Normandy
December 9-10
We finally hit the road for France and the Normandy coast on December 9, 2006. Wanting to stop at Dieppe we made an early start to arrive in time to visit a museum dealing with the ill-fated Canadian raid on Dieppe on August 19, 1942. Sometimes described as an ill-conceived concoction of Louis Lord Mountbatten, sometimes as a source of good lessons for D-Day it resulted in a high rate of losses for the attacking Canadians. Although the museum was closed we did find one of the war cemeteries.
Canadian links to Dieppe are remembered in the names of streets.
While this is a small road leading to the cemetery, a main street leading to the center of Dieppe is also named after Canadians. Check out Roger's new look. (You can enlarge any picture by clicking on it.)
Canadians were pinned down at the bottom ofthis cliff and subjected to withering German fire that resulted in such a high casualty rate.
From Dieppe we headed south another 20 km. to St. Valery-en Caux, a small town, typical in many ways of the Normandy coast with an economy based historically and to a limited extent today on the sea.
In North America boaters associate “Jenneau” with luxury sailing vessels, but in France the company is still known for its roots in construction of fishing and other working vessels. Click on the picture and you will see the Jenneau trade name proudly displayed.
The harbour has seen fishing vessels come and go since the 1500’s.
Today the sea focus includes many more pleasure vessels than fishing vessels – might sound familiar to British Columbians who have also seen the preponderance of fishing vessels of the 1950’s and 60’s outnumbered today by pleasure craft.
This house on the waterfront, constructed in 1540 by a rich ship owner, remained in the family’s hands until the late 1900’s and now serves as the town’s tourism office. The construction is typical of Normandy well into the 20th century.
While less common today, thick thatched roofs can still be found in family homes.
While we did enjoy one beautiful, though brisk, day of sun, the weather reverted the next day, 11 December, to the pattern of high winds with rain so we resolved to pursue our dream of warm, sunny days by resorting to the French “autoroutes” to get as quickly as possible to the Mediterranean. They save a lot of time and fuel over the much slower and circuitous “routes nationales”, our normal preference because they allow much greater experience of the culture of the towns through which they pass. But the savings on fuel are counterbalanced by the high tolls on the “autoroutes”. In the end we saved time, lost on culture, and broke even on expenses. In fact we gained a little on expenses by sleeping in the “autroutes aires”, or rest stops.
We finally hit the road for France and the Normandy coast on December 9, 2006. Wanting to stop at Dieppe we made an early start to arrive in time to visit a museum dealing with the ill-fated Canadian raid on Dieppe on August 19, 1942. Sometimes described as an ill-conceived concoction of Louis Lord Mountbatten, sometimes as a source of good lessons for D-Day it resulted in a high rate of losses for the attacking Canadians. Although the museum was closed we did find one of the war cemeteries.
Canadian links to Dieppe are remembered in the names of streets.
While this is a small road leading to the cemetery, a main street leading to the center of Dieppe is also named after Canadians. Check out Roger's new look. (You can enlarge any picture by clicking on it.)
Canadians were pinned down at the bottom ofthis cliff and subjected to withering German fire that resulted in such a high casualty rate.
From Dieppe we headed south another 20 km. to St. Valery-en Caux, a small town, typical in many ways of the Normandy coast with an economy based historically and to a limited extent today on the sea.
In North America boaters associate “Jenneau” with luxury sailing vessels, but in France the company is still known for its roots in construction of fishing and other working vessels. Click on the picture and you will see the Jenneau trade name proudly displayed.
The harbour has seen fishing vessels come and go since the 1500’s.
Today the sea focus includes many more pleasure vessels than fishing vessels – might sound familiar to British Columbians who have also seen the preponderance of fishing vessels of the 1950’s and 60’s outnumbered today by pleasure craft.
This house on the waterfront, constructed in 1540 by a rich ship owner, remained in the family’s hands until the late 1900’s and now serves as the town’s tourism office. The construction is typical of Normandy well into the 20th century.
While less common today, thick thatched roofs can still be found in family homes.
While we did enjoy one beautiful, though brisk, day of sun, the weather reverted the next day, 11 December, to the pattern of high winds with rain so we resolved to pursue our dream of warm, sunny days by resorting to the French “autoroutes” to get as quickly as possible to the Mediterranean. They save a lot of time and fuel over the much slower and circuitous “routes nationales”, our normal preference because they allow much greater experience of the culture of the towns through which they pass. But the savings on fuel are counterbalanced by the high tolls on the “autoroutes”. In the end we saved time, lost on culture, and broke even on expenses. In fact we gained a little on expenses by sleeping in the “autroutes aires”, or rest stops.
posted by Retired and on the Move | 6:20 AM
<< Home