Lieutenant Welsh remembered walking around among the sleeping men, and thinking to himself that ‘they had looked at and smelled death all around them all day but never even dreamed of applying the term to themselves.’ They hadn’t come here to fear. They hadn’t come to die. They had come to win.
– Stephen E. Ambrose, Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne

Last view of Notre-Dame Cathedral of Bayeux from our apartment window.

We didn’t get to see everything we wanted in Bayeux (still didn’t when all is said and done), so we decided that we’d go back to the Visitors Center at the WWII Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial and also see the Overlord Museum before heading out to Mont St.-Michel, our next destination. But first a last look at our quaint AirBnB apartment, which is an old building that includes a wonderful charming painting and textiles shop on the ground floor and is next to a stream with a water wheel.

What you see when you first walk up the very steep staircase to our apartment. It is decorated with a poppy theme.

The other side of the living and dining area of our apartment in Bayeux.

The red couch is adorned with poppy pillowcases from the charming shop below us. And poppy paintings adorn the walls.

Our serviceable kitchen in our Bayeux second-floor AirBnB apartment.

A little alcove between the kitchen and the bathroom and main bedroom of our Bayeux apartment.

Our bedroom was very light and bright and tastefully decorated, Bayeux apartment.

Isabella slept in her own bed in our bedroom, Bayeux apartment.

Last look at the shop below our Bayeux apartment.

Another reason we stayed is to go to this antique shop in Bayeux that we perused on our first day here. Jacob saw some WWII souvenirs there, and while he was interested, he wanted to check out other such shops at our stay in Bayeux. We didn’t see any other antique shops, so we had to wait until it opened on our last day since it was closed on Sunday. A British woman ran the shop, and she was knowledgeable about many of the items. I was interested in vintage and antique pins. I ended up getting two – one is a French pin from the turn of the century from a social club and the other is a sterling silver “sweetheart” pin, which is what a person in the armed services gave to either his wife or girlfriend. This sweetheart pin represents the service of the man. I thought they were a nice find.

The antique shop on the main street in Bayeux.

The display of pins in the front window of the antique shop in Bayeux.

More pins! Most of them were authentic WWII pins and metals, Bayeux antique shop.

More pins and other WWII souvenirs, Bayeux antique shop.

My Bayeux vintage pins. The one on top is French social club pin for music from the turn of the century. The bottom pin is a WWII “sweetheart” pin from an American serviceman.

When we first arrived in Bayeux and passed by this building, I thought of the setting of Lord Farquaad’s kingdom in Shrek. Now I bid this beautiful little town adieu.

As we leave the main roundabout in Bayeux, we say adieu to the knights on topiary horses.

We went to the Overlord Museum, or should I say, David and Jacob ventured inside. At that point, I felt I’d seen more than my share of D-Day museums in such a short period of time! The Overlord Museum holds a collection of WWII-era vehicles, with exhibits covering American, British, and German vehicles. Next up on our last morning was the Visitors Center, but our GPS had difficulty getting us there. I was afraid we were going to give up trying to find it as we looped around and around. Ironically, the entrance to the cemetery and visitors center was across the street from the Overlord Museum.

Entrance to the WWII Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial, Colleville-sur-Mer, France.

I’m so glad we returned to the Visitors Center, located in Colleville-sur-Mer. The cemetery is is managed by the American Battle Monuments Commission, a small independent agency under the U.S. federal government that maintains overseas American cemeteries. France granted the U.S. a perpetual concession to the land occupied by the cemetery. Luckily, it wasn’t crowded when we got there. We didn’t check out the computer terminals, which contain the Roll of Honor database – the names and stories of every U.S. service person whose remains are buried in Europe – on the ground level. The underground level’s exhibit is extensive, and I wish we’d had more time to read every panel. We watched the video Letters in the theater, which focused on a handful of men who lie in the cemetery. One story told of a doctor who didn’t tell his wife that he volunteered to go into combat, though he did write to a friend of the news. She didn’t know until she saw the letter to the friend. This film and other videos put a face to the names we saw, to the thousands of soldiers – 25,000 Americans died in the battle for Normandy – who gave their lives for freedom. I was quite moved. We didn’t have enough time to read all the panels, which included a detailed timeline of the important events from September 1939 to June 5, 1944. The panels for June 6, 1944, highlight the landings in three-hour increments.

The infinity pool just outside the full-length glass windows and doors of the Visitors Center, WWII Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial, Colleville-sur-Mer, France. You can see a map of the landings.

Just outside of the Visitors Center is a peaceful infinity pool that invites you to walk through a park surrounded by Kentucky bluegrass to the bluff overlooking Omaha Beach. It’s a beautiful view, one that can’t be reconciled with what happened on D-Day. This would be our last view of Omaha Beach. And so we left Normandy after lunch, with me telling Jacob that upon his return he could check out the other beaches we missed and linger longer, and go up north to Dunkirk. In my mind, I was thinking I would do the same sometime in the future.

A view of Omaha Beach from the bluff overlooking the beach.

Panoramic view of Omaha Beach from the bluff. Breathtaking.

A cute dog at the restaurant where we ate our last Normandy meal. He laid down at our table by my backpack, hoping for some crumbs.