A visit to Oradour-sur-Glane

Before haircut

Up at the crack of dawn at Catrionia and Mike’s, well she does have two young boys to wake us up! Also Bella had an appointment with the local “Coiffeur”, Christine had decided

she looked a mess and needed sorting out, after all Christine did have a go and the result reminded me of that advert, “Should have gone to Specsavers”: Anyway, 1030hrs she was booked in for and as we had decided whilst here we would visit Oradour-sur-Glane and they were both in the same direction, so we went in Rosie. We were going to use Pinky & Perky but as we couldn’t get Bella on and as Oradour-sur-Glane was about ¾hr away and also along a very busy road full of big lorries, Rosie stepped up to the mark.
Bella safely deposited with the Coiffeur who didn’t have a word of English and our French didn’t run to the sort of conversation we are comfortable with, we left wondering what she would look like when we retrieved her at 1530hrs!!!!
We arrived at Oradour-sur-Glane, which I am sure you are all aware

The entrance to the memorial

is where a troop of the Der Führer Regiment of the 2nd Waffen-SS Panzer Division, Das Reich, murdered 642 Men, Women, and Children.  They circled the village then rounded everybody up and assembled them all in the village square outside the church until the

The square outside the Church

order was given to fill the church.  The rest were shot in small groups.

The Church where the majority of the 642 people were murdered

on the 10th June 1944 as reprisals for the abduction of two German SS Officers by the resistance movement. For more information try   www.oradour.info.com

A Scaled map of the memorial and village

The old village has been left completely as it was after the massacre with pre war cars

Wrecked pre war old cars in one of the village garages

littering the streets and garages that were in the village. They have now added an exhibition centre portraying the lead up to the tragedy from the rise of Hitler. It was a very moving and heart wrenching exhibition which portrayed vividly the outcome and the destruction that took place.

The high Street as it was the day after the massacre took place with the old tram lines still in place

Again, another example of the futility of war demonstrating that the real casualties are not the Politicians who start it or the soldiers paid to fight.
This place has now become the memorial and commemoration centre for all the various atrocities that the Germans perpetrated in various Villages and Towns around Europe.

Memorial in Cemetery to the 624 victims massacred

After this informative but harrowing visit we enjoyed a “cuppa” and a light lunch in Rosie whilst still in the car park then off to collect Bella.
Well, what a pretty girl came out of the Coiffeur, Christine tells me she now looks what a

Bella looking smart

Cocker Spaniel should look like, at last!
Back to Mike and Catrionia’s for the rest of the afternoon and carry out various chores. This was followed by a superb evening meal with a delightful glass or two of wine and then Mike and I settled down to taste the Single Malt Whiskies I had following my Whisky tasting when staying with Martin and Marion, and as we had been introduced to Whisky with chocolate by the “wee Dram”, we had the same here.