet at the station, the band of the Garde Républicaine playing Glen Miller, wine and foie gras on the train. Then a bus took us from Caen to the American Cemetery. My father sat with all of the veterans on the podium, where they all shook Obama’s hand and Sarkozy’s hand. Then we all went back to Paris, exhausted.

He and my mother both passed away a year later, in 2010. They wanted their ashes spread together at Utah Beach, which we did.

Why did you want to put together a new edition of your book?

Because this could be the der des ders, the last flame. There are at least 25 additional veterans in this edition. I’ve met a lot more British and Americans but especially British through British families who live or have vacation homes in Normandy. I’ve gotten to know a lot of people in Normandy over the years. The British and the Dutch get together a lot, say for a drink on a Thursday or Friday evening, and a lot of them have fathers who were veterans. So I’d meet the fathers when they came over. Many of them have become part of the Deep Respect Association, with which I’m involved. [Editor’s note: Created in 2010, Deep Respect is a Normandy-based non-profit whose mission is to preserve and transmit the memory of veterans of the Second World War who contributed to the success of Operation Overload and to help veterans who participated in the Battle of Normandy visit the region.] We take around the veterans when they visit and it’s super interesting listening to them talk about their battles.

A series of your portraits and stories from the book are now on permanent display at the Overlord Museum Ohama Beach that’s located at the round-about where one turns to enter the Normandy American Cemetery. How did that come about?

The museum houses a tremendous collection of war materials—tanks, artillery, much more—started in the 1970s by Michel Leloup. He presented some of it in a museum in Falaise but as he grew the collection he began looking for more space and for a location with potential to draw a wider audience. He died before the project to move it to the site near the American Cemetery was completed. It was opened in 2013 by his son Nicolas.

For the 70th anniversary, in 2014, I had an exhibition at the round-about at Omaha Beach where the big monuments are located. Nicolas saw the exhibition and asked if he could buy some of the photos. I said, “Sure.” He bought about five. Since the veterans in the some of the photographs were at the event, we got pictures of them with the photographs, which they signed, which helped promote the museum. Over the next few years, the museum really took off, so Nicolas decided to expand the museum to show more of the collection, and in part of it he’s now consecrated one long corridor to presenting about 70 of my photographs—a lot of which he bought and some of which I donated—along with the text of the stories the veterans told me. My daughter Leah did the scenography and the soundtrack of 40s music and various sounds (waves, planes, bombs) for the exhibition.

You’ve now been photographing veterans for 44 years. With so few Normandy veterans still with us, and very few able or willing to travel, where does your project go from here?

I’ll still see some veterans this year and possibly next. But since I am basically a portraitist, there will soon no longer be men to photograph. That means that the project is now passing into the archival stage. It’s important to show them. I want to help maintain through the show at the Invalides, the permanent exhibition at the museum and the book the memory of those who are or will soon no longer be around to share their stories first-hand. The portraits are a way of people getting to know these veterans as they were as young men and as they were when I met them.

Where to see Ian Patrick’s photographic work

– His personal website Ian Patrick Photographer.
– Permanent exhibition at the Overlord Museum, near the entrance to the Normandy American Cemetery, Colleville-sur-Mer.
– The book: Héros Anonymes – Anonymous Heroes: D-Day Portraits. The captions and first-hand accounts of veterans are in both English and French. The book is available at major museums in the Normandy Landing Zone—the Overlord Museum, the Airborne Museum in Sainte Mère Eglise, the Arromanches Museum, the Utah Beach Museum and the Pegasus Bridge Museum—as well as at the Army Museum at the Invalides in Paris. It can also be ordered directly from the author by contacting him at ianpatrickphoto@gmail.com.
– Temporary exhibition at the Army Museum at the Invalides, June 1 to August 26, 2024. The exhibition is presented under the arcades surrounding the main courtyard. Entrance is free as it isn’t necessary to purchase to museum ticket in order to enter the courtyard. 129 rue de Grenelle, Paris.

© 2024. Interview conducted by Gary Lee Kraut.
All photos © Ian Patrick.

The post An Interview with Ian Patrick, Photographer of Normandy Veterans appeared first on France Revisited - Life in Paris, Travel in France.

The 75th anniversary of D-Day is the occasion to commemorate the lives and actions and deaths of those involved in “the greatest sea invasion of military history” as well as the opportunity to reflect on how the events of 1944 relate to us, individually and collectively, today. We would be remiss to do one without the other.

Through movies, documentaries, books, speeches, visits and the stories of veterans, we have many memories and visions of D-Day and the ensuing 10-week Battle of Normandy. And we are moved, in a generic sense, by the view of the imaculate lawns and orderly Crosses and occasional Star of David at the American Cemetery overlooking Omaha Beach. But moved to do what, exactly? To take pictures? To shout “We’re number one”? To jump from a parachute? To open a B&B near the coast? To read deeper? To fight for world peace? To learn about the experiences of veterans of other foreign wars? To visit other war cemeteries? To wonder why we aren’t equally “moved” by the thought of soldiers who died in Vietnam or Iraq? To honor The Four Freedoms?

Each head of state who speaks at a major ceremony seeks to interpret D-Day and the events leading to it and flowing from it in such a way that it presents a lesson or thread that fits with his or her vision of the world today. Each of them attempts to articulate his or her nations ambitions relative to the past. Passing time and evolving circumstances require that, at the risk of losing the thread altogether or twisting it to tie up an otherwise unrelated vision.

Museums, memorials, exhibitions and events throughout the former battle zone of Normandy have also evolved over time as they, too, seek to present the connection between then and now. And each major commemorative year brings with it new ways of informing, guiding, entertaining and profiting from visitors drawn to the region’s war history. Those developments are telling in their own way.

Beyond the commemorative ceremonies that accompany the 75th anniversary of D-Day and of the liberation of Norman villages and towns that followed, here are five ways in which organizations and businesses are using, (re)interpreting or inspired by Normandy’s wartime memory in 2019.

