near Reims in the Champagne region. I believe there is a place called Boozy situated in the region also. We arrived in the evening at our Logis, had dinner and retired after a long day of driving. Next day, prior to our departure, we visited a Champagne House. I’m not a great lover of champagne but I did learn that the fewer the bubbles the better the champagne quality. We purchased.
We travelled to St Mère Eglise, within 30 minutes of Cherbourg.
We missed the Paris bypass (use your phone for navigation rather than the car sat nav) and rounded the Bastille twice as the Sat Nav gave up and scooters dangerously wiggled between the traffic!! Eventually, we quitted Paris and made our way north west.
We have learned from bitter experience that instead of rushing for the ship on the day of departure, it is better to stay nearby the night before.
We stayed in a quaint hotel in the town square.
The area is famous for the dropping of parachutists into the town during the Normandy landings
- a pilot error as they were supposed to land in the countryside and a random fire in the town exposed the parachutists to the Nazis. One of the parachutist’s parachute was caught in the church steeple, which was the Nazis watch tower.
He was there for a number of hours until the Nazis cut him down. He escaped soon afterwards and returned to his regiment. On the 50th anniversary of D Day, he returned to join the celebrations.
In the church is a stained glass window commemorating the event
There is an excellent, informative museum in the town which would be of interest to anyone who is a student of WW11.
From there, we made our way to Cherbourg
and home.
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