Here, I take in the tremendous view over the Seine Valley, at the border between the Paris region and Normandy, border of France its, from above a castle that embodies major events in French, even European, history over the past 1000 years. Since not all who enter the castle are willing to make the climb, the few visitors entering down below are fewer still to share this view.

Each time I’ve made the climb I’ve thought, “That was certainly worth the detour and the effort. Too bad the castle down below is so empty. And too bad no one bothers to inform visitors about the history of this carcass.”

But that isn’t what I thought when I reached the top this summer.

The rewarding view earned after an athletic climb is the same, but La Roche-Guyon, just six miles from Giverny, has now upped its game. An artistic and cultural project that came into fruition this summer marks a turning point for the chateau as several rooms have been graced with historic furnishings and complemented by new works by artists-in-residence. La Roche-Guyon feels less the carcass passageway to the summit and more a place to linger. A site that I used to think as a detour is now en route to becoming a destination.

With 90,000 visitors last year, the Château de La Roche-Guyon is the most visited heritage site in the department (or subregion) Val d’Oise of the Greater Paris region, yet it’s generally off the radar for international travelers. That’s undoubtedly due to the difficulty of access without a car and the absence of organized tours from Paris.

Compare that with the international reputation of Monet’s House and Gardens at Giverny, a wide bend in the river downstream along the Seine and just six miles away by road. Giverny (pronounced shjee-ver-nee) draws over 750,000 visitors per year. Already, in 2014, I suggested to readers planning a visit to Giverny to consider combining it with a stop at La Roche-Guyon. (See that article.) La Roche-Guyon now inspires more than a stop. Indeed, Giverny could now be the “stop” after visiting La Roche-Guyon. More on that toward the end of this article.

From hollowed carcass…

The La Rochefoucauld family has owned the Château de la Roche-Guyon nearly continuously since 1659. Call the current head of the household Duke de La Roche-Guyon if you wish. Though titles that formerly conferred a superior legal status, rights and privileges no longer have judicial significance, they may still used honorifically.

For generations, centuries even, the chateau’s interior maintained the allure of a noble household. Prized paintings, tapestries and furniture decorated the major reception rooms. The vast library held a large, valuable collection of books. Curiosities filed shelves in an adjacent room. The death of a proprietor duke in 1964 then of his duchess in 1984 put an end to that. Rather, the inability of heirs to agree to a less dramatic way to pay the inheritance tax than selling most of the furnishings did. The historic rooms were emptied. Their contents were taken to Sothby’s auction block in 1987, leaving a tremendous void to increasingly decrepit spaces. La Roche-Guyon became a decaying carcass of a castle.

… to public funding and restoration

A branch of the La Rochefoucauld family still owns the chateau. The family has private apartments on the upper floors, which can’t be visited. Much of the rest, however, is open to the public since  the chateau has been managed and enriched by over 30 years by a public entity working under the auspices of Val d’Oise and other local administrations. Throughout France, such multilayered arrangement allows certain privately owned heritage sites to be maintained and open to the public so as to continue to be a part of the cultural landscape for more than a simple drive-by view,

Restoration of the château was the main objective in the 1990s. I made my first visit in the mid-90s, soon after it had opened to the public. The pervasive feel was of a hollow carcass, but at least it was now receiving funding for repair and could be visited. The 2000s saw the replanting and recreation of the chateau’s kitchen garden and orchard in its 18th-century configuration. Situated across the street from the chateau, that 9.4-acre enclosed garden/orchard is the second largest of its kind in the Paris region, after the Potager du Roi, the royal kitchen garden at Versailles. It earned the national label Jardin remarquable (Remarkable Garden) in 2011. By then, attention was slowly turning to refurnishing the succession of 18th-century rooms that had been emptied in 1987.

… to refurnished rooms

Within the site’s thousand-year history of construction, the 18th century marks La Roche-Guyon’s intellectual, artistic and architectural heyday. Alexandre de La Rochefoucauld (1690-1762), Duke of La Roche-Guyon, then his daughter (1716-1797), known through her marriage as the Duchess of Enville, led the way.

