Lion-Sur-Mer on an early June morning in 2010 is a very quiet little seaside village on the Normandy coast. The streets are empty of both people and cars. A gentle north westerly breeze hardly causes a swell on the beaches. Looking out over the Seine Bay and towards the English Channel not a ship can be seen.
On the 6th of June 66 years ago it was a totally different story. An early riser in the little village looking out over the water would have seen a thousand ships of all sizes covering the sea from the shore to the horizon. Lion Sur Mer sit’s right on one of the main landing zones for the D-day invasion, an area named Sword. It was assigned to the British forces and had relatively light resistance compared to some of the other landing zones along the beaches of Normandy. Apart from a few memorials there’s are not many signs around which tells of what happened here all those years ago.
The plan this morning was to go to one of the war memorials but after we realised it’s 50km towards the west and we’re heading east today we decide to give it a miss. Instead we fill up the car with fuel and the car boot with wine from a local supermarket before we set our sights on the destination for today, Bruges in Belgium.
A 450km trip through the French and Belgium countryside, all on toll motorways. Some torrential rain on the way doesn’t slow us down much and apart from a 30 minute lunch break we go straight for Bruges and arrive late afternoon at our hotel smack bang in the centre of Bruges.
A lovely city with narrow cobble stoned streets, canals criss crossing the city and old traditional buildings make it a picture perfect town. After getting our bags into our room we hit the streets of Bruges.
We take a short guided tour of the city in a horse carriage to get some idea of the buildings we’re going past. Lots of people on either push bikes or walking, not many cars at all.
The famous Belgian chocolate is on sale in every second street corner and well renowned Belgian beer is on tap in every other corner.
After our carriage trip we set out on foot to find somewhere to have dinner. So many restaurants to choose from makes it a tough choice but we eventually find a place we can all agree on.
We decide to sit outside despite the somewhat chilly wind and by the time we’re heading back towards the hotel the temperature has dropped even further and the wind increased a couple of notches on the Beauport scale but a rapid pace keeps us warm until we find our way back to the hotel.
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