My wife and I will be in the Bayeux area 2 days May 3-4, 2009 and are not interested in the very detailed information provided by the various Tour groups (too much history for us). We read in the RS book that we can pick up a free brochure at the TI in Bayeux which outlines the D-Day battle sites, etc. Is this a useful guide to enable us to use the car and travel to the sites? In additon, for us traveling to the sites without the use of organized tours are there recommendations for us relative to must-see sites in two days? Thanks, Dorsey
Posted by
Frankfurt, Germany
9220 posts
I guess I get puzzled by questions like this. You want to see the D-Day beaches, but you don't want to know anything about them?? You want to see the cemeterys, but not know anything about the men that are in them, why or how they died??? The history of this area is not something dry, especially as told by the tour guides. It is personal stories, personal sacrifice, personal death. When you stop for a photo and look out over a field, it will just look like a field to you. But if you were on a a tour, you will find out that field was flooded by the Nazis and many of the paratroopers that landed there then drowned because they were carrying 150 lbs. of equipment. When you walk into a church and think oh, this is a lovely little place, I wonder why there are paratroopers on the stained glass windows? If you were on a tour, you would not only find out why, but also that the dark marks on the pews were from blood stains left by villagers being tended by 2 medics while they were holed up in the church between battles with the Nazis and the Allies for many days. Or that bridge you just drove over, how would you know that this was a hotly contested piece of property, or as you drive down that country lane and see the little memorials left by the towns people, how will you know what they are for, what sacrifice was made here on this spot?
I am sorry for writing so long. I truly do not understand the reason for going to some place like this and not wanting to know the history of it. The D-Day Invasion turned history as we know it and if these men had not sacrificed their lives, Europe might have a very different history today. As you can tell, I am passionate about this "history".