(click here for map)

Our 1st stop (around 09:30) is a village called Sainte Marie du Mont:

Sainte-Marie-du-Mont is one of the municipalities claiming the title of the first French village liberated on June 6, 1944. It is very picturesque, with lovely architecture, a stunning church listed as a historic monument since 1840 (Our Lady of the Assumption and my favourite) and interesting shops. We will explore the village, reading some of the D-Day commemorative plaques on various buildings and we will do our best to capture some of these details, maybe even pop into some of the shops and enjoy a coffee and fresh pastry or cake.

Our 2nd stop (around10:30) is the Bay of Veys itself :

On either side of the Cotentin peninsula lie two wetlands of great interest: the Bay of Mont-Saint-Michel to the west and the Bay of Veys to the east (which is much less known). The Bay of Veys is a wide estuary that collects the waters of four rivers that irrigate the Cotentin and Bessin Marshes Regional Natural Park: the Douve, Taute, Vire and Aure. The mixture of fresh and salty water and extensive sedimentation create a highly productive ecosystem consisting of mudflats and salt marshes. The estuary is also used to farm Isigny and Utah Beach oysters (10 000 ton per year for 30 000 tons of Norman oysters).

However, the Bay faces a high risk of marine submersion i.e. losing land to the sea. The area was reclaimed between 1856 and 1972 - canals were dug to collect the disorderly flow of the rivers and hundreds of acres (200 to 2300 ha) were reclaimed from the bay (polders) and protected by about 18 km of dykes. The bay has varied landscapes: farmland, crops, wooded swamps, drained marshes, drained polders (some cultivated others not) dunes, salt marshes and beaches. This mosaic of habitats and the location of this site along an important coastal migration route explain its ornithological importance. Several thousand waterfowl, mainly ducks, geese (including the Nonnette (Barnacle) goose) and waterfowl, stop there during migrations or overwinter there every year. Also found are oystercatchers, ringed plovers, Dunlin curlews, Snow sparrows and even a colony of Harbour seals.

We will spend about 2.5 hours here, exploring the area on foot and hopefully finding various birds and even the colony of seals to photograph. It is not an easy site to navigate and if the birds prove to be elusive, we may pack up earlier and either visit or re-visit the Réserve Beauguillot or settle for an earlier lunch and more time to explore the very interesting village of Sainte Mere Église.

Our 3rd stop (around13:00) is: Sainte-Mère-Église:

Sainte-Mère-Église was also one of the first villages in France to be liberated on June 6, 1944 and the film The Longest Day captures the history of the D-Day landings and in particular the parachute divisions of the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions of the USA (some 14,238 men were dropped on the east coast of Cotentin). Their mission was to protect the Utah Beach area and stop German counter attacks on the landing beaches.

Today it is a thriving village where:

• you can enjoy lunch at any one of the various restaurants in the village

• visit the church with its beautiful stained-glass windows commemorating the parachutists who landed there to help liberate the village. A dummy representing parachutist John Steele who during the drop was stuck on the bell tower can still be seen today

• visit the Airborne Museum where you will become more closely acquainted with the men of the 82nd and 101st Airborne divisions

• explore the various commemorative plaques (15 in total) around the village which capture the history of what took place in the village during the D-Day landings and thereafter

Thus having enjoyed the fresh air of the Bay of Veys, the beautiful villages of Sainte-Marie-du-Mont and Sainte-Mère-Église and some of the history relating to the American 82nd and 101st Airborne divisions it is time to return to Morsalines for a rest and later champagne and oysters while we review the photos of the day.