A WEEKEND TRIP TO NORMANDY: Guest Post by Mike Mayone

Bayeux, Normandy

My nephew-in-law, Mike Mayone, who often travels for business, recently had a chance to visit Normandy in France on one of his trips. I thank him for sharing his experience with The Intrepid Tourist and providing a personal view of the place so important in the history of World War II.

With all of the focus on Normandy for the 75^th reunion of D-Day, I could not pass up the chance to visit myself.  I had business in Paris and found myself with an available Saturday. 

I learned that the Normandy D-Day landings involved numerous seaside towns and spanned across over 100 kilometers.  I also learned that when Airbnb says that the location you rented is in a particular town, they mean that it is reasonably close to the town.  Luckily, I figured that out before arriving at the Caen train station where I had reserved a car for my Normandy excursion. I just needed the car the night before to get to a lovely town called Bayeux where my Airbnb was located.  Little did I know that Bayeux has a deep history regarding World War II and beyond.  I ran to Hertz to pick up my rental before it closed that evening.  Yep, they decided I looked like the kind of guy that should be driving a delivery vehicle, so they gave me a Fiat diesel delivery van with a manual transmission, complete with a cage in the back that locks separately from the cab.  It wouldn’t have been so bad except that it was bright white and carried a huge Hertz logo on both sides.  Needless to say, during my travels I received a lot of funny looks.

Omaha Beach Memorial

Like the Allies in the summer of June 1944, I planned to invade Normandy, but needed more than the internet to figure out the best way to do it.  Luckily my Airbnb had two useful publications.  The first was for the D-Day Normandy Land of Liberty 75^th Anniversary event, complete with maps and an itinerary if you happened to be here in June 2019.  The second was an incredible Life Magazine publication called D-Day, Remembering the Battle that Won the War, that kept me up past midnight with its wonderful photography and prose.  

I learned in preparation for my D-Day landing that D-Day really simply means “Day-Day.”  Since it was a “Day” that changed the world I can see why they named it twice.  The morning of February 15 arrived and even though I was a bit sleep deprived, I got up, ate breakfast and used the map in the trusty Land of Liberty booklet to determine my plan of attack.  I decided that since Bayeux is close to the center of the five landings from D-Day, I should begin by driving to the farthest landing first. That meant that Utah Beach, about 30 kilometers from my Airbnb, would be my first visit.  As it turns out, the US was responsible for the invasion at Utah beach, so I definitely wanted to check it out.  Utah Beach is in the town of Sainte-Mere-Eglise.  This is the location where the 82^nd and 101^st Airborne Divisions were on the front line when the landing began at 4 AM on June 6, 1944.  Thousands of ships, vehicles and equipment pushed their way to the beach while Allied aircraft bombed German fortifications on the coast.  Walking along the vast beach, I could almost feel the guns firing from every direction. The somber February morning added to the effect.  Despite the favorable outcome of the Utah Beach landing, I couldn’t help but feel that I was blessed to live in a time where I wasn’t called to fight for my country.

My next stop was Omaha Beach.  If you only went to Utah Beach you may have thought that the Allies were invincible and would easily overcome the enemy.  A short time at the Omaha Beach landing site made it clear that wasn’t the case.  As the invasion started there, the Germans mowed down the approaching Allied forces.  Thousands were killed and wounded.  I learned later in the day that Eisenhower had no Plan B. Maybe that added to the resolve of the troops on Omaha Beach who broke through the German defenses around mid-day on June 6.  Given all the loss of life at Omaha Beach, the scene reminded me of the memorials I have seen for 9-11 in New York City.  They are special and speak to the heroic effort of those who lived and died. 

American Cemetery, Normandy.

Next on my route was the Normandy American Cemetery.  This is the place where the enormity of D-Day really hits you.  Walking through the grave sites of the nearly 10,000 service members placed there, you can feel the price of war.  I was on the early side so after parking my van, I walked to the visitor center, banana peel in hand (from a late morning snack), thinking I could throw it out prior to exploring the sacred site.  I should have realized they would have metal detectors and security at the entrance.  Everyone working there was very nice but I felt foolish as I put my banana peel in the tray usually used for your cell phone and wallet.  After getting beyond security I asked the woman behind the desk where I could dispose of my banana peel and she said no one in the building is allowed to have food so she wasn’t sure how to help me.  My quick thinking in asking where the Men’s Room was saved me.  It can be rare to have a moment of levity in this kind of situation but I needed it.

