NORMANDY, France — Members of the Longview Lobo Choir are experiencing a huge opportunity this week as they're in France set to perform for the anniversary of D-Day.
The choir was invited last summer to sing in Normandy for this year's 80th anniversary. On June 6, 1944 during World War II, the Western Allies stormed the beaches of Normandy, France to deliver a significant blow in defeating the German Army.
The students got the opportunity to meet and sing for some World War II veterans during their visit. They said the veterans shared great wisdom with the teens and tipped this trip over the edge.
"That was the honor of a lifetime," the Facebook post from the choir read.
Video of the performance can be found here.
Ahead of the big day, the students have traveled to the city of Vire as well as Gold Beach, where the British forces landed in 1944.
"You can see cliffs in the distance that those young men had to scale in order to liberate the town, and stop the gun fire from the Germans. The water is so blue. The weather was perfect. It is hard to imagine this beautiful place was a bloody battlefield 80 years ago," one of the team's Facebook posts read.
In Saint-Lo, the choir students, teachers and chaperones learned about buying their own grocery bags and how to say merci (thank you) and au revoir (good-bye). They also learned how to find the food they want by reading French labels.
The team visited the Louvre, walked the streets of Paris, visited Montparnasse and took photos with the Eiffel Tower.
The choir team's schedule included visiting the beaches at Normandy and two American cemeteries, participating in a wreath-laying ceremony, performing at cemeteries and walking in the parade of the first village liberated from German control. The group will also go to Paris to perform in one of the cathedrals.
Check out photos from their adventures so far below:
