The purpose of this message is to provide a detailed account of a portion of our Idyll trip to Paris in the summer of 2000. Because of previous emails describing portions of our trips, I was asked to provide more detail. This is an attempt to provide some more information for those who want to do some WWII exploring while in France and Belgium.

It was our first trip with our boys (age 10 and 13) to Europe. The boys have been very interested in WWII battles, weapons, computer games, and generals. In preparing for the trip I discovered a website listing travel excursions for groups related to military battle sites in Europe. The website is called Destinations Europe (www.heartofeurope.com) and lists a series of military tours. Next we had become acquainted with a local WWII veteran, Col David Perguin through Boy Scouts who wrote a book First Across the Rhine and describes the exploits of the 291st Engineering Combat Battalion. He describes several scenes related to Normandy thru the Battle of the Bulge and finally crossing the Rhine. His book helped to serve as a guide for our travels near Malmedy, Belgium.

The military experience started on our very first weekend – we arrived on Bastille Day. The military parade was an extravaganza. The boys were to jet lagged to go in person but we saw the parade on TV and heard and saw the jets and helicopters outside of our apartment. Later that night we witnessed a tremendous fireworks display near and around the Eiffel Tower. Since our apartment was right on the Seine just up from the site, we could see the display from a bridge with thousands of other Parisians.

The next day we visited the Eiffel Tower and walked to The Invalides and the military exhibits. We had an unexpected surprise with the recent opening of a new museum – The de Gaule World War II Museum. It covered several floors with weapons, newsreel films, a small holocaust exhibit and uniforms and artifacts. We of course visited the other military exhibits from armor, swords, lances, canon, muskets, uniforms, flags, banners, and clothes (capes) worn by the musketeers. As we were completing our hours of touring we noticed in the courtyard a large group of highly decorated soldiers (men and women) with weapons practicing parading with a military band. Apparently that evening there was to be a special Bastille Day function with these troops in the courtyard. The soldiers were visually quite striking in their uniforms, medals, and weapons. The contrast between the museum exhibits to the modern military apparel was quite striking and left a lasting impression on all of us.

Later we took advantage of the train and car rental packages available through the French rail system. On our first train trip, we took an early morning train to Rouen following the banks of the Seine. We arrived early enough to tour the Cathedral and watched the late morning and early afternoon sun reflect off the newly cleaned spire. We also toured the inside and started to become familiar with Norman ancestry. We also visited the site where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake. After lunch we got our car at the Avis car rental within the train station and headed for Bayeaux via Honfleur. You can take a side route to Caen and follow the D-DAY trail and visit museums and battle sites between Caen and Bayeux. The sites near Caen are where the British landed. Since we were short on time we headed for Bayeaux and Omaha and Utah beaches. We arrived in the late afternoon, stayed at Hotel Luxembourg, and had time to visit the tapestry after the tourists had left for the day.

Next morning we started our DDay tour by visiting the large museum outside of Bayeaux. The boys loved the equipment - tanks, trucks, weapons, etc. The museum has newspapers, private papers, letters, accounts, and tons of stuff that will easily acquaint anyone with the magnitude and heroism associated with the landing. Later we drove to the Omaha Beach Cemetery. Immediately as you enter you are overcome with the serenity and brilliant colors of the landscape. There’s an information center, a flag area with reflecting pool, giant granite maps outlining the European Campaign, a vista overlooking Omaha Beach, and of course the brilliant white crosses. We were in search of two men who came from my wife’s small hometown in Nebraska. We found their crosses, made pencil etchings to be sent home to the local VFW, and mourned the fact that probably no one from the town had ever visited the graves. Later we discovered that the visitor’s center has extensive records and if notified will provide flowers on the graves if the relatives contact the center. As we left we felt that this was truly scared ground.

We drove down to the beach, passed another small museum, ate lunch in a resort area, watched the families on the beach play in the water and build sand castles in the view of concrete bunkers built in the cliffs above.

We headed for Pointe du Hoc, which is south of Omaha beach, and the site of the several German bunkers and large cannon overlooking Omaha during the DDay landing. On the way we noticed remnants of the hedgerows surrounding the fields. These are the barriers of trees and shrubs the Americans needed to cross as they broke out of Normandy. We walked down one path and got a feeling for the density and almost impenetrable nature of the hedgerows. At Pointe du Hoc, the boys had a lot of fun exploring old bunkers and the elevated view reminded us of the scene in the movie The Longest Day when the Germans look out towards England and suddenly on the horizon there appeared thousands of ships. There’s a memorial site commemorating the heroism and sacrifices of the American Rangers who secured the area from the beaches below.

