Day 4 or “How do I do this now ….”

By that I mean the question of how to switch from light holiday lines to “heavy history”. But trying to start a few lines deeper.

But, I try to start tomorrow. I’m almost at the “rear end” of the world and have no cell phone reception. I have “bought” for a few Euros minutes in the domestic WiFi, but firmly, that my grandmother would be faster in a wheelchair with 2 flat tires in a pile of sand. The upload of a picture has just taken 15 minutes. With 20 images, the 120 minutes are more than over pretty soon.
So I leave it for today and complete everything tomorrow.
Stay tuned ……

Supplement from 07.07.2019:
The day before yesterday, I came back home again and after having all the data spotted and secured, it’s time to complete the day in the Normandy. Even though I’m going to have a hard time recovering the feeling of the day, just in the morning. I hope, I succeed in viewing the recorded images.
I spent the night well not to say very well. The luggage is stowed away quickly, the coffee drunk and at 9 clock I’m on the way again. When I arrived yesterday, I am just turning left, in front of the imposing car bridge, which not far from the campsite crosses the Seine. This time my TomTom allows me to take it.
I move on smaller roads towards Normandy and thus into a coastal area, which in recent days has come back into anyones and especially in my consciousness due to the 75th Anniversary of the D-day.
In the rough planning of the tour, I soon realized that this area of Normandy deserves more attention than just passing it. As a member of a generation that has never experienced war and whose education in this regard has never been supported by school, so I have to get my own information.
I first come into contact with the story in Asnelles when I turn off the main road to the right into the small town to take a break and look at the monument there.
The coastal town is small and tranquil, the weather with partly cloudy sky pleasant. Only the strong wind, which pulls over from the water is unpleasant, but only because he brings the finest sand from the beach, which is then everywhere in the place on the streets like a thin layer of fine powdered sugar.
I take the break, and look closer at the monument. In particular, the erected flagpoles are interesting for me, at the tips of which blow the flags of the countries that sent soldiers to the coast. And there are many who I at least did not have on the screen.
As I look closer at the memorial and the plaque with explanatory inscriptions, I have a kind of head-cinema and recall long-forgotten pictures from the Hollywood movie “The Soldier James Ryan”, in which Tom Hank searches for just that soldier to send him home because the family has already lost 2 of her 3 sons.
In particular, the long and intimidating in their brutal truth-loving portrayal input sequence has remained in my memory after all these years. It is the D-Day and the death of many soldiers who will not even make it to the beach under the machine-gun fire of the Germans in all hardships on the screen “played out”.
This goes through my head as I read the inscription under violently waving flags, with the fine sand on my face.
I am deeply impressed by the courage and determination of the rest of the world to prevent a millennial reign.
I stay much longer than the usual cigarette break.
And yet it drives me on. On the way, as I drive through Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer, I read the sign for Omaha Beach, a name that is inextricably linked to D-Day.
So I turn right and reach the beach after a few meters.
Surrounded by small museums, the one or the other, thank God very inconspicuous held small shop, a restaurant and a bar, I reach the parking lot opposite the monument.
Parked the machine, I reach after a few meters, the imposing monument that has been erected here in honor of the fallen.
In addition to the “usual” tourists, I also notice many young people who have obviously traveled here in groups.
And in fact, I’m glad to see that there are school systems that obviously do not just hide this young part of the story, just as the school system did in my day.
You have to remember mistakes or be reminded to learn from the mistakes permanently.
The path continues, albeit more thoughtfully, than the last days.
On the way I grab something to eat in a small supermarket in Les Veys, looking for a campsite, which I finally find in Les Pieux, right on the coast.
Beautiful place, pleasant but windy weather and only a few steps to the beach. Again, the camping app has served me extremely well.
The construction is a bit slower today, the wind is not exactly helpful. But finally, I get the tent into a condition that it will hopefully maintain, despite the wind until tomorrow morning.
The evening sunset is impressive and blurs a bit the less pleasant thoughts that have determined the day.
And what will come tomorrow, we will see.-
Time for a Pastis and my usual greeting at the end of the day:
Stay tuned ……

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