1. Normandy’s International Forum for Peace

The Peacemakers: That’s the theme of Normandy’s second annual International Forum for Peace, held in Caen June 4 and 5, i.e. immediately prior to the 75th anniversary commemorations. The forum was created in the context of Normandy’s memory of war but is focused on dealing with present wars and future conflicts rather than on the past. This year’s discussions and debates will concern tensions in Cameroon, the impact of Brexit on Irish Peace Accords, the post-peace process in Colombia, Chinese diplomacy in the new world order, conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the civil war in Syria, among other conflicts. Forum participants will be invited to sign the Normandy Peace Manifesto to be presented by four Nobel Peace Prize recipients—Jody Williams (American; involved in the fight against anti-personnel mines), Mohamed El Baradei (Egyptian; former Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency), Leymah Gbowee (Liberian; leader of the Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace) and José Romos Horta (East Timorese; former president who worked for a peaceful solution to the conflict in East Timora)—and other recognized and would-be peacemakers. The prevailing view of participants, if not by leaders of the world’s most powerful militaries, will undoubtedly be that of multilateralism and the sense of an international community are the central tenets of making peace.

2. Rockwell, Roosevelt & The Four Freedoms at the Caen Memorial Museum

In January 1941, eleven months before the United States declared war on Japan then on Germany, Franklin Roosevelt articulated in his State of the Union speech the four fundamental freedoms that he said should be enjoyed by people everywhere: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, freedom from fear. For its exhibition in this 75th anniversary year, the Caen Memorial Museum, in partnership with the Norman Rockwell Museum, is presenting an exhibition of Rockwell’s work with his iconic paintings of the Four Freedoms as its centerpiece. The Rockwell paintings were first published in The Saturday Evening post in early 1943, by which time the United States was well into its engagement in the war. Needless to say, such a speech would not be given today, and today the paintings themselves might be misinterpreted as honoring nostalgia rather than freedom. Other famous and lesser-known works by Rockwell and his contemporaries give necessary context to those freedoms and those paintings. The exhibition runs from June 10 to October 27, 2019. Here’s the trailer:

3. Great Women During the War at the Juno Beach Centre

Canada is not a bellicose nation, so it’s no surprise that the Juno Beach Centre, situated just off the beach where Canadian forces landed on June 6, 1944, is the least militaristic of the museums in the Landing Zone, not to mention the one with the friendliest staff. The Centre is at once a memorial, a museum and a cultural center dedicated not only to the Canadian role in the Second World War but to broader cultural issues, then and now. The current exhibition, running through December 2019, speaks of the contributions of women during the war. It examines their courage, anguish, fear and mourning as well as the ways in which they led the way to changes in society.

4. Dinner with veterans at La Chenevière

La Chenevière, a 5-star chateau-hotel with restaurant just inland from the port of Port-en-Bessin on the route to Bayeux, is collaborating with The Greatest Generation Foundation to host a series of 17 dinner events featuring the presence of American veterans who took part in the Battle of Normandy 1944. The evening begins with a brief lecture that is then followed by a gastronomic meal during which participants have the opportunity to converse with one of the veterans. These dinners, which began in April, take place every other Thursday until Nov. 28, 2019. 190€ per person, reservation required. It isn’t necessary to spend the night at the hotel to attend.

5. Expansion of the Overlord Museum at Colleville-sur-Mer

The Overlord Museum opened in 2014 in time for the 70th anniversary by the roundabout to the entrance to the American Cemetery. It’s a private museum created by Nicolas Leloup, the son of a collector of WWII military vehicles and other military artefacts. The staging of this large collection of war material follows a tendency on the part of certain museums, especially private museums, to dramatize displays in order to appeal to a public that might otherwise be bored or lost with a straightforward or explanatory presentation. The 75th anniversary year brings with it an extension to the museum that includes a scene about the Mortrain counterattack and a section dedicated to the role of the aviation. But the drama isn’t always staged. Sometimes it’s naturally present yet removed from war, as in the presentation of Ian Patrick’s photographs from his book Anonymous Heroes, showing veterans who returned to the Landing Beaches for D-Day commemorations 45 to 60 years later.

See Taps in the Normandy American Cemetery, A France Revisited Minute.

© 2019, Gary Lee Kraut

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Two films are shown at the Airborne Museum in Sainte Mere Eglise. One of them is among the better introductory films to a visit to the Landing Zone. The other is undoubtedly the worst.

The first, the older one, is a 21-minute documentary that uses a Jaws-like signal of danger as it describes the German occupation, the development of German defenses along the coast, and the civilians’ long wait for liberation. Then the action begins: a fire at midnight destroys the house that stood on the property that is now the museum, people rush from their homes, the fire brightens the night as paratroopers drop from the sky. The beach landing then begins at dawn nearby, battles rage in town, along the country roads and in the hedgerows. They are Americans, to the surprise of many, not English. Lives are lost, freedom is regained, burials take place in what is now the town’s soccer field. The film is short, dramatic and informative, a moving invitation to visit the museum and the sights throughout the Landing Zone.

You may have seen such images and films like this at home; there are plenty on Youtube. But here at Sainte Mère Eglise they take on special significance. In this area where men of the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions landed on the night of June 5-6 1944 to secure bridges and roads before the dawn landing of troops on Utah Beach you now stand. A parachute hanging from the steeple of the church across the square lets you know immediately that you’ve arrived at the right place.

After being shown for years in a small screening space in the museum’s second building, behind a Douglas C-47, the type of plane from which the paratroopers were dropped, that 21-minute film was moved in 2016 to a larger space called the Ronald Reagan Franco American Conference Center. The Airborne Museum itself is a non-profit organization. Of the conference center’s €1.2 million construction cost, €350,000 was financed by The Reagan Legacy Foundation.

The Reagan film at the Airborne Museum

The space where the introductory film was previously shown now presents a film glorifying Ronald Reagan. That film is disturbing out of place in this museum.

