Nice sunny day today so we opted for a bit of exploring on foot. Mortain is a small town only 8km from the cottage, we can see it high on a hilly ridge from the window by the dining table, until now we had only driven through it on the way to somewhere else, today we went exploring. The town is the highest point around for over 50km so was an important place during the middle ages as well as during WW2. It was the place of a major counterattack by the Germans in July 1944, the US troops had reached the town and liberated it but the Army units in the lead of the advance had pushed too far ahead of the flanking units so were they were left exposed. They were caught on a hill top, surrounded for 6 days whilst fighting the German counterattack, Of 950 soldiers in the US battalion only 365 were left after the 6 days. Sadly many locals died and the town was mostly destroyed. On the top of this hill you can still see the pocked marked ground that was bombarded.
Mortain is a beautiful spot and has a large cascade flowing through the gorge right next to the town centre, we walked around the nature trail through beautiful ravines and followed the watercourse over the cascades through to a park area. We stumbled on a large bird on a grassy bank caught up in the long grass, it looked like a falcon or some sort of hunting bird, it reared up and was about one metre wide across the wings, we thought it was injured but when I got closer I could see a snake wrapped around it's body. A snake you say! we didn't know they had snakes in France!!! this put a whole different slant on our nature walk!!! Chris bolted, see doesn't do snakes, I was trying to work out how the snake had caught the bird!! We stayed nearby and watched to see what was going to happen, then suddenly the bird up and flew away with the now dead snake in its beak. The snake was about 60cm long and as thick as 2 fingers. We continued the walk with a bit more caution now.
D Day festival...
Saturday 5th June was the start of the D Day festival; many towns in the Normandy beach invasion area were celebrating with different activities. We decided to go to Saint Mare Eglise which was the site of a massive parachute drop by the American 82nd Airborne Division. To celebrate this occasion they re-eneact the parachute drop at the exact same site just out of town. It was very busy with loads of American and British tourists. There were a number of veterans who were still able to make the journey there as well.
Ten military planes (C130 Hercules) flew over the drop zone 5 times and unloaded 500 paratroopers from America, Britain, France and Germany. This was an amazing sight, nothing like the skydiving parachutists you see at footy matches, the planes fly quite low and slow and the jumpers come out in groups, called sticks, of 10-12. They jump out really fast one after the other.
In the crowd there were many soldiers from USA and Germany as well as a German Airforce Band who played for the rememberance service.
As part of the festival some locals and many visitors get dressed up in WW2 uniforms and get around in fully restored jeeps and troop carriers it is a sight to behold, some of them are very authentic and go to great detail with their uniforms and weapons. We thought they reminded us of dads army, that popular english tv show.
After the parachute drop it was back into town for the service it was wonderful to see the French honouring all the nations involved in the conflict. Later that evening it was like a big street party in the town square with BBQ and beer stalls and a live band, it went on till after midnight, all the paratroopers had come into town to mix with the locals. It was good too see there were no problems, no yobbos and no aggro, not like we get back home sometimes, the French have a different attitude to drinking.
The next day we went to Caen for a nice lunch to celebrate Chris's birthday. Caen has a city centre that is beautifully laid out and had a massive sunday market being held on the quayside along the banks of a very wide canal. We found next to the quayside a beautiful cobbled street full of cafes and restaurants, this made the choice for lunch even harder.
Chris decided on a really nice restaurant, we sat outside in the sun and had a great 3 course lunch with wine. After lunch we walked of the food by touring around the big castle, William the Conquerers castle, and around the massive cathederal that is currently being restored. They used a lot of local stone in building the many churches and cathederals, the local stone from Caen is like sandstone so overtime it goes black and very dirty looking, when it's been cleaned and restored it looks stunning.
We still had'nt fully walked off the big lunch so we lay on a grass bank in the sun outside a church and slept it off!! Chris really enjoyed her birthday.
