Loading…

Joe Steinbring

France

I first came to France in the summer of 2006, when I studied abroad in Paris in college. From there I took trips to Versailles and to Normandy, where I saw Sainte-Mère-Église, the German war cemetery at La Cambe, and the D-Day beaches, from Utah Beach at Sainte-Marie-du-Mont to Omaha Beach and Pointe du Hoc. I came back twice in 2019: in the spring on a solo trip through France, Germany, and Switzerland, and that fall with my Mom, when we stayed in Paris and took a day trip to Normandy, from the Mémorial de Caen to Omaha Beach and Arromanches-les-Bains.

Versailles, Strasbourg, Cricqueville-en-Bessin, and Paris11 places · 43 photographs
Static offline map of France marking 11 visited places.

Places visited

Places I visited in France

  • Looking up at the Eiffel Tower’s iron arches lit gold against a dark blue sky, a crowd below.
    Under the Eiffel Tower at night.

    Paris

    The Eiffel Tower and the Louvre lit up at night, and the city from the top of the Arc de Triomphe, from a trip with my Mom in 2019.

  • The fountain between two cone-shaped yews, visitors around its basin and the canal to the horizon.
    The Latona Fountain and, beyond it, the Grand Canal.

    Versailles

    The Hall of Mirrors, the Royal Chapel, and the fountains in the palace gardens, from my college summer in 2006.

  • The carved sandstone west front lit gold at dusk, with the great rose window above the portal.
    Strasbourg Cathedral, the tallest building in the world for more than two centuries, lit up at dusk.

    Strasbourg

    The cathedral lit up at dusk, the river Ill, and café terraces in the half-timbered old town, from a solo trip in 2019.

  • A battered concrete bunker topped by a viewing platform, as my Mom walks past on the gravel path.
    A German bunker on Pointe du Hoc, the headland the Rangers took on D-Day.

    Cricqueville-en-Bessin

    Pointe du Hoc’s broken German bunkers and the craters from the D-Day bombardment, from an afternoon there with my Mom in 2019.

  • Rows of white marble crosses, and a Star of David among them, on a green lawn.
    The Normandy American Cemetery, where more than 9,000 American service members are buried.

    Colleville-sur-Mer

    The Normandy American Cemetery above Omaha Beach, and the village around it, from a visit with my Mom in 2019.

  • My Mom, in a dark coat and knit hat, by the tall stone monument, with the sea behind her.
    My Mom at the Signal monument on Omaha Beach.

    Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer

    Omaha Beach’s Signal monument and the Les Braves sculpture, from a visit with my Mom in 2019.

  • A seafront square under a gray sky, flags along the seawall, and concrete caissons out at sea.
    The seafront, with the remains of the Mulberry harbor offshore.

    Arromanches-les-Bains

    The seafront and the remains of the Mulberry harbor still offshore, from the end of a day in Normandy with my Mom in 2019.

  • Broken furniture and heaped masonry behind a rope barrier, below wartime photographs and a map.
    A ruined room recreated at the Mémorial de Caen.

    Caen

    World War II exhibits at the Mémorial de Caen, where my Mom and I started our day in Normandy in 2019.

  • The curved glass C-47 pavilion, a U.S. star on its windows and red and white flowers in front.
    The Airborne Museum’s C-47 pavilion. Planes like the one inside dropped paratroopers over Sainte-Mère-Église on D-Day.

    Sainte-Mère-Église

    The Airborne Museum and the church tower where John Steele’s parachute caught on D-Day, from my college trip to Normandy in 2006.

  • A gap in the dunes with marram grass and an old post, the wide wet beach and gray sea beyond.
    Utah Beach through the dunes, at low tide.

    Sainte-Marie-du-Mont

    Utah Beach’s dunes, a Sherman tank, and the D-Day memorials, from my college trip to Normandy in 2006.

  • A wet lawn of flat grave markers and groups of five dark stone crosses, with oaks, on a misty day.
    La Cambe from the top of its burial mound, looking down the path to the entrance.

    La Cambe

    The German war cemetery at La Cambe, on a rainy day during my college trip to Normandy in 2006.

Recent travel photos from France