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Normandy, France, Tour: Days One and Two
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| Our tour bus boards the ferry at Dover. We are off on a four-day tour of the D-Day Beaches in Normandy. | From the deck, see the white cliffs and Dover Castle across the boat yards. |
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| The White Cliffs of Dover. | In a couple of hours we got off the ferry in Calais, France. The bus ahead toured with us. |
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| Famous names on the highway road sign in France. | We spent three nights in the Hotel Clarine in Caen. The dining room is behind the red curtains. |
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The first stop on the tour is Pegasus Bridge on the Caen Canal. The English took this bridge in the middle of the night of June 6, 1944.
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Pegasus Bridge. This is a larger, newer one than in 1944, but the same type of bridge. |
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| A family named Gondrée lived here. With the taking of Pegasus Bridge, they were the first people in France to be liberated. | A Gondrée daughter, who can remember the taking of the bridge, now runs a café in front of her house. |
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| Note the Allied flags. She has war souvenirs and memorials inside. | A plaque commemorates the liberation of France in 1944. |
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| Across from the Café Gondrée, Bob poses with a WWII tank. | Our buses wait near the café to whisk us off to the next site. |
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| Ranville War Cemetery is nearby. | British, Canadian, and even German soldiers are buried here. |
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| Sword Beach was taken by the British on June 6, 1944. | Farm tractors are used at the beaches to launch and retrieve pleasure boats. |
