Sainte Mere Eglise on our way out of Bayeux

Since Sainte Mere-Eglise was not on our tour yesterday, we decided to go there this morning as we leave Bayeux. It was a beautiful day and we found our way right to the main square.

"The town's main claim to fame is that it played a significant part in the World War II Normandy landings because this village stood right in the middle of route N13, which the Germans would have most likely used on any significant counterattack on the troops landing on Utah and Omaha Beaches. In the early morning of 6 June 1944 mixed units of the U.S. 82nd Airborne and U.S. 101st Airborne Divisions occupied the town in Operation Boston, giving it the claim to be one of the first towns liberated in the invasion".

The Museum right next to the square

The Glider

with crew

The Paratroopers

Last message from Ike before takeoff next to the C-47 that tows the gliders

Ladies in support of the war effort

The Church of Sainte-Mere-Eglise 

"A well-known incident involved paratrooper John Steele of the 505th PIR, whose parachute caught on the spire of the town church, and could only observe the fighting going on below. He hung there limply for two hours, pretending to be dead, before the Germans took him prisoner. Steele later escaped from the Germans and rejoined his division when US troops of the 3rd Battalion, 505 Parachute Infantry Regiment attacked the village, capturing thirty Germans and killing another eleven. The incident was portrayed in the movie The Longest Day by actor Red Buttons.

Today, these events are commemorated by the Airborne Forces Museum in Place du 6 June in the centre of Ste-Mère-Église and in the village church where a parachute with an effigy of Private Steele in his Airborne uniform hangs from the steeple. Bullet holes are still visible in the church's stone walls. Inside, there are stained glass windows, with one depicting the Virgin Mary with paratroopers falling in the foreground".

Efffigy of Pvt Steele in uniform hanging from the church spire by his parachute

The nave of the church

Private Steele

"Though injured, Private Steele survived his ordeal. He continued to visit the town throughout his life and was an honorary citizen of Ste. Mère Église. The tavern, Auberge John Steele adjacent to the square, maintains his memory through photos, letters and articles hung on its walls. Steele died of throat cancer on May 16, 1969 in Fayetteville, NC just three weeks short of the 25th anniversary of the D-Day invasion".

After our tour around Sainte-Mere-Eglise, we headed out to our next accommodation at a resort near Rouen in the village of Connelles.

After checking in and getting settled we went into St. Pierre, another small village nearby for dinner.  The menu was not much to my liking as the picture portrays (that's my there is nothing on this menu I want to eat look); however, the restaurant was very cute and French farm house.