Tuesday 28th September mileage 11990 Arromanche Normandy

Up early and decided to try and update the blog as I have not found it easy to get internet access. Set tomtom for a library in town. Tomtom took me through steep narrow streets in a walled city. Got to library and it didn't open till 10:00 so abandoned that idea and set off again for Arromanche!

No incidents on the road and mostly dual-carriageway so I made good time. Decided to try and find library in Rennes. Tomtom took me to an address but after parking I read a notice on the building that said the services had been relocated to another address! Set this into tomtom and set off again via a tortuous route to the other side of Rennes. Got to this address and it seemed to be just municipal offices and law courts but no library!!

Gave up on the internet for the day and back on the road to Arromanche.

Decided to go and see Mont St Michel again as it is a beautiful sight as you approach it by road. Again tomtom tried to take me directly, but the route was "barre" and had to divert all the way back to Pontorson!! Still it was worth it to see it again!

Arrived at Arromanche (the place where my father came ashore on the day after D-Day) a very small coastal village on a beautiful evening with the sun setting over the remains of the Mullberry B harbour that the Allies built to be their harbour for supplying the advance into France.

Decided to stay in the hotel right on the sea front and after a shower went for an evening stroll on the beach and up on the cliff tops.

Lots of memorabilia of D-Day and tomorrow I will go to the museum of Disembarkment and also see a 360 degree cinema show about D-Day. Lots of time thinking about my dad participating in this huge logistical operation. They had been planning for D-day since 1942!!

Nice evening meal in local restaurant. Moulles is the local speciality delicious!!
More later
TOR

Monday September 27th mileage 11806 near Poitiers

Up early didn't bother with breakfast (another €7.50) and set off for Oradour-sur Glane. The village is a permanent memorial to those who perished and also tells the story of Nazi occupation in France, the Vichey Government, collaborators and the resistance.

What happened is that the area around Bordeaux became a re-grouping area for German troops as the Allies landed on D-Day and the Germans had to defend and plan their way back to Berlin. There were lots of Waffen SS troops in the area (18000+) so it also became a target for the militia in the resistance movement.
After various skirmishes in towns in the area and some SS commanders had been captured an order was given to be hard on the local population to make an example of what will happen if you do not cooperate with the Germans.
They sent about 200 SS troops to Oradour-sur Glane and encircled the whole village. They then gradually moved inwards herding all the people into the village square. There they separated the men from the women and children, they were using the excuse that they were going to search the whole village for weapons. The villagers knew there were no weapons and therefore were not too unduly alarmed. They put all the women and children (about 400 people) into the church, and split the men (200+) into about five groups and took them into separate points in the village. At a coordinated time all the men were shot and their bodies stacked in a pyre and burnt. They then went to the church and set it alight with wood and phosphorus; as it was burning they shot at low level to kill the children, so the women could see that their children were dead!!
Only one woman survived, on that day 10th June 1944 they murdered 624 people.

They came back the days after to remove the bodies and to hide their crime!!

The old village that was completely burnt down by the Germans is left as it was as a monument to the people who died. A new village (the current Oradour-sur Glane) has been built alongside the old one.

 There is a memorial information centre where the story is told with story boards and videos of the village before and after the massacre. You then can go and walk about in the old village. A very moving experience!!

After Oradour-sur Glane got the address from Savi for Cheryl and Gordon's property, so went back towards Perigeaux to see how they have been getting along with the restoration of their houses!

They have land and three properties:
1) A huge barn/shed.

2) A small house that Gordon has renovated to the extent he has the walls almost completed and the roof half done.

3) A large house where it looks like they have just tidied up all the land around it so far!

Set tomtom for Arromanche which is 650km ( a couple of days ride away)

More later
TOR

Wednesday September 29th mileage 12513 Hounslow London

Woke and had breakfast in the hotel dining room, very nice selection of cereal, yoghurt, juice etc. Noticed that there were a lot of americans and english people staying in the hotel. Had noticed a group of BMW bikes in the hotel parking area but had not identified to whom they belonged.

After breakfast went to the Musee de Debarquement and latched on to a coach tour who were being given an english tour. As I was listening my phone went off and it was Martin Hincks. He told me that David and John Greatorex were staying at the same hotel as me last night and this morning they had spotted my bike, and they were waiting to see me at the hotel. Wondered whether to go straight away or complete the tour, then the tour guide came over to me and said that two of my friends had been at the museum reception looking for me!!

I went back to the hotel and David and John Greatorex with two other friends were just getting ready to leave on their bikes; What a coincidence!!! Had a great chat with them for a few minutes and then thought I had better get back to the museum before they forgot about me and charged me again!!






The museum tells a great story about how the artificial harbour was conceived and then constructed over 18 months before being towed out on the evening of D-Day and put together in the english channel, then towed almost complete to Arromanche. In all it took the Allies just 12 days to have the harbour at Arromanche fully completed and operating to supply their armies. A twin harbour undertaken by the Americans was delayed in building because they had come across greater defences by the Germans, and then when a great storm hit the area between 17-25th June it was totally destroyed and had to be abandoned. The harbour at Arromanche survived that storm almost totally intact. The photos below are taken inside the museum and show models of the harbour and exhibits of D-Day.



