The duchess built what is now the main portion of the castle complex. She, especially, gave La Roche-Guyon and the La Rochefoucauld mansion in Paris their status as gathering places for writers, philosophers, political thinkers and scientist. At her home in Paris, she hosted Benjamin Franklin and John Adams, among other Americans seeking to draw France into the fight for independence.

In 2000, funding provided by the department of Val d’Oise and the state secured the purchased at auction of a series of four tapestries from 1769 presenting the Biblical story of Esther that had originally been ordered by the Duchess d’Enville for one of the chateau’s drawing rooms. The four were being auctioned off by the designer Karl Langerfield, who was then parting ways with an 18th-century collection that he’d constituted in part from the La Rochefoucauld sale of 1987. Other objects have returned under similar circumstances. A precious 18th-century inlaid desk that had graced that same room until 1987 was purchase in 2017 by a private citizen who then donated it to the state on the condition that it return to La Roche-Guyon. Others made similar gestures, as gift or loan.

Compare my photo above, taken in June 2026, with the black-and-white photos from the early 20th-century on this page showing the desk and the tapestries, among other furnishings in the grand salon.

Contemporary artists add a breath of fresh air

These small, significant and expensive steps gave a hint of the life and elegance of the chateau as a noble center for enlightened discussion, yet those furnishings were also a reminder of how much more was needed to enliven the place.

This summer marks a turning point for the chateau as the void now further recedes thanks to the addition of additional precious period furnishings and especially of works created by artists-in-residence. Going forward, a contract recently signed with the Mobilier National, the public entity that stores, maintains and lends out historic furnishings, will bear fruit next year with additional furnishings on display, ensuring that additional spaces within the chateau feel less forlorn.

In an artists-in-residence program now reaching fruition, eight artists or teams of artists were selected to help breathe fresh air into La Roche-Guyon. The program is carried out by artistic and cultural director Emmanual Morin. Three of the artists were tasked with updating visuals, maps, brochures and the chateau gift shop/ticket desk. The others were invited to create works that reveal, enrich and dialogue with the décor, the furnishings, the architecture and the prior use of certain rooms and spaces. The result is a series of accessible and often playful works anchored in specific locations. They lead visitors to linger longer both in appreciation of the works themselves and to consider the ways in which they revive and revisit the spirit of their location.

Here are some of the artists who have taken part in this enrichment campaign.

Castle map and descriptive brochure

For years, visitors purchasing their entrance ticket were handed a photocopied information sheet intended guide them through the then empty-castle. It was better than nothing, but not truly helpful in understanding the site.

Now, visitors are given an upbeat map of the castle along with an attractive information booklet providing an important primary understanding of the rooms to be visited. These are the work of graphic artist and illustrator Mathilde Arnaud. The map and the booklet, which appeal to children and adults alike, are as much souvenirs as on-site guides.

Entrance and grand staircase

Designers and plastic artists Baptiste Sévin and Jaïna Ennequin, who form Atelier Baptiste & Jaïna, have enriched the entrance and Classical grand staircase with Mineral Cuttings, as they’ve titled their work here, of ceramic and blown glass. The staircase, though lit by windows featuring the arms of La Rochefoucauld family, felt severe and incomplete prior to the introduction of their work. As with all of the artists participating in the current project, their works are not intended to transform their assigned space but rather to dialogue with the architecture and elements in which they’re integrated. Rather than draw attention to themselves, Baptiste & Jaïna’s “cuttings” soften the severity of the space while resonating with the rounded stone of the stairs, walls and banister, the window that lights the landing, and the fruit from the castle’s orchard. Their work will remain in place until 2030.

