London – D-Day beaches

London to Mont St Michel and Normandy beaches, for a micro trip to northern France without an overnight stop, kipping on the ferry on the way home.

Hello and welcome back to London centuries halfast 5 in the morning off in a slightly different video today I’m going to go and visit the DJ Landing beaches in Normandy so I’m starting off by heading down to get a ferry and go to France it’s a lovely warm night in

September and I’m taking a slightly weird route to France cuz I’m going via gy for a little bit of holiday day with my mom so I’m going to take the ferry from pool to gy and then from gery to San Marlo and have a look at mon Sam

Melle while I’m in that part of the world so from London it’s uh d Pool currently not too far from Andover in Winchester Hampshire chill Bolton there’s a touch of autumn in the air this morning a little bit of mist as I was leaving town my hands got really cold oh that’s nice Hub on the river called the mayly The New Forest now made it to pool

P [Applause] So goodbye Britain hello France hello to S Marlo oh I got to turn left here no it’s up here thank so I’m on my way to uh mon Sam Shell at the moment out of s Marlo it’s a couple of hours on the bike something like that there it is look at

That oh my gosh it’s at the end of a Long Causeway and I’m not actually going to go in just want to admire the view from whoa wow that’s quite something well there you go can’t say I don’t bring some good views on this channel pretty special spot you got to

Admit so that’s leemon Samy shell which is on the line between Normandy and Britany so from here on I guess I’m in Normandy feel really lucky to be here but that’s kind of the point of this video I’ve got a trying to do a slightly different one this time cuz I’ve got a

Bit of an agenda I reckon cuz I love this cycling log obviously you know and if you’re watching the channel then you probably do too I feel free when I’m on the bike I can go to places places like this places have never been just to check it out and it

Doesn’t actually doesn’t have to cost that much money 30 37 quid on the ferry okay I’m really lucky I can afford that lots of people can’t fact is you don’t have to be a millionaire so M Sam Melle to the Normandy beaches and as you can tell it’s going to be mostly an

Overnight ride I’m hoping to get to the dday beaches for Dawn there you go that sunset at mon Sam shell that’s what that is isn’t that magnificent and I’m setting off from here for the uh to ride to the Normandy beaches the DJ Landing beaches look this video is about

Freedom I wanted to make a video about about Freedom particularly about the value of freedom and I figured I couldn’t say I couldn’t do a video about the value of freedom without at least acknowledging The Cost of Freedom so I’m going to Omaha Beach cuz just in case there’s anybody who doesn’t

Know I know ride along maybe not all of the dday beaches but most of them Omaha is the American sector so I’ll say a little thing or two about what happened there it’s a very very dark night I’ve been chugging across rural Normandy for a good few hours now oh hang

On there’s a turn coming up 2:00 in the morning now France is quiet this time of night suppose that’s to be expected God where am I I’m in a town center full of Road works there you go it’s halfast 3 in the morning and um I’ve come to the uh German [Applause]

Ceter having to light stuff up with the the torch on my phone uh anyway here’s this here’s this Memorial to the uh German soldiers and it points out well firstly there are 21 th000 Graves there and uh secondly it’s a graveyard for soldiers not all of whom had chosen either the

Cause or the fight they two have found rest in our soil of France Normandy Coast Just Before Dawn that’s looking North up the coast towards Point de Hawk and uh Kong is down there a really long stretch of Beach and Coast it must be about 50 m miles or so all

Told was June the 6th 1944 dday it was the biggest invasion in history so they um they split the coast into sectors called uh was it Utah Omaha uh gold Juno and sword first two were American taken by American forces second two were were British and Canadians down the

End terribly difficult to attack and um was well defended as well this bit from what I’ve read so this sector around here had the highest certy rate I’m just riding along this uh bike path top of the cliffs it’s quite a good path actually they had grappling irons and

Ladders and stuff to get up and there are machine guns at the top can’t see much of the beach at the moment can you I suppose that the tide is up it was all covered with um BB wire and obstacles and stuff what have you even if you’re not into the history

Of this place uh strong recommendation do a quick uh search up a photograph that was taken uh on the morning of D Day by a BL called Robert Sergeant uh spelled s a r g n t the picture the photo is called into the jaws of death and um was taken

