September 24th 2014: France: A day for remembrance

Monty the Motorhome is in a sombre mood tonight, parked up at an ACSI site in the village of Eguzon, north of Limoges.

The day started off with the planned visit to Perigueux market. We were there for 8.45, but it was already bustling. Purchases of wine and cheese were made for home, while fresh veg and fruit were bought to keep us going for the next few days.

We both love just wandering round these big open air markets taking in the rich atmosphere of locals going about their business and the fine array of produce that is on sale.

Then back to the Aire for a quick brew before setting off northwards. Although it is only Wednesday we are starting to plan our route back - we have a booking on the tunnel for early Sunday afternoon.

Our sombre mood comes from a visit to the village of Oradour-sur-Glane, or rather what remains of it. The village stands just as the soldiers of the SS left it on June 10th 1944 after killing 642 of it’s inhabitants. 

It is not known exactly why this terrible act took place, but it is apparent that German forces were being mobilised in this this part of France for a northward move towards Normandy where the Allied invasion had begun on June 6th 1944. French Resistance fighters were starting to cause problems to this movement and the Germans decided on a terror campaign to try and dissuade them. However this sort of massacre of civilians, including many children, was off the scale in it’s brutality.

I’m not going to go into the detail of what happened - anyone wanting to know can look it up on the website.

The village is like scenes we see from war-zones. It is a slice of history preserved forever as a reminder of the atrocity committed here.

The entrance to the site

This picture, and the one below really speak for themselves

The list of the dead just goes on and on

Back on the road again we headed for the nearest ACSI site, just to have the luxury of proper spacious showers for a change, as well as a chance to wash out some clothes. This one is run by Dutch people and nearly every unit on site is from Holland.

Tea tonight will be pork tenderloin, bought from the market this morning, with various vegs and all done in the Remoska. Just salivating at the thought.