The dining room and 18th-century drawing rooms

Camille Chastang’s flamboyant, entertaining and floral creations in ceramics and textile present a trail of pleasures in the dining room and the main 18th-century drawing rooms. She has given the title Menus Plaisirs to the collection of objects that she has fashioned. That term refers to the service and budget of an aristocrat, notably a king, dedicated to small or minor (menus) pleasures (plaisirs) such as festivities, entertainment and courtly events. The artist’s Menus Plaisirs will enliven those rooms only until Nov. 1, 2026. For another room, she has designed a floral, watercolor-like wallpaper called Femmage! in honor of the women who have reigned here, in particular the Duchess of Enville. That will remain in place until 2028.

Echoes, a subtle soundtrack

Physical objects—tapestries, paintings, armchairs, tables, desks, and Camille Chastang’s trail of pleasures—help fill the void that once permeated these rooms. Add to that a subtle soundtrack created by sound designers Simon Cacheux and Julia Griner, who collectively form Atelier Blip Bloop.

Their elusive acoustics allow us to overhear the spirit of the succession of 18th-century reception and drawing rooms. It gives voice and breath to the stone architecture, the wood floors, beams and doors, the metal hinges and locks, and the nearby stables and great kitchen garden and orchard. Their soundtrack will play until 2028.

The library, the cabinet of curiosities and the orangery

From that succession of rooms, we enter the large library. Formerly home to a vast and prestigious collection of knowledge, reflections and stories, it now tells of nothing but absence. White faux book covers don’t so much fill the shelves as turn them into wordless ghosts. I would hope that an artist-in-residence will be invited before long to reconsider these shelves. Meanwhile, looking down on visitors from the upper level of the ghostly library, a mysterious creature hints at the curious menagerie in the next room.

While the library of an aristocratic family reflected a desire for knowledge and understanding as books become increasingly available, a cabinet of curiosities, adjacent here, was a more intimate, more personal space.

Cabinets of curiosities developed in Renaissance Europe as places to store, catalogue, present and examine precious objects of study, from a dinosaur fossil to a taxidermy parrot, and much in between. Numerous aristocrats designated a room for their “curiosities” in the 17th and 18th centuries, and beyond. Here, as in his enlightened library, the curator-aristocrat, whether noble savant or wannabe, could demonstrate to himself and to visitors his curiosity about the widening world as explorers, botanists and archeologist traveled the globe.

Now, sculptor Yoshikazu Goulven Le Maître has revived that spirit of curiosity with a menagerie of his own creations, titled Mirabilis and curated by Jean-Marc Dimanche.

Yoshikazu’s was the longest residency of the artists described here, leading to the most prolific creation. After viewing his works, visiting artists, crafters, scrappers and tinkerers of every age will want to pick up string, metal, fabric, buttons and minutia of any kind to start creating when they get home. Mirabilis will remain in place until 2028.

In addition to that wondrous menagerie, the artist has created larger works that can be seen in the former dog yard, situated shortly beyond the cabinet of curiosities, and a monumental bestiary in the dimly lit former orangery or greenhouse dug into the cliff, seen at the end of a visit. That bestiary, titled Fauna Fabulosa, will remain in place only until Nov. 1, 2026.

The theater

The Duchess of Enville created a precious little theater at La Roche-Guyon that is need of much restoration before being open to the public anytime. Photos of that space can be seen after the cabinet of curiosities.

As a reminder of its existence, Héllène Gaulier and Gwenolé Gasiner, of Agence GG, have designed theatrical games using pre-Industrial mechanics. One is shown by the theater and the other is shown within the medieval keep atop the cliff. Their works will remain here until 2030.

The truncated castle tower

Eventually, following an athletic climb, visitors are rewarded by the view that leads off this article, over the Seine Valley from the top of the tower of a castle keep. The tower, dating from about 1190, was at least one third taller before being beheaded, so to speak, in 1793, during the French Revolution. It was truncated to cut the notion of nobility down to size (hereditary nobility was first abolished in 1790) and to prevent such a prominent position from falling into the hand of counter-Revolutionaries. This had been a strategic location for nearly 900 years by then.

