Overnight there was thunder and lightening – or so I am told. John saw it and his comments follow:

The storm broke at about 2am and there was a continuous crescendo of thunder, with both normal and forked lightening . We had left our windows open overnight because of the heat and also had our washing draped over the sill. Therefore while Chris was snoring I frantically rescued the laundry and bolted the windows. The lightening was particularly dramatic, like a continuous array of flash cameras in operation. With both the sound of the rain and the river running under the building (after all it use to house 2 water wheels) it was like being tossed about at sea. How her majesty slept through it all, god only knows!!!

Once again we are leaving a place we would have loved to stay longer in. My original plans had us here for 3 nights but then we couldn't have gone to Claire’s or over the Millau bridge, so it is all compromise.

After breakfast we just had time to load 2 blogs without pictures then set off at 9am. It was cooler this morning (19 degrees) which made for nicer travelling. We had sent the BnB in Normandy a message to say we would be arriving 6-7pm as we had a 7 hour drive. Our main mission for the day was to find the grave of our friend Dick Bird’s father. He was killed at Dunkirk in 1940 but for some unknown reason is buried on the Atlantic coast some 500km away. This involved us in a 300km plus detour which we were happy to make because Dick had never seen his father’s grave.

Our drive first took us to the countryside on a good road with again stone houses of a various sizes and conditions, There were also a couple of new looking subdivisions with houses similar to those we saw yesterday . We had started to wonder if there were any new houses other than apartments. We then moved onto a series of motorways to head first south then west. The last motorway was the quietest and the most interesting as it was less flat with some interesting bridges and 'gateway’ with unicorns and turtles as decorations for reasons that escaped us. We then moved off the toll road to drop to 110 km/h for the last 60km. The sun was appearing at this stage but it was still pleasant conditions.

We drove into Les Sables-D’Olonne which seemed a very nice seaside town. It had a lovely looking beach and lots of expensive looking boats tied up. We had the Information Centre as our destination as we had not been able to get GPS coordinates from Google Earth or directions on the Tom Tom for the cemetery we were searching for. From the CWGC (Commonwealth War Graves Commission) we knew that we had to look for LES SABLES-D'OLONNE (LA FOIRE-AUX CHATS) NEW COMMUNAL CEMETERY and the location information said "the cemetery is on the north-east side of the village, on the Chemin de Ceinture". It sounded straightforward.

But this was a big town and not a village. Three people who all spoke English tried to help in the Tourist Information Office but the details we had did not make sense to them as there was no such street in the town. Finally the third found the street name in a nearby village which was North and a bit to the East . This was a great help and they received profuse thanks from me. All this time John was waiting patiently in a tow-away area hoping the gendarmes would not appear.

The GPS took us to the village and we drove up and down the street but could find no cemetery. We then checked the tourist information office here and the Mayors office. Both were closed. So we tried the street again and John spotted a cemetery not quite in the street but a bit further on. It had a war memