French Beach Fun

We are currently on holiday in a place where were stayed last year, not too far from a gorgeous inland beach. I blogged about it then but it is so good I am going to blog about the fun we had again today.

Axo Plage is an inland beach about a two hour drive from Calais, sat in an unspoilt and gorgeous region of France called L'Aisne.

Lots of time to sit and play in the sand, mostly clean as no dogs are allowed on the beach and it is raked every morning, the only thing you really miss is the shells.

There is a lot to explore around the Axo Plage, some great slides and climbing frames, lots of trim trails to exercise on too.

Running about in the maze and trying to pull ourselves up on the pull up bars, plenty to see and do and lots of wildlife too.

Looking at the pretty wildflowers, so many pretty colours. Being here has certainly got us a lot more active, we've walked to the beach and back and the children have had so much space and freedom.

We've had a fab time here, loving the food and brushing up on our French, linking up to Country Kids on Coombe Mill Blog and Active Family on The Oliver's Madhouse.

We Will Remember Them

When we visited France a few years ago, we visited the D-Day beaches in Normandy. It was an evocative experience and an important piece of education alongside the new food we tried and language skills we learnt whilst over there.

I suppose for some it is a dull way to spend a holiday but this year marks the 100th anniversary of the start of WWI and 70 years since the D-Day landings and now has never been a better time to learn and respect these important events that are still remembered by some.

The D-Day Landing beaches are a heartbreaking, quiet, reflective place and the cemeteries a startling reminder of the amount of lives lost on that fateful day and those following.

The beaches are a huge expanse and it isn't hard to imagine what those men faced that day, running up those long beaches with machine guns firing at you must have been terrifying. Having been further up the coast to point du hoc and surrounding areas the imposing gun turrets that would have pounded the beaches only add to the emotions.

Further up the coast are the remains of the mulberry harbour, built and shipped across the channel to allow the trucks and tanks to land, this imposing feature only goes to show the work that went into trying to ensure it's success. The landing crafts on show, allow you to see what those men faced, how open they were to everything and how small and cramped it would have been aboard.

Further inland, there is a monument to those who landed first. The taking of Pegasus Bridge was of great military importance, it played a vital role in limiting the effectiveness of a German counter-attack in the days and weeks following the invasion.

As you stand at the exact spot where the gliders landed, you can see how amazingly brave those men were, landing in the dark and being faced with the machine gun fire from nests so close to the bridge.

The bridge itself is not the original one, although it is still a beautiful thing and I absolutely adored the little cafe, which was there that fateful day. The owner, daughter of the original owners, was there that day and remembers the soldiers arriving and giving her chocolate. We sat and had a coffee and I thought about the sacrifice so many people had made.

We see a lot about the two world wars in the news and most of us know, or have known someone that was affected by them. My granddad was just a child when he was evacuated from London during the second world war, my great granddad was killed during the first. It is important for us to remember, those who lost their lives and their futures, they gave up everything so that we may have our freedom.

Today I will be thinking about all those men who lost their lives, the families they left behind and everyone else in between.

A Very Real History Lesson

Whilst on holiday we visited the American Cemetery at Omaha Beach, a little morbid I admit but I do love WWII.

Thousands upon thousands of white crosses with a few stars stand in rows, it's hard to imagine what it would look like if each one was actually a man!

There are no dates of birth just the day on which their lives were cut short. Many mown down by machine gun fire or blown to pieces by the heavy shelling that awful day and those that followed. 

 The beach is now peaceful, in fact it is a gorgeous beach but because of it's history isn't used as much as maybe it would be, there is no beach bar or bucket and spade stalls.

The monuments at Omaha beach are a beautiful symbol of the tragedy that happened on the beach that misty June morning.

I have been to the WW1 memorial to the missing at Theipval which has 73,367 names engraved on it. The American Cemetery only has about 9,500 crosses, but to see the them stood up in lines like that seems more real than names upon a wall. It is almost possible to visualise the great loss.

The museum which holds some interesting pieces of history was well worth the visit (once you got past the metal detectors and bag searches anyway).

Films and items from the time help you to envisage what it was like, the full scale of the D-Day Landings.

I am forever fascinated by the beaches, every time I go back I am in awe of what happened on that day, the day's running up to it and the days after it.

I have visited the Pointe Du Hoc, an utterly breathtaking place which I shall never forget and still bears the scars from the days leading up to June 6th.

And then Arromanches, where the remains of the Mulberry Harbour still sit, I will write a post about this another time.

Finally, I saw a flag fluttering against one of the stones, a fabulously named man and as the flag blew in the wind it said everything that needed to be said.