ON THE HOMEWARD TRAIL
The day I dropped my camera so all the pictures on this page are from postcards and  brochures.

June 25-28

Sunday morning our hosts, Lydie and Damien, came by at 10 am.  By then we had finished with our cleaning and all of the laundry was drying outside.  We said our good-byes and headed out, north through familiar territory—Coutances, Periers, Bayeux, Mere Egilse and on to new territory--Quineville, where there was another W.W.II museum we wanted to visit.  The weather was a bit rainy and gray for our departure, but it was still quite warm.

In Quineville we visited the museum.  This was good museum to visit because it showed what life was like in France under the German occupation.  It was interesting to get more background on what lead up to the attack and occupation of France by Germany.  There were scenes, with mannequins, depicting life in Normandy during the occupation, and also lots of examples of clothing and everyday implements that were used in 1940.  The newspaper articles telling about the treaties and pacts that Hitler made, and Petain and the Vichy government, were interesting to read.  There were some descriptions of the scenes written in English, but most of the information about the history was in French.  I translated as best I could, but I still feel puzzled about how Petain got so much power and was able to sell France down the river.

After we left Quineville we stopped in Azeville, where we took a tour of an underground battery.  On this tour we could get an idea of how the various rooms were interconnected and how they worked together.  We went far underground to see architecture of the blockhouses and how they were able to withstand so much bombing.  This position was so well entrenched that they withstood the assaults of June 6 and didn't fall until June 9.  After leaving Azeville we continued on past Bayeux and Caen and stopped for the night in Creully.

Monday morning we backtracked a bit to go to Balleroy to see Malcolm Forbes’ chateau and the balloon museum.  The chateau is quite lovely and is still used by the Forbes family from time to time.  We were able to tour several of the rooms inside and saw many lovely antiques and lots of photos of Forbes with various presidents and other heads of states.  Francois Mansart designed the chateau and in addition to the chateau he planned the entire town around the chateau.  The grand entry way, with the wide, tree lined street is impressive.  The Forbes family has done an excellent job of restoring many of the rooms, acquiring authentic paneling for the walls and furnishings for the rooms.

The balloon museum is set up in chronological order, starting with the early history of flight—Daedelus and Icarus, DaVinci, and Galileo.  I didn’t realize that Galileo was the one who figured out that there was substance to air and that there were some things that are lighter than air.  Using pictures, both sketches and photos, miniatures, collectibles and documents, the story of balloons from the Montgolfier brothers to the present, is described and illustrated. 

Sketches and newspaper articles recounting the first hot air balloon attempts and finally the first successful flight were on display.  Additional flights and equipment changes were documented.  The first use of a hot air balloon in war was described.  There was quite a large room with about 12 cases of displays devoted to recounting the history of ballooning.  It is a very interesting collection of balloon memorabilia and it is presented in an interesting and coherent way.

After lunch we drove on to where we were able to go Le Grand Bunker at Ouistreham.  This is the Atlantic Wall Museum. This cement building is an amazing museum, 5 stories high, set up with mannequins and furnishings and equipment depicting life in the bunker.  We could see how the German soldiers who manned this facility lived while on duty, how they dressed, how their day rooms and sleeping rooms were outfitted, what kinds of equipment they used and it gave us a good idea of what their everyday life was like.  There were good written descriptions and history for all of the rooms, and lots of actual photos of the construction of the bunker, life in the facility and the assault on the building. This bunker was in charge of the batteries covering the entrance of the river Orne and the canal.  The 52 high foot bunker held its position for 3 days.  One or two Allied soldiers captured 53 German soldiers here.

On the top of the bunker is where the big gun was mounted and we climbed up there and got an idea of the visual range the soldiers had a 25-mile radius. This was the highest building around and they could see for miles out to sea and around the village and countryside.  It was an impressive facility and is one of the few, which remains intact today.  This Atlantic Wall project was enormous.  It took thousands of workers and hundreds of thousands of tons of cement to construct these bunkers and gunnery posts from Bordeaux all along the French coastline and up into Norway.

We resumed our travels east and north and finished up the day in Honfleur, a pretty little port town full of tourists.  We strolled around the dock area a bit and then went to the tourist information center to book a room for the night.