The older 21-minute film and the newer 7-minute Reagan glorification film (2015) both use 1940s footage to set the stage. Yet whereas the old film shows Eisenhower visiting black-faced Allied troops as they prepare for nighttime assault, the more recent film shows Reagan in make-up and uniform in a Hollywood studio. We are all but told to equate the man playing soldier in Hollywood with the real soldiers in Normandy. An elderly fellow in the film, presented as speaking for all veterans, refers to Reagan as “one of us.”

Without mentioning Franklin Roosevelt, the sitting American president during the Invasion of Normandy, the old film tells about Allies pushing their way to Berlin to defeat a Nazi Germany. The newer film shows Reagan at Pointe du Hoc as though no other president ever honored the veterans and the fallen of the Second World War. It shows Reagan at the Berlin Wall calling on the leader of the Soviet Union “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall,” as though John Kennedy had never stood there. The old film leads curious visitors to want to discover and contemplate the war sites of Normandy. The new film has Michael Reagan, the president’s son, president of The Reagan Legacy Foundation, giving a sales pitch.

Has the Airborne Museum sold its out on its own mission in order to “memorialize the accomplishments of [Reagan’s] presidency,” to quote a goal of the Reagan Legacy Foundation?

The Reagan Triptych

That 7-minute film is one of a triptych of Reagan images that have been strategically placed at the Airborne Museum so that we shall never forget… Ronald Reagan.
1. His name appears on the conference center. So be it, the foundation led by his son Michael provided a third of the funding.
2. In the exit hall of the building called Operation Neptune, opened in 2014, which shows dioramas presenting various scenes from the airborne landing, one sees portraits of German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and French President Charles de Gaulle, who in 1963 signed the Elysées Treaty in Paris as a firm handshake of reconciliation between the two nations, along with a more prominent and gratuitous image of Reagan 20 years later.
3. And then there’s that film, so intent on placing Reagan, like Forrest Gump (or is it Kim Jong-Un?), at the heat of the action that viewers are led to believe that he would have been a hero on the beaches themselves had he not been… (dramatic pause in the film)… nearsighted.

No, Ronald Reagan was not who my father thought about while in Europe caring for wounded during the war. No, the soldiers did not carry a photograph of Reagan with them into battle. When Eisenhower said to his troops, “The eyes of the world are upon you,” he was not referring to a single man. Normandy is not Reagan’s legacy.

D-Day revisited, again and again

Ronald Reagan was the first American president to commemorate D-Day in France, for it took years for D-Day to be so specifically and particularly commemorated and celebrated. For near 20 years after the war, D-Day and the Invasion of Normandy were largely seen as a step, albeit an important step, in vanquishing Nazi Germany, but requiring no specific commemoration. It took some time for D-Day to gain a singular status in the American consciousness, coalescing our sense of sacrifice for a righteous cause, of honor, strength and the perfect combination of individual and collective effort, and of ultimate victory.

The movie “The Longest Day” was released in 1962. The Airborne Museum opened in 1964, placing it among the first D-Day museums in Normandy, along with the nearby Utah Beach Museum.

As the war receded in time and as many other battles and wars filled newscasts, D-Day—and D-Day above all—became for many the symbol of how we want to see our military might: bringing freedom to the oppressed, supporting and encouraging democracy. D-Day affirms our sense of the United States as the essential nation for forces of good in the world, to the point of diminishing the role of our Allies.

By the late 1960s veterans, then in their 40s, began returning to Normandy to visit the Landing sites, the tombs of their comrades at arm and the new museums. We were sinking into the quagmire of the Vietnam War then. Soldiers who helped turn back the Tet Offensive returned home not to celebration and thanks but to anti-war demonstrations. And June 6, 1944, already gaining prominence over any other date in the war, came further into focus for Americans nostalgic for battles with a clear and righteous cause. The nation that helped bring about D-Day, that was the nation we wanted to be.

More years passed, and in 1984 the 40th anniversary brought together in Normandy, at the invitation of French President Francois Mitterrand, the heads of state of the victorious nations involved in the Invasion of Normandy: Reagan and Pierre Trudeau of Canada, along with Queen Elizabeth II and the monarchs of Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium and Norway. At Pointe du Hoc Reagan shined, with large media coverage, as he spoke with simplicity and force about “the men of Normandy,” “the boys of Pointe du Hoc,” and how “[Europe’s] hopes are our hopes and [Europe’s] destiny is our destiny.”

Stirring indeed, but the facts and images associating Ronald Reagan with D-Day and the Invasion of Normandy are out of context at the Airborne Museum. Visitors may hold Ronald Reagan in the Pantheon of American heroes, if they wish. Savor his words at Pointe du Hoc, if you wish. But why single out Reagan here?

Iraq, Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq again, Syria, etc. Americans are accustomed to hearing about our military expeditions overseas, yet many continue to see D-Day as our ultimate symbol and pride. Where better place and time to save Private Ryan in 1998 than in Normandy in 1944? President Clinton spoke in Normandy on 50th anniversary of D-Day, Bush on the 60th, Obama on the 65th and 70th, but perhaps the administrators at the Airborne Museum were too busy making doe eyes to the Reagan Legacy Foundation and too nostalgic for the Cold War to bother to look that up what those presidents said.

The evolution of museums in the Landing Zone

I have long appreciated the directness and authenticity (or near-authenticity) of the Airborne Museum. The Waco glider with a “stick” of soldier-mannequins, the Douglas C-47, the uniforms and equipment, the possessions packed in paratrooper bags (Chiclets, Lucky Strikes, condoms). That sense of authenticity recently led the museum to replace a Canadian-made Sherman tank built beginning in August 1944 with a Sherman M4 A4 75 of the type used by the Allies as of June 1944.

Of course it’s no longer enough to present tanks, arms, uniforms and planes and expect visitors understand what went on here. Context and explanations are necessary, but even that may not be enough to keep generations born this side of 1990 or 1980 or even 1970 interested and informed.

