We walked through the visitor center, which is really what makes the experience. They have done such a great job of personalizing and humanizing what can start to just feel like statistics and facts. There were stories of soldiers who were killed, stories about French civilians, and all kinds of background about the war leading up to D-Day, the miracles of D-Day and then the fallout from D-Day. It was so complex.
It was bit overwhelming honestly. A couple weeks after we came home I sat down and watched Saving Private Ryan. I'm not into violent movies at all. You can ask my family. I have a reputation for walking out if there are "too many bullets." But I wanted to see it. I wanted to really experience it in the way most of my generation experiences war. On the telly. And it was painful. But it was meaningful too, combined with the opportunity to have been there on the beach and in the countryside.
There was also a movie in the visitor center, a family-appropriate movie, that focused a lot on the gratitude of the French people and the courage and sacrifice of the armed forces.
I don't really have much else to say about it. I'll just post the pictures.