SAINT-BRIAC-SUR-MER, France — Secretary of State John Kerry on Saturday commemorated the 70th anniversary of D-day with a personal touch in the small French seaside town that’s home to his family’s ancestral estate.
A day after attending international ceremonies to mark the allied invasion of France in Normandy, Kerry traveled to Saint Briac in the neighboring province of Brittany, where his mother’s family has long owned property.
Three US soldiers were killed during the liberation of the town in August 1944, and Kerry placed a wreath at a monument ‘‘To the Americans’’ that overlooks the harbor.
In remarks later at the town hall, Kerry paid tribute to the soldiers and to the people of Saint Briac. He credited them with helping to save heirlooms from the estate, Les Essarts. The Nazis had turned it into their local headquarters during the occupation and destroyed it as allied troops approached after D-day on June 6, 1944.
Kerry, who first visited Les Essarts when he was 4, told a crowd gathered for Saturday’s ceremony that he remembered almost nothing being left of the house, ‘‘just a stone staircase to the sky and an old brick chimney.’’
‘‘I can still hear the sound of the rubble and broken glass that was crunching under our shoes as we walked through what used to be her house,’’ he said from the mayor’s balcony.
He was flanked by US and French flags and blowups of the famous ‘‘Kiss of Liberation’’ photograph depicting a US sergeant kissing a French girl as the town celebrated the end of Nazi occupation.
The photographer, Tony Vaccaro, a private in the unit, was present at Saturday’s event. The mayor said the town hall was being named after Vaccaro, who cried when he heard the news.
Les Essarts was rebuilt in 1954 in an effort that Kerry said was symbolic of the strength and resolve of France to rebuild after the war.
‘‘In a sense, that represents the story of France,’’ he said. ‘‘To me, Saint Briac’s World War II legacy isn’t just about loss and destruction,’’ he said.
‘‘It’s a legacy of strength. It’s a legacy of solidarity. Ultimately, it’s a legacy of good prevailing over evil — of freedom prevailing over tyranny.’’