Did you know that in France, the trucks drive in the right lane of the highway, consistently and at their appropriate speed limit? I now do and I must say, it makes for a fine day in the automobile. Also, France keeps their roads (well except the one right in front of our house) maintained and landscaped beautifully. And, driving kilometers instead of miles is actually scientifically proven to be both faster and a shorter distance. Who knew? Yet another reason to adopt the metric system in the US. All this was a salve to my sore feelings about driving from yesterday.
Our first stop was in the picturesque town of Bayeaux, which houses the eponymous Bayeaux Tapestries. Tapestry is a bit misleading since, instead of being a woven design, it's a long, long (think maybe a 6 foot roll of 30 inch toilet paper - the kind that the Jolly Green Giant would use) embroidered piece of fabric. It tells the story of William the Conqueror (yet another ancestor with questionable morals). The tapestry is housed in an oblong, maybe 100 foot, display case and viewers slowly circle through holding audio guides to their ears. I was holding wheelchair handles so Mom gave me the condensed version in real time. Then, we were treated to little replicas of prominent events depicted in the tapestry. We've seen so many incredible museums on this trip and this was another.
After a meh lunch in a restaurant housed in an old building with a working water wheel, we left for the American Cemetery and Omaha Beach. I'm not really sure how to write about this part of our day. My eyes were teary, viewing the hundreds and hundreds of white crosses, each representing a young life needlessly wasted. American flags were raised on French soil, where the troops landed on Omaha Beach and died to defend freedom. This is how the story is told, and it's true. But also, when we were visiting friends earlier this week in Paris, Simone told us about the American troops giving candy and toys to the children in her town, She said her mother told her never to accept anything from them, because she felt the Americans made the French community feel worthless, helpless, indebted to them and, in a sense, occupied by them. Many French citizens felt that the abundance of American gifts felt more like a show of superiority. It's all so complicated, and I can't untangle all the feelings. But I do know that looking at the unending rows of white crosses and thinking about the terror these boys (and really, they were boys - George's age!) felt on that beautiful beach only made me feel deep sorrow, for everyone.
Our last stop was the Omaha Beach Museum. It's an interesting look at D-Day, with life-sized scenes depicting different phases of the invasion. Also, the museum had an impressive collection of WWII memorabilia and documentation. We saw a film that included a ton of footage from the beach. And the musuem plays a continuous loop of biographies of those who died at Omaha Beach. At this point in our day, we were both mentally and physically exhausted. After getting vending machine coffee and candy, I drove back to Rouen, thinking about all things war. William the Conqueror warred with King Harold in 1066. The Allies defeated the Nazis, preserving the world as we know it. And now, we have 21st century wars with more needless death and destruction of cultures. Humans - we just can't stop repeating the same awful mistakes of the past. It's in our DNA to war. It just is. And that sucks.
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