The D-Day Beaches

Due to a really long and emotional day of traveling yesterday, and possibly party due to an extra glass or so of wine, I didn't get this post done on time. 
We were up at 6 to get ready for an early departure to the Normandy coast. On the way we heard a commentary about how the local cities were bombed severely by the Allies in preparation for the invasion. We saw how entire sections of cities had seen centuries old structures destroyed and replaced with 1950s concrete. Our guide was very effective and interesting. She was a history major who studied the war and had a grandfather who was executed for being a part of the French Resistance during the war. 
I won't say much about the Juno Beach pictures as none could really do justice to the place. It was very emotional for the 12 of us from Canada to walk on the beaches where so many soldiers died. The site itself is not flashy or touristy, just real...
I'll also include pictures from Omaha Beach and the American Cemetery which were also very moving. 

This is the Memorial Centre at Juno Beach. It's been built and is supported completely by donations.

 Outside of the centre, there are pylons with markers that have names of soldiers who participated in the D-Day landings.

These are remnants of some of the German installations on the beach. 

Everyone who comes to the American Cemetery in Normandy is given a flower to place on  a grave. There are four Canadians in the cemetery and we were given directions to find one of them. 

This is the part of Omaha Beach represented in the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan. 
After our long day, we were happy to have another excellent dinner.

 Our appetizer was a duck terrine. We'd never had this before and it was very tasty.

 We both had the lamb main course.

Dessert was strawberries Romanov with strawberry sorbet.