For once, the press and broadcast media did us proud with the depth and detail of their coverage.
I had the privilege, in my previous job with the BBC, to attend the events to mark the 50th anniversary ten years ago.
I accompanied a group of veterans to Normandy and we visited the beaches, the bridges and the fields, now cemeteries, where they fought and where many fell.
In the past ten years a lot of those veterans have died. There will be very few left after the next ten. But I do hope that we will continue to mark that momentous day, remember their sacrifice and remind ourselves and future generations of the lessons of history.
My generation has been the most fortunate ever to have lived on these islands. We have enjoyed a period of peace and prosperity unprecedented in Europe. But we have only done so because of the sacrifices made by the older generation in ridding Europe of fascism and enabling the establishment of stable, prosperous democracies throughout western Europe.
The strength of those democracies helped the West eventually win the Cold War.
The same freedoms we have long taken for granted are now enjoyed by the peoples of the former Communist countries of eastern Europe.
After so much conflict and bloodshed there is now a Europe at peace and united by common values of freedom, democracy and the respect for human rights.
I wonder if our veterans back then in 1944 dared hope that their legacy would be so rich and lasting.
Many, of course, did not live to see it. But I sincerely hope that their relatives and descendants and those veterans who did, take comfort and satisfaction from what has been achieved.
And I hope the recent commemorations have reminded them how truly grateful the rest of us are.
