After Missouri, A tour d' Perspective

[The Guest]

So I'd been moping about the state of CU's football program for a bit too long and my wife told me to pack up the baby, and some dry clothes--we were on a roadtrip in search of a little perspective.

So we spent several days in Normandy.

I'm sure many Allbuffers have visited, but it was my first trip to the region. For those of you who haven't visited, I would encourage everyone to walk the shores of Omaha Beach and between the gravestones of the American Cemetery outside of Colleville. If you can do it without a quivering chin, and damp eyes, you're more stoic than me.

Also, the Caen Memorial was impressive. We returned for a second visit in as many days.

It's nice to be in a place where American flags fly from many homes and there's a welcome word for those who speak with our accent.

Perspective restored.

 

[sackman]

So I'd been moping about the state of CU's football program for a bit too long and my wife told me to pack up the baby, and some dry clothes--we were on a roadtrip in search of a little perspective.

So we spent several days in Normandy.

I'm sure many Allbuffers have visited, but it was my first trip to the region. For those of you who haven't visited, I would encourage everyone to walk the shores of Omaha Beach and between the gravestones of the American Cemetery outside of Colleville. If you can do it without a quivering chin, and damp eyes, you're more stoic than me.

Also, the Caen Memorial was impressive. We returned for a second visit in as many days.

It's nice to be in a place where American flags fly from many homes and there's a welcome word for those who speak with our accent.

Perspective restored.

Omaha Beach is a mystical place. It's so quiet. Normandy is a wonderful area.

 

[Deleted member 807]

When it comes to Normandy, it's all about perspective.
For France and for Europe, Americans were at the right place at the right time.
For each of the 10 thousand headstones at the American cemetary lays a brave American soldier who was at the wrong place at the wrong time, heroically dying so that we can be free. Normandy beaches are forever transformed from sleepy seaside cliffs overlooking the foggy and windy Channel. It was hell-on-earth during June 1944 and has ever sense become hallowed ground where freedom triumphed over tyranny.

An other location in France that also sends shivers is the battlfields of Verdun, where the machine gun, the bayonette, artillary shells and mustard gas were liberally used for almost a year of trench warfare, resulting in the loss of nearly a million French, German and various allied soldiers during WWI. When the blood red poppies bloom in the spring, there is a flower for every lost soul, and a vivid reminder about the stubborn barbarity of mankind. There is a mausoleum with the bones of thousands of unknown soldiers that are sorted by type; femurs over here, skulls over there. Visitors can peer through thick glass windows and confront in real human terms the horrors of war.

Was there a football game last weekend?