Day 21 Le Mont St Michel and Normandy landings

We started early to drive to Mont St Michel so we could avoid the tourist buses. Parked the car in the carpark and read that the sea would not cover the car that day - we weren't feeling reassured by the sign. Arrived at about 9.15 after driving through the back roads of Normandy via St Lo and Avranches. The villages were just waking up so we didn't see anyone. The Normandy countryside changed from open fields to winding roads with hedges lining the roads and dividing the fields.
Mont St Michel looked impressive rising out of the sea. We followed the advice of the Tourist book and headed directly to the Abbey. We had to wait about 10 minutes before the doors opened and then did a audio-guided tour of the Abbey. The wind was blowing and it was only about 10C as we walked around the empty stone rooms. An amazing building that was started in the 10th Century by the Benedictine Monks .... Julia and the boys said they couldn't be silent for 8 hours a day - we weren't surprised. When we finished touring it was raining and the carparks were full with buses and cars - our car was still there.
Then got back in the car, wet and cold and headed back to Bayeux stopping at McDonalds on the way. Discovered Croques, which is a ham and cheese toasted roll, because the girl taking our order misunderstood our order of 'cokes'.
By the time we got back to Bayeux the Museum we wanted to see was open (Museums close for lunch here). We decided to see the Musee Memorial de La Bataille de Normandie which provided an overview of the military events following the Landings. The Museum is planned from June 7th to August 29th and provided us with an understanding of the different events and battles including a number of towns we had driven through that morning.
Then we visited various landmarks along the coast starting with Arromanches-les-Bains where remains of the artificial 'Mulberry' port can be seen used by the Allies. We walked on the beach and looked at a part that had been washed up. Then went to Longues-sur-Mer where there are four bunkers with original 150mm guns in place. The battery was a major construction in the Atlantic Wall. We have been amazed by the Atlantic Wall constructions that the German Todt Organization set out to achieve. They used 450,000 labourers on the project to build 15,000 different structures along the whole of the North Sea, Channel and Atlantic coastlines. There were fortresses, artillery batteries, beachhead defences, and barriers built on the beaches or inland. The battery we visited received direct hits in the Landings but was so well built it wasn't destroyed. We then went to Omaha Beach to see this famous beach and finally to La Pointe du Hoc made famous by the 2nd Battalion of Rangers. They trained for 2 years to scale this cliff and managed to climb up it under enemy fire. The artillery battery at the site is extensive and the landscape is marked by bomb craters everywhere. Tom and James pretended to shoot everyone they saw.
By this time it was 8.30 pm and we headed back to the Resort for dinner. Normandy is a lovely part of France and its WW2 history is so well exhibited ..... we could have spent more time here but are heading to Belgium in the morning.