Ciampa: Trip to Normandy offers lessons on mistletoe and unforgettable memories

You may be done with talk of Christmas decorations, but there's a story I want to share that includes mistletoe.

What do you know about mistletoe? Not about the kissing under it part, but what it is. I've always heard it was poisonous, but that's all I knew. I'm embarrassed I didn't know it is a parasite.

It was one of the many things I learned on my recent trip to Normandy, France. As we drove by rows of fruit trees whose flowering season had passed, we saw these blobs in the trees. One of our guides made note of them and asked if we knew what we were seeing. It was mistletoe, she said, a parasite that attaches itself to branches as it grows. It's called "gui" in French. Apparently, healthy trees can withstand some mistletoe but a lot can kill a tree.

The same thing happens in the U.S. where we get our mistletoe. It grows from New Jersey to Texas.

Knowing now it's a parasite it takes away a little of the romance, doesn't it?

I'll tell you the more important stories that stuck with me during that trip. They all relate to D-Day and what the soldiers from the U.S., Great Britain and all the other nations lost and gained as they sought to liberate France.

Visiting Normandy can't help but tear at your heart and soul. So many lives were lost there, the tragedy of it still hangs heavy in the air. You don't have to see the endless rows of headstones at the Normandy American Cemetery to feel it. It's everywhere along the beautiful countryside.

The landscape in Normandy played a big role in World War II, specifically in the days and weeks after D-Day. The German troops hid in hedgerows, the thick hedges along the country roads. From these hiding places, they would strike down the Allied troops as they advanced through Normandy.

They are still standing today, a reminder of what it must have been like as soldiers walked from their landing spots.

Some are so tragic. Like the one about the fire that broke out in the town of Sainte-Mère-Église. A woman's property caught fire, lighting up the night when paratroopers were depending on darkness for their secret arrival. The village was a key point for the military to make their way through Normandy. The paratroopers were sitting ducks as they dropped in, lit by the fire, and a dozen were killed by the German soldiers.

One paratrooper got hung up on the church steeple and he hung there for hours, shot but alive. He pretended to be dead for hours to survive the battle. There's a monument to him as a statue hanging from his parachute.

Even after that, Sainte-Mère-Église was the first town liberated by the Allies. The Airborne Museum there recounts the battle. But it's an uplifting place to visit, with many soldiers' voices recorded so you can hear in their own words how they survived.

Still, a particular kind of sadness also hangs over the beautiful beaches and dramatic cliffs that were the sites of such awful carnage on D-Day. But when you talk to the people who live in Normandy, they still speak about how the Allies saved their country. There is joy here, too.

That's why the Les Braves Omaha Beach Memorial is special. The metal sculpture rises from the beach the way hope and victory did so long ago. It was installed in 2004 for the 60th anniversary of D-Day.

Every little village and church has a story to tell about those days.

Like so many before me, I feel so fortunate to have visited this hallowed ground. We can never show enough appreciation for what so many gave up to preserve freedom.

Nothing I did in 2023 felt more important than being there in Normandy to witness history.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Normandy, France a place full of stories from WWII to mistletoe