The Canadian Memorial Garden occupies a wide strip of land running across the western end of a valley, formed by a medieval quarry, which lies just to the south of the Caen Memorial Museum.

The Memorial Garden is not an inanimate monument.  It is a place where nature, eternally renewing itself, is mingled with memories which should also prove eternal.  It is a place to remember the young men who fought in Normandy, both those who gave their lives and those who survived, and the places where they behaved so bravely.  With its fissured terrace the garden's northern slope symbolizes their descent into the turmoil of war and danger.  The grove on the southern side, conceived for quiet contemplation, symbolizes the peace they won for all of us.

Nor is the garden's message for Canadians only; those Norman place names are so many reminders that the sacrifices made by our young men on their road to victory were shared by many thousands of French civilians.

The reception desk in the memorial centre staffed by two CBF Guides.  The portal on the left leads to the Le Mémorial Garden

After entering the garden, one passes the Canadian flag and four glass steles situated on a stone terrace that dominates the valley below

The four glass steles record the names of all the Canadian units - sea, land and air - which fought in  the Battle of Normandy

Looking across the valley from the terrace, attention is drawn to a black granite slab, situated in a grove of red maple trees

The words of Virgil's Aeneid, Nulla dies umquam memori vos eximent aevo (Nothing shall ever blot you from the memory of time), are inscribed on the black granite slab

From the terrace, steps connect to a path leading to the valley below

At the bottom of the steps there is an inscription on a black granite wall

The inscription reads:

La libération vient par la mer
Liberation comes from the sea

A winding path  from the steps at the bottom of the terrace leads down to the valley, and the grove beyond, framed by red maple trees

Looking back from the grove to the terrace wall, fissured by a vertical black granite claw, symbolizing war

An earlier view of the terrace wall and the black granite slab, set in a pool and framed by a rectangular patch of pale Caen stone

Looking over the black granite slab, with Virgil's words, to stone benches at the far side of the grove

Part of the stone benches showing the coat of arms of Normandy and some of the names of the 122 communes in Normandy liberated by Canadian troops in 1944. The benches remind us that the sacrifices made by our soldiers were shared by thousands of French civilians