One Day in Normandy, Part 3: Pointe du Hoc

Now that I have this new site up and running, it’s about time that I get the rest of my Normandy posts finished. After this one, I have about two or three left and will do one a week until I'm done. We really packed the day full of sites! For any new readers, here are the other parts: One and Two.

Pointe du Hoc was about a 10 to 15 minute drive east of Omaha Beach. Although I knew some of the story about the Rangers’ ascent, I didn’t remember ever seeing pictures of the place. I had no idea what to expect.

From the parking lot I could not get a sense of what awaited us on the point, which was hidden behind a thick swath of greenery. A sign greeted us with some background information and let us know the significance of this place.

I tried to find a good oral history video from one of the Rangers but didn’t find as much as I had hoped for, so Ronald Reagan’s “Boys of Pointe du Hoc” speech from June 6th, 1984 seemed like a good alternative. I can’t deny that the man was a good storyteller.

There’s also this great in-depth interactive narrative, if you have some time to go through it all.

A short walk down the dirt path revealed a war-torn landscape. My first thought was that it looked like a cross between the earth and the moon. The scarring of the land and the size of the bomb craters knocked me back and hammered home the reality what happened here.

Pictures don't do the landscape justice. It's almost impossible to show how deep some of the craters are, so if you're ever in the area I highly recommend making a stop here. It is just better to see it with your own eyes.

We wandered around for a while, looked out at the sea and then back toward the casemates, trying to take in everything.

Henri showed us around a little bit. He told us a little about the guns, took us into the bunker areas, and enthusiastically jumped in and out of holes and shared his findings.

The French erected a memorial pylon on the point. They transferred its care to the American Battle Monuments Commission in 1979.

The erosion is so bad that the memorial is now behind a fence. It made me think that not only are we losing veterans and their memories, but we’re losing the land as well. There is, however, a major effort to preserve and stabilize the cliffs. For anyone interested in the stabilization project, there’s a PDF here.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t stay very long at this stop either. We were, after-all, on a mission to see as much as possible in the few hours we had in Normandy. I left feeling even more stunned and speechless at everything we saw. I knew there was only more to come.

Next stop? Sword and Juno beaches.

History Love: Travel Letters from Americans in Europe, 1850s Style

Yesterday I stumbled across a book,  Young Americans Abroad, or Vacation in Europe, while doing research on Gallica, an amazing site with all sorts of digitized media from the past run by the Bibliothèque national de France. The book is a series of letters, published in 1852, from a three American boys (aged 12, 14, and 16) to Charley, their 16 year-old friend who was stuck back home studying while they explored Europe with their instructor. They each kept journals and wrote Charley letters about their experiences visiting England, France, Holland, Belgium, Prussia, and Switzerland.

Here are some excerpts from a couple of the interesting ones I have read so far.

Letter 28 is about their first exploration of Paris:

Dear Charley:—

I like this city very much—every one seems so happy out of doors. Not only the poor, but the wealthy, are fond of the open air; and a great deal of time is spent in the gardens and on the boulevards. Every place seems to have provision made for the enjoyment of the people. Ices and lemonade are to be found wherever you go. The appearance of the streets in Paris is much gayer than those of London. You see a much greater number of women walking out, and they are generally very neatly dressed. But the streets do not look as substantial as they do in London. If there is more that is imposing, there Is less that keeps up your wonder. I do not feel able to think that the people here have much business to do, for every one seems to be engaged in pleasure; and yet there are great concerns going on, and the fine manufactures of this city are only to be done by labor and attention.

He goes on to write about visiting their first major site, Notre Dame:

Our first tramp for a sight was to Notre Dame; and I shall never forget, Charley, my first view of this cathedral. The exterior is more striking than any church edifice that I have yet seen. No engraving can afford a fair idea of its grandeur to one who has not seen it, though it will help my mind to recall its beauties whenever I see the picture. [. . .]

We repaired to a small to a small chapel used as a sacristy, or treasure-house of the church. Here we saw the coronation robes of Napoleon, and splendid capes and embroideries, in gold and silver, given by Charles X. And Louis Philippe; and here, too is the vertebrae of the late Archbishop of Paris, who was killed in the revolution of 1848. The bone has a silver arrow tracing the course of the bullet, which lies beside it. This is in time to be a saintly relic, but it seems to me a filthy sight, and in wretched taste.

And at the end of the letter, he writes beautifully about Paris by moonlight:

How much we would all give to have you here; for, though we are glad to tell you what we see, we feel there are scores of objects which interest us that we have to pass over, but which would make your eyes glisten, if you could gaze upon. Well, my dear fellow, stick to your business, make your fortune, and then come and look at the beautiful and fair in the old world; and who knows but perhaps we may yet chat cosily together in Paris? O, I do love to wander through the city by moonlight and gaze upon the bright lofty buildings as they loom up so gloriously in the mild lustre of a silvery night.

