Normandy/Brittany Journal: Mont Saint-Michel

photograph by Hallie Cohen

Along with Rome, Jerusalem and Santiago de Compostela, Mont Saint-Michel is one of the most popular destinations for Christian Pilgrimages. It is to Christianity what the Hajj is for Muslims. Added to this, it's one of those feats of architecture that defies both time  and history and seems to ascend the heights of divinity as it defies gravity. In a way it seems to challenge God while also being a symbol of faith. You might call it an ecclesiastical skyscraper, that's as much a testament to human willfulness as it is to God’s divinity. It was originally built by the Benedictines and it went through many incarnations, from its beginnings in the l0th century, to its destruction in the aftermath of the French Revolution and the years in which it was actually used as a prison, a kind of heavenly version of Devil’s island. If you visit Mont Saint-Michel you'll be able see how inmates walked within a wheel in order to ferry supplies up a trolley. Today, Mont Saint-Michel has been returned to its original spiritual status, although the rows of souvenir shops in the town below which are reminiscent of other cynosures like Assisi and Angkor Wat are a testament to the earthbound nature of the spiritual life in the 21^st Century. Now in the place of its original Benedictine founders, it’s manned by the Monastic Order of Jerusalem and amongst the nuns are a former broker, architect and medical doctor—who have given up the pleasures and trials of the real world to devote their lives to God.

Normandy Journal: Strangers Drowning

photograph of Omaha Beach by Hallie Cohen

La pointe du Hoc was one of the vantage points from which German artillery and snipers were able to repel the invading allied forces on D-Day. Here is an inscription on the wall of the La pointe du Hoc memorial from one Sgt. Antonio Ruggiero of the Second Ranger Battalion,  “Dear God don’t let me drown, I want to get to do what I’m supposed to do.” "No mission too difficult, no sacrifice too great, duty," was the motto of the legendary Big Red One, the First Infantry Division." Sacrificing one’s life for a cause has become almost a quaint notion. Larissa MacFarquhar’s Strangers Drowning which posits extreme benevolence as an anomalie may be a litmus test of the current state of civilization. 34,000 men landed on Omaha beach on June 6, 1944. Charlie, Dog, Easy and Fox were code names used for some of the sectors. Out of those 2700 died (and there were undoubtedly many drownings of those soldiers who didn’t know how to swim), 5800 were wounded. In the first wave Company A of the 129th Division's 116^th infantry from Bedford, Virginia was comprised of 30 men of which 22 were casualties. When you stare down at Omaha beach you realize that the invading force were sitting ducks, literally--to the extent that they emerged sometimes neck high from the landing craft which couldn’t afford to come closer to shore and had to negotiate the cold rough waters before even reaching the beach. Following that they had to climb to their targets who were shooting at them from above. Everything that could have gone wrong occurred early that morning including the fact that the air cover that was supposed to provide support missed its target by 50 yards due to the an artificial cloud of smoke that had been sent up with the idea of obfuscating the enemy’s vision. When you visit Omaha you're not only haunted by the death, you’re diminished by the bravery. After visiting Omaha and the other invasion beaches, take the thirty kilometer trip to Bayeux and see the story of how William the Conquerer earned his title. There’s a curious and haunting similarity to the self-sacrifice by both the Norman and Saxon armies hundreds of years before, told, like the subtext in a foreign film, by the fallen bodies which lie along the base of the tapestry.

