By crikey it's hot!

33 C today and I damned near melted.

We had a look at Pt 112 which was a key point in the German defence south of Caen. You can see for miles in all directions so it is obvious why it was so important. Then we cruised down to the Odon to get a feel for where the Epsom bridgeheads were before taking a huge 45 min drive to Falaise. 45 minutes to travel a distance that took 2 months in 1944.

En route we got buzzed by two jets - Typhoons? Or some Mirages: I don't know what the French fly any more.

We also attempted to get our leak fixed but all the garages will be closing for holidays today and they could not fit us in before they did. However, one gave me two circlips so I can have a crack myself. (Although my toolkit isn't huge so this could be a recipe for disaster.)

Falaise is the birthplace of William the Conk so we'll have a look at his castle (and museum) tomorrow before heading off to Chambois for the Falaise Pocket sites. 

Social distancing

Guillaume

To see or not to see? That is the question

We walked in to Bayeaux to see the tapestry but were informed there was a 1 1/2 hour queue starting at 12:30. Not exactly convenient in the scorching sun (29-30 C), so we made the decision to miss out and hopefully catch it again post-Covid. Apparently there is a contemporaneous copy in Reading anyway so maybe we'll see it there.

I walked to the war museum only to find it was shut for lunch so returned to J and had lunch with her. We then drove around and I went through it. Not a bad museum but with some mislabelled maps and pictures that got annoying after a few.

Hetzer: German tank destroyer

Rouen: German vehicles that couldn't cross the Seine. Reminiscent of pictures of vehicles that couldn't cross the Po. We walked on this spot.

Then it was on to Villers-Bocage for the night. This was the scene of a gutsy German counter-attack against a British advance. (Also considerable losses to the German's later on, but that's a different story.) I came here a couple years ago with Dan Taylor who wrote the excellent AtB book on the battle: Villers-Bocage: Through the Lens, so have an idea of how things went from his tiki-tour. (See After the Battle Vol 132.)

Clear skies and a 2/3 moon tonight. A star-gazing night.

Stitched up in Bayeaux

We stopped in Arromanche so I could visit the museum then headed inland to Bayeaux to see the famous tapestry.

Park-up was in a very pleasant camp as we needed laundry and power. (And Internet.)

Gold Beach

On to Gold Beach today, parking-up in St Come de Fresne, the western end of Gold.

Park-up was a sheltered carpark which seemed a better option than the wind-blown one between there and Arromanche, especially as you had to pay for the other. 

A Canadian focus (eh?)

We shifted into Courselles to a free park-up and I made a sprint to catch a guided tour of the bunkers at the Juno beach museum. Hardly worth the effort but the museum was OK. I learnt a bit about Canada and its involvement in the war, including some trivia about flags.

De Gaulle stepped ashore here and declared a provisional French government.

But only after there's been some heavy fighting. This is the result not of sand erosion, but of engineers' explosion! I'll bet all involved were surprised by the results, on both sides!

This one, however, is simply erosion.

This Churchill AVRE was buried until 1985, as it had been used to fill a stream bed.

Once out J and I strolled through Courselles, though we had to fight quite a strong wind!

This really is a lovely part of France, indeed tout le monde, and we are so lucky to be able to do what we're doing!

(We lost some photos here - nothing important, just some relics and our park-up, but I hope the camera isn't cracking up.)

Overtaken by snails

It took us 6 hours to move 6 kms today. We were moving to Juno beach, but I'd missed the site of an important battle at Merville Battery so we back-tracked to it, via fort Hillman, a German defensive position.

Hillman was an HQ rather than a fighting position, though well defended by bunkers, trenches, barbed wire and mines. You can see here the view to the sea that made it so important.

Merville battery was attacked by 9th Para Regiment, 6th Abn Div on the night of 5/6 June. Only 150 odd men from the 700 dropped made it to this point and only 75 of those walked away. They succeeded in neutralising the battery during the initial landings, though the Germans re-occupied it later in the day, and were able to manage some fire from it thereafter. (See After the Battle Vol 68.)

The rest of 9th Para landed scattered across the area, many drowning in the inundated areas, others sheltered by French citizens until they could make it through German lines. The Regt could scrape together a maximum of 270 men before it was relieved late in August.

Juno beach. This was the 3rd Canadian Division's landing beach. Sword beach is way down to the right of the photo, Gold somewhere off to the left.

Our park-up is a camping ground that got rave reviews but that is not our cup of tea at all. We'll use it to charge up, but won't stay more than a night. It is handy to the beach if nothing else.

A Grand Bunker

For those not interested in WW2 history, there's not much in this for you so I'll skip to the weather: rain in the afternoon, thunderstorms possible at night.

I started the day by cycling into Riva-Bella (Ouistreham) to check out two museums. One was shut due to Covid but the other, the 'Grand Bunker', was open. Outside it had some vehicles and guns which had been recovered from the area since the war, and included an LCA that had been used in Saving Private Ryan. The bunker itself (an observation and artillery command post) had not appeared on Allied plans so was largely ignored in the first couple days. It had suffered a hit on the roof so looked abandoned. On 9th June an engineer officer charged with surveying construction materials found the doors locked from the inside. He and his men decided to blow their way in and after a few attempts with increasing amounts of explosives they finally made an entry. There they were surprised by a German saying in English "It's OK Tommy, you can come up - we won't shoot." The officer replied "Bugger off, you can come down here!" and so 53 Germans surrendered to him.