In 2014, the 70th anniversary of D-Day and the Liberation of France, I organized in Paris on behalf of France’s Heritage Journalist Association a round-table discussion about the evolution of museums and other war-related business and the potential for the “disneyfication” of the Landing Zone, the temptation to falsify in order to make the Invasion of Normandy seem more real, more entertaining. Magali Mallet, director of the Airborne Museum, was one of the participants. She spoke of the necessity to respond to the evolution of the clientele. (Americans represent less than 10% of the number of visitors to the Airborne Museum, about the same number of Dutch visitors.) The majority of visitors are French, including many school groups.) New visitors, Mallet said, have learned little in school about the events of June 1944 and it was therefore the task of the museum to captivate them through emotion rather than artifacts alone in order to then excite their curiosity and their desire to learn more.

I called Director Mallet after re-viewing the Reagan glorification film this month to ask how she saw Reagan’s role at the museum. She said that his place at the museum is not intrusive on the experience of visiting the museum or of its overall approach to informing the public. Veterans, she said, often say how much appreciate the Reagan film and recall his Pointe du Hoc speech. Reagan’s presence on the museum site is neither promotional nor political, she said.

The sons of David Dewhurst, a squadron commander who led a bombing run over Utah Beach minutes before the landing, have gathered over $2 million to help make the Utah Beach Museum the excellent museum it is today, but you don’t see them claiming that their father saved the day. Mention of Dewhurst and his sons is non-promotional and non-political as can be, that despite one of those sons being Republican lieutenant governor of Texas at the time of the donation.

Normandy was never the place to glorify a single man

From Saint Mère Eglise to Pegasus Bridge, from Falaise to Cherbourg via Caen, Bayeux and the five Landing Beaches, this is an extraordinary region to understand not just D-Day, but the entire war in Europe. More than that, it is a region to consider the nature of alliances and the reconciliation of former enemies, to feel and to reflect on national pride, to meet French, British, Canadian, Polish, Dutch, German and others who are heirs to the events of 1944 and the Second World War. It’s a place to consider the civilian victims of war of yesterday and today. But Normandy is not the place to glorify a single man. It is not the place for the singular hero-worship that the Airborne Museum has bestowed upon Ronald Reagan.

Mrs. Mallet, take down that film.

© 2017, Gary Lee Kraut

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* * *

In Normandy, where dozens of museums tell about the D-Day Landing, the 75 days of the Battle of Normandy, the victory for the Allied forces against the German occupant and the Liberation, visitors to the region have, until recently, been offered scant information about the effects of war on civilian populations.

Yet, in addition to the deprivations, deportations and executions caused by the German occupant and in some cases by their French collaborators, Allied air strikes from 1942 to 1944 claimed 50-70,000 civilian victims in France. Of the 20,000 Normans who died as a direct result of the war, the majority were killed by Allied bombardments intended to weaken the Atlantic Wall, destroy enemy forces and prevent the possibility of German reinforcement during the Invasion of Normandy. Furthermore, about 150,000 Normans lost or had to leave their homes during the spring and summer of 1944.

Those numbers, significant as they are, seem small when one thinks—or tries to grasps—that the Second World War caused the death of over 55 million people, of which about 35 million were civilians, including through planned genocide. The First World War brought the military front to the doorsteps of civil life, leading to the death of large numbers of civilians as a direct result of combat. The Second World War then confirmed that civilians were from then on fully a part of war and ideological combat. In the 21st century we are well aware (or should be) that civilians are not only collateral damage but also the targets of military and ideological attacks.

The Civilians in Wartime Memorial (Mémorial des Civils de la Guerre), a museum opened in 2016 in the small town of Falaise, examines of the effect of war on civilian populations. The museum naturally takes wartime Normandy as its prime example while also speaking of civilian victims of other conflicts around the world.

Falaise is a fitting location for this museum since it was in this area that the Battle of Normandy, which began with D-Day, June 6, 1944, ended with the defeat of the German tank division on August 22 in what is known as the Falaise (or Falais-Chambois) Pocket. The town itself, its center heavily damaged, was liberated by Canadian troops on August 17, 1944. It was in Falaise, I’ve been told, that a woman lost her 2-year-old son to bombardments on the day that she gave birth to a daughter.

As Americans, with our own civilians largely out of harm’s way during WWII, we generally focus on the war’s military aspects and on the lives and actions of soldiers and the military hierarchy. As the war recedes in time we further focus the war’s military aspects on the Normandy D-Day Landing and the ensuing several days, sometimes forgetting that a full 11 months of war in Europe was to follow, that harsh battle continued in the Pacific and perhaps even our military presence overseas for much of the past 70 years. Americans now often speak of the Beaches of Normandy as the shining example of our role in securing freedom around the world and hold it up as the best image we have of ourselves in our expeditions overseas.

It takes nothing away from America’s role in the Liberation of Europe to recognize that the effect that WWII and other wars had—and continue to have—on civilian populations, including through our own military actions. As travelers to Normandy remember, commemorate and visit the sites and scenes of D-Day and the early phases of the Invasion of Normandy, those with time to do so (for Falaise is off the beaten path for most itineraries) might also pay a visit to Falaise’s museum for an understanding of how civilian population lived and died during the war.

The Falaise museum is managed by the Memorial de Caen, the region’s major war museum—or museum of peace, as they would have it. In presenting the new museum, Stéphane Grimaldi, director of the Memorial de Caen, has written “The singularity of the Second World War is that it annihilated more civilians than soldiers. It’s estimated that 35 million civilians died – including 15 million Chinese, 8 million Russians, more than 5 million Poles, 3 million Germans. To these terrifying numbers one must add about 100 million wounded and maimed, ‘collateral’ victims of bombardments, exodus, combat and deprivations.”

While devoting major to civilian life and death in Normandy during the war, the vocation of Falaise’s museum is not to tell only a local story but to remind visitors of the difficulties and concerns of civilians during wartime everywhere.

With explanatory panels in French and in English, the visit is designed to begin at the third floor with displays about military occupation by foreign forces. The second floor then speaks of the Liberation. The museum occupies a former court building from the reconstruction period that followed the war. A remnant of the house (of a doctor and former mayor) destroyed during the war on the site is partially uncovered in the basement. While peering into that remnant one hears the sound of bombs dropping. Those bombs room comes at the end of the visit so as to leave the visitor with a reminder of the risk to all civilians in times of military conflict, though it can in fact be visited first, a foreshadow of things to come.

