I am combining both these days because they were very similar in terms of riding. The roads were predominantly narrow, scenic, and with little traffic.
These rides brought us further along the Normandy coast. One of the highlights was biking by Juno and Sword beaches where the Canadian militia landed on D-Day. One of the women on the tour had a father who landed at Juno beach on D-Day, so stopping there was especially significant for her. Even though I did not have such a personal experience, the museum at Juno Beach was very informative and well worth the stop.
The riding was characterized by field after field of brown wheat or green corn, often peppered with red poppies, all against the blue backdrop of the ocean. Often, the roads were little wider than a farm tractor—very scenic. Another characteristic of the roads is that they were typically boxed in by dense hedgerows. Seeing them caused me continually think about the difficulty and bravery of soldiers who had to fight through them.
We had lunch adjacent to the Pegasus Bridge. After lunch, I toured the Pegasus Memorial Museum which chronicled the bravery of British gliders and paratroopers, (after whom the bridge is named) as they endured fierce fighting to take that bridge. In contrast to the Normandie and Juno museums, there was so much that I did not know about the battle for the Pegasus bridge that I could have spent 5 hours there, learning all about it. I didn’t. I just spent about a half hour and got on my way.
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