Having missed my annual visit to the Archaeology/History meeting with GRAC at Hague last year I was pleased arrange the visit this year at short notice and caught the ferry and stayed overnight in St Malo catching the train up the next day, sadly the ferries do not combine that well with the times of the trains, something my Grandfather with Lucien Dior and Emile Riotteau was trying to sort out over a 100 years ago (one vision being a ferry from Gorey to Granville and train onto Paris), sadly Jersey seem to be going backwards rather than forwards in the area.I stayed three nights in the Hotel Angleterre which is just off the Place de la Republique with some decent restaurants nearby.
Memorial for those of the Resistance who lost their lives, with Alderney (slave labour camp) on one of the plaques alongside Auchwitz, Buchenwald, and Dachau. When Alderrney was libertaed none of the occupying force were ever charged with any of the crimes that they had committed.
Armand De Bricqueville Cavalary Colonel under Napoleon
Unknown piece of art just lying around
Details of the above work: http://www.wikimanche.fr/Band_Shell
I walked along the east out of town which in hindsight I should have caught a bus out as it took a while to get to the better bits of the coast, I came across the above work sitting in a works yard, across at the harbour area was the vessel “Goliath”a jacking platform used mainly for erecting offshore windfarms. I made my way past the small Port des Flamands with a little lagoon inland with what appears an old dry dock now concreted in. I made my way to Collignon beach with a few surfers eyeing up a small wave which was dropping with the tide. I made my way along the coast to Port du Becquet which and made my way along a little further before making my way back inland and back on a cycling route.
“Alabama” and “Kearsarge” graves Cherbourg
I made my way up town later and ended up going to the cimitiere des Aiguillons to see what was of interest and came across the memorials for those lost with the action between the CSS “Alabama” and USS “Kearsarge” set aside in their own designated area. I previous did a post on the action: https://jouault.wordpress.com/2013/03/16/battle-of-cherbourg-1864/
War graves Cherbourg
At the top of the cemetery there are the war graves from various actions from the first world war, 700 in all making it the largest militiary grave in a civil cemetery in France, including some allied burials on the east side. There is a monument for submarine tradegies: The “Ondine” lost at sea 1928, victims of the “Promethee” 1932, victims of the vessel “La Fidele” 1997.
Nicolas Jouault 