In 911, the Treaty of Epte set the border of a territory to be controlled by the Norsemen who’d conquered the territory and their descendants—the territory of Normandy. The Epte River, which flows into the Seine, runs about half a mile from here as the crow flies. On and off for centuries, that was the border between Normandy and France proper. It still represents the border between Normandy and Ile-de-France, as the Paris region is officially called. (Giverny is on the opposite side of the border.)

See this France Revisited video of the view.

Rommel at La Roche-Guyon

The Château de La Roche-Guyon’s strategic location at the border between Normandy and the Paris region explains why it served as German Marshall Edwin Rommel’s headquarters after his appointment by Hitler to oversee a large swath of the Atlantic Wall during the Second World War. The territory that he oversaw included the section of Normandy that would become the D-Day Landing Beaches.

During the Occupation, the Germans built casemates into the limestone cliff so as to protect their artillery as much as possible from Allied aerial bombing. Meanwhile, resistance activities took place in the village itself. An audiovisual installation called The Voice of the Casemates, 1944, by the French-Polish artist Tomasz Namerla will remain within the gloom of cliffside casemates until 2030.

For its WWI history alone, I’ve often suggested that those driving to the Normandy Landing Zone from Paris for several days stop here for a visit, just a 15-minute detour off the highway. Also, it makes for a nice break in the drive. Thanks to the recent cultural and art program, La Roche-Guyon now makes for an even richer break.

Visiting La Roche-Guyon with respect to Giverny

All told, the Chateau de La Roche-Guyon deserves a place on the traveler’s radar, perhaps not (yet) as a significant detour, but at the very least a stop for an hour or two or three for those driving to/from Normandy, or those planning on visiting Giverny, or those interested in also visiting the nearby natural and preserved zone called the Vexin Français.

Château de La Roche-Guyon is open daily 10am to 18am from April 1 to November 1, which more or less coincides with the opening season of Monet’s House and Gardens at Giverny. Additionally, and for the first time, the chateau will open from Dec. 5, 2026 to Jan. 4, 2027, with seasonal decorations and the creation by children’s book author Elisa Martin of a graphic novel whose action takes place at the Château de La Roche-Guyon.

Many touring companies based in Paris propose a Giverny + Versailles day trip from April 1 to Nov. 1. A Giverny + La Roche-Guyon combo, though less blockbuster, is a more natural and unhurried combo.

DIYers without a car can reach Giverny by taking the train to Vernon from Paris’s Saint Lazare Station then a shuttle or taxi or bike from Vernon. With no offense to Giverny, that’s a lot of travel and timing for relatively low touring ROI, unless you’re a hardcore Monet fan. An interesting cycling day could be made by taking the train to Vernon from Paris, renting a manual or e-bike near the Vernon train station, then visiting Giverny and La Roche-Guyon before cycling back to Vernon. That’s about 20 miles in all, mostly on narrow roads rather than designated cycling paths. (I haven’t yet done that and would like to hear from anyone who has.)

There’s a full-men restaurant by the river in the village of La Roche-Guyon, but keep it simpler, I say, by opting for lunch or a snack at the bakery near the foot of the castle or at the friendly café-bistro next to that. If La Roche-Guyon maintains its upward trajectory en route to becoming a destination, other worthy options will undoubtedly open.

© 2026 by Gary Lee Kraut

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Tell a Parisian that you’re heading south into deep France, la France profonde, and, after warning you that you’ll miss Paris after one day, he’ll eventually concede that one can eat well there, mention some magnificent chateau or landscape and finally confess that he has fond memories of once visiting with a friend or lover or cousin. But tell him that you’re headed to the deep France of the north and he’ll look at you with complete bewilderment. His only recollection of France’s northern border is likely to be a collective memory of German invasions.

So when I told friends in Paris that I was going to the French Ardennes, an area that accompanies the Meuse River as it pokes into Belgian forests just west of Luxembourg, I got nothing but a blank stare followed by a stunned “Pourquoi?”