The Route from Caen to Falaise

The route south from Caen to Falaise, 23 miles (37 km), passes two cemeteries related to the Battle of Falaise and the Falaise Pocket. The first, coming from Caen, is the Canadian Military Cemetery at Bretteville-sur-Laize. Falaise, as noted earlier, was liberated from the German occupation by Canadian troops on Aug. 17, 1944. Beyond the Canadian Cemetery is the Polish Military Cemetery at Urville. Most of its 615 tombs there belong to soldiers and officers of the First Polish Tank Division under General Maczek, which was attached to the First Canadian Army. The Mémorial de Montormel, a museum and monument dedicated to the final days of the Battle of Normandy, is a 40-minute drive east of Falaise.

William the Conqueror and Falaise Castle

Falaise itself, much destroyed during the Battle of Normandy, is a handsome example of post-war reconstruction that even on an empty morning has a peaceable air of well-being to it. The tourist office is across the street from the museum. Between the two is Town Hall, an 18th-century survivor of the war. All three of these structures face Place Guillaume le Conquérant, William the Conqueror Square. William was born in Falaise in 1028. He would become Duke of Normandy then also King of England following his conquest of the cross-channel kingdom in 1066. He died in 1087 and is buried in the Abbaye-aux-Hommes in Caen.

William’s Castle, modified by his descendants and then the kings of France, stands several hundred yards away. The Civilians in Wartime Memorial. The royal castle is visible from the museum’s top floor.

The castle ramparts have recently been reconstructed. A previous reconstruction/creation at the entrance to the castle looks so ridiculously out of place that it nearly dissuaded this visitor from wanting to enter. But once inside the remnants of the castle inform visitors about the itinerant court of the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries through three parts: that of William’s son, with a residential dungeon (the beginning of the development of dungeon palaces), that of his grandson, then that of the king of France after 1204, when Normandy fell within the crown of France. Tablets enable visitors to see rooms as they might have appeared during those eras.

A brief walk about the center of town may include a visit to Saint Gervais Church.

The restaurant O Saveurs, 38 rue Georges Clemenceau, is a nice option for a well-prepared meal.

For opening times and other information see the following websites:

Mémorial des Civils de la Guerre (Civilians in Wartime Memorial), 12 Place Guillaume le Conquérant, 14700 Falaise.
Falaise Tourist Office, 5 Place Guillaume le Conquérant, 14700 Falaise.
Falaise Castle, Château Guillaume le Conquérant.
Mémorial de Montormel (Montormel Memorial), Les Hayettes, 61160 Montormel.
Calvados Tourist Board. Calvados is the name of the department (sub-region) in Normandy which includes Falaise, Caen, four of the five Landing Beaches, Caen, Deauville, Honfleur, etc. The fifth Landing Beach, Utah, is located in Manche.
Normandy Tourist Board. Information about the broader region.

© 2017, Gary Lee Kraut

See other articles about Normandy on France Revisited.

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For 30 minutes Schlossberg, his co-host Christine Tibbetts and Kraut discussed American war memories in France.

They spoke the Invasion of Normandy and questions about to the best way to visit the Normandy war sights. How long should a traveler devote to visiting the Landing Zone? Can travelers do it on their own or is it preferable to have a guide? How and why to travel as a family.

You can listen to the show in podcast here. (A technical glitch caused the guest to disappear for a few seconds at the start of the phone interview, but the conversation was soon underway.)

Dan Schlossberg,  who lives in New Jersey, is a multiple award-winning journalist (broadcast and paper) especially known for his work in travel and baseball.

Chistine Tibbetts,  who lives in Georgia, has been reporting far and wide for over 40 years.

Travel Itch is an internet radio program that can be heard live on Thursdays from 8 to 8:30pm East Coast Time.

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1. Since 2014 marks the 70th anniversary of the D-Day Landing in Normandy and the Liberation of France by the Allied Forces as well as the 100th anniversary of the outset of the First World War, my most frequently requested lecture on this trip is on the theme of War Touring: Exploring Normandy and Other American War Memories in France.

In this lecture, I’ll explain how the American battle sites in France—from Utah and Omaha Beaches (WWII) to Belleau Wood and and the Somme (WWI)—and their surrounding areas can captivate Americans of all ages. I’ll describe how war tourism has evolved over time and speak of some of the fascinating Americans, French and others that I’ve had the pleasure of meeting and interviewing in and around the battle sites.

2.My second major lecture is entitled Understanding Patrimoine: The Key to Extraordinary Travels in France. In this lecture I’ll examine the notion of patrimoine, often translated as heritage, which is so deeply engrained in the consciousness of the French that it is applied to everything from cathedrals, chateaux, old mills and gardens to cuisine, wine culture, craftsmanship and horseback riding.

I’ll explain through history, anecdotes and examples from my own travels throughout France how understanding the pervasive concept of patrimoine, along with its sidekick preservation, is a major key to enjoying enriching, insightful and extraordinary travels in France.

3. I’ll also be speaking to several groups about wine tourism in France, particularly Burgundy and Champagne, regions that I know well from researching and writing about them and from organizing wine tours there.

The winter 2014 lecture tour schedule

Jan. 18, Yardley-Makefield Public Library (PA), 2pm. Subject: War touring.
Jan. 22, Alliance Francaise de Doylestown (PA), 10am. Subject: War touring. I’ll be delivering this lecture in French.
Jan. 22, Newtown Square Library (PA), 7pm. Subject: War touring.
Jan. 24, Princeton (NJ) Elks Lodge #2129, 7pm. Subject: War touring.

