Today, Monday we visited the above. On the 10Th June 1944 the waffen s s arrived in strength, about 200. They rounded up everybody in the village, in excess of 600 souls 0f all ages and what followed was a massacre.
The village as been left, following this terrible event as a memorial. There are no interpretation panels or guide books. Just simple plaques on the walls of the buildings in which the victims were murdered.
No words that we could use would explain what happened on that day and the following days. If you want more information suggest that you look at the Internet.
We are looking forward to, west Cornwall pasty, (I can take my pick because Jennifer will not be there) with wedges, gammon steak, a leg of lamb, real ale, traditional english cheese, granary bread, (uncut), marmite, (not Keith), corned beef, coop-soup, English bacon, whole earth peanut butter, venison steaks, pork pie and liver and onions.
That should keep us going. Can somebody warn the co-op?
Current location is a site at Bignac, north east of Angouleme and not a great distance from Cognac, the home of brandy. We plan to stay for a few days and explore the area.
www.marcodebignac.com This is a lovely rural site with friendly helpful owners. Very peaceful and relaxed. We can recommend it. We know a chocolate lab who would love to bring her owners here. The nearest shops are some way away so, if you do not have separate transport make sure you have adequate supplies.
Better first explain the lack of blogs, no inter-net access.
On Fridaynight we stayed at an arie on the N10 because the camp site we had chosen was closed and no alternative was available. For those of you that do not know arie’s are common in France with a range of facilities from just a toilet to a top spec equivalent of a motorway services. They are free to use and the smaller ones are financed and managed by the local authority. They provide, without fail, rubbish bins.
We noticed next to the spot we had parked at somebody had peeled an orange and thrown the peel on the ground along with a used tea bag. Because Jan did not want people to think it was us she picked it all up and put in the bin.
Who ever the litter lout was, they are the kind of moron that get these places closed and we all lose out.
We stayed on a site at Zarautz, about 28k from San Sebastian. Because of construction work, roads and housing, we had difficulty finding our way to the site. After several attempts and both of us feeling tired and frustrated we managed to find our way. We were proceeding up a hill in the direction of the site when we were waved down by a man on a motor scooter. We both thought what now. He asked us, in good English if we were looking for the campsite, we replied yes, follow me he said with a warm smile. He later explained that he had observed us going back and forth on the motorway and and assumed that we were looking for the site, he was on his way to find us. He escorted us to a pitch, made sure we were comfortable and that we had everything we needed. Nice man.
On the Tuesday the morning started fine with the odd light shower, we put the awning up and got sorted. The weather improved in the afternoon and we decided to make a brief visit to San Sebastian and get the lay of the land with the intention of returning another day to take some pictures. On the journey we discovered that the area was very scenic and merited further exploring. By late afternoon the sky turned black with heavy cloud, we beat a retreat.
On Tuesday evening the heavens opened and the wind got up, the whole van was shaking, 48 hours of solid wind and rain, thought we might get washed away. On Thursday we established that forecast for the next two days was not much better. Decided we would leave on Friday. Sorry no picks of San Sebastian. We hope to return one day, it’s worth the effort.
We left the Algarve with a plan to make our way north and visit a few places on the way, it started out O K.
We encountered difficulty in finding suitable camp sites in the right locations and ended up moving north more quickly than we anticipated.
It’s the 20th and we are a little over 700 k from the channel ports. More later.
We felt that Porto was a must visit. Not dissapointed but, at the same time not one of the pritiest cities that we have visited. It is vibrant, at the same time it looks a little tired.
Our tourist bus, An origional wooden bodied tram, some modifacations to the braking system. Cost, €1.50 each, hop on, hop off, for one hour. Nice to see them working rather than sat in a museum.
Lunch. Two main courses, three glasses of wine and a coffee. €16.15. Cant be bad?
A old university town with a mix of ancient and modern. Pleasant to walk around and explore some of the narrow side streets. Several small specialist shops, the sort that in the UK have been consigned to museums or the memories of the older generation, including us.
We enjoyed lunch outside sat on the decking of a riverside cafe in the warm sunshine.
Google earth N40.18888 W8.39944 Our first impression was not favourable. However having looked around it is a nice site, good clean facilities, supermarket a five minute walk away and a bus to town.
More later.
Today we have moved north, about three hundred k. We decided, for the fist time, to use the toll roads. That decisions cost €52, more than the cost of fuel. We were charged double because we were towing. Will not make that mistake again.
Recent Comments