Actually, one friend had been Charleville-Mézières, capital of the French Ardennes. “There’s a beautiful square there,” he said. Still, he thought I needed a better reason to go.

I did: beer. For three days I would set out to meet producers and purveyors of craft beer in the area.

But before taking a swig I had to deal with the ghost of poet-cum-explorer Arthur Rimbaud.

Part 1 is found here.
Part 2 is found here.
Part 3 is found here.

Travel advice : Giverny, with images of Monet’s garden in October
When visitors without much interest in Monet follow the paths around his pond and through his garden they inevitably find them lovely. For those curious about the artist, his sustained form of Impressionism and his family life, the garden and lily pond are magnificent. But are Monet’s House and Garden worth the daytrip? This article explains the interest of adding a stop at the nearby village of La Roche-Guyon on a trip to Giverny or further into Normandy.

A clear view of Paris
The City of Paris has begun investing in the fight against love locks on its famous bridges by placing glass panels that bring back the stunning views that attracted people to place locks there in the first place.

Happy travels always,

Gary

Gary Lee Kraut
Editor, France Revisited

The post The October Issue appeared first on France Revisited - Life in Paris, Travel in France.

* * *

Over the years I’ve visited Monet’s gardens and lily pond at Giverny at various times during its open seasons, late March to early November, at different times of day. I’ve seen, as Monet did, the gardens’ flora at various stages of bloom and rebloom and its relationship with the water, the sky and the air. As in painting by the master Impressionist himself as he focused more and more on his backyard in his 70s and 80s, the view expresses itself in a different way each time. I visited Giverny again recently in early October (the photos in this article are from then) and was once again impressed by how it had maintained its lushness and color into the fall. The season’s calm, flower-friendly weather had certainly helped.

Visitors following the crowded paths around his pond and through his garden inevitably find the site lovely and photogenic, though it’s Monet’s relationship with the site rather than the site alone that makes it worth a detour. I’m tempted to say that it isn’t worth going out of your way for Giverny if you aren’t curious about the artists. I won’t judge–but there, I said it anyway. So my first recommendation when considering a trip to Giverny is to get curious about Monet (1840-1926), about his sustained form of Impressionism and his family life (two children with his first wife who died shortly after the birth of their second child, cohabitation then marriage with a long-time friend who had six children of her own after their father had abandoned the family), and to visit it with the naked eye rather than through a camera lens, with plans to (re)visit Monet’s work at the Orsay Museum and more particularly at the Orangerie Museum and at the Marmottan Monet Museum.

Combine a view of the (controlled) natural landscape that he created here with a view of the work that he produced (in books or online if not in museums) and Giverny (pronounced jee-ver-nee) can feel uplifting. Though I’d rather visit with sunny skies or gentle white clouds, overcast weather also allows insights into Monet’s world and outlook. I’m less fond of a rainy-day visit, but even from under umbrella the gardens remain Monet’s.

Having said that, I find myself less than encouraging when advising travelers on whether or not to trek out to Giverny, 45 miles west of Paris, on a daytrip. I’m concerned that the weather will be bad (Giverny is, after all, at the entrance to Normandy, which is not known for sunny days) and/or the crowds overwhelming, and that even on a pleasant day you’ll will spend 90 minutes or more getting out there only to find Giverny lends itself to a 45-minute visit.

I know, there’s more to do in Giverny than a visit chez Monet. There’s the Monet boutique (as you can imagine, his paintings lends itself to appealing merchandising), some pretty (yawn) art galleries, an enjoyable and occasionally insightful Giverny Museum of Impressionisms, whose restaurant is a decent place to lunch, and there’s the relatively little visited tomb of Monet in the village churchyard. So it is possible to spend a couple of hours here. Also, though often ignored, the nearby town of Vernon, which is where you stop if coming this way be train, gives a sense of an ordinary small-town France for those who’ve never visited on. Still, I’m not always convinced that it’s worth the time for those who have little of it in Paris. As I say, I’m a big fan of Monet’s place. I just don’t think that making it a destination in and of itself is right for everyone.

