On America’s Milestone 250th Birthday Bash, Some Perspective On Why We Can Still Celebrate
Happy 250th birthday, America! Here’s some perspective from your editor, which is now available in our July issue, about a recent trip to France and what happened there to help ensure our milestone Fourth of July celebration.
will celebrate its 250th anniversary on July 4, an event made possible in part by these World War II heroes. (CHRIS COCOLES)
CAEN, France–If I came to Paris for tennis, my heart for this trip would be left not in San Francisco – though that’s the airport I flew from – but here in Normandy.
My solo trip to France was primarily for the aforementioned Paris Grand Slam tournament, the French Open, known as Roland Garros by the Parisians and other locals. (I now have been able to attend each of the four major pro tennis events, including the US Open, Australian Open and London’s Wimbledon Championships.)
But the highlight of this vacation was a two-day side trip to Caen, a major city in the region where the Allies’ D-Day invasion in June 1944 would eventually liberate France and the European continent from the Axis Powers.
I took a train from Paris to Caen a week before the 82nd anniversary of D-Day on June 6. There I toured many of the sites that defined that great and terrible day, which itself was just the start of the two-plus-month-long Battle of Normandy.
Seeing it just a month before our own country’s 250th birthday moved me to lots of swirling emotions.
I met my day-long tour companions, guide Andrea and driver Alan, at the Mémorial de Caen museum. And it was my good fortune that no one else signed up for the tour on that day, so I had the van and my hosts’ attention all to myself.
On a gorgeous and warm sunny Saturday, we drove through tranquil rolling hills and green fields, seemingly peaceful ground that actually saw some of the fiercest fighting of World War II.
Especially on the morning portion of my tour without many fellow tourists, I had sites such as the Bény-sur-Mer Canadian War Cemetery and, to a lesser extent, the British Normandy Memorial virtually to myself. In the van and on the grounds, Andrea regaled me with lots of fascinating backstories of the invasion.
When she encouraged me to take a walk on my own, I was at times overwhelmed by the setting.
After a delicious lunch back in Caen, we took in the American sites, Pointe du After a delicious lunch back in Caen, we took in the American sites, Pointe du Hoc, where United States Army Provisional Ranger Group troops scaled the cliffs and broke through German defenses; the sacred sand of Omaha Beach, which I quietly strolled on with no more than a few dozen people and some frolicking dogs also taking it in; and finally, the Normandy American Cemetery, the final resting place for 9,389 Americans, most of whom participated in Operation Overlord.
Back in Caen, I said my goodbyes to Andrea and Alan and returned the next day to tour the museum before catching my train back to Paris.
The City of Lights proved to be worth its reputation, from checking the tennis bucket-list destination off my list toother Parisian attractions and neighborhoods I explored. But Normandy had me wondering why it took me so many international trips before finally walking these hallowed spots – a journey made before America’s milestone moment on more meaningful since it was shortly before America’s milestone moment on Independence Day.
I’m expecting July 4’s firework-induced noise to stress out my dog and surely spawn the all too expected political grandstanding from Washington, DC, but I will also have a newfound appreciation for the sacrifices that were made during the D-Day invasion to ensure we can celebrate freedom.
When I texted a buddy some photos of my day in Normandy, he had the quintessential reply.
“Aren’t you glad they made that invasion so we didn’t have to?” -Chris Cocoles