God bless you.

Yours affectionately, James.

What I really love about this collection is how the letters can seem relevant to my own experiences in small parts—like the beauty of Paris by moonlight and the way it feels like Parisians seem to slow down and enjoy life. We still wax poetic about these things today, don’t we? There’s still that touchstone of wonder we sometimes share as travelers, even across time barriers.

But then, the time and culture gap will open right back up when the specifics come into play.

By the time the book was published, the Haussmann Plan had not started, so the city of Paris did not look as well manicured as it does today. And then there was the social and political climate. The restlessness of the people and the state. Memories of the 1848 revolution remained strong. France’s government was still in flux, it transitioned from Second Republic to its Second Empire in 1852. I imagine that vertebrae they saw in Notre Dame had far more gravity for those kids in that time than it would today.

On top of that, the Americans had their own issues with which to wrestle, like the glaring problem of slavery. Later, while in England, Weld writes in Letter 54:

I have rarely heard a reflection upon our country, excepting upon our slavery. That they must talk about; and they are a little like the man who, having just got rid of the irritable affection supposed to trouble the North Britons, could not for his life help speaking of sulphur. An Englishman is sure to tell you that he is free from this sin—yes, washed, but scarcely dry.

These letters feel like real perspectives and real experiences, warts and all.

They made me think about how travel can be the context that helps us grapple with, understand, and discover our world, our ideas, our opinions, our culture, and even just the things that bring us pleasure (like moonlit Parisian strolls). But also how our opinions, culture, pleasures, ideas, and world changes impacts our travel experiences.

160 years from now, I wonder, will someone be reading our travel books and blogs for fun? What will they think our experiences? What will we share in common? What will seem totally alien?

If you want to give the book a read, check it out here.

What's a sharecation, anyway?

Last week I was perusing the #travel tag on twitter when I came across a link to an article about “sharecations.” I clicked it, hoping a sharecation was something new and exciting. Nope. A sharecation is, apparently, a vacation with friends or another family. Not so groundbreaking, after all.

The more I thought about it, the more the word started to irk me. Why do we need all of these words for what is basically the same thing: a vacation? Staycation. Solocation. Sharecation. Couplecation. Dogcation. Catcation.

Ok, I made up the last three.

Oh, wait. I just Googled and apparently I didn’t completely make those last three up. Because some of them are already a thing too?!? 

camping

Listen. I completely understand the utility of these words. They kind of sound good (except couplecation, which sounds like either a mad scientist’s medical procedure or something I couldn’t learn in 8th grade math class). Ok, so they don’t all sound good, but they stand out. They are descriptive.

Sharecation is a nice buzzword. It obviously caught my attention. I clicked the link. It got my eyeballs to the page.

I read the article, but the idea that this is really an up and coming trend surprised me. There is even a new show on PBS about it called Getting Away Together* that highlights the “rapidly growing trend of sharing a vacation with friends and family.”

But a sharecation isn’t anything new. It’s just a “rebranding” in the same vein of solocations and staycations. They’re just terms bandied about as the latest and greatest the past few years. Then, it’s on to the next.

As someone who wants more people to give slow travel a chance, I am actually pretty pleased that the idea of renting a place and possibly going on a trip with a group is popping up more and more in articles and on TV.

I even understand that there is a real difference between these types of vacations. Taking a trip on your own certainly requires different considerations and planning than going with a couple of your friends.

So I’ve been trying to figure out exactly why these travel-themed portmanteaux tend to annoy me so much.

Maybe it’s because there’s no need to pretend we’re reinventing the travel wheel with new words, guides, articles, suggestions, shows, etc. Because I don’t think different types of vacations should be trendy as much as they should be considered time-tested, always available options—different ways to explore, experience, and figure out what works best for you.

We don't need to classify everything with a new word. Rumi said, "There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground." I think there are hundreds of ways to travel too.

Or maybe Stephen Fry would just tell me to quit being a pedant in his unique, lovely way with words.

I would love to hear what you think. Do you like these words, hate them, don’t care either way and think I’m being pedantic? Calling me pedantic is a completely acceptable answer, by the way.

In the meantime, I will probably continue pondering and laughing at the thought of a catcation.

*As a side note, I watched a bit of the first Getting Away Together online and found it pleasant enough. The cinematography was very pretty. I think all of the episodes will be set in the US, so it will probably be a nice way to see some places and/or get ideas for trips. The first episode is about a group of friends in St. Augustine, Florida. You can watch online here.