La Roche-Guyon

Add La Roche-Guyon to the day, however, and I can be more encouraging. La Roche-Guyon is a village along the Seine just 6 miles to the east Giverny, on the opposite side of the Normand border. Though the castle of La Roche-Guyon is mostly empty inside (that is, the public parts are since a portion is private chateau, which belongs to the La Rochefoucauld family, is still inhabited) it can be visited inside, where it gives glimpse of several strong points in French history.

This was strategic site overlooking a loop in the Seine near the border between Normandy and France proper, at a time when the powerful dukes of Normandy and their kinship with crown of England posed a threat to France. The visitor understands the strategic importance of this site on the French side of the border by hiking through stairs cut into the limestone cliff and ascending into the 12-century tower so as to take in the tremendous view over the Seine Valley.

The Duchy of La Roche-Guyon also made a name for itself in the 18th-century for the interest of leading members of the Rochefoucauld family in the literature, science and politics of the Enlightenment. The main portion of the castle dates from that period as does the recently rehabilitated 9.4-acre vegetable and fruit garden.

Also, there’s WWI history here since the castle served as German Marshall Rommel’s headquarters during the lead up to D-Day 1944. Casements were dug into the cliff were to store munitions used especially by anti-aircraft guns placed at the top of the cliff.

Even without visiting Giverny, I recommend a stop at La Roche-Guyon for those flying into Paris and wishing to drive directly to Normandy to visit the D-Day Beaches. It makes for a nice break in a tiring day between the airport and your hotel in Normandy while introducing the history of Normandy and the German occupation during the Second World War.

Alternatively, you can stop at both Giverny and La Roche-Guyon on the way back from Normandy, but the timing can be more difficult if returning in the afternoon since you’ll want to avoid driving into Paris during rush hour.

In order to do the Giverny – La Roche-Guyon combo or to visit La Roche-Guyon on its own, you’ll need wheels since public transportation is too complicated and infrequent to get here.

© 2014, Gary Lee Kraut (modified 2026)

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U.S. President Obama, French President Sarkozy, English Prime Minister Brown, and Canadian Prime Minister Harper visited the Landing Zone in Normandy on Saturday but I beat them to the punch, spending a few days there earlier in the week before the crowds arrived. The photo log below shows many (but not all) of the main D-Day sights and cemeteries that one can see over about three days if setting out from Paris.

In a separate article I outline a series of possible itineraries for visiting the D-Day Landing Beaches of Normandy, but for now I invite you to join me on a portion of my own itinerary last week.

I lucked upon a string of sunny days, hence the blue skies in the photos, which is a rarity in Normandy, as anyone who has read about the events of June 1944 knows. Though my own trip also included a visit to Deauville and Honfleur before visiting the Landing Zone and Le Mont Saint Michel, Saint Malo, Le Mans, and Chartres afterwards, this photo log focuses on sights along and inland of the Landing Zone of June 6, 1944.

However, I can’t help but begin with images of Monet’s Garden and House at Giverny since it’s only a slight detour on the way to Normandy. In a sense, the day was too blue when I took the picture below left of Monet’s water lily pond since there was nothing in the sky to be reflected in the water as there often was in Monet’s work. The garden, below right, was in full bloom.

The road to Normandy from Paris more or less follows the Seine downstream towards the English Channel. After Giverny I backtracked upstream along the river to visit La Roche Guyon. I planned it that way because if visiting both it’s advisable to arrive early at Giverny. Furthermore, La Roche Guyon makes for a better lunch stop between the two.

