Nat at the Caen Peace Museum

I've gotten use to no grass, lots of cars and much concrete since I moved downtown. Walking the Canadian battlefields of France is incredibly peaceful. Both Vimy and Beaumont-Hamel are parks so there's plenty of grass and few cars. In fact, the French who live around the park enjoy walking the grounds, especially on Sundays.

When Nicole went to Vimy two years ago, she remarked how fresh the air was and I can say I felt the same way when I went back this year. But I forget that these battlefields were not peaceful 90 years ago.

So at the Caen Peace Museum I was especially impressed by the film on D-Day. The screen is split between the German and Allies. The film shows both sides preparing for the day. Of course, the Germans are oblivious and are going about normal drills. The footage of the Allies has men waiting in the landing boats. They all look up at the camera. Some smile or wave, some are sullen. But you know not all of them will make it.

The most affecting/interesting/memorable part of the film was the footage of the soldiers charging up the beach. The cameraman is standing among the soldiers, charging up the beach with them, into the hail of German bullets. The movie switches to an overhead view from an airplane. You watch these men run and just drop on the spot. Whether from a bullet or from strategy; they just fall. The movie then cuts abruptly to the beach as it is now. Sunny, calm, the beach empty of dead bodies.

When I visited, I tried to imagine those boys running up the beach but I couldn't. I guess that's why we have museums and memorials to help us remember.

I'm standing on the remains of a German machine gun bunker. The Germans forced the local French to build fortifications like these.

This was the first house liberated by Canadians on D-Day. If you watch footage from that day, you'll see the house as the soldiers march by. And people still live in it.

Statue at the Juno Beach Centre.

Wooden remains, now covered in moss.