Jan. 27, Vorhees (NJ), private event with a local wine club. Subject: Wine touring.
Jan. 28, The College of New Jersey. , 7pm in the college library auditorium. Open to the public. Subject: War touring.
Jan. 30, Jake’s American Grille, 5018 Conn Ave NW, Washington DC, 6:30-8:30pm. My friend Janet Hulstrand, a writer and teacher who has contributed to France Revisited, organizes a Francophile/Bibliophile evenings in the DC area and has invited me to make informal presentation about travel and travel writing in France during this evening’s gathering, followed by Q&A time. If interested in attending contact Janet directly at janet.hulstrand[at]gmail.com.
Jan. 31, Alliance Française de Washington DC, 2142 Wyoming Avenue, NW, Washington DC, 7:30pm. Subject: Understanding Patrimoine.
Feb. 4, Rotary Club of Medford (NJ). Subject: Wine touring.
Feb. 5, Mid-Manhattan Library (6th floor), 455 Fifth Avenue, NYC, 6:30pm. Subject: Travel and Travel Writing Beyond the Clichés: In Search of the Perfect Travel Moment. See the library’s events calendar for details.
Feb. 6, Lawrence Library (NJ), 7pm. Subject: War touring.
Feb. 7. Princeton Library (NJ), 7pm, followed by a Burgundy wine tasting at CoolVines, a wonderful wine shop near the library. Subject: Wine touring in Burgundy and Champagne.
Feb. 16, Alliance Française de Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill (NC), 4pm. Subject: Understanding patrimoine.
Feb. 18, Alliance Française de Charleston (SC), held jointly with the College of Charleston, on campus. Subject: War touring.
Feb. 21, Alliance Française d’Orlando (FL), 7pm. Subject: Understanding Patrimoine.
Feb. 25. Pinecrest Library (Miami-Dade, FL), 11am. Subject: War touring.

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So I was a bit wary when I saw a jar of “D-Day Honey” for sale this summer at Bernard Lebrec’s apple farm in Englesqueville la Percée, a village between Pointe du Hoc and the American Cemetery.

Had Bernard, whose farm I’d always enjoyed visiting for its authenticity, gone crass commercial? What could honey possibly have to do with D-Day?

A lot, it turns out—far more than those baseball caps, placemats and squirt guns.

First, Bernard reassured me that D-Day was apple blossom honey, made locally by a friend of his.

So I bought a jar. Good stuff. In fact, I thought of writing this piece because I’ve nearly finished my jar of D-Day and, needing another to get me through the honey-in-my-tea days of winter, I found in fine print on the label  the contact information of the beekeeper, Ed Robinson.

Ed is an Irishman living in Cartigny l’Epinay, a village about 12 miles (20 kilometers) south of Omaha Beach. He moved to France eight years ago to learn French and, long interested in military history, soon got a job as a D-Day tour guide. After six years working for others, he created his own touring company, Battle of Normandy Tours.

Like his interest in military history, Ed’s passion for beekeeping began at an early age. He says that he was about five when he developed a fascination with bees and even asked his mother then if he could have a hive. No, she told him, but he could have one when he was ten. And she kept her word!

He soon joined the nearest beekeepers society, about 15 miles (22 km) from home, and little by little learned how to maintain a colony of bees and produce honey. By the time he was a teen he was getting calls from around the village to help remove the bees from their property, and by 15 he was the proud owner of an apiary consisting of five or six hives.

Despite his success with the bees in Ireland he never collected much honey there due to the weather. And when he moved to an apartment in Normandy he left the hives abandoned in a corner of his parents’ property.

Three years ago he bought a house in Catigny l’Epinay with room in the yard for his bees. Returning to Ireland for Christmas that year he packed up his hives and bees, loaded them into his car, brought them to Normandy on the ferry—with their Department of Agriculture clearance papers—and moved them into his and their new home.

For an Irish bee, Normandy is apparently everything you could hope for to produce honey thanks to the relatively mild weather and the presence of so many flowering plants, most notably the apple trees in this area of the department of Calvados. As the stockpile of honey grew so did Ed’s dream of selling it. Since Ed was then creating his own battle zone touring company, it made both personal and business sense to call his product D-Day Honey. He came up with the idea of a label showing a bee driving a tank, and his brother, an artist, created the final design of the machinegun-toting bee on the American tank that now appears on the label.

The jar that I’ve nearly finished is mostly apple blossom honey, but Ed tells me that he also produces honey that comes from other plants, after the apple trees have blossomed. So I’m looking forward to trying that next.

“Beekeeping and honey production are just a hobby for me,” says Ed, now 38, “but one which I have found to be a source of immense enjoyment for most of my teenage and adult life.”

Ed and the bees may have arrived by ferry rather than by warship, but I’m glad to see such an authentic local product play on the D-Day theme.

Furthermore D-Day Honey goes very well with tea in my D-Day mug.

Let the winter honey-in-my-tea season begin!

* * *

Ed Robinson and D-Day Honey: For more about Ed Robinson’s D-Day Honey and his Battle of Normandy Tours see www.BattleofNormandytours.com/honey.html.

Bernard Lebrec: Bernard Lebrec’s apple farm produces juice, cidre, pommeau and Calvados. It’s located at Englesqueville la Percée on the main road between Pointe du Hoc and the American Cemetery. Tel. 02 31 22 70 72. E-mail b.lebrec@wanadoo.fr.

© 2010, Gary Lee Kraut

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In a moment of veteran-like panic I had a flashback to one year ago when a clogged water main broke and my upstairs neighbors failed to realize that their toilet was flushing into my WC. When I went up to tell them, the wife said, “We don’t have a problem,” and the husband said, “See, ” pulling the chain before I could stop him.

I sat up in my moment of panic… and realized that I wasn’t at home but in a hotel room. I was staying in a cozy little family-run hotel in a peaceable village near the D-Day Landing Beaches in Normandy. The water, I saw, was entering through the lintel above the bathroom door, undoubtedly from the shower of the traveler upstairs.

I checked to see that my bag, clothes, and shoes were safe and dry. They were, and so was the bed.

I nodded off to the sound of a slowing drizzle, another hour’s sleep before meeting with travelers to tell them war stories.

