Juno Beach and Parisian Catacombs

Reaching Juno Beach was not very easy. The part of Normandy where one finds the allied beaches is a two hour train ride from Paris, followed by an hour and a half bus ride from the city of Caen (pronounced the same as - in french - Camp ou Quand).

Juno beach itself is located in a small town called Courseulles-sur-mer, which also houses the Juno Beach Centre. Surprisingly, I was the only tourist from Paris that seemed to make the trek - most other visitors were with a tour, or were just the local French people... though if I didn't speak French, I would've had a hell of a time finding anything.

The Centre was quite informative, and helped give perspective on the Canadian view-point during the Second World War. Since it's located in France, though, a substantial amount of it is used to teach basic facts about Canada - according to a guide, only 30% of the visitors are Canadians.

The beach itself was not really what I had pictured. I'd always had the movies-perspective of having to run up over a hundred-meters to reach the mainland. While that may have been the case at the time, it certainly wasn't yesterday (although I was told that the Allies attacked when the tide was low).

The few remaining Nazi bunkers have been mostly dismantled, and no longer have a good vantage point of the ocean, as giant banks of sand have been moved in front of them.

I walked for a few kilometers Southwards, to try to reach Omaha beach (One of two American landing points), but since I didn't see it after walking for an hour, I decided to turn back so I wouldn't miss the last bus back to Caen.

Trying to imagine the Canadian assault on Juno was difficult - It's a very peaceful region. But the few leftover signs of the War (including limited amounts of barbwire) gave clues as to what transpired on the beach. It was definitely a unique experience, and I'm glad I took the time to visit it.







Today, I went somewhere a bit closer (only a 20-minute walk from my Hotel), the Paris Catacombs (Thanks for the suggestion, Lis!). Due to overpopulation of cemeteries in the 1700s, causing disease, many of them were destroyed, resulting in having to exhume the (apparently indifferent) skeleton population.

They were placed in abandoned mines, under the city. There are just thousands upon thousands of bones and skulls to be found. It's a little creepy, but begged the question of whether or not one of them could be my ancestor.

I spent the rest of the day walking around the city a bit, and finally relaxing a little.

Tomorrow I leave Paris, and head to Dublin, for the final leg of my year-long adventure.
Four more days 'til home.

Whee. Take care.