We went to them all, the beaches that is. We heard all the tactics and plans. There are five of them. Only two were handled by the Americans. The others went to the British, the Canadians, and the New Zealanders. In this picture are the remains of a temporary harbor the Allies offloaded in an attempt to create a safe place to land large equipment once they had control of the coast.
We saw the hedgerows and now understand why they would be so difficult to get through -- they were first planted in the middle ages as wind breaks and are extremely sturdy. Also the roads were first laid out in the middle ages and have gradually gotten lower and lower from being used, so that each narrow road has tall banks on both sides. Ambushes would be easy. Tank or even vehicle travel would be very difficult.
We saw the church of Sainte-Mère-Église where the parachutists landed and one got caught hanging from the church spire. They have reproduced his experience with a dummy dressed like him and caught just as he was.
The villagers had to replace three of their stained glass windows due to bombing.
One of them shows the parachutes coming down; 
another pays tribute to the veterans who returned after 25 years.
We got really lucky and witnessed a reenactment group doing a photo shoot of villagers exiting the church after services and being greeted by US soldiers. The reenacters were a French-Belgian group who also let us take a lot of shots with them.
We're finding the French people to be very friendly. We like 'em
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