As we got closer to the Juno Beach Centre we started to see signs with Canadian Flags more frequently, and I started to feel like I was getting closer to a tiny piece of Canada. Once we got inside, it was so nice to see Canadian flags and maple leaves everywhere in the gift shop! The people working there are university students who get to spend several months working at the centre, then they go back home. The person I spoke with the most (in French!) was from Winnipeg, and he apparently had gone to French immersion when he was in school, but he had lost a lot of it since then, and he wanted to get it back! We joked about how we could consider us neighbours (in Canada) since we were both so far away!
The beach itself is huge, and with the grey clouds around us at the time, it seemed like like it was one huge memorial to the Canadians who landed there on June 6, 1944. Over a thousand either died or were injured there, and together, they made it the furthest into occupied France of all of the armies that landed on the beaches that day. It really it an emotional experience being there.
Afterwards, we drove about another hour along the coast and found Omaha Beach, one of the beaches where the American army landed. There are only a few buildings near it - a couple of restaurants, mostly, but it has been left pretty much as it was. There is a very interesting and beautiful sculpture on the beach to commemorate the soldiers there. The museum dedicated to the Americans is further along on Utah beach.
It is amazing to me how something this complicated, involving so many people, so much equipment, and so many types of landing craft could be organized and be successful in their goal of liberating Europe, when it all happened at a time without our modern technology for communication or computers. Only when you are there do you realize how big this was, in every way. Just the distance alone - many miles along the Normandy coast - makes is seem unbelievable that it could have even been attempted. At the same time, the French Resistance committed over a thousand acts of sabotage to roads and communication systems so that the nazi forces were impeded in any attempt to stop the allied forces. Even before the actual landing, all kinds of purposefully faulty information had been "leaked" to the nazis so that they thought the attack would take place furher north, and their forces would be concentrated as a result.
I was so proud to wear my t-shirt saying CANADA as I visited these places where so many people gave their lives in terrifying conditions to give the world the freedoms we now enjoy.
If you ever have the chance, visit Juno Beach Centre and the other "plages du debarquement du Jour-J".
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