On the morning of Sunday, June 23, 1940, the day after France signed its armistice agreement with Germany, Adolf Hitler made his first visit to France. After landing at Le Bourget Airport, just outside of Paris, he traveled with a modest entourage in three large Mercedes sedans. Hitler toured the capital that had been declared a “ville ouverte,” -  or open city - 10 days before, and was left undefended.
 
In his quick three-hour tour of his newest conquered capital, Hitler followed the paths of countless tourists, with stops at the Opera House, the Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower, and Les Invalides, which housed the tomb of Napoleon. After several moments of quiet contemplation at the crypt of the legendary Emperor of the French, the party moved on to a most unlikely site, the Sacré-Cœur Basilica on Montmartre. The panoramic view from this highest point in Paris was of greater interest to Hitler than the perpetual adoration of the Holy Eucharist inside the church that was dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Several passing churchgoers recognized the Fuhrer, but none interacted with him.

Albert Speer, Hitler’s favored architect and a member of his entourage, recalled that he briefly discussed a victory parade in the French capital, but ultimately decided the idea was premature. “We are not at the end yet.” There was also a very real likelihood that Britain’s Royal Air Force would do their best to ruin a public military celebration in France.
 
Hitler would not set foot in France again until June 16, 1944, ten days after the Allies' D-Day invasion. On this occasion, he flew into the far-inland city of Metz for a desperate meeting with Field Marshals Erwin Rommel and Gerd von Rundsted. Almost four years to the day after his first visit to France, the War was still “not at the end yet,” but as historian Rick Atkinson wrote In The Guns at Last Light, Hitler “looked like a man who was losing a world war.”
 
Thanks in large part to the astonishing heroism and sacrifice of the men who landed at Normandy 80 years ago this week, he was.
 
Thanks for reading,
Bill