disneygeek.com Disneyland Paris Resort Pictures

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Disneyland Paris Resort Pictures

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Our morning started off with a 4am wake-up call then down to the lobby by 4:40 to wait for our ride to the train station. We arrived and found an open door about 4:50am.
An RER train waiting in the station. This was not our those.
A closer look at the train.
We had 15 minutes or so to wait. Our train was scheduled for 5:13am. A look at the board indicating where the next train/first train of the day was heading.
We took the RER A and transferred to a Metro line and arrived at St. Lazare station by 6:15am. We had 90 minutes to waste waiting for our train to Normandy then.
Found a seat near Starbucks which had not even opened yet. And there was a Burger King too but it did not serve breakfast or open until 11am. We found a cart/vendor that was open and got something to eat.
A board indicating the upcoming departures. The platform number was not added until 15-20 min before departure.
Once the sun came up, some random pictures from the train as we rolled through the French countryside.
Getting closer...
Passed a McDonalds..
Our seats for the trip. We had a table and lucked out having 4 seats for the 3 of us so it meant room for the cameras and backpacks.
Arrived in Caen just before 10am. Odd to think this was 6 hours into my day already.
Walking by our train in Caen
On the walls of the station were some pictures of the landing.
Passing through the Caen train station looking for our tour group.
Found our group and we were on a bus to the museum by 10:02am.
A bus system in Caen.. we were on a regular charter type bus.
It was a little hazy this morning.
Arriving at the Caen-Normandie Memorial Museum, around 10:18am.
Out front were several memorials, art pieces. Our guide did not talk about them and instead ushered us inside. So not sure what they were.
One statue I did recognize, Unconditional Surrender which is a 25ft tall bronze statue depicting the famous WWII picture. This statue travels the world and happened to be on display when we were there.
An idea of the size of it.
Heading inside the museum. A quick look around. To my right is the information desk.
To my left the gift shop and library.
Straight ahead the entrance and cafeteria
Panning a little to the right and looking forward is the front desk and overhead a WWII aircraft.
D-Day, June 6, 1944 saw over 10,000 casualties during the landing.
The museum starts the story off at the end of World War I as that set the stage for WWII.
The signing of the treaty in Versailles to end WWI
Throughout the early part of the museum are maps showing how Europe changed over the years leading up to and during the war.
The Roaring 20s represented with music.
The next section looked at the rise of totalitarianism and the people involved.
There was an audio tour available for regular museum guests. We had our own tour guide providing the audio for us.
Interesting how propaganda was constructed. Look at these two photos of the same event. Notice on the left they are framed at the same height, a plan backdrop compared to the original photo on the right.
Some of the displays in the museum
A German telegraph/code machine
The Japanese attack the United States and we enter the war.
A look up at the plane we saw when we entered the museum.
Several displays on the mass violence and holocaust.
And it skips to the end of the way.
The numbers of civilian and military deaths are so large and really put World War II into perspective. China and Russia each lost over 21 million people. In Poland 5.3 of its 5.6 million deaths were civilian. The US by comparison lost 300,000 military and 5,000 civilian.
We were to conclude the museum tour with a film on the landing. We saw about 1/2 of it before the lights came on. A tech tried to reset and failed. We were escorted to lunch then and never did get to see the film.
Lunch was in the Restaurnt La Tarrasee I ended up eating a lot of bread and water.. you can have all the wine you included but no soft drinks included. The choices were fish, chicken or some sort of pasta. I ordered the chicken and ended up looking at it more than eating it.
After lunch we had about 20 minutes to explore the gift shop, restroom, etc.. before leaving for the beaches.
Some hardware on display. There was also a bunker in the back but we did not have time to venture there.
1:00pm sharp and we were in the van and on the road to beaches. There were 7 guests, our guide and a driver.
On the road.
Along the way signs of some of the sights we would be seeing.
This is the main highway from Caen to Bayeux
Here is a map for reference of where we were going. The red dashed line is our route. It took approx 5 hours to do the circle. We left at 1pm and arrived by at the train station just after 6pm.
Driving through a small town.
A large cross at a key intersection.
Heading through the fields now.
Some signs to help out those trying to navigate on their own.
Our van at the first stop Pointe du Hoc. There were six 155mm German guns on point and on June 6, 1944 225 Rangers landed with the mission to destroy them.
A sample of the guns.
As you walked signs paying tribute to the rangers.
Making our way to the point.
There were bunkers scattered around the landscape.
This is where one of the guns would have been.
Another bunker.
Looking out to the English channel.
This is what it looked like with a gun installed. The Germans had removed the guns in April prior to the landing in June though.
The allies bombed and shelled the area extensively.
Another interesting note is since 1979 this site has been maintained by the United States - American Battle Monuments Commission. In the distance is a memorial for the 40th anniversary.
We walked out to the command bunker at the point.
Inside the bunker a plaque commemorating the Rangers that gave their lives.
A look out from the command post looking toward Omaha Beach
Outside the bunker looking toward Utah Beach
Here you can really see the cliff.
