On Tuesday the students went to English and French classes in the morning at school. The teachers and students were great and created entertaining activities for everyone. In the afternoon we traveled to the explore the D-Day sites including Pointe du Hoc, Omaha Beach, and the American cemetery. It was a sobering and moving day. Our guide, Jordan, did an excellent job explaining the history of D-Day and the Battle of Normandy along with the history of the region during the war. Today’s reflections were written by Karina and Harry.

Karina

Today was my favorite day in Bayeux so far. I enjoyed seeing the different levels of English classes, and especially liked working with the younger kids. I was very impressed by how well some of them spoke english and how confident they were-more confident than I currently am at speaking french. The most interesting part of the day however was the trip to the D-Day beaches and the American Cemetery. Nothing could have prepared me for the tragic statistics of soldiers killed or wounded in battle, and it felt both surreal and overwhelming to be standing on the site of such gruesome battles. Seeing these locations in person definently gave me a deeper understanding of and appreciation for the scale of the war and just how many lives were lost. I also found the lowering of the flag ceremony at the American Cemetery really beautiful. Overall, I really enjoyed seeing such iconic sites of battle, and I was also very appreciative of the warm weather.

Harry

Tuesday started off similar to Monday, the only exception being that we attended something that was a little easier for us Americans to understand-English class! Throughout the morning we attended three English classes in levels equivalent to those of 12th, 11th, and 8th in the U.S. Two of the teachers, M. Lavergne and M. Walker were American and hailed from Louisiana and Kentucky, respectively. The students in all three classes were fascinated with American culture and life, as were we with French culture. They asked us many questions such as, “how is your food?”, “Is school fun?”, etc. My favorite part was exchanging national anthems with the students of M. Walker’s 11th grade class. But after a long morning of questions and sharing of cultures we got to join our French correspondents for a peaceful cafeteria lunch.

The second part of the day shifted our focus completely as we set off for the historic landmarks of D-Day, the largest amphibious invasion in the history of war. We were joined by an excellent tour guide who gave us all kinds of interesting stories from the invasion of Normandy. Our first stop was “La Pointe du Hoc,” a cape on which Col. Rudder of the Army Rangers was tasked with scaling the 100 foot cliffs with his men and destroying 6 German artillery canons. Overlooking the English Channel stands a memorial to the army rangers, commemorating their heroic efforts.

The shorter second stop of the tour was spent at Omaha beach, the deadliest landing at the Normandy invasion. Our guide informed us about the various tactics the Germans used to defend against the invasion and the tactics used by the allies to break through the line of German bunkers.

Our third and final stop was the American cemetery. As soon as we arrived our guide made it clear to us that while the cemetery may be on French soil, it is completely run by the U.S. government. Only a few minutes after we arrived we got to see the daily lowering of the flags accompanied by taps. The rest of the cemetery visit ensued of us roaming the grounds of the gravestones where almost 10,000 soldiers are buried. Many similarities were drawn between this cemetery and our local Arlington Cemetery.

Thankfully, being tired after the long day of classes and touring, we got to relax with a visit to a local boulangerie.