Here I am in the home of my hosts, Sondrine and Michel Davy (pronounced dah-vee), in St. Malo, Brittany, France. We have just finished our tai chi workshop in the town of Matignon, about 40 km away and it was a great experience.

My hosts have been absolutely superb, helping me with many things, mainly allowing me to brush up on my French (and Sondrine on her English). They have a flat rate calling plan for phone service, so I could phone home to Tia at 6:15 PM when it was 9:15 AM in Vancouver, and talk for almost half an hour. They also explained why it gets dark at 8 PM in England and at 9 PM in France; France is on daylight saving time and the U.K. is not.

Travels for April 23 — Another overcast day in Caen with fast moving scudding gray clouds. I see now why the allied air forces in WW2 had many days with no sorties — Europe was socked in. Today I am heading south to Falaise and I discovered the Polish war cemetery at d'Urville-Langannerie. Almost 600 graves, and regimental insignia are mounted on the metal fencing at the entrance. Two men are mowing the grass on mechanized mowers (ride-’em type) and it's the only sound you hear. Somewhat sombre — the stones are plain stone. On the way down the highway I looked for Verrières, which in 1944 was just south of Caen, but has been swallowed up by it. After much backtracking I found Quesnay, mentioned in the histories, but it's a "hameau" - a small village, i.e. four houses or so, and nothing much to see.

On the way to Mazieres I found a privately built memorial to the Worthington Force and the taking of Hill 140 overlooking Falaise, by the BC Regiment (28th Arm'd Reg.) and the Algonquin Regiment (infantry). The memorial stones are in perfect condition, but many shrubs are dead and the Canadian flag flies in tatters. On slightly lower ground is a line of big wind turbines. Lower still is the pretty town of Mazieres, and I can look back up to Hill 140 and see why is was so important to capture it.

Can I now find Versainville in a confusing series of little roads emanating from here? Yes, I did it. There is a bucolic scene of farms, horses and foals in a field, and an old chateau being restored. The clock in the left tower says ten to six, and it's now 3:30. Next I try to get to Damblainville (site of a QOR battle) and I retrace part of my route on a narrow little road that passes near the wind turbines, and whoops! — I have snuck into Falaise by the back door, only a few blocks from the main square. Here is a big statue of William the Conqueror erected in 1851, with much smaller statues lower down of the succeeding six dukes of Normandy added in 1875. The square is next to the huge "chateau ducal" — actually a walled fort — erected by William. Much construction is underway, so I didn't feel like going in to explore it after seeing the one at Caen. Just a few pix, and when I try to find the toilettes publiques I find they are behind construction fencing and inaccessable. I found the police station, explained my dilemma, and the nice guys let me use theirs. I eat on the spot with sandwich bucheron et flan nature, then back on the trail to Morteaux-Coliboeuf (site of a 1H battle) then Damblainville — not much to see in either one.

Next is the town of Trun which has a lovely town square, fountain, and memorial. I am now following the line Trun — St. lambert-sur-Dives (SLsD) — Chambois which is the site of the Battle of the Falaise Gap, where the German 5th and 7th armies were surrounded by the allies and dealt a severe blow.

On the way to SLsD I discover a privately established and maintained memorial, looking down on SLsD and looking toward Mt. Ormel where the 1st Polish Regiment held the heights. In SLsD itself there is a nice plaque honouring Major David Currie for his leadership of the 27th Canadian Arm'd Regiment and other units  when they closed the gap in this sector. Currie won the Victoria Cross for this action, the only one won by a Canadian Armoured unit in WW2. My dad was not far away with his unit. I saw a corner in the town that looked like the one in the famous photo. I also found the mighty Dives River — all of three feet across and max two feet deep.

From SLsD you can see the donjon in Chambois — a huge squat tower, and it doesn't appear to serve any useful purpose that I could see, although it has a big chateau behind it so the donjon is good for shade.

It's now 7:15 PM and I found the memorial on Mt. Ormel. Although the accomplishments of the 1st Polish Reg't here are noteworthy and would have deserved a Victoria Cross if they were Brits or Canucks, the memorial slightly overstates the case with phrases like "turned the tide of war". Here are a little tin-can personnel carrier-cum-tank, a real Sherman tank labeled General Maczek, after the Polish leader, and a futuristic sculpture. Mark Worthington at the Pegasus Memorial told me that General Maczek wound up after the war as a waiter in a pub in England, and the British government would not give him a pension. When the Dutch found this out, they gave him one.

Back in Chambois I find another memorial, this one to the US 356th Infantry regiment and the 1st Polish Armoured Division. It turns out that there were two separate groups of poles, and the one on Mt. Ormel was attacked from all sides for three days without giving an inch. When relieved on day three by a Canadian unit they had almost no fuel, food, water, or ammunition, and had many wounded.

On the way back to Caen I had to stop for gas - 27 litres for 40 euros, or about $2.25 Cdn. per litre, so the little Peugeot 107 gets 5.5 litres per 100 km.

Back at the hotel I have a message from Nathalie Worthington at the Juno Beach Centre, and I arrange to see her tomorrow morning.

There may not be another e-mail for a few days. Only one more about the military tour and one about local stuff and the train trip to St. Malo. It's now 11.17PM and time to sign off. Goodnight y'all.

Mike