Last Friday, on the train from Amsterdam to Brussels, Shamrock Jones suffered a setback. He was relieved of various belongings by a Dutch highwayman. Items no longer in Jones' possession include: 1 laptop computer, l cell phone, 1 set of apartment keys, 3 button-down shirts, 1 book of Lee Miller's photographs, and 1 hand-carved wooden chess set recently purchased in the market square in Krakow. (This last was an impulse buy which added unnecessary weight and bulk to Jones' already considerable kit. It is no longer an issue.) A later post will include photos of the ridiculous spectacle that is a Parisian locksmith at work.
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In mid-July, having completed the five-month French language course that precedes the academic year at the Ecole de Guerre, I set out to do a bit of exploring. Uncle Ken joined me in Paris at the start of my five-week vacation and we hit the road the next day, like Lenny & George, and i'm not sure who was who. First stop was Normandy where we spent three days studying the largest amphibious landing in history. The impossible task of Operation Overlord is exhaustively and exceptionally documented in dozens of museums, monuments, and cemeteries from Cherbourg to Le Harve and on the D-Day beaches themselves: Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword. Climbing around on the remnants of the Atlantic Wall and staring out over the hedge rows of the French countryside in one direction and the English Channel in the other, I was struck by two thoughts: Man's capacity for brutality knows no bounds, and: The good guys won. I urge you to go to Normandy if you haven't been, or to urge others to go if you already have - To La Pointe du Hoc, where the Rangers scaled the cliffs. To the American cemetery at Colleville, where 9,400 white marble crosses stand in quiet rows next to the sea. To the Germany cemetery at La Cambe, where 13,000 of the 21,000 graves are for unknown soldiers. There is a lot to see and just as much to ponder.
On our way to Amiens to visit the site of the Battle of the Somme Ken and I made several stops. First stop was in Bayeux to see the Bayeux Tapestry. I was only vaguely familiar with this remarkable 11th century treasure. The 70m linen tapestry depicts the history of William, Duke of Normandy and his conquest of England in 1066. The tapesty is presented in a long semi-circular room, dark except for the small spotlights illuminating the tapestry's panels. An individual audio guide keeps visitors moving, though I paused mine frequently to give the tapestry a closer inspection. The depictions of the preparations for war, the Channel crossing, and the battlefield littered with severed limbs made clear that the Battle of Hastings was no picnic.
From Bayeux we drove to Caen, arriving without running out of gas despite being well past E the entire way. Le Mémorial de Caen is a museum and war memorial dedicated to the history of conflict in the 20th century and particularly World War II. The unatributed citation chiseled into the stone facade of the large rectangular building reads:
La douleur m'a brisée, la fraternité m'a relevé, de ma blessure a jailli un fleuve de liberté.
Finding our way to the ticket counter in the chaotic central hall, we asked for two tickets, one for a veteran and one for someone over 60. The girl behind the counter glanced between Ken and I and explained that we could not use two discounts for the same person. I smiled and explained that I was the veteran and Ken was over 60 though neither one of us look it. She blushed and looked down at her computer and i'm sure for a split second we were both in love.
Having become habituated to audio guides in Normandy, Ken and I donned yet another headset and started down the spiral walkway dedicated to the events leading to World War I, the war, l'entre deux guerres, the rise of National Socialism in Germany, and the events leading to World War II. It was a grim stroll ending in a large round chamber reverberating with the discordant tones of one of Hitler's deranged speeches. The symbolic descent into hell intended by the museum's architect, Jacques Millet, was not lost on us.
After three hours in the museum we had only just made it to D-Day, and Ken and I decided to catch the short film about Operation Overlord and then get back on the road. The museum's extensive treatment of the Cold War, Korea, Vietnam, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the liberalization of eastern Europe would have to wait for another visit.
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