D-Day Landing Celebrations

La Ferme des Vallots circa 1600

 The 70 th celebrations for the D-Day landings were celebrated during my time back in Normandie. I have the impression that Barack Obama seems to be following me around the world at the moment! On the 5th June there were amazing firework displays all along the coast and then of course the many memorials and  celebrations with the veterans and the Royalty and Heads of State on the 6th June. Apart from catching short clips on the TV, we were too busy to have any time off but we were in the direct flight path for much of the air traffic on its way there and back from Evreux military airport and Paris. I'm no expert in military aircraft but there were a couple of large transport world war 2 planes that flew overhead and a few lancasters and then we had the helicopters of the VIPs flying quite low at the end of the ceremonies on their way to Paris.

Lisieux pre 1944

 I noticed though in the local paper that they were also remembering that the beautiful medieval timbered town of Lisieux had been destroyed by the allies on the 6/7 June in a matter of minutes. Many people had hidden in the Basilica and in cellars but over 700 people died and over 75% of the town was destroyed. This made me remember a story told to me many years ago by a retired gentleman who we only knew as Monsieur Bucheron who came to cut our wood now and then. When he was 6 years old he was sent away from his home in Paris to the countryside where his family believed he would be safer. I am not sure of the connection between the family at the farm and him but he lived at La Ferme des Vallots throughout the years of occupation and spent the rest of his life in the area. The neighbouring farm had been taken over by the German soldiers and the Commandant lived in a Manoir which was situated just before the forest nearby to our farm. I have heard from several elderly people in the village that the farmers in La Ferme des Vallots were rather too "friendly" with the German soldiers and in fact although I don't think they were openly accused of being collaborators, after the end of the war they disappeared very quickly. M. Bucheron told me of how the soldiers and the family would help and work together during the apple harvest, cheese making and hay-making and that he became very friendly with a young soldier named Oscar . The morning of the 6th June arrived and he remembers being able to hear the explosions at the coast but not knowing what was happening. The German soldiers including his friend Oscar were ordered to assemble at the forest in their tanks and they would go off every day and return at night.

The Basilica intact

Lisieux on 7th June

Whether it was the night of the Lisieux bombings I'm not sure but he remembers the skies being full of planes and  the Manoir of the Commandant being bombed and  standing watching it burn to the ground and how terrified they all were that their farm would either catch fire or be bombed as well. As the months passed and the allies made slow progress and the Germans continued to fight, he saw less and less of Oscar until one night his tank never returned. Despite the many years that had passed, M. Bucheron had tears in his eyes when he told me. War is very complicated and I don't believe any side can really feel they are the victors. I only hope that during the ceremonies that a thought was spared for the German soldiers and the civilians who lost their lives too.
     The small village of Livarot was liberated by a Canadian regiment towards the end of August and there were only 3 bombs fired so that our village is very much intact but sadly for Vimoutiers and Lisieux, our neighbouring towns, they are unrecognisable. As another footnote - the German commandant returned after the war to Livarot and his daughter married a local man..... but that is another story!