My plan today was to drive all the way to Calais as I had booked a ferry over to Dover at 9am on Tuesday morning. I got on the road mid-morning and it was a beautiful drive across Normandy with the sun shining and the odd cumulus cloud cruising across the sky.
One of many pretty French towns I drove through:
I headed towards Dieppe as I wanted to see if there was a museum or cemetery commemorating the sacrifice that many Canadians endured in a raid on Dieppe on August 19th, 1942. Dieppe is one of a few major ports on the French Atlantic coast and the Nazis had fortified the city heavily. This assault’s purpose was to test the feasibility of a full scale attack of one of the established ports in occupied France. Well, it failed quite miserably. About 6000 soldiers, all Canadian except for 275 British commandos, took part in the operation and 3367 were killed, captured or wounded...a heavy price to pay. However British Admiral Mountbatten later stated that the lessons learned that day meant that every life lost at Dieppe saved ten on D-Day.
As I entered the outskirts of the city I noticed a sign for a Canadian cemetery so I headed there first. It was a beautifully laid out graveyard with at least a few hundred soldiers buried there. I walked around reading some of the headstones and shaking my head at how young most of the men were (oh, and I did see at least one woman who was a nurse). I very much appreciate that they paid the ultimate price for our freedom today but I also couldn’t shake the thought of how horrible war is. We humans sure go out of our way to kill and hurt each other...
The Canadian cemetery at Dieppe:
On the high coast in Dieppe:
Hopping back in Betty, I set my SatNav to a Dieppe museum and after driving through town to the coast, I found out that the museum is closed and looks like it has been for a few years. Oh well, I tried.
I got back on the road and within a few hours I was in Calais. From my first day back in June, I knew where I could park for free in Betty overnight and it was close to the ferry terminal. I decided to treat myself to a dinner out...my last one in France and last one on the European continent for this phase of my travelling.
Betty and I made it back to Calais!
Tomorrow, back to England. Merci France!!!
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