Next we headed for Utah beach, several miles to the south. As we arrived at the museum, we noticed the time, and realized if we were to get to Mont. St. Michelle we could not visit another museum. We walked through the dunes, down to the beach (which is more open and flat when compared to the steep cliffs above Omaha beach). We could not drive on to St Mareglish and the church museum due to time constraints.

As we approached the island, the island buildings got larger and larger and rose above the horizon. We stayed at a Hotel right on the causeway leading to the island (Hotel Rex). That evening we walked along the causeway and watched the sunset and the lights come on the island. It was truly spectacular! The next day we toured the Mont., drove to Chartres to tour the cathedral, and returned the car at the Versailles train station, and took the commuter train to our apartment (20 minutes) and were home by 7pm.

A few days later we took another train day trip to Reims. We walked through the cathedral, took a walking tour of the champagne caves of Mumm, and visited the site of the signing of the armetice of World War II.

The last part of European Tour 2000 we took a TGV to Brussels and toured Belgium and southern portion of Netherlands. The last part of our tour of Belgium we visited sites associated with “The Battle of the Bulge.” The trip starts in Liege, continues to Malmedy, goes to Bastogne (where we stayed overnight -Hotel Melba), and ends in Luxembourg. From Liege we followed the ridges of the hills along the German border where there are remnants of the Siegfried Line. We arrived in Malmedy to begin our tour of the battle. Near Malmedy is the northern most portion of the Bulge, where the Germans began their offensive push to Brussels. In Malmedy at the tourist center I purchased a guide to memorials commemorating battles, sites of heroism, and events associated with WWII and the battle. The book can be purchased via contacting them over the internet. I wish I had the book prior to our trip. We drove to many places described by Col Pergrin-Ambieve, Stavelot and La Gleize (a small museum with a German Tiger tank, and articles and artifacts associated with a dramatic tank battle and Col Pergrin’s troops and engineers stopping the northern invasion by Nazi SS troops). We drove to the site where engineers bowing up the last remaining bridge in the area stopped the advance of the Germans. The views from the hills and ridges over the valleys was quite dramatic and picturesque and it was very hard to image a battle of significant magnitude was fought in these surroundings.

We drove on to Bastogne, and couldn’t help but notice the tank turrets surrounding the city. The turrets mark the furthest point of advancement of the German army on the city. In Bastogne there are many sites, the museum (a very good movie describing the siege of Bastogne, uniforms, dioramas of fighting scenes) Patton’s encampment and entrance to the city; memorial of the states commemorating the loss of American lives. During the evening the city had an outdoors-street festival with many vendors from all over Europe and South America and Africa performing and selling items. When we arrived at our hotel after dinner, we noticed a guest book in the lobby. Most of the entries were from Americans, either veterans or families of veterans. The comments were quite poignant regarding Bastogne and the battle.

The next morning we drove to Luxembourg. Our first stop was a museum in Diekirch, a city noted for the beer named for the city. The museum is run by a family of a resistance fighter and was the most remarkable of our entire tour. As you walk up from the parking lot you pass the omnipresent tank on your way to the entrance. You enter into a large warehouse type room filled with German and Allied equipment. The museum celebrates and documents the impact of the war and the battle on Luxembourg. The building is multi-floored with numerous dioramas, and artifacts. The most dramatic exhibit was the description of the lives of Luxembourg men. Early in the war the men were conscripted by the Germans into the army, most were shipped to the eastern front in Russia. Later they were captured by the Russians and sent to POW or concentration camps. Finally, at the end of the war they were allowed, if they survived, to return to Luxembourg.

After touring the museum we had lunch and headed for the American cemetery. Again the cemetery is serene with brilliant white markers and immaculately groomed landscape. We found Patton’s grave and discovered a German cemetery was nearby. The German cemetery contained remains of Germans buried throughout Luxembourg during the war. The landscape and grounds were serene yet notably different from the American cemetery. The markers were of a darker stone, a stark contrast to the brilliant white. The area was heavily wooded and shaded, probably due to the smaller area and significantly lesser number of markers. We left the memorials deeply moved and headed back to Brussels and returned home to Philadelphia the next morning.