Arromanche,France

We traveled down A13, on our way to our vacation town , called Arromanche. This is a sleepy little fishing village, that found itself in Winston Churchill’s grand plan for D- Day. As we drove closer and closer , we started to get quick glimpses of the blue ocean, with the wonderful salt air that fills your lungs, and cleans them with their spice.

I love this smell, it brings be back home, and I was like a dog, sitting with the window rolled down – hair blowing in the wind. Loving the ride with the bright sunshine on my skin, warming me up. The blue sky, and salt breeze filling the car with excitement.

We arrived at Hotel L’Ideal le Mountbatten, to find the place very clean and tidy. Trying to eat better, we packed a cooler full of fruit, yogurts and cheese & cans of diet soda. This proved to be another french learning curve – there was no refrigerator in the room!

I could not believe it, how can the french miss this as a standard in this business ?? I was shocked – and unfortunately poor Nic, had the worst of the deal. I am not a picky food person, but there are a few things, that I can’t eat.. and warm yogurt, or fruits. He had to eat all of it, and it was very healthy, but usually you do not want to do a detox while you are on vacation.. but all of the food had to be eaten !! So he ate it , in 48 hrs, and was very clean inside and out! lol

As for breakfast – the motel offered a very french daily service for 7.00 euros, which is very reasonable in tourist season . I was happily surprised to find that is was better, than the American version of Continental . You were served, a basket of baguettes, and a fresh croissants , still warm from the oven. Butter or sweet jams- very french, for your bread. Fresh squeezed orange or tomato juice every morning. Unlimited café or tea served by our french owner. She was a thin woman ( of course, the french don’t do fat very often), and she had brown hair like chestnuts. She pulled her hair back in a clip for her working day with food and customers. She wore no bling clothes or jewelry, she wore simple and classic clothes.

Our first day, with our belly full- off on foot we went to the D-Day Museum. It was at this point, that I learned, how little I knew!! I received a wonderful education at this muséum, and found a huge amount of respect for the man called Churchill; Winston, knew that the Nazis were dug in deep at Calais, so trying to land there was what Hitler expected. Nazis created the Atlantic front – using concrete bunkers – sitting on the cliffs. This was like ‘shooting fish in a barrel’ , a blood bath in the making.

Knowing this, Churchill came up with a crazy idea to get on French soil, and get a foothold. This man, helped designed a “Lego port” kind of idea, where the parts were to be made in England , and dragged across the Channel, then assembled into a Port.

Yes ! it sounds crazy now, after 60 years, I was standing in the Museum, looking at how it was done.

I can just picture the exchange with a grin. Churchill says to the President ‘ I have a idea how to solve the lack of a harbor” .; President says ” Great ! share with the group Winston your ideas’ …. all eyes on him, while he smokes his fat cigar.. ” I want to build parts of a harbor, then bring it to France, and assemble it there !! Yes, drag it across the stormy channel waters !,It will work !” .. the President is silent, not knowing what to say; wondering if the strain is becoming too much for Churchill..but responds softly with ” Winston.. what are you smoking in that cigar?”

It was so crazy, it worked !!

This port was where the allied supplies were received from England & America Over 500,000 tanks and jeeps, and 4 million tons of supplies passed in Port Churchill;

Arromanche did not destroy the Port, the french people allowed it to stay. to this day,. You can see the massive parts still in the ocean – slowly , the salt water, is eating one piece at a time.

the town has rebuilt many of the homes, of course, and its still a sleepy little fishing village, with the fisher men going out at the crack of dawn. There is also a group of people ,that wait for the tide to go out ,and hunt shrimps. Some homes are very big – like this one ..

My favs, are the originales !

another one

Life has returned back to normal except for a couple of changes, the main source of income is now, tourist that visit this town to view the Port remains and the Nazi bunkers on top of the cliffs. I really liked this village, its salt air, and population of 609 people. Amazing, that history marched into this place – and changed its main village income to tourism. So if you every visit, please order the fish on the menu, to respect the first industry Arromanche had.

merci !

2 replies to “Arromanche,France”

Candy says:

November 21, 2012 at 11:20 am

You look great! Thanks for sharing this little history lesson.

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Angela says:

November 25, 2012 at 10:58 pm

nice article

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