La Roche Guyon naturally rings far fewer bells than Giverny, but it’s an interesting stop for a WWII tour because the chateau in the photo below left is where German Field Marshall Rommel set up his headquarters when he was appointed by Hitler to oversee and reinforce defenses along the Atlantic Wall. Many of the Landing sights that you’ll see in Normandy were personally inspected by Rommel from January to May 1944. The chateau of La Roche Guyon has a 1000-year history that I won’t go into here. The main marks from Rommel’s period are the casements where ammunition was kept, which now present an exhibit about that period. Otherwise, the chateau is a wonderful mishmash of periods with a beautiful view over the Seine. I typically think of Giverny as a pain for a daytrip on its own from Paris, but I do like the idea of a day combining Giverny with La Roche Guyon, though it’s necessary to have a car to do so or good biking legs from Vernon. La Roche Guyon is a pretty Seine-side town. The photo below right is a view upstream from the town.

Approaching the D-Day sights from the east, i.e. with the British and Canadian Landing Beaches, the first stop is Pegasus Bridge, which was rapidly taken by British airborne troops arriving in three gliders on the night of June 5-6, 1944. The bridge was taken in order to cut off German troops—and especially tanks—that might arrive from further east once the landing started and to prevent them from crossing the Orne River. The bridge that now goes over the Orne (below left) is a higher tech replica of the original bridge, which has been moved onto the grounds of the Pegasus Memorial Museum a few hundred yards away, which tells about the British airborne landing.

The Merville Battery was also captured by British airborne troops arriving by parachute and glider on the night of June 5-6, 1944. This was a major German battery between the coast and the right bank of the Orne whose guns were capable of firing on Sword Beach, the easternmost of the Landing Beaches. I won’t tell here the heroic and bloody story of how it was taken, but I will say that after reading about it and visiting the site several times before I was fortunate to hear first-hand last week when I met Alexander Taylor, who landed on a glider that night.

The Landing Zone is worth a visit at any time of year, but those who visit in the days surrounding June 6 may well encounter visiting some of the men who took part in the landing. During the 20 or times that I’ve visited the Landing Zone, beginning in 1992, I’ve had the opportunity to speak with visiting veterans on various occasions, but this is the first time I actually stood at the very spot where a man landed on D-Day and had him describe the event to me as he lived them. When I asked him his name also told me his dog tag number, 22543202. Here is Alexander Taylor, 22543202 standing tall at the Merville Battery, which he helped capture and render unusable at the age of 20.

I am sorry to say that I gave the Canadians short shift on this visit. Though I did stop at Juno Beach (where pit bulls and rottweilers are not allowed, I note in case you were planning on traveling with one), I didn’t visit the June Beach Center, Canada’s Second World War museum, which is by the beach at Courseulles-sur-Mer. Nor did I visit the Canadian Cemetery, which is a few miles inland at Riviers. Apologies to my Canadian readers. If anyone has a photo of the Canadian Cemetery I would like to post it here.

Arromanches is the town at the center of Gold Beach. It was here that the British built the artificial harbor known as a Mulberry. Some remnants of the harbor still remain just offshore. (The photo below, with clouds, was one that I took last year on June 6.) The D-Day Museum at Arromanches shows how the harbor was built and how it operated, along with other displays about the landing and the various nationalities that took part.

The only German battery along this coast with its canons still visible are those at Longues-sur-Mer. The photo below is one of four 155mm gun emplacements at Longues that were a danger to the landing of British troops at Gold Beach as they could fire up to 12 miles. Visiting the complex you’ll also see the position of its command center by the cliff and other concrete elements of the Atlantic Wall. Three of the four canons were put out of commission by naval fire within the first hour of the landing, but one was occasionally operational until about 5 p.m. The garrison here of 184 Germans surrendered to the British the following day.

Americans tend to visit only the American Cemetery but I think it’s important to visit those of other nationalities so as to have a sense not only of their loss and sacrifice but of their approach to their war dead. Here’s a section of the British Cemetery at Bayeux.

The American connection with Normandy begins with D-Day, but the British connection goes back much further, beginning with William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy, who took the crown of England after the Battle of Hastings in 1066. William is buried at the Abbaye aux Hommes (Men’s Abbey) at Caen.

