Day 7.            Monday 5th June 2017.      Mileage:   20miles   To date:   292

From:             Batz sur mer                          To: St Nazaire

Weather:       Sunny at start turning to overcast and heavy rain late afternoon.

Happy Birthday Poppy. Dad would have been 89 this birthday.

We are strolling along the beach at 0900hrs. The tide is well out. We had hoped the small beach café would be open for some breakfast but alas no. We think today is a French “Bank Holiday”.  Returning to the Van we eat a quick bowl of cereal and Mike unloads those dam bikes.  Angie Dickinson drives in with another female colleague and shoots me a huge Hollywood pin-up smile.  I melted.  She checks all the other vans “parking tickets”, encouraged a couple of newcomers to buy them and jumped back in her Police Car and shouted ‘A Bientot’ to me.  Jackie said “She won’t be seeing you soon, we’re off this afternoon”. 

Turning around, behind me stood two older ladies.  We exchanged pleasantries.  They gabbled on.  I was lost.  They could tell.  She said, “English”?  I said “Qui”.  With that she thrust a leaflet into my hand, wished me “bonne vacance” and disappeared.  Returning inside, I turned over the leaflet.  It was headed JW.Org.  Strewth! The French chapter of Jehovah’s Witnesses have tracked me down here.

In the two and a half months, Jackie and I stayed at Ridge Park, looking after Mother, each month, without fail, two frail old Ladies would catch me working in the front garden or ask Jackie for Mike!  How they knew my name, (although at one point Jehovah’s Witness HQ in Salt Lake City held a greater database than the FBI)  I know not.  I do know Jackie would come and collect me saying “There is someone at the front door for you.”  I was caught again.  I could never bring myself to cut them short, after all, for some strange reason, every time we chatted, it seemed that the conversation had some tangible connection to the family’s current situation. “See you in a few weeks’ time.” they would say as they walked out the gate.

We push biked into Batz Sur Mer and found the tourist info office, locked the bikes to the railings and walked inside for the Wi-Fi code.  Jackie and I both sent and received various Emails and then took ourselves off to a local bar for coffee.  It was one of those National Tote bookie bars. We sat “exterior” and had coffees, listening to the church bells chime and watched the world walk past.  Across the square was a Boulangerie doing terrific business.  We needed bread but the queue was horrific. 

I awoke during the night thinking about our mal-functioning Credit card.  I had asked in the tourist office about this and they directed us to a cash machine into which I gingerly placed my piece of plastic.  I punched in the command to withdraw 20 euros and hey presto, 20 euros appeared followed shortly after by my Credit card.  Panic over. 

Next stop, Le Grande Blockhaus.  www.grand-blockhaus.com  This totally intact command post bunker, on five levels, of over 300 sq. mtrs. is stuffed full of kit.  German, Free French and Allied, mainly American in this sector.  It controlled numerous guns, slightly inland on this part of the Atlantic Wall.  Mainly the approaches to St. Nazaire.  It is billed as one of the largest command bunkers ever built.  St. Nazaire was one of many sea ports on the western coast of France designated as a “Festung”, a fortified German pocket.  The allies had recently lost 10,000 men trying to take one of the other West Coast ports and so it was decided that the free French Army and in this sector the American Panther division, merely contained the resisting German pockets in late 1944.  The garrison at St. Nazaire did not surrender until May 11^th. 1945.  By then the privations were extremely hard on the French civilians.  After a couple of hours, we learned as much as we were able from the bunkers excellent displays and so we returned to the van, loaded the bikes on and took to the road.

 Our next site promised free water, free waste disposal, and free parking for seven days and electricity at 2 euros an hour.  Great, but could we find it?  No.  We did however stumble across the British War Cemetery at La Baule where most of the 300 or so sailors and commandoes were buried who perished in the March 1942 raid on St. Nazaire dockyard.  This is where HMS Campbeltown rammed the Normandie Dock gates and blew up, denying a deep-water dock facility to the Germans, especially the Tirtipz.  Five Victoria Crosses were awarded for this operation.

The 125mm Canon at Batz-sur-mer.

Eventually, we arrived in St.Nazaire, cutting our losses, we headed for the Old Port and the U boat pens.  We parked opposite this huge complex, designed to hold 20 U boats in 14 bomb proof pens.  I did not feel comfortable about the location.  It seemed correct but …….?  We made a late sandwich lunch and Mike decided to investigate further.  Stepping out of the wagon, and old guy looks across at me with a quizzical eye.  “Bonjour ca va”? Mike says.  “Oh! sorry boyo,” answers Monsieur, “I thought you was English see”.  “I am” I reply. “Oh” says Taff looking at the van registration again. It turns out he was looking for the camp site as well, or so I thought.  Long story short.  He is on or in the official Campsite, a parking lot approximately 100 meters up from us.  It has gated access, entry was by Credit Card at 7 euros per night, including electric hook-up and a ten-minute shot of fresh water for 4 euros.  Mike was delighted to find the official Aire and wanted to return to the wagon to move it but Taffy continued to chunter on!  When I asked him had he been into the Pens or the museum, he seemed to know nothing about the area, Campbeltown or much else for that matter.  In short, I thought he was a bit on the slow side.  Typically Welsh!  Can I say that?  Probably not.  Tidy! 

Jackie paying to enter the Aire at St Nazaire

I returned to the van. We drove around the corner, paid, entered, hooked up to the main electricity and put the hot water heater on.  Plugged in the Laptop to re-charge and had a brew.  Mike felt more at ease.  We decided to go for a quick walk to clear our heads.  We had taken more than a few wrong turnings on the 20 mile journey here today.  As we stepped outside the van, the heavens emptied.  Cancel that.  Instead we had another cuppa and as soon as the water was hot enough, we had a shower each.  Our first in almost a week.  “Bliss” said Jackie. “You went longer than that in Jordan tabbing” I said. “That was different”.  At least the rain was washing off the sand and dust we had accumulated this last week.