Dieppe

Dieppe is a famous, or infamous place, in WWII history. Lord Louis Mountbatten's Combined Operations were doing raids all the way from Norway to France in 1941-42. The British had little else to cheer about. Stalin was demanding a second front. Churchill was in Moscow trying to avert a separate peace between Russia and Germany (as if...). And on August 19, 1942, a force of some 5,000 thousand Canadians, 1,000 British, and 50 American Rangers, attacked the fortified harbor of Dieppe. (Previous raids had involved scores or hundreds, not thousands). The reasons given for the "raid" were numerous: to test new amphibious methods and equipment, to see how strongly the Germans would defend Dieppe, to see whether the harbor could be held for "two tides," to see whether a fortified harbor could be taken without bombardment, to give the Canadians some battle experience (ancestors from Dieppe had settled in Canada 300 years before), to impress or appease Stalin, to divert more German divisions back to the west, to boost British morale, etc. There is even a theory that the raid was simply a diversion to allow theft of the latest German Engima (code) machine from German naval headquarters at Dieppe...this associated with the writer Ian Fleming who was in British intelligence during the war. The raid was a disaster. 68% of the Canadians were killed, wounded, or captured. None of its putative goals were met. Yet, in 1944, Mountbatten would claim, echoed by Churchill and Montgomery, that the success of Normandy was due in large measure to the sacrifice at Dieppe, and what was learned there. Anyhow, I've always been interested in the Dieppe matter...partly my twentieth century history avocation plus the suspicion that much can be learned about committee decision-making from Dieppe. Some claim the raid was in fact never officially approved, but merely proceeded up various meeting agendas with no strong opposition; and then Churchill's mission to Moscow. Who was going to take on the King's First Minister or a royal (Mountbatten) who had happened onto a career in the navy?

There is a large, fine aire de camping-cars right on the harbor
in Dieppe; but it was "sature"; we figured out why the next day

So I contented myself with a look around the harbor

And some pix; and we drove on 20 miles inland to another site
(next post)

The next morning, back on course toward the coast, we came
upon the Canadian cemetery at Dieppe

Thus

And thus

Part of the cemetery

As it happened (the Tour de France got in our way), we got to
Pourville sur la Mer only that evening; Pourville was one of
the flanking landing beaches, the only one where the commandos
(including the Rangers) got in, did their job, and got out

The Canadian memorial at Pourville

Mers Les Bains

For beach Belle Epoque architecture we hit the jackpot at Mers le Bain. At one time there were some 300 such villas, and many remain. After a morning's walking tour in a gale--helped along by a TI guide--we had a great lunch at a restaurant on the main square.

On the beach front, looking north

And south

Art Deco; for the rest, I'll just let the pix speak for
themselves; even in ugly weather, the place was
fairly crawling with people with cameras

And this was not the smallest one! Eating northern hemisphere
mussels can be an exhausting experience, where the feed
conversion ratio must approach zero...

White Cliffs of Normandy

Normandy's White Cliffs are associated mostly with the sea arches and other features at Etretat, but the cliffs are actually far more extensive, beginning at Ault, perhaps a hundred miles further up the coast. Not as high as the white cliffs across the channel, although geologically the same, they are punctuated with fishing villages and resorts all along the way, where rivers have worn down the limestone to make harbors and beaches. From Le Touquet we drove through St. Valery and around the Bay of the Somme to Ault, where the cliffs begin.

Street scene in St. Valery; the place seemed mobbed but did
not seem all that interesting...oh, William the Conqueror
departed from near here, 1066...

The Bay

From the flat estuary and beaches you drive up-hill and gaze
back to where you've been

And then look left and see the cliffs extending as far as you can
see

Thus

And thus

Ault cathedral; all the older construction in these
parts has flint embedded in it, just like the south
of England; flint everywhere in the chalk

Once More Unto The Beach At Le Touquet/Paris Plage

After spending the night at the museum and communing with the spirits of Harry, Pistol, Nym, Bardolph, and Mistress Quickly, we pressed on, back to the coast and the resort town of Le Touquet/Paris Plage, one of the older famous beach resorts. Vicki has become quite enamored of Belle Epoque beach architecture, be it mock Medieval, Flemish, Art Nouveau, or whatever. Our stay was truncated, however, as a squall came up, quite cool, wet and windy.

Very old-style; surrounded by old forest with many walking
paths

Mock Medieval

Street scene

Ditto

At the beach; all kinds of amusements for the kiddies

But the squall is on

A younger building here, actually Art Deco, with
a pop-up, is getting fixed up: a fixer-upper/popper-
upper; or, a fixer-popper-upper, if you're into the
whole brevity thing

More Belle Epoque mock something or other

The covered market, which might have been
mistaken for a misshapen train station

Mock Disney

The Mairie

We drove some of the near residential neighborhoods--imagine
something that is a blend of Pebble Beach and Atherton,
only not in English; pretty nice though