Hotel de Paris

Courseulles-sur-Mer

by vichatherly

"D-Day Tour - Juno Beach"

We visited on the afternoon of day three of our four day tour of the D-Day beaches at Normandy.

As we both work for a Canadian owned company based in the UK, we took a special interest in the exploits of the Canadian troops in this area.

We visited the Juno Beach Centre and took a look at some Canadian memorials as well as the Graye Churchill Tank.

The principal purpose of the trip was to visit the World War II beaches of Normandy. The beaches cover an area of over 60 miles and so we based ourselves in Bayeux, which put us in a fantastic central location.

We packed into our short stay the following villages and towns Arromanches-les-Bains for Gold beach and the Mulberry Harbour, Sainte-Mère-Église for the church, Utah beach and the US Airborne museum, Maisy for the batteries at Maisy and Pointe du Hoc, Colleville-sur-Mer for Omaha beach and the American Cemetery, Courseulles-sur-Mer for Juno beach, Bénouville for Pegasus Bridge and the Memorial Museum, Ouistreham for Sword beach, Merville-Franceville-Plage for the gun battery and Ranville for the CWGC Cemetery.

"D-Day Tour - Juno Beach"

Juno Beach is another huge Normandy beach. At Couseulles-sur-Mer the beach is dominated by the Juno Beach Centre. As you walk towards the beach you come across a sculpture in the shape of a landing boat. It has on it the two phrases of a poem by Paul Verlaine which were broadcast by the BBC in order for the French resistance to expect the invasion.

1st Phrase
“Les sanglots longs
Des violons
De l’automne”

2nd Phrase
“Blessent mon Coeur
D’une languer
Monotone”

What it must have felt like when the Resistance received the second phrase can only be imagined. Excitement and trepidation all mixed into one.

Courseulles-sur-Mer

by Beausoleil

"This little fellow says it all . . ."

We were on a hunt for moulins in Basse Normandie in late September. We had a lot of trouble finding the mills from the map we got from the Tourist Office and got very hungry at noon so we headed for the shore. Seafood!

We ended up at Courseulles-sur-Mer, parked the car and started looking at menus. We passed this fellow on our search and he seemed to sum up the feeling of the town perched on the fishing nets. I'm sure the fish market was very lively in the morning but it was time for all good Frenchmen to be eating lunch and the birds had taken over.

"Lovely Norman houses on the beach"

Note the iron squirrel on the gable. We found all manner of fauna perched for eternity on gables of houses in Normandy. They seemed much more interesting than the plastic owls used in southern California to keep away pigeons.

"Maison de la Mer"

This appeared to be a museum of sorts. We were looking for lunch so simply used their empty parking lot and didn't visit the place. It did appear to be open but I think most were looking for lunch at that hour.

There are several restaurants directly opposite this place but we found a gem further downtown and had a lovely lunch there.