Oradour-sur-Glane - 6 September 2019

6 September

We know what we’re doing - but it will take time to adjust back to living on Dave! Last night, after the rum that I thought seemed fairly innocuous (it wasn’t!), I didn’t cook! We’d had some pretzels at the same time - so decided we’d had enough calories - despite no nutrients! Must do better! The parking area overnight was so quiet. I’d already forgotten how peaceful it can be! I only had the 4.5 tog duvet - fair to say when I wasn’t having a hot flush - it was quite cold! Even today, the temperature when we woke was about 13° inside - but now late evening but it was 28° earlier!

So I drove for the first couple of hours, roughly via Rennes, Nantes - then Tintin drove for another 3-1/2 hours. I think I drew the lucky straw for once - dual carriageway and mainly lovely smooth roads. We couldn’t find an Aire to pull into for lunch, so found some random town and parked at a Lidl. First baguette in September! Bargain - only 35c!

We were very surprised at how quiet the roads were when Tintin started driving - the French do take their lunch times very seriously!

Tintin’s drive was mainly on the A roads - must have been there since the Roman times - so straight.

So, if you read Tintin’s blog before we came away, you’ll know that Dave has been upgraded to Super Dave by way of a chip - white man’s magic to me! Anyway, we’re very impressed - not changing gear so often, definitely more torque - can overtake and stay in 6th gear (not on an uphill!). We’re playing a game as to who can get the average fuel consumption the highest. I was pleased with 26.2, but Tintin now has it up to 26.8. Last trip the average was only 24 - so time and hills will tell!

Also, Tintin has spent hours trying to eliminate the squeaks and crashes of Dave. His work has paid off - Super Dave is now super quiet in comparison with last trip - hope it continues.

So, we arrived at Oradour-sur-Glane about 16.30 - and went for a wander.

Hopefully the link below will work for those who are interested in learning more. For those who don’t want the link, following is some of the information direct from Wikipedia:-

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oradour-sur-Glane_massacre

“On 10 June 1944, the village of Oradour-sur-Glane in Haute-Vienne in  Nazi-occupied France was  destroyed when 642 of its inhabitants, including women and children, were massacred by a German Waffen-SS company.

A new village was built nearby after the war, but PresidentCharles de Gaulle ordered the original maintained as a permanent memorial and museum.

On 10 June, Diekmann's battalion sealed off Oradour-sur-Glane and ordered everyone within to assemble in the village square to have their identity papers examined. This included six non-residents who happened to be bicycling through the village when the SS unit arrived. The women and children were locked in the church, and the village was looted. The men were led to six barns and sheds, where machine guns were already in place.

According to a survivor's account, the SS men then began shooting, aiming for their legs. When victims were unable to move, the SS men covered them with fuel and set the barns on fire. Only six men managed to escape. One of them was later seen walking down a road and was shot dead. In all, 190 Frenchmen died.

The SS men next proceeded to the church and placed an incendiary device beside it. When it was ignited, women and children tried to escape through the doors and windows, only to be met with machine-gun fire. 247 women and 205 children died in the attack. The only survivor was 47-year-old Marguerite Rouffanche. She escaped through a rear sacristywindow, followed by a young woman and child.[3] All three were shot, two of them fatally. Rouffanche crawled to some pea bushes and remained hidden overnight until she was found and rescued the next morning. About twenty villagers had fled Oradour-sur-Glane as soon as the SS unit had appeared. That night, the village was partially razed.

Several days later, the survivors were allowed to bury the 642 dead inhabitants of Oradour-sur-Glane who had been killed in just a few hours. Adolf Diekmann said the atrocity was in retaliation for the partisan activity in nearby Tulleand the kidnapping of an SS commander, Helmut Kämpfe.”

There are really no words for the atrocities of mankind. Photos at the end.

Once we’d visited the memorial site, we were going to move, as the parking is on quite a slope. However, the nearby parking was closed - think there will be a market there tomorrow. Some other mohos moved, so as the nearest other parking was 30 minutes away, we’ve moved to a downward slope instead of a sideways slope!

Tonight we’ll actually eat some protein and vegetables - it’s already 19.15 - and the temperature in Dave has dropped to 24° on the digital thermometer Mum gave me. This compares with the onboard gauge which says its 29° in here!

So tomorrow we’re planning on driving towards Clermont Ferrand, with a view to climbing the Puy du Dôme (1,465m) the day after, as the drive will be another 4 hours or so...