Here is a video from the dedication of the memorial in 1984 by Ronald Reagan. President Reagan tells the story of what happened at Pointe du Hoc.
A look at the dagger memorial.
Looking back you can see the bomb craters.
Looking down the cliff. Amazing to think the rangers climbed up this cliff. It took the rangers 2 days to capture the pointe and by the end only 90 of the 225 were still able to fight.
Looking down at the beach and cliffs.
Looking toward Utah Beach
I thought this was interesting. Many of the bomb craters had paths through them. Seems tourists like walking through them.
Looking out to the Pointe.
A video clip look around the Pointe du Hoc
A final look to the right
And one to the left before leaving.
There was a visitor center/museum at the site but our guide did not take us anywhere near it. Not sure why..
Back in the van and on our way to Omaha Beach.
Along the way we passed several smaller museums and pieces of hardware from the war.
A house and beyond it on the cliff a bunker.
A closer look at the position.
On the road in the Omaha Beach. The tide was high. Our guide said recently it was over the road so at least it was lower than that, but not a lot of beach visible.
Several houses along the beach.
Notice the US Flag.
A marker for the first cemetery on Omaha Beach.
A thatched roof house.
Omaha was one of 5 landing beaches on D-Day and suffered the heaviest number of casualties. To take the beach it cost over 1,000 American lives and 2,000 wounded or missing.
A look at the road we just traveled in on.
A sculpture commemorating the 60th anniversary of the landings.
Looking left
Looking right.
A closer look at the sculpture
A description of it.
More info.
Video clip taken down on the beach.
Back up above there were these information signs talking about the beach both during the landing and today.
Across the street and parking lot was a restaurant and bar and a small town.
Back in the van and on the road again.
More hardware and smaller museums along the road.
Next stop the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial at Colleville-sur-Mer
The sign says to start at the visitor center but again our guide kept us far from it.
The cemetery is maintained by the United States through the American Battle Monuments Commission and encompasses 172.5 acres
It is a very heavily visited cemetery with over 1 million guests per year.
We entered from the side. To the left are the grave sites and reflecting pool.
To the right a memorial.
Beyond the reflecting pool in the middle of the head stones is a small chapel.
In the center of the memorial is a 22ft bronze statue entitled The Spriti of American Youth Rising from the Waves.
Some renovation work going on around the memorial.
This area houses the walls of the missing with the names of 1,557 US Soldiers who died during the landings but were never found.
There is an overlook to the English Channel and a map showing the sectors
Looking out to the channel
There are 9,387 headstones in the cemetary.
9,238 Latin crosses
149 Stars of David
There are 41 sets of brothers including Theodore Roosevlets sons. And 3 Medal of Honor recipients. They have gold writing.
I hiked to the back part of the cemetery and was able to take a couple pictures without other tourists in the shots..
The circular chapel in the center. I will revisit there in a few pages.
At the far end of the cemetery are two symbolic statues of Italian Baveno granite.
They represent the United States and France.
Turning around and heading back toward the chapel
A video clip taking a look around as the chapel bells rang played.
The chapel is constructed of limestone and granite
The ceiling mural in the chapel depicts America blessing her sons and a grateful France.
Making my way back to the main memorial.
The Walls of the Missing
There is a visitor center located beyond the garden. I wanted to walk out there but had 5 minutes and choose to return for the flag retreat.
There are two flags. They lowered the one on the right first. No music was played.
Video clip of the flag retreat at the US Cemetery in Normandy France.
One last picture before we returned to the van to leave.
Back in the van and on the road.
Our final stop was Arromanches this was an artificial harbor built by the allies. You can see the remains of the sea wall in the English Channel
Our guide had several pictures. Here is one of tankers filling up gas cans.
Looking back toward Omaha
One of the concrete caissons being constructed. Once completed they were floated to the site and then sunk.
A completed one. Notice the anti aircraft gun on the top as they floated it to position.
A map showing what was constructed.
Pontoon bridges to reach the ships and unload.
Looking out at the remains.
To the right is the British sector, Gold.
This is looking toward Omaha
A wider view of the area
Looking inland.
One last look around before heading back to Caen to catch our return train.
In the van on our way back. A cow under an umbrella.
Driving through a town/village on the way back.
Back in Caen on our way to the train station.
We were in the train station in Caen by 6:15pm for our 7:11 train.
Waiting to find out our platform number.
A look around the Caen train station.
Our train showed up ontime and we headed back to Paris. Because it got dark and there was nothing to see no pictures.
We made it back to St Lazare around 9:15pm Then took the metro out to catch the RER A back to Disney.
We missed the RER by a few minutes and had to wait 20 minutes for the next train. While waiting found this Disney ad.
Our train is the next one. you can tell if it will stop at your station if it is lit up. Disney is easy to pick out :)
We arrived back at Disney and familiar sights just before 11pm.
Decided to grab a quick bite at McDonalds on the way back to the room.. big mistake it was a madhouse inside! But we eventually made it through the line and back to our room to end a very long day.