Normandy Journal: The Pegasus Bridge

General Richard Gale's uniform (photograph by Hallie Cohen)

In one of the films shown at Memorial Pegasus in Ranville, Prince Charles describes D-Day as the largest amphibious landing in human history. The taking of the Pegasus Bridge was where it all began. If the allies could secure control of the river crossings they would be able to ferry supplies to the troops. At Arromanche-les- Bains you can look down the mulberries prefabricated by the British who created a man-made harbor. Supply side economics? Like at lot of things that happened on D-Day including the fact that Rommel was not given the authority to respond immediately to the enemy, the allies had both good luck and a good deal of bad luck on their side (especially when it came to the elements). Operation Deadstick in which three gliders tied to the back of aircraft landed near what is now known as Pegasus Bridge was the hinge upon which the whole success of the Normandy mission depended. As you ride along the roads of Normandy near the invasion beaches of Omaha, Juno, Utah, Gold and Sword you will see signs like Operation Overlord, L’Assault and there are monuments to regiments like the Green Howards and one Stanley Hollis who was the only soldier to receive a Victoria’s Cross for his bravery on D- Day. What is stunning is how different the world is today. The British, French and Americans shared an incontrovertible sense of moral purpose. By the 60’s De Gaulle who made his first return to French soil at Courseulles was vilified by student revolutionaries, who now looked at the leader of the  Resistance as a reactionary. And none of the allied excursions either in the Cold War or afterwards in Viet Nam would come close to exuding the same integrity as Normandy. The uniform worn by the British General Richard Gale together with its U.S. Legion of Honor Medal awarded by General Omar Bradley now has its own glass display case at Memorial Pegasus, but one can't help lamenting the fact that it's hard to imagine any of our current leaders walking in his shoes.

Normandy Journal: Udderly Normandy

photograph of Norman cow by Hallie Cohen

“Leurs Enfants Morts Pour La France” (1914-1918) is the inscription on a monument in the environs of this consecrated part of France. For Americans Normandy means D-Day but the French also fought great battles along the Normandy coast in defense of their land.William the Conqueror, who was also Duke of Normandy, drove the troops of Henry the Ist back into the sea in l058. Cabourg, one of the major "villes" along the sea is also where Proust came between l907-14 (there's a Marcel Proust room in the local Grand Hotel) and it's the inspiration for the author’s Balbec which appears in The Remembrance of Things Past. On the coast of the English channel at the mouth of the river Dives, Belle Epoque hotels dot the harbor area of Cabourg which has now become a major tourist mecca. Cabourg has streets named after Jorge Semprun and Jacques Prevert, but one of the avenues is also named for Marechal Joffre, a World War I hero who orchestrated the victory at the battle of the Marne. Normandy has some of the most beautiful countryside in France including Beuvron-en-Auge, which was voted to be one of LES PLUS BEAUX VILLAGES de FRANCE (though the little jewel has almost been destroyed by scorched earth tourism). Even the cows who cluster around lush looking trees look happy. The overwhelming beauty is made all the more spectacular by contrast to all the death and destruction that this region of France has endured. 

Normandy Journal: Deauville

photograph by Hallie Cohen

Some people might describe the architecture of Deauville as Norman with its wainscoting (known in Normandy as half timber since the houses are only half made of wood) and peaked roofs but it really exudes an almost Tudor effect. Deauville is reminiscent of Newport, Rhode Island to the extent that it’s faded glamour presides over famous festivals and races. You have the Newport Jazz Festival and the Deauville American Film Festival (there's a Meryl Streep suite at the Hotel Royal) and there are respectively the America's cup and the track in both places (on misty mornings horses can still be seen traipsing along the beach, as gulls honk overhead). The more faded sections of Deauville also make you think of an English seaside resort like Brighton, where the wealth of the haves only rubs salt in the wounds of those of modest means (Graham Greene memorialized Brighton as a place where violence lay right under the surface of everyday life). As you drive into town you come upon the scenic harbor, the grand looking Casino and the majestic old hotels. These imposing fin de siècle structures are reminiscent of regal institutions like the Carlton in Cannes and the Negresco in Nice with their white stucco and red carpets, but Deauville has an almost provincial quality and the natives you see walking on the streets or on the boardwalk, which runs by the sea, exhibit the determined, even tough qualities of a culture which derived from their original Viking ancestors or "northmen" who migrated to the region in the 9th Century.