Email us at:
pej@pejnron.com
ron@pejnron.com

Click the sun to see the
weather in Buenos Aires!

Part 5

Back to the river scene on our amazing drive through the country side. Bruce has taken his kids here to kayak. It looks like the perfect river for doing that. While we were standing on the bridge, some kayakers came paddling down the river.

I don't see any white water. But we are seeing a very small part of the river

It was apparently lunch time for this group, because they beached their kayaks here and started breaking out the grub

There was a beautiful little foot bridge crossing the river. It would have been a perfect place to take
a photo of the bridge upon which we were standing. Our bridge was supported by a beautiful arch.

This scene sort of makes me want to give French country living a try. It is so quiet and peaceful. Am I getting old?

Just look at this country side. Farms and greenery for as far as the eye can see. This photo doesn't do it justice.

Pete and Bruce pose for me. Look at that building in the background. I could swear
it looks like it is leaning out over the street. Perhaps it is just an illusion.

The buildings were certainly built to last. I think my great grand children would be
able to visit this very same spot, and it would look exactly the same as it does today.
This is actually part of a huge complex up on a hill, which has lots of interesting shops,
restaurants, and a huge church with all the accompanying buildings to support the clergy.

The sign over the gate says HERMITAGE, and from what I can gather, that means the makers of wine.

Well, I don't think Pete could be mistaken for a villager. But he does match the image of a wonderful human being.

You can gather from previous travelogues that I do like flowers, and these were particularly beautiful.

One thing I never expected to fine in a small village like this is a Morgan, but you'll have to wait until Part 6 to see this little gem. It seems that Bruce knew all of the most perfect places to show Pete and I. Everywhere we went in this amazing part of France, all was astonishing. I find myself wondering if there are not places like the Mojave Desert, or the Bad Lands. I suspect not, but I will need to do a lot more traveling in France to find out. I feel like we have done so much already, and we have not even gotten to our Viking River boat. I am anxious to see Normandy. The graphic images of the movie "Saving Private Ryan" still burns in my mind. I long to see the actual beaches where our GIs landed on D-Day, June 6, 1944. Here is a view of that very important day, through the eyes of a German Private.

• D-Day, A German Private's View
  June 6, 1944

German soldier poses for the camera.

On that night of 6 June none of us expected the invasion any more. There was a strong wind, thick cloud cover, and the enemy aircraft had not bothered us more that day than usual. But then -- in the night -- the air was full of innumerable planes. We thought, "What are they demolishing tonight?" But then it started. I was at the wireless set myself. One message followed the other. "Parachutists landing here - gliders landing there," and finally "Landing craft approaching." Some of our guns fired as best they could. In the morning a huge naval force was sighted - that was the last report our advanced observation posts could send us, before they were overwhelmed. And it was the last report we received about the situation. It was no longer possible to get an idea of what was happening. Wireless communications were jammed, the cables cut and our officers had lost grasp of the situation. Infantrymen who were streaming back told us that their new positions on the coast had been overrun or that the few "bunkers" in our sector had either been shot up or blown to pieces.

Right in the middle of all this turmoil I got orders to do with my car for a reconnaissance towards the coast. With a few infantryman I reported to a lieutenant. His orders were to retake a village nearby. While he was still talking to me to explain the position, a British tank came rolling towards us from behind, from a direction in which we had not even suspected the presence of the enemy. The enemy tank immediately opened fire on us. Resistance was out of the question. I saw how a group of Polish infantrymen went over to the enemy - carrying their submachine-guns and waving their arms. When we tried to get through to our lines in the evening British paratroopers caught us.

At first I was rather depressed, of course. I, an old soldier, a prisoner of war after a few hours of the invasion. But when I saw the material behind the enemy front, I could only say, "Old man, how lucky you have been!"

And when the sun rose the next morning, I saw the invasion fleet lying off the shore. Ship beside ship. And without a break, troops, weapons, tanks, munitions and vehicles were being unloaded in a steady stream.

A mass of men and material fill the oceans and beaches
of Normandy during D-Day invasion.

There sometimes can be more than two sides to a coin. I can only vaguely imagine what the German soldiers saw when the gigantic forces of freedom stormed the beaches at Normandy. The writing above give some hint of that. I was a little over a month away from turning 7 years old on D-Day. Although television first appeared as a viable invention in 1926, there was no television in my household until 1948, so I never saw the images of war. I was too young to go the the movie houses of the day and watch the Movie Tone News that was the prelude to the movie in all the theaters at that time. So, in reality I was totally oblivious to what was going on in the world. I count that as a blessing. They say that ignorance is bliss. Trust me, I was a very blissful seven year old. As an adult, I look back on what actually happened in Europe in those years, and think what the seven year old children in those European countries must have lived through. I can only hope and pray that we, as a species, have evolved beyond the point of repeating those events.

In Part 6 I will continue with our tour of he French country side, in times of peace and tranquility.