A day of history

Today we have been humbled and it's not often that I am lost for words. Having spent the night on Pascal's cider farm, (whose location I cannot reveal to you or I'd be breaking the "France Passion" rules and be shot, but let's just say it was peaceful and quiet and we all slept from 9pm until 9am!!!) where we were welcomed as friends, by such a lovely person, genuinely a kind man; he even asked us to return on our way back to England in 9 months or whenever. We then ambled along through some breathtaking countyside to the town of Caen. Hunger took over our desire to get to the site I'd booked,and we abandoned our schedule and made an impromptu stop. What a delight! We stumbled across a busy and vibrant Sunday market and it was really good to be able to take in some genuine French culture. Unlike in England, shops are closed on Sundays, but street markets seem very popular, taking over vast areas of the town. There wasn't a thing you couldn't buy at this one!!! Jasper and Maya chose a book each from a stall - 'Puss in Boots' and 'Sleeping Beauty' ...in French!!! The seller was delighted that they had a go at speaking French, and I was a proud Mummy (again) as they politely said please and thankyou in the native tongue and not their mother tongue!!! 

We then took a route up to Ranville where the capture of the bridge now known as Pegasus Bridge took place. The museum there is only €7, and is well worth a visit if you are ever in the area. The displays are both in English and French, and there are currently some really moving recounts by English war veterans on display. A short talk on the 3 attack missions followed. I've heard it said before that the British army was at it's best during WW2 but they really were very brave men and boys, some as young as 16 when they took part in one of the 3 attacks. Those landing the Horsa gliders were extremely accurate despite only having a compass, stopwatch and the moon to guide them to their target! Those that missed, or accidentally got the wrong bridge decided to capture the nearest one anyway!!! True Brits! Real heroes, and when we saw what the gliders were constructed of, they looked like home built models rather than actual aircraft, it's a wonder anyone survived the flight let alone the crash landing. Not one of the 30 on board carried a parachute! Other missions included the capture of a German base, or taking over 5 bridges that are the crossing points of the rivers and/or canals in the area. All of this coincided with the landings on the beaches, which we'll discover more about tomorrow when we visit Juno beach (and the museum) where the Canadians landed. 

Clare 

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