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The major apple-growing area in Normandy is situated in and around the department of Calvados, which is the regional sub-division (something like a county) whose beaches were the main staging area for the D-Day Landing of June 6, 1944, and a central battle zone throughout the Invasion of Normandy. (Only Utah Beach, which is situated in the neighboring department of Manche, lies outside Calvados.) Another cluster of orchards is found in the upper part of Normandy, just north of Rouen.

Cidre
All three of the region’s apple-based beverages involve the production of cidre (spelled on this site with re rather than er so as to avoid confusing it with the non-alcoholic cider that we know).

A good cidre begins with the right mix of sweet, sour, and bitter-sweet apples, of which numerous varieties are grown in Normandy. Some cidres use up to two dozen varieties. After the apples are harvested in fall (sometimes into December), they are stored in a dry, well-aired place from several days to several weeks before being pressed. The pulp is then slowly pressed, with the resulting liquid placed in air-tight vats, typically stainless steel, and allowed to ferment naturally over a period of six weeks to three months. It can then be filtered and pasteurized, depending on production methods…. or distilled to make brandy.

Cidre, like Champagne, it can be either brut/dry, which is about 5 percent alcohol, or doux/sweet, which is about 3 percent. I recommend sticking with the brut since bad doux still has taste and goes down easily while good doux is only good for a few sips. And rather than think of cidre in Champagne terms, it’s best thought of as Norman beer, or Norman and Breton beer since Brittany is France’s other major cidre-producing region.

Cidre is an inexpensive drink, with liter bottles sold in stores in Normandy for 2 to 5 euros and in restaurants for 7 to 12 euros. It goes with any thirst that beer would go with, whether on its own or with a meal, but since it goes down easier than beer and has an apple taste it will likely appeal to many non-beer-drinkers and can be fun for the whole family. The whole family? Indeed, without encouraging underage drinking, it’s worth noting that in France you won’t get arrested for giving your kids a few sips, though you could get arrested if you’ve had a few too many sips yourself before driving.

Cidre is the traditional accompaniment for savory buckwheat crepes, traditional regional fare from Normandy and especially Brittany, in which case it is typically served in a bowl called une bolée. Cidre fermier is cidre that has been made on the very farm where the apples were grown.

The French term for the production of cidre and other beverages described here is cidriculture. Though I’ve call these products apple-based, many also contain pear. When pears dominate in the mix poiré or perry is produced. Sweeter than most cidres it is typically served as an aperitif. Those of the appellation Poiré Domfront, produced in an area south of the department of Calvados, around the town of Domfront (see point A on the map), are considered the top of the crop. In producing Calvados, a mix containing at least 30% pears is actually required in the Domfrontais area in order to receive that appellation.

Calvados the brandy

Cidre has been distilled into brandy in Normandy, and specifically this area, since the 16th century. The generic term for apple brand is eau-de-vie de pomme or eau-de-vie de cidre.

In 1789, soon after the revolutionary government began wresting power from the king, the new National Assembly understood the need to divide the country into administrative departments, eventually leading to the creation of the department of Calvados that is our primary aim in this article and in visits to the D-Day Landing Beaches.

By the early 1800s the brandy produced in this area began taking on the name Calvados, that of the department at the heart of the production area. Calvados is one of three famous brandies made in France, the other two being Cognac, which comes from an area north of Bordeaux, and Armagnac, which comes from an area southeast of Bordeaux/west of Toulouse.

Cognac and Armagnac are made by distilling wine, so when the phylloxera bug ravaged French vineyards in the second half of the 19th century, cidre and Calvados production increased significantly. The increase in quality, however, is a more recent phenomenon. At its best Calvados lacks the dryness of Cognac or Armagnac without having the sweetness of a liqueur.

Calvados—affectionately known as calva—is appreciated as an after-dinner drink or digestif and is increasingly promoted for use in cocktails, yet prior to WWII it was probably best known as a way of convivially ending a meal in the form of café-calva, still practiced, whereby a shot of brandy is served at the same time as a shot of espresso. The café and the calva are then either be downed—first the café then the calva—each in its own receptacles or by drinking the café then pouring the calva into the warm coffee cup. The imbibing of a café-calva is to be performed with a sense of pastoral well-being or old chum camaraderie rather than like a student on spring break partying with a tequila chaser. Nevertheless, when ordering a café-calva in a café in Normandy or elsewhere keep your expectations law as to the quality of the calva. A good Calvados is better reserved for a distinct moment after the meal or late in the evening.

Calvados is made by single or double distilling cidre then maturing the liquor in oak casks, hence the amber color. It’s said that making a good Calvados requires losing a lot of Calvados in the process.

After aging, Calvados is more or less 42 percent alcohol. (Pre-war calva was often of a far higher percentage.) There are three appellations for Calvados defined by geography and method of production:
– Calvados Pays d’Auge, which is a double-distilled and produced in Pays d’Auge, a lush, rural area which lie mostly on the eastern side of the department of Calvados and over the border into neighboring departments;
– Calvados Domfrontais, a single-distilled brandy containing at least 30% pear and produced just south of the department of Calvados;
– Calvados (without further specification), typically single-distilled but sometimes double-distilled, which represents about three-quarters of the production of apple brandy in Normandy and is produced throughout much of Lower Normandy and portions of Upper Normandy east and west of Rouen.

Outside of these designated areas or in non-compliance with the specs of the appellation, apple brandy simply bears the label eau-de-vie de cidre.

Depending on the appellation, Calvados must be barrel aged for two or three years before going on sale. (Good ol’ American applejack, by contrast, is traditionally made by freezing hard cider, which allows the alcohol to separate from the rest of the liquid, and then siphoning off the liquor while your brother stands nearby with a rifle in case the police arrive.)

Calvados can be an assembly of productions from various years, in which case the age noted on the bottle indicates the youngest ingredients. E.g. an assembly whose label indicates that it was aged for 10 year may also contain older brand.

Calvados uses many of the same terms as Cognac and Armagnac to indicate the time spent ageing in casks. For Calvados, the following terms are used:
– Fine, Trois étoiles, Trois Pommes, and VS (Very Special) indicate that the brandy has been aged for a minimum of two years;
– Vieux and Réserve for a minimum of three years;
– VO (Very Old), Vieille Réserve, and VSOP (Very Superior Old Pale) for a minimum of four years;
– Hors d’Age, XO, Très Vieille Réserve, Très Vieux, Extra, and Napoleon, for six years or more.

