From Giverny we rode the bus to Caen, where we visited Le Mémorial de Caen which is a Museum for Peace.

There is an excellent website which explains the museum. Our visit here started with a display covering the time between the end of WWI and the beginning of WWII. This took us down a spiral path which "suggests a slow descent into hell in an unstoppable chain of events. The wall, its colour gradually darkening, suggests the inexorable decline of peace and approach of war."

The next section covered France in the dark times of the occupation as well as an interesting movie on the defense of Britain by the RAF and the ground artillery, which so damaged the German Luftwaffe that their plans to invade England could not be carried out.

A very moving part of the visit was a movie on D-Day. It began with a split screen, one side showing the preparation of the Allies for the invasion and the other the preparation of the Germans in defense of the coast. The invasion was preceded by heavy bombing of the area and one of the most moving clips was of a typical small town, with a church in the main square. After the bombing, everything was completely flattened, except for the church tower.

Continue to Bayeaux.