Liberation Tour 2024 - Day 1: The waiting game

 I know it’s been a couple years since I’ve written for this space. And those of you who remember those entries may think I’ve just copied and pasted them. But I haven’t. This is a new tour, a new group and some new stops. My plan is to update each night when I’ve gotten back to the hotel and put my feet up. I’ll go through my pictures and share my thoughts. Just remember - your experience may differ.

So tonight, while listening to the fireworks in Caen for Bastille Day …

Liberation Tour 2024

Day 1 - The waiting game

Liberation Tour 2024 is finally underway. We left Omaha Saturday morning, en route to Dallas-Fort Worth and then Paris. All seemed to be going well … until something wasn’t working on the plane to Paris. We waited. And waited. And waited, finally taking off over an hour later than scheduled. These things happen when you travel and I, for one, would rather have the plane fixed and be late than it not be fixed.

We flew overnight, which will mess with anyone’s sense of normal. After we landed in Paris, we were supposed to deplane on the tarmac and ride buses to the terminal. Great. Except no buses. No one really knew why. So we sat on the plane for another half hour maybe before buses finally arrived to take us to the terminal where we could go through customs, get our luggage and meet Brigitta, our tour guide. OK, so there was just one bus. Again, more waiting.

Finally, though, we were on our way. First stop - Giverny. While Giverny technically has nothing to do with our tour, it’s a great first stop. The town was the home of renowned painter Claude Monet. His home and gardens, including the famous water garden, are open to all who’d like to see them, and they are worth the stop.

The water garden features a green bridge that is the centerpiece of one of Monet’s most famous paintings. The pond in the center of the garden is home to dozens of water lilies, subjects of another of Monet’s best-known works. The house, in which Monet and his wives, Camille and Alice (he wasn’t married to them at the same time, by the way) raised their eight children, includes his studio and living quarters. The front windows overlook the front gardens, and the profusion of color when you see them from above is gorgeous.

Walking through the peaceful flowers, enjoying the sounds of birds, the scents of the flowers and the beauty of nature provides a chance to recover from the stress of a multi-hour flight, trying to sleep in seats not designed for rest and a time to relax and unwind before the Liberation Tour stops begin.

The first stop is the Pegasus bridge, called that because Pegasus is the symbol of the British troops that took it. 

“On 6 June 1944, during the Second World War, the bridge was, along with the nearby Ranville Bridge over the Orne River (another road crossing, later renamed Horsa Bridge), the objective of members of D Company, 2nd (Airborne) Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, a glider-borne force who were part of the 6th Airlanding Brigade of the 6th Airborne Division during Operation Tonga in the opening minutes of the Allied Invasion of Normandy. Under the command of Major John Howard, D Company was to land close by the bridges in six Airspeed Horsa gliders and, in a coup-de-main operation, take both intact and hold them until relieved by the main British invasion forces. The successful capture of the bridges played an important role in limiting the effectiveness of a German counter-attack in the aftermath of the Normandy invasion,” Wikipedia said.

Two of the three markers indicating where glider pilots landed can be seen from the road. The third is around the corner behind the farthest back.

Three markers are placed where the pilots landed. Thinking of the gliders soaring silently through the night, eluding the Germans and landing within feet of each other on the bank of the canal - it’s hard to believe that actually happened.

Tomorrow features stops at Utah Beach, Sainte Mere Eglise and Bayeux.