Arromanches Beach was first taken by the British and then used as a supply base. Some of the floats used to create a breakwater around the beach can still be seen.

Juno Beach, where the Canadian Army landed. On the 50th anniversary of D-Day, some good friends from Ontario (my “adopted” grandparents) came back with a group of veterans to visit this beach. They brought me home a rock. Cheesy as it sounds, when I visited Juno beach in 2006, the 62nd anniversary and 12 years after my friends did, I picked up another. Its hard to imagine scores of boats and tanks once lined the beach here. Perhaps some are still visible, but the tide was up. All that remains are a few battered bunkers that presumably the German army returned fire from.

The Canadian cemetery in Courselliers-Sur-Mer, Normandy. It is in the middle of farmer’s fields and can see the ocean. Its not too big, but big enough considering what it contains. It is always moving to visit war cemeteries overseas and see the love and care that locals give to maintaining them.