Sunday 6th December

Drove down last night into the Dordogne region and parked up near Oradour-sur-Glane.
Sunday was to be a day of reflection as we went around the abandoned town of Oradour-sur-Glane, which was very surreal and sobering.

To understand why it is here you need a quick bit of history. On the 10th June 1944, a group of SS Troops swept through the town on a mission of vengeance. They rounded up all the citizens, putting women and children in the church and the men in surrounding buildings and massacred them, set fire to the church with the women and children in and then the town itself. The total killed was 642, over 200 of them children. Today the town stands as the Nazi’s left it. It is very eerie to walk around with the burnt out houses and cars, as well as bullet holes in the walls. It puts you in the devastation of war and what my Grandparents and their generation lived through and witnessed. Also many other countries now and in recent times still go through. Innocent people dying in wars that nowadays seem more to do with the progress of corporations supported by governments for the country’s natural resources, but I wont go on. The place is poignant, emotional yet captivating.