Special envoy to Caen and Bayeux
An emerald sea stretches before the remains of the artificial Mulberry port of Arromanches, attacked by the waves. A red and white plastic cord prohibits access to walkers, like all along the coast. Around this historic site, the museum, the town hall and almost all of the shops have drawn the curtain. Usually crowded with visitors at this time of year, Arromanches has turned into a ghost town, its inhabitants hiding in expectation of a sneaky and invisible D-Day. On the Normandy landing beaches, the words of the Head of State, who declared France "at war" against the Covid-19 last week, have a singular resonance.
View of Arromanches beach. Credit: Patrick Saint-Paul / Le Figaro
" This war has little to do with the war I experienced in 1944 ," said Henri Halluin, 95. In June 1944, I was requisitioned by the Germans and I was building the Atlantic Wall when I saw the Allied ships arriving in the distance, on the beach at Ver-sur-Mer. I
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