Our time in Caen France has been full of beauty. The towns are picturesque and the views are breathtaking but the soil must be soaked in blood. We spent all of our second day in and outside of the city visiting sites of death and sites of burial. The juxtaposition of these spaces is jarring and has given me a new perspective on how non-prescribed spaces influences our interaction with death.
The sites of death that we visited today include Gold Beach and Omaha Beach. These natural landscapes are left relatively untouched by man but completely transformed by nature. The remaining invasion technology is covered in algae on the beach and highly approachable when the tide is low. Couples milled around what would have been huge, looming dock supports now gentle and docile. A group of boys plays with a ball six feet from the largest relic and I enjoy an ice cream cone beneath a steel carcass 5 times my height. The softness of the steel covered algae allows for these relics to simultaneously blend with nature and contrast it dramatically.
The second site of burial, Omaha Beach, blends much more than it contrasts even though the land is full of scars. The site (pictured below) was bombed heavily from air and sea resulting in the round and oblong creators which are now grassy and inviting. Bunkers pop out of the earth and the dim, worn spaces are quiet now and fill with tourists instead of German soldiers. The paths are worn by foot only and the grass sways in the wind around children’s ankles and the canes of the elderly alike. People enjoy the space as one might enjoy a park although with a certain quietness and constant camera click associated with a site imbued with memory.
