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Day 6: May 30, 2024
This morning we met Gérard, the driver who will be with us for the next few days, and we left Paris at 8am for the beaches of Normandy. Of course it took us a while to get out of Paris, but once on the open road we made good time. We arrived in Arromanches , a lovely little town on the coast, in time to have some lunch before our booking at the D-Day Museum. The museum was very interesting and we learnt how the audacious invasion plans were hatched and executed on 6th June 1944, to begin to free France from Nazi occupation. Everyone had headphones and could press buttons for commentaries on the exhibits in English.
After the museum we went further down the coast to visit Omaha beach, where the American forces landed, and the American cemetery nearby. Because preparations are being made for the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings next week, we couldn't get too close to the memorial on the beach, but we could see it.
After a further two hours in the bus we arrived at our hotel in St Malo, a lovely small town in the region of Brittany. We had dinner in a restaurant near the hotel, then walked into town, stopped for waffles and hot chocolate, and then walked on the beach before going back to the hotel.