France photo thread

[Nanbawan]

** and indeed, the island (a part of the german's atlantic wall) was flattened as a result of heavy aerial bombardment by the allies
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%C3%A9zembre

http://fesma.free.fr/cezhisto.html

I continue this minor threadjack with some footage from INA showing -among other things- the heavy bombardments on St-Malo.

http://www.ina.fr/archivespourtous/index.php?vue=notice&from=fulltext&full=saint-malo&num_notice=6&total_notices=20@ about 2/3.

Huge explosions in Intra-Muros, like other Breton cities (Brest, Lorient), a good part of it has been destroyed and rebuilt after WWII. Saint-Malo was a lock for the rest North Brittany for troops coming from Normandy, hence the tough resistance from the Germans and the subsequent bombings from the allies.

The Cité d'Alet (http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleth) is another spot in the corsair city. It had been inhabited since neolithic times, was occupied by the Romans, looted by the Franks ; Mac Law, the founder of Saint-Malo established a church there. It later slipped into oblivion until the Germans made their own fortress out of it with underground passages and turrets. This place is a nice Sunday stroll, and it's also staggering to see the remaining turrets shredded by warplane guns. You can't stop wondering what it must have been like under this inferno of fire and steel.

http://img159.imageshack.us/img159/647/1681955qj8.jpg

And I can tell it's very thick metal !

I haven't found a nice picture of the Cité itself, this is rather a photo from it.

http://imagineressources.linternaute.com/document/image/540/cote-villes-cite-saint-ille-635420.jpg

OTOH, on this page (http://www.saint-malo.fr/decouvrir/memorial.html#) you'll find a 360° panorama from this place.

[Douai]

actually it's much more likely that the area was flattened by allied bombardment, as is the case with most of the areas around normandy or maybe the rest of france. nevertheless, one can always pose the question, 'what were the germans doing there in the first place,' but that's a long long long explanation.

** and indeed, the island (a part of the german's atlantic wall) was flattened as a result of heavy aerial bombardment by the allies
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%C3%A9zembre

Ah I see.I was pretty hasty with my earlier post then.I forgot about the allied bombardments in France.

[guignol]

I dont get [the bring back my bicycle thing] :confused:the dutch got especially rough treatment during occupation. basically everything you could manufacture with, drive, ride, eat or burn was recquisitioned and hauled off to germany, including all the bicycles. and to the dutch, bicycles are sacred!

[Douai]

Géants de Douai
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/61/Gayants.jpg/350px-Gayants.jpg

Le Touquet
http://www.mincoin.com/photos/touq/touq17l.jpg

[Douai]

La Scarpe à Douai
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/fr/thumb/e/ee/Douai-scarpe.JPG/800px-Douai-scarpe.JPG

Le Beffroi de Douai
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/80/Le_beffroi_de_douai.jpg

[Breakwood]

April 9th is a very important day in Canadian History. 90 years ago, Allied troops made up mostly of Canadians, and for the first time led by a Canadian, Arthur Currie, raided the German controlled Vimy Ridge. After prior defeats by British and French troops, the commanders spent days planning on how to conquer the very important ridge in the North-East of France. On April 9th 1917, all 4 Canadians divsions joined together for the first time to raid the ridge. 3 days later the Canadians had won total control of the ridge, leaving the German army with almost 20,000 casualties. The Canadians had suffered the loss of 3,598 men, and 7,104 wounded soldiers.

The ridge is now the location of the Canadian National Vimy Memorial, which is technically Canadian territory since the French government declared the 1 square kilometre around the memorial to be Canadian territory in 1922.

Since 2004 the memorial has been closed for restoration and renovations. Today it was officially reopened on the 90th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge. The ceremony was attended by thousands including Canadian Prime-Minister Stephen Harper, French Prime-Minister Domenic de Villepin and Queen Elizabeth II. Interestingly, high school students from all over Canada were paired up with each fallen soldier. These students learned about the life of the soldier they were twinned with and they travelled to France to be part of the ceremony.

The CBC has an interesting section about Vimy Ridge here : http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/vimy/

Now since this is a photo thread I guess I should add some photos.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0f/Memorial_Vimy_face.jpg

http://www.actioninengland.gb.com/Supportourtroops/Unknown%20Warrior/Canadian_Vimy_Ridge_Memorial.jpg

[AllezParisAllezPSG]

yea it was all over the news in france, and a huge amount of canadians made the trip over... i've been to the beaches of normandy, but i hope to go into alsace, lorraine, somme, les ardennes to visit all the battlefields/memorials from WWI...
btw that memorial is beautiful...

[Nanbawan]

The Rance (http://rennesairclub.free.fr/images/prestations/cotenord/gf/rance2.jpg) river ; Dinard on the foreground, Saint-Malo is on the other shore.