A trou Normand (Norman hole) sometimes appears on fixed-price menus in the region. In olden days it was customary to take a shot of Calvados as a way of burning out room for additional digestion in the middle of a meal, say between two main courses (imagine a 19th-century 7-course meal in honor of a wedding or of a visiting dignitary). If you come across a trou Normand today it’s more likely to be a tumbler of unexceptional Calvados poured over a ball of apple sorbet.

Pommeau

Pommeau de Normandie, a combination of Calvados and cidre (the must), typically in proportions 1 to 2, is produced throughout all the zones where the various Calvados appellations are produced. Served chilled as an aperitif, it contains 17 percent alcohol.

Cidreculture for travelers: stopping for a tasting

Driving throughout the Landing Beach Zone you’ll invariably pass by stone or timbered farm buildings offering tasting (dégustation) and sale (vente) of cidre, Calvados, and pommeau. Feel free to stop unannounced into any of these farms. These are generally very informal places where appointments aren’t necessary (though you may wish to call ahead for those noted below). The worst that can happen is that no one will answer the bell. More typically, you’ll be offered a free tasting, though some might charge a few euros.

Drinking and driving is a non-non in France and can be particularly hazardous on narrow Norman roads, so the driver is content himself with jus de pomme (apple juice), but no harm in picking up a bottle of cidre for a picnic or some Calvados for an evening sip.

Truth be told, apple brandy, as all brandies, may not be your taste. Furthermore, that charming old farmhouse promising a cidre-pommeau-calva tasting may produce some pretty harsh calva. But don’t let that stop you from visiting a cidreculteur since the attraction of this stop isn’t simply the taste or the orchards but the way in which they—and their owners—reveal a part of the life of the region now as they were at the time of WWII and long before.

Meeting some of the smaller producers, irrespective of the quality of their products, can offer an insightful glimpse into the agricultural life of Normandy and, in many cases, the family history that is a part of it. That family history may further provide you with a view of Normandy during the German Occupation and during the Invasion of Normandy, which is, after all, the reason you’ll come exploring in these parts.

Here below are a few suggested producers you can visit, but don’t hesitate to follow your own sense of adventure and make an impromptu call anywhere that promises a dégustation. Local tourist offices also have a list of producers offering tastings and visits.

Between Point du Hoc and the American Cemetery: My own wanderings in the Landing Zone led me some years ago to hazard upon the apple farm of Bernard Lebrec. As with many of the large farmhouses along the coast, that of Mr. Lebrec’s grandfather’s was requisitioned by the Germans during the war. Then, after the landing, they was occupied by the Americans. The American 147th Engineer Combat Battalion made this their headquarters and built an airstrip in the family’s apple orchard in the early days of the Invasion of Normandy. Before moving out in November 1944, the battalion erected in the side yard a monument in memory of its soldiers who died on and soon after D-Day, making it one of the earliest American WWII memorials in France.

Mr. Lebrec’s apples go into the three main apple-based beverages: cidre, pommeau, and brandy. The farm, originally purchased prior to the war by his grandfather, is located in Englesqueville la Percèe along the road between between Pointe du Hoc and the American Cemetery. Bernard Lebrec, tel. 02 31 22 70 72, e-mail b.lebrec@wanadoo.fr.

Others in the area will have their own story and even your own history to tell.

For a tasting that’s easy to find and to include in your itinerary, Ferme de la Sapinière is located just outside of the American Cemetery. Route de Port en Bessin, 14710 Saint Laurent sur Mer. Tel. 02 31 22 40 51.

Just east of Bayeux, Les Vergers de Ducy is an organic producer. 14250 Ducy Sainte Marguerite. Tel 02 31 80 28 65.

Pays d’Auge: Truth be told, the immediate area of the Landing Zone is not home to the best calvados production. A good amount of that comes further inland or from Pays d’Auge, an area located just south of Deauville and the Flowered Coast, to either side of A84, the highway on which you enter the Landing Zone when driving to or from Paris.

One of the larger quality brands is Christian Drouin whose Domaine Coeur de Lion distillery is a few miles off the highway at Coudray Rabut, near Pont l’Evêque (of cheese fame). Christian Drouin took over a farm that his father had purchased in 1960 and has since transformed it into a cidre, pommeau, and calvados producer distributed worldwide. His son Guillaume is now fully involved as the third generation. Though neither Drouin may be present when you stop by and though you may encounter some group tourism here, Coeur de Lion offers an accessible opportunity to visit both old and modern facilities, to understand how these apple-based beverages are produced, to have a thorough tasting, and to purchase, if you like, some quality Calvados Pays d’Auge. Domaine Coeur de Lion, Route de Trouville (RN 177), 14130 Coudray-Rabut. Tel. 02 31 64 30 05, www.coeur-de-lion.com or www.calvados-drouin.com.

If you’d like to lose yourself in the back roads of Pay d’Auge and familiarize yourself with some high quality off-the-beaten track Calvados Pays d’Auge, head a bit further east and several miles south of A84 to La-Lande-St-Leger, where the Camut family has been producing fine Calvados for three generations. Adrien Camut was one of a handful of producers who after WWII set out to give Calvados its letters of noblesse.

Calvados Adrien Camut is non-filtered and produced using the family’s own organic apples in a production of 15,000 bottles per year. Come this way if truly interested in fine Calvados or brandy in general, but be sure call in advance or send an e-mail since visits are for a limited public and by appointment only. Calvados Adrien Camut, Domaine de Sémainville, 27210 La Lande Saint Leger. Tel. 02 32 57 82 01. E-mail calvadosadriencamut@orange.fr.

Further information
For further information on the production of Calvados, pommeau, cidre, and poiré (the pear version of cidre) see the official site of the cidriculture appellations. The site also gives recipes for cocktails using Calvados.

© 2009, Gary Lee Kraut

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