After our tapestry experience, we went in search of a D-Day site or memorial. Not really knowing what exactly we were hoping to see, we did notice many signs in Bayeux that appeared to point to any number of possibilities. We settled on “D-Day: LE CHOC”, on the assumption that good things would happen. (We never really learn the meaning of this sign, as it turns out.) We follow signs (and sometimes missing them) and go roughly westward from Bayeux until we come to the American Memorial and Cemetery at Omaha Beach, one of the two American amphibious assault sites (the other being Utah Beach; British And Commonwealth forces landed further east at Gold, Juno and Sword beaches).
We go to the Visitor Center, see some interpretive displays about the heroism and fate of ordinary soldiers, then walk outside. A few steps and we are able to overlook the Omaha Beach landing site. It is all peaceful today, with families playing down below and sailboats out on the water. No sense of the struggle that began on the morning of June 6, 1944….