After returning to J, who had been reading in the diminishing sunshine, we decided to bus in to Caen. There we saw the Fine Arts and the Normandy museums before closing time. By the time we got back it was raining and it has been raining ever since. Never mind, the forecast is for another week of hot weather from tomorrow.

The citadel, built by Guillaume.

The Abbeye aux Hommes, built by Guillaume, and where he is buried. His wife Matilde (also his cousin) is buried in The Abbaye aux Femmes, also built by William.

Caen was 2/3 destroyed in 1944 but is an apparently thriving town now.

Invading Sword Beach

We drove to Sword beach, the easternmost of the Normandy invasion beaches, via Houlgate, a gun battery that fired on the beaches until the end of June, and Pegasus bridge . We'd already visited the bridge a couple years ago so didn't go in again. Our map didn't show Merville battery so we missed it and will have to backtrack to visit it. 

The bridge is a newer, larger one of similar type. The original is preserved in the museum beside the canal.

Plinths mark the spots that gliders landed: you can see them in the background.

Anyway, our park-up is in Lion-sur-Mer at the western end of the beach. The site's not quite completed but handily located and clean and tidy (and free). We were the third to arrive but now it's full with 10 motorhomes plus some outside in the carpark. 

We cycled up the beach to Riva-Bella/Ouistreham and had an expensive coffee & tea. I grabbed a handful of brochures and discovered two museums to visit tomorrow. Then rain clouds suggested we head back which we did (via a number of monuments). However, we stopped to listen to a poetry with musical accompaniment performance for a while, then had a beer/wine closer to home while listening to Frenchmen singing English-language songs. (I kissed my girl by the factory wall; Hallelujah; some Beatles, etc). It was very pleasant indeed. (Though London prices for beer: 7+€ a pint!)

Sword Beach Queen and Roger.

Sword Beach J. Paddling in the Channel

Poetry and music

Music on the beach front

And another thing

Perhaps I should have done my homework:more things of interest have come to light... Turns out the Cathedral in Liseaux - which we didn't visit - is where Henry II married Anne of Aquitaine. And Rouen is where William the Conk died, though he and Matilde are buried in Caen. Also Dives, which we drove past yesterday is where said Guillaume set off for Angleterre.

We trip over history in this area...

Not much to report

Just another sunny day, though it clouded up in the evening and even graced us with a spot or two of rain. Hayfever is knocking me about - very tiring.

Our only stop of note was at Liseaux where there was a massive basilica built in memory of St Theresa (of Liseaux not Calcutta) who is supposedly "the worlds most loved saint" but whom I'd never heard of. It's an art-deco style building, started in 1929 and finished about 10 years later, and is very grand.

Parking in a paddock, but it has a shower of sorts, and power. Unfortunately we're getting low on t'internet now so will be running close before it renews. So much for 'unlimited'.

Not much excitement, except when we went for a walk there were three cars at the end of the drive. As we got closer we saw that two were damaged, one with the side dented in, the other missing its front. The latter was hauled off on a transporter, while later the dented one drove into the camp. To me it looked as if this car had been turning into the camp while the other was overtaking it so they'd connected on an angle but not T-boned. Not a great day for either party.

Getting close to the D-day beaches...

Calvados country

Another leisurely drive has taken us to Cormeilles in the heart of Calvados country, though it was more wheat than apples that we saw.

Over the Seine at Pont du Brotonne

French road workers moving dirt from the side of the road to... the side of the road. Quite spooky at the time.

J's shopping

My shopping

Our pleasant park-up, though subject to the occasional whiff from the poo-ponds nearby.

Place du General de Gaulle

Got to call it something!

Cormeilles has two claims to fame: a giant Calvados distillery and a church with a sloping floor. Thinking maybe the latter is a product of the former we had to check the church out. It does in fact have a pronounced slope, and I'll wager many a choirboy got a clipped ear for rolling marbles down it.

I like the lighting in J's shot here.

We had a glass of regional Calvados for an after dinner digestif - not cheap and too rawly (is that a word?) alcoholic for me.

I forgot to mention this from Rouen:

Best I can make out, the car carrier came around the corner and rear-ended another car, shoving it into a tree. With nowhere else to go it tried to climb on to the back of the truck but the other car wouldn't let it.

Seein' la Seine

No need to go anywhere today. We cycled around a 'route des fruits' (touty fruity routy?) that had many fruits but no vendors so the only one J got was a plum 'scrumped' from an overhanging branch. By overhanging I mean if I overhung the fence. "Slightly overripe" is J's judgement. No judgement on the plum though.

The Seine is not without its grand mansions, but there's always a reminder of the labour that built them.

Poires et Pommes. The colour on the pears is unusual (to me). I wonder how much of this crop goes to cider and perry? (I know for certain none has gone to Perry.)

The lady of the lake, her arm clad in purest Gap...   The lakes here are formed by gravel excavation which I image has been going on for some time. This particular one has been cleaned up and hosts a beach, cafe, nautical club and adjoins a camp-site.

Fine art, though I find it a bit wooden. Boom, boom.

The local Eglise. It has a curious change in style from the far end to the close, though we don't know what the manner of its partial destruction was. Perhaps revolutionary ardour?

Btw, if anyone is concerned for our safety I think the daily figures should allay some of that. France is a safer place to be than the UK. UK: 580 new cases and 12 deaths, deaths /m 667. France: 350/8/462 according to Worldometer.