Coast of France, June 1944

A solemn anniversary. New-to-us terrific photographs.

"It's no mystery why images of shocking, unremitting violence spring to mind when one hears the deceptively simple term, "D-Day." We've all seen -- in black-and-white photos, movies, old news reels -- what happened on the beaches of Normandy as the Allies unleashed an historic assault against German defenses on June 6, 1944.

But in rare, color photos taken before and after the invasion, LIFE photographer Frank Scherschel captured countless other, lesser-known scenes from the run-up to the onslaught and the heady weeks after: American troops training in small English towns; the French countryside, implausibly lush after the spectral landscape of the beachheads; the reception GIs enjoyed en route to the capital; the liberation of Paris. As presented here, in masterfully restored color on the anniversary of D-Day, Scherschel's pictures feel at-once profoundly familiar and somehow utterly, vividly new." - via LIFE.

See the gallery here.

Flowery window in Strasbourg - Week's End

We're sure we'd feel so much better here at GG Central if we had our empty flower box filled with these geraniums (or coral ones, perhaps). Busy working on D-Day material, so we'll see you Saturday. Of course, Strasbourg was right in the thick of it during the battle to liberate France, as the Allies moved eastward. GG's editor lived but a few hundred meters from Nazi bunkers; her bedroom, & indeed the entire building, had been occupied by the Germans 30 years before. We swear there were ghosts. France is much on our mind this week, this summer. [photograph used by permission from the lovely & talented Pipernille in Helsinki, see here for her photograph sets.]

ciao-bonjour-meow/GG/mgmt