A little bit of William and a little more war

Our next stop was Bayeux, but the Lonely Planet suggested a little detour that turned out to be very worth it. The Abbaye de Jumieges consists of the ruins of an 11th century Benedictine abbey, cathedral and all. Construction of the church began in 1020 and was consecrated in 1067 - William the Conqueror (or Guillame le conquarent) attended. It was a seat of learning and became one of the holders of important scripts in the 13th and 14th centuries, but during and following the French Revolution, the monks were kicked out and the abbey was,ined for stones for other projects. Now, you can see the bones of the cathedral and other surrounding buildings, which I found really interesting from an architectural perspective. Plus, whatever spiritual leanings I have, I tend to find those connections in the open air, so this was an interesting situation.

From Jumieges, we took a little ferry across the Siene and headed towards Bayeux and up to the Normandy coast to Courseulles - better known in Canada as Juno beach. On June 6, 1944, 2 American units, 2 British units and a Canadian unit stormed the beaches of Normandy, code named Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword for Operation Overlord. The landings on D-day led to heavy fighting in Normandy and the eventual liberation of France. The Allied troops suffered 210,000 casualties, the Germans around 200,000 with another 200,000 taken prisoner. Approximately 14,000 French civilians were also killed. Visiting Juno beach was very different than Dieppe, you could see where the Allied forces had learned from the failure at Dieppe two years previously. Although still marked with higher ground where the Germans could defend from, it was not nearly as drastic. The beach is also sand, rather than pebbles. Along with the Americans and the British, the D-day landings marked a significant turning point in WWII, eventually leading to the German surrender at Reims. At Juno beach, there is a Canadian museum and memorial that we visited. 

We have now arrived in Bayeux, a wonderful little Norman city, with architecture that survived both the revolution and WWII, which I am looking forward to exploring a bit more.