After the museum went to the 360 degree cinema show about D-Day and the landings. This film very cleverly splices together original footage with modern shots of the area, and is a brilliant way of portraying the feeling as if you were there at the time!!






















Later went to Bayeaux and found library to update blog, but closed at lunch time, so went to see the Bayeaux Cathedral and then the famous tapestry. This was another extremely well done demonstration that explained the tapestry story in both audio guide and then in film later. An excellent day.

After Bayeaux set off for Calais and the last leg of the journey home. Decided to make fast progress so went onto the toll motorways and got to Calais for about 7:15. Enquired about ferries and both P&O and Sea France were costing about £50 to cross without a prior booking. The woman in P&O in fact said I could go at 50% of the price if I waited till the 00:55 sailing because I would be prebooking my ticket the day before!! Tried to reason with her, but it seemed the computer was in charge not the people. The people didn't seem to give a damn what price was paid!!

Met a biker at the booking office who was equally frustrated at the high price. He was from Slovakia and was riding a Suzuki bandit.
After the ferry journey we rode together up towards London, then split up when I went west towards Heathrow and he was heading north towards Stanstead.

The weather now turned really nasty and as I approached the M25 the rain was teeming down and the wind was getting up. I thought wouldn't it be ironic if I had an accident on exactly the same stretch of road as I had when coming down the M25 at the start of my journey.

From my past experience of coming off in the rain I took it carefully as I made my way back around the M25.

Arrived back at Jack's house in Hounslow all wet but safe and sound around midnight.

Left the wet clothes in the outside porch and the next day when it got hot the porch was stinking from the motorcycle gear. Well I suppose if you spend everyday for 60 days in a hot suit it is not surprising that it develops it's own character!!

Anyway decided to take all the protective padding out of the suit and put it through the wash.

Wow what a difference a good wash makes!!!

Well folks I think that we are just about done with the great journey.

12500 miles, another set of tyres, three services of the bike, and about £1250 of fuel, but worth every minute for the experiences and the things I have seen and done.

12500 miles is 50% of the way around the world, and with most of that being water it probably represents about how far you would have to ride if you chose to ride around the world.

Now there's a thought !!!!!!


No more on this journey, goodbye folks !


TOR

Sunday September 26th mileage 11607 St Junien near Limoge

Lazy morning at Jill and Marks checking on emails, updating blog from yesterday and listening to all the politics on Sky TV about the new Labour Party leader Ed Milliband.    Left Jill and Marks at about mid day and set tomtom for Oradour-sur Glane near Limoge where France sufferred it's worst attrocity during the second world war under German occupation.
On the way travelled up the N21; between Perigueax and Limoge and tried to remember how to get to the property owned by our friends Cheryl and Gordon.  I knew the turning was about half way between the two towns and then it was to the west of the main road.  I was hoping my memory would be jogged and I would be able to muddle my way somehow to their houses.  It wasn't and so I carried on to Chalus and then started just touring the area west of the road hoping something would look familiar!!   No luck so after about 45 mins of touring around reset off again for Oradour-sur-Glane.  By the time I got to near Limoge it was getting cold and dark, so found an hotel not far from Oradour-sur-Glane at a place called St Junien.

Meal of salad with cold meats (and lardons) followed by a nice piece of steak and then creme brulee, all washed down with two carafes of house red wine, no trouble sleeping tonight!!

Saturday September 25th mileage 11379 Pessac Bordeaux

Up and had breakfast with Jill and Mark, then updated the blog for the three missing days whilst Jill went to have her hair done.

Researched on the internet Arromanche (where my father landed after D-day) and also a village in France near Limoge called Oradour-sur-Glan where there was a Nazi attrocity, and programmed these locations into tomtom.

Later in the day we went to Bordeaux via the park and ride on the tram and visited the U-boat docks in Bordeaux harbour.  These are huge concrete protected docking pens that the Germans built as soon as they occupied France to service their U-Boat fleet in the Atlantic. 

They reminded me of the concrete bunkers in Hitler's headquarters in Poland.  The concrete was very thick, but also constructed with gaps to absorb the blast should a bomb havz a direct hit.  Apparently the Allies bombed the Bordeaux harbour repeatedly to try and destroy these buildings, but they survived because of their robust construction.  It reminded me of the last scene in "Das Boot" where the submarine gets sunk as it waits to enter the protected docks!!

We then walked along the river side to the Unesco world heritage site of the buildings along the Bordeaux waters edge.  This is now a popular place for families to stroll whilst their children roller skate and ride along the promenade. 

They have built one of those multi-level roller skate area where teenagers perform fantastic tricks with bikes, skateboards and roller blades.  We noticed that it was definately not cool to be waring protective clothing!!

Further down the front they have built a mirror lake, which is a 1cm deep water feature that changes from being empty to having mist spraying from jets, to then filling with water to give a mirror effect.  Very popular with teenagers splashing each other!!

Then back to Pessac via the new tram system to watch grand prix qualifying for the Singapore Grand Prix on Marks wall sized TV.

For evening meal we went to a  Piella and Couscous takeaway shop and had a combination meal of Couscous and piella. The woman cooking in the shop was having great trouble with a four feet wide piella dish full to the brim, but clearly not level, she kept turning the dish  and it was sloshing out over the low side.  The meal was delicious though!!

More later

TOR