June 6, 2015 market day in Bayeaux and dinner Omaha Beach

June 6, 2015  Market Day in Bayeaux and Dinner on Omaha Beach

We ate kippered mackerel and eggs for breakfast.  Then we drove to the market at Bayeaux, which had over 50 stalls; by far the largest we have been to, so far.  Unfortunately, we are leaving tomorrow and did not need any more food, except bread.  We noticed a bio-organic baker, named Lemaire, so we bought a part of a large loaf for our ham sandwiches.

We then drove,to the centre so Suzette could shop and soon found a set of copper kitchen utensils for 25€ that we liked and Suzette found a small hat of the type  made popular be the English royalty several years ago at the time of the wedding of William and Katherine.

We walked to the lace museum shop across from the Notre Dame Cathedral at 11:00 and found a military band and accompanying service representative in full regalia.  

The band played several songs inn front of the church and then marched off in the direction of the British war cemetery and we went to the lace museum.  When we saw the prices for the lace, 45€ for one letter, we decided to buy the kitchen utensils and Suzette decided to buy the hat.  So we returned to the main shopping street and stopped for an apple cider to refresh ourselves and then walked down the shopping street to the other Main Street where the store with the hats and antiques was located and Suzette picked out a nice small brown hat and we purchased the kitchen copper utensils from a pleasant older English gentleman.

We also stopped at the Carrafour store in downtown, about one block,from the main intersection and bought a Lindt chocolate bar for the plane ride back to the U.S. and three 200 gram cans of duck pate.  We also stopped at a lovely bakery (boulangere/patisserie) and bought a large almond flavored meringue for2.10€ for our dinner. 

We then drove to the Normandy invasion museum across the street from the British cemetery and toured its amazingly complete collection of equipment, weapons, and historical displays.

We then walked to the Benedictine Nunnery next door to see if they were selling any Benedictine liquor, but it was closed and I saw no liquor in evidence when I looked into their shop.  So we walked back to the car at the Museum and drove out to the beaches at Arromanches, which was Gold Beach, where the British landed.  When we arrived a bit after 2:00 the town was crowded with people arriving in droves.  

We checked our D Day guide and found out there was to be a celebration with a WW II airplane fly by, bag pipers, a parade to honor the British landing and the appearance of the”Band of Brothers” actors, so we decided to drive back to our house and eat our lunch of bacon lettuce and tomato sandwiches, which we made with the newly acquired organic bread, thick sautéed slices of pancetta, red tipped butter lettuce and a lovely dark purple heirloom tomato.

After lunch we napped and then at 6:00 we made our salads for the evening’s festivities on Omaha Beach.  The salad was the culmination of several days of food preparation and included blanched haricot vert, pickled egg, pickled beet, white anchovies, on a bed of the red tipped butter lettuce.  I made a creamy dressing with the PPI mayonnaise shallot sauce by adding a little lemon juice and olive oil. 

We drove south to St Laurant sur Mer by way of the beach road and parked in the lot next to the  Canadian War memorial and walked along the beach. 

A sculpture erected by the French to honor their Liberators mimicking a broken hull of a landing craft next to the Canadian D Day Memorial on Omaha Beach

 We saw thousands of tables and chairs and benches set up in the street  south of the Memorial that had been cordoned off from traffic.  Each commune had set up areas in a long row as is typically done for Bastille Day celebrations.  A small number of people had already set their dinners on the tables, but after 7:30, the designated time for commencement many more began arriving.  We fetched our salads and meringue with a lovely rose of Cabernet Franc from Saumur.  There was a beverage sales area, where I bought a bottle of water for 1€.  We sat and talked a bit with the French people around us.

Ms. Suzette decorated with her Dad's bronze star and infantry medals at Omaha Beach D Day dinner

After we ate our salads an older couple sat down across from us who spoke some English and they shared their quiche and apple cider with us and their recipe.

Quiche

5 eggs beaten

Crème fraiche

A little milk

Sautéed mushrooms and onions

Chopped ham

Baked in  a pastry shell

La Madame cutting us a slice of her quiche

It was delicious.  They and the people next to them shared their Apple cider.  The people next to us were drinking Tronquay cider which they said was the best.  

Soon a military band began to play a couple of tunes and  later a cheese maker gave out small 500 gram wheels of fresh Isigny-sur Mer Camembert.  

We tried the cheese and loved it.  Fresh creamy with that distinctly camembert flavor. These two bites of this incredibly cheese like thick whipped cream but with that distinctly Camembert flavor on a piece of Fresh French breads do glasses of fresh cider  given by our fellow diners will stay with me for a long time, perhaps forever among the hundreds of persons celebrating their liberation from the Nazis.  This must be French Fraternite.  We werefirst sitting at another table when we where a large group of motorcyclists crowded us out and we moved to another table to make room for them, so there was a complete cross section of French society in attendance, as far as I could see.

Bob among the masses celebrating Liberation Day

We left the party at 9:00 when others began to leave.  It was still sunny with no sign of sunset.

When we returned home, Suzette said she was missing American TV and could we see if there was something playing in English, so we turned on the TV and discovered that the UFEA final between Juventus and Barcelona was on, so we cuddled up on the couch and watched Barcelona win the European Cup.

At 11:00 we went to bed.

Bon Appetit