How do you talk to children about war? This weekend is the 60th anniversary of the D-day landings, and Normandy is celebrating - if that's the word - with exhibitions and events. Tourists are flocking to the region. But is the scene of such slaughter appropriate for a family holiday?

It's no good saying such subjects aren't for kids; the D-day landings are on the national curriculum (nc.uk.net). So, a few weeks ago I took 11-year-old Storme to Normandy's beaches for the weekend, not to swim and sunbathe, but to learn about what happened there on June 6, 1944 (seafranceholidays.com).

We began at Le Memorial in Caen (memorial-caen.fr), a museum about war in the 20th century. The main problem was teaching my pre-teen to show some respect. Whizzing across a Bailey bridge might be great fun, but I was anxious to convey the human cost of their construction. She gleaned some idea from the displays of soldiers' letters from the front, which she leafed through obsessively, deciphering the copperplate handwriting as if reading code. It was these individual stories that entranced her. She was unaffected by statistics showing how many thousands had died on each side; yet the shooting of a single resistance fighter reduced her, not to tears, but silence. Storme's verdict on the Memorial: "Very interesting but very sad."

Le Memorial knows it isn't natural kids stuff. If your child isn't ready for it, there's a free creche for up to 10s.

Just up the road, another bloody battle is depicted. The Bayeux tapestry is littered with decapitated bodies and lost limbs. This, however, didn't shut up Storme. Instead, she found it very funny. Why are some wars hilarious and others horrible? Is it a question of distance? Or the realism with which they're depicted? Should I have tried to teach Storme to respect the fallen at Bayeux, too?

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