The Visitors Center was one of the best things I saw all day. They also had a 15-minute video for visitors showing how the planning, invasion and aftermath transpired.  I would have paid a steep price to take this all in but it turned out that it was one of the only free museums offered.

After that I walked all of the grounds, saw the chapel and was amazed by the painted ceiling.  As I headed back to the van, I saw what looked like a group of high school kids gathering near the memorial.  I changed course and made it to the memorial right before this Atlanta based high school band, called the Whitewater Band, played God Bless America and Taps.  It was beautiful. 

It was now after noon and I needed to plan the rest of the day.  Up until this point the rain held off.  Next down the line was a British led invasion at Gold Beach.  I plugged the name into Waze and was on my way.  As I drove on a few one-lane roads and cow paths I stopped the car in the middle of the road (aka cow path) to make sure I entered everything correctly.  Waze said I did.  As it told me “you have reached your destination,” I looked to the right to see a beautiful vista of Gold Beach but it was about a mile away as the crow flies.  I decided that if I typed in the name of a monument that might get me to where I wanted to be, so I did that and it sent me a few miles down the road.  At least I was now close to the water, but I only saw a few cars and people on foot.  I parked the van, got out and joined the other walkers on a very rocky path.  After making it a half mile or so, I realized this was a very natural version of a memorial.  Not to be discouraged I decided there must be another town around Gold Beach where there would be more activity and I found the town of Arromanches.  It wasn’t that far and proved to be a great last visit for the day as the rain started to fall.

Bayeux Cathedral

With the rain coming down I headed back to Bayeux.  I got to the Airbnb and unloaded some of my gear and decided to head to the supermarket. Along the way I visited La Cathedrale Notre-Dame de Bayeux. This cathedral goes back to the 9^th century and is magnificent.  On the way back, I covered most of Bayeux and enjoyed some great sites in between the rain drops.

SPRINGTIME IN SICILY, Part 3: Catania, Piazza Armerina, Agrigento and Mount Etna

Catania, Sicily. View from the rooftop patio of the Crociferi BandB.

At the end of May, Art and I took a two week trip to Sicily, staying in Palermo, Erice and Catania, and taking day trips to the ancient Greek ruins at Selinunte, Segesta and Agrigento and to the ancient Roman villa filled with mosaics at Piazza Armerina. The weather was warm, but not hot, and hillsides were covered with a host of wild flowers.  Here is the third of several reports of our trip.
 
For the last part of our trip to Sicily we were based in Catania, on the island’s east coast, traveling there by train from Palermo. We stayed in the Band B Crociferi, where we had the top floor suite with our own private patio and a stunning view of the city. (Climbing the stairs from the ground floor helped keep us fit for walking around the city!)

World War II Museum, Catania.Under the command of U.S. General George Patton and British General Bernard Montgomery, American, British and Canadian forces invaded Italy from North Africa on July 9, 1943. In just 38 days they had conquered all of Sicily.

During our first week in Sicily, the weather had been near perfect–sunny, blue skies and temperatures in the low seventies. But when we woke up on our first morning in Catania, the sky was grey and wet. We decided to head for the Museum of the Allied Landings in Sicily near the train and bus station, about a 20 minute walk in a light rain. The entire museum is dedicated to the American invasion of Sicily in 1943, which gave the Allies a foothold in Europe, ultimately leading to the end of the war. The first room of the museum is a recreation of a WW II Italian village and a docent gave an introduction to the museum (in Italian–we got a printout in English.) She then herded us into a dark bomb shelter where we sat on shaking benches while listening to the sound of bombs exploding (like a Disneyland ride) so we could experience what it would have been like to be in Sicily at the time.

Life size diorama of the signing of the armistice between Italy and the Allies, September 13, 1943

From there we made our way on our own through two floors of exhibits containing displays of photos, newspaper headlines, uniforms, letters, equipment, plus life-size dioramas--a meeting of Churchill and Roosevelt, signing of the Italian surrender, a Red Cross hospital tent, the inside of a bunker, and more. While most labels were only in Italian, each room had a panel of information translated into English.

Contact sheets of photos taken by Phil Stern of the Sicily campaign.

On the ground floor we discovered an exhibit of stunning photos by American photographer Phil Stern, who had landed with the troops. At age 93 (in 2013) he returned for the inauguration of the exhibit of his Sicily photos, now a permanent part of the museum.

Mosaics at Villa Romana de Casale in Piazza Armerina. The excellent condition of the mosaics is due to a landslide that sealed off the area for 600 years and protected the art. Excavations began in the 1930s. It is the largest collection of Roman floor mosaics ever found in situ. It is a World Heritage Site.

Before our trip we made the decision that we wouldn’t drive in Sicily, even though we typically rent a car when we go on vacation. But the reputation of crazy Italian drivers and the narrow cobblestone streets, built long before cars were ever invented, convinced us that we would be happier having someone else behind the wheel. So we arranged for a small group tour (there was only one other couple) to go to Piazza Armerina and Agrigento. Our guide, Carlo, was an excellent driver.

The most famous room at the Villa Romana shows “bikini girls”–female figures dressed for physical exercise.

We headed first to Piazza Armerina and the Villa Romana de Casale, nestled at the bottom of a valley about three miles from the town. Built in about A.D, 300 by a powerful Roman magistrate, its many spacious rooms are filled with lavish mosaics of people, animals, flowers, plants, that seem to go on forever as you make your way around the elevated walkways for a birds-eye view of the rooms. One long hallway is filled with depictions of animals from Africa, which were captured and brought to Sicily on their way to the Coliseum on Rome.

Lunch in the old town of Piazza Armerina

For lunch Carlo took us to a small wine shop, Siciliartegusto, in the old part of Piazza Armerina, where a Sicilian “snack” had been prepared for us–cold cuts, cheese, bread, focaccia, and arancini (a kind of filled rice croquette) along with red wine from grapes grown on the slopes of Mount Etna.

Agrigento. Temple of Concordia. Built in 435 B.C., this is one of the best preserved Greek temples in the world. A workman inside reveals the grand scale of the temple.

From Piazza Armerina it was about an hour and a half drive to Agrigento, another World Heritage Site, to see the Greek temple ruins. Called the Valley of the Temples, the ruins are actually on a hill and spread over many acres.

Temple of Juno. Yellow genestra flowers grow wild all over Sicily.

Carlo let us off at the highest point of the archeological park, and we walked downhill from there to meet him at another parking area at the other end. On our way we passed Greek ruins in various states of repair, early Christian burial caves, the house of English archeologist Alexander Hardcastle, and a herd of goats, a breed unique to Sicily.

As we walked across the loose lava it felt like a combination of moonscape and miracle of life, as we stepped around tiny plants taking a foothold in the mineral rich lava. (Note the tiny figures on the far rim.)

The next morning we went on another small group tour, this time to Mount Etna. Marco was our driver and guide. We stopped to pick up lunch food in the town of Zafferena, and then went to the north side of the mountain–which according to Marco had better weather and was less crowded. We took a relatively short walk to climb one of the cinder cones, then stopped to see where a recent lava flow had engulfed a hotel, and finally, after eating our picnic lunch, toured a lava cave.

Interior of Chiesa di San Francesco Borgia on Via Crociferi

Our last day in Sicily was devoted to sightseeing in Catania. On our way down Via Crociferi (a Unesco Heritage site, named for the several churches that line the street), we stopped at the Chiesa di San Francesco Borgia to see a display of liturgical silver and to admire the complex colored marble inlay of the walls, floors, altars, etc.--the Baroque version of Byzantine mosaics--and the soaring painting on the inside of the dome.

The elephant with an Egyptian obelisk on its back is the symbol of Catania. It sits at the center of Piazza del Duomo.

From there we went to the piazza in front of the Duomo and took a brief look at the cathedral--all white stone on the inside..

Dried beans and nuts at the Catania fish market.

After a wander through the fish and produce market, we headed to the Teatro Romano, a Greek open air theater rebuilt in Roman times and which includes the renovation of a 19th century house that had been incorporated into one of the ancient walls.

Teatro Romano with the bell towers of the Duoma visible behind.

Then, after a pizza lunch at an outdoor café, we walked up the main street, Via Etna, looking for souvenirs at the market stalls along the side streets–buying some pistachio paste, saffron marmalade and a small ceramic box.

Fruit stand with oranges and pomegranates at Piazza Mazzini. On one corner is an outdoor cafe, Trattoria Enoteca, where we ate lunch under the colonnade.

In our two weeks in Sicily we got a taste of its many layers of history, the variety of its landscape, and, of course, the wealth of its delicious food. As our plane took off from the Catania airport as we headed home, we got a good view of Mount Etna towering over the city. Just three days later, the top of Etna erupted, spewing fiery lava into the air. In some ways, we wished we had been there  to see it in person. But in other ways we were glad we were safe back in Los Angeles.

Mount Etna, May 28, 2019.  Smoke is hovering over the crater and patches of snow from the previous winter still cling to its sides.