From one of the landing craft uh it’s an extraordinary photograph absolutely Terri terrifying and um well worth a quick look well maybe while you’re listening to this video or something I can’t put it in this video for copyright reasons but search it up in another Tab and you see what I’m on

About Sun’s just coming up isn’t it would have got lighter earlier than uh than this on D-Day CU it was in June and I’m here in September it’s uh it’s just after 7:40 here now today the same time that Robert Sergeant took his photograph actually uh but it would have been

Lighter they started coming ashore I think it was 630 a lot of probably before as well so peaceful and tranquil there are loads of enormous and absolutely hor horrifying numbers associated with D-Day as you can probably imagine I wasn’t going to go into all of that stuff you can look it

Up if you want but uh not just D-Day but the uh the whole invasion of northern France to give you some headline numbers I think it was something like uh more than 200,000 dead wounded and missing on the Allied side 300,000 dead wounded and missing on the Germans and don’t forget the French

Either about 12,000 Civilians am think sunrise I hope this video doesn’t feel too stuck in in the past and history cuz that’s not what I wanted wanted to come here oh I wanted to come here anyway but not to appear into the past but as a as a reminder of what matters for the present

Really it’s loads of populist authoritarianism On The Rise everywhere these days I don’t don’t like it one bit and the awful things that happened here they happened because of populist authoritarianism now didn’t they don’t think I’ll see any more on that point just leave it at that now hang on there no there’s

Something else I want to say cuz look see thing is maybe it’s laboring the point too much but hopefully it’s really very very obvious I live in London I ride a bike I like riding long way I like riding a long way to interesting places I’ve never been

Before it’s fantastic I love it I can sink my passport in my saddle bag jump on a ferry and be here doesn’t take terribly long doesn’t cost terribly much that’s Freedom love it absolutely love it it’s worth so much but it wasn’t always that way right behind me that’s a monument to the

First US Infantry Division and this is Omaha Beach behind me for long just walking along the beach now enjoying the amazingly beautiful morning the American cemetery is up there behind me there trees I said I wasn’t going to go into big numbers but maybe it’s enough to say that it covers

172 and A2 Acres I’m in the British sector now and uh all the way along actually they’ve had these uh Flags out with photos and names of some of the soldiers have just found this um outdoor display I’m in the Canadian sector now and uh keeping it cycling

Relateded uh there’s a quote here from a Canadian Soldier he says we were given an objective 12 km away for the Infantry 12 km was far so we decided to use bicycles and landing craft completely packed full of bikes there go blind me don’t fancy that you can see here’s another picture more

Canadians going ashore with bicycles busy Beach day now well time again fairy time just as the sun’s come out to warm me up so that was the ferry from conter Portsmouth it’s coming out the very terminal now I think that last bit was Motorway actually so I got off that

Pretty quick it was horrible anyway I’m still uh trying to find the way out of Portsmouth I had originally intended to go into K into the into the center and uh have a poke about there bring you a little bit of that and the reason I didn’t was that I snapped my derailer

Cable the one at the back uh just as I was on my way to the ferry in gy actually I always carry a spare so I stopped at the gery ferry port and got my spare out and pair of pliers to start fitting the the spare I snap my pliers in half you

Believe which is absolutely not a testament to my extraordinary strength but Testament to the extraordinary complete rubbish of my cheap pliers so ridden all this way from San Marlo shifting on the front chain rings but right now I’m full of the joys of having exercise some of these freedoms

That we have that I think are really brilliant mostly cuz I’m nearly home it’s the gates of Hampton Court Palace in the dark if you can see that Chelsea embankment so that was micro trip to France without an overnight stay just Kipping on the ferry on the way back San

Marlo M Sam Mell Normandy beaches look you know you know who that is don’t you in case you missed it appropriate to get him so it’s Parliament Square end of another London centuries Adventure that Normandy back to London just pull in little bit time well I know what the time is it’s

My bedtime cuz I am L guys it’s qu 4 in the morning uh I going to hit the sack oh I was going to do the the distances of London pool uh look I’ll look them up and I’ll stick them on the screen over over this bit here cuz I want to go

To bed now uh thanks every so much for watching hope you enjoyed it uh stay safe see you next time bye