When visiting Normandy as a class, memory of the actual D-Day event kept popping into my head in three sites in specific, the cemetery overlooking Omaha beach, Omaha beach, and Grandcamp Pointe du Hoc.  The museum and the memorial where not as impacting because it seemed fabricated and less natural, almost forced.


Omaha beach was the hardest to grasp the severity of the event due the beautiful view and the serenity of the ocean and how peaceful it seemed. However everywhere you turned there was an object to remind you of the event. For example the Les Braves monument.


The short time we visited the beaches it was difficult to keep in mind that soldiers gave up their lives right where I was standing. The Les Braves monument would create a remembrance of the event. Not one that I experienced but images would come to mind that I had seen in Hollywood films such as Saving Private Ryan or even the short films that were featured in the memorial and the museum.


Also the other site that created a strong sense of remembrance was Grandcamp pointe du Hoc. Again it has such a beautiful scenic view that it was hard to grasp that it was a site of battle but when looking at the surroundings such as the crater in the ground that were created by bombs that had gone off one can visuals the event.


Omaha beach and Grandcamp pointe du Hoc where the two sites that impacted me the most and created a strong visual memory. One created by monuments and the other by the consequences of the battle. If some one where to be visiting Normandy I would suggest these two sites over the museum.


-Elissa de la Pedraja