I'm off on holiday in a couple of weeks - near Poitiers. I plan to visit La Rochelle and the U-boat pens and might be able to persuade Mrs Roxy that there is good shopping near Oradour-su-Glane (!). Is there anything else worth visiting in that region with a WW2 bent? Roxy
Roxy: I was at La Rochelle and the U Boat pens last year. The centre of la Rochelle you will, I'm sure love. The U-Boat pens are stunning in their simplicity and size. The French were in the process of installing an open air theatre on top of one of the pens and maybe it's finished now. There are also several small businesses which occupy part of the pens as well as a small sailing club. Unfortunately for war 'buffs' there was little information apart from a few boards giving the history of the pens, in fact if you didn't know what you were looking for you could drive by without knowing they were there. Knowing their history though, and with a little imagination it's not too difficult to visualise. Incidently the film 'Das Boot' was filmed there. Not far away is la Baule and Guérande both very pretty and worth a look. In La Baule is a small cemetery where there are buried many of those killed during the 'Cambletown' raid on the dock at St Nazaire. I understand that there is some museum or 'tribute' to the raid in St Nazaire but I didn't track it down. That bridge is worth a look at anyway. Have a nice trip.
Roxy you should be able to get to the Vendee coast (Les Sables D'Olonne,la Tranche sur Mer etc).More resorts further north. On the Charente Maritime coast,many interesting resorts such as Royan in the south and the the two islands,namely Ile de Re and Ile D'Oleron.,toll free bridge on the latter.A must to visit these places.Marennes is an excellent place for oysters and the like. A few French Air Forces bases locally,(Rochefort,Saintes and Cognac) and on this coastal area you will find a number of village cemeteries with CWGC graves,mostly the resting place of RAF crews lost while raiding the U Boat pens at la Pallice as Bomber Command in detached service with Coastal Command. Cognac and Jarnac are associated with the cognac distilleries,although the latter cannot refer to their product as cognac as the Jarnac vineyards are not within the defined Cognac area.It is easy to arrange a trip round one of the many distilleries in Cognac or Jarnac and at the end of the visit you can buy if you wish.In any case you will be invited to sample. Downsteam of the Charente from Cognac lies Saintes, a pleasant town to visit and just south of the town is situated a large concentrated German war cemetery at Preguillac. Regarding Poitiers,just south of here is Couhe on the N10,the old road to Bordeaux.The village is the resting place of the Operation Houndsworth SAS who were murdered in the nearby Foret de St Sauvant.The CWGC section in the communal cemetery is always immaculate. As regards Oradour sur Glane,the best shopping centre to visit is Limoges where you will find abundant outlets selling Limoge porceline.Oradour now has a vistors centre which makes the place a little different as it was.As a "martyred village" it had been left as it was but now there is a sense of commercialism.The village cemetery should be visited but you should use your car and enter by the main entrance rather than try and enter it through the "martyred village".The cemetery is still in use for the village. Charente Maritme has more annual hours of sun than the South of France.I cannot see the weather letting you down.I remember one year we had thunderstorms and lightening overnight for a few days but each day emerged very hot with not a cloud in the sky. A good place to have a holiday and with some interesting WW2 places to visit.
Until recently I visited my Sis-in- Law who had a farmhouse near Riberac. Momentos of the Occupation pop up all over the place but you need to keep your eyes open. If you stop at an old bar or cafe have a look outside on the wall. It may have kept its metal licence sign issued by the Germans. Memorials and plaques tell sad tales of summary executions. The village of Allemans was known as the place where the Germans shot the butcher after a firearm was found on his premises.Town squares often give names and dates of deportations and executions with little other information. One such plaque with a long list of names on the same date prompted my brother in law to say, " I wonder what they did to p**s the Germans off that badly." It was no doubt a tale worth remembering and telling for the memory of those killed and sent to concentration camps.I have found the French do not talk about it much but its surprising how much British expats know about a region because they talk to the older ones, gain a trust ,and after a few drinks they let their guard down. Have a great holiday, I know I did lots of times.
I noticed that there a were number of Vichy blue metal plaque licences in force for bar restuarants all dated 1941 and I assumed were still be on the statute book. Know Riberac well and stayed in a hill village closeby by the name of Grand Brassac (Dordogne).I noticed over the years that the village has been discovered and it is now impossible to stay there without paying an appreciable rental.A question of serious British money buying up village properties and applying commercial rates.When we first went there 30 years ago we paid 50 pounds a week and had a fabulous fortnight.Also there was plenty of people who had experienced the war.The local bar restuarant served a large glass of red wine for 1.5 francs a glass, equivalent at the time to under 15 pence. Once had a conversion with a former Free French soldier in the village which went on for about two hours.He told me he served with the 8th Army in the Western Desert.Had a tremendous respect for the British.Another told me that he had been a POW of the Boche. Brantome has a Jewish memorial to those who were deported to the death camps.Disappointed some years later when trying to revisit it that it had been relocated away from its previous prominent position.
My sister in law lives from March to October at her farmhouse in a small hamlet. She has Germans ,Australians, Dutch ,South Africans for neighbors most who live there full time. The local Mayor admits if was not for exPats of all nations the school, the garage and the village shops would have most likely closed. Farming is carried out in huge fields by machinery of a size not seen in my part of rural England. The father of the present farmer says he now feel s lonely because everyone moved away. But he realises those families who left did not want farming as a way of life. The sense of space you get in that part of France is incredible and the nightsky is wonderful for star gazing. Its no good, gotta get some money and go back for a visit again.
Tulle is not far from Oradour if I remember rightly and they will be hanging the baskets around about now.
Just back. Visited the Loos Memorial. Managed to persuade my wife to go to Oradour-sur-Glane; I'll post some piccies later. Roxy
I put a few photos in my album - Oradour-sur-Glane http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/album.php?albumid=278 Roxy