The tapestry was made in about 1080 to be hung during Christmastime in the Cathedral of Bayeux. Inside the cathedral a plaque honors British troops who fought in the WWI.

In visiting the American sector, i.e. Utah and Omaha Beaches and related sights, I generally recommend starting out to Utah Beach, the westernmost beach, then visiting your way back towards Omaha rather than the other way around. On the way to Utah you might first stop, as I did, at the German Cemetery by the village of La Cambe. This cemetery contains the largest number of dead of all of the cemeteries in the region, over 21,000, including 207 unknown soldiers buried beneath the mound that dominates the cemetery.

I neglected to take any pictures at Utah Beach but here are pictures of the nearby village of Sainte-Mère-du-Mont, right, where men and women were playing soldier and parading around with their wartime jeeps. You’ll come across these collectors (I suppose that’s the word for them) at any time of year but especially around the anniversary of D-Day. Hundreds were gathering for the 65th anniversary this weekend. Few of them are American or British. I mostly heard French and Dutch last week.

I was in a little bar in Port-en-Bessin one evening when a jeep sporting a U.S. flag parked right out front. Out popped a big man with a long gray beard and a short plump women, both dressed in U.S. army uniforms, looking like Mr. and Mrs. Claus on a Bob Hope special. They entered the bar and the man demanded beer. That’s all he said, “Beer,” and he held one hand about 18 inches above the other to show that he wanted it big. The bartender asked where he was from. He said, “Czechoslovakia,” and he meant it.

The photo bottom right is of Sainte-Mère-Eglise, the town taken by American airborne troops on the night of June 5-6 and securing the bridges and roads of the western edge of the Landing area. The parachute hanging from the steeple is a wink to paratrooper John Steele who got stuck there. The Airborne Museum at Sainte-Mère-Eglise is quite good and has an excellent introductory film to both the overall landing operation and the specific events in and around Sainte-Mère-Eglise.

The guns at Pointe du Hoc were a danger for the landing at the two American beaches, Utah and Omaha, and even though the Rangers who climbed the cliff discovered to their surprise that the guns had been moved inland and weren’t operational, the site is nevertheless one of the most dramatic of those in the Landing Zone. In addition to the drama of the events of June 6-8, 1944 that took place here as the Rangers took and held the battery, the site also reveals the construction and workings of the German battery complex and the extent to which it was bombed. The bomb craters here, unlike most craters elsewhere along the coast, have not been filled in. The top photo below shows the Pointe du Hoc and the cliff that the Rangers scaled. The bottom photo shows some of the bombed out landscape.

The American Cemetery is about 15 minutes east along the coast from Pointe du Hoc. The cemetery overlooks Omaha Beach, the bloodiest of the five Landing Beaches. I’ll be writing about Omaha Beach, the cemetery, and all else that’s mentioned above in a separate article. For now I just point out the three images below: a view of the cemetery (top left), the memorial to American youth rising from the waves (right), and Omaha Beach (bottom left).

As noted above regarding Alexander Taylor, 22543202, encountering men and women somehow related to the events of the war—whether veterans, their children, Normans who lived through it or their children—is enormously enriching in exploring this zone. Below is a photo of Bernard Lebrec, whose apple farm produces the three main alcoholic beverages produced in the department of Calvados: cidre, pommeau, brandy. His farm, originally purchased prior to the war by his grandfather, is located in Englesqueville la Percèe, a village between Pointe du Hoc and the American Cemetery. You might stop in for a tasting, and if you do so be sure to inquire into the wartime history of the farm. 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, it was occupied by the Americans. The American 147th Engineer Combat Battalion made it their headquarters and built an airstrip in the family’s apple orchard in the early days of the Invasion of Normandy. I photographed Mr. Lebrec below standing in front of the monument erected on his property in honor of the 147th.

(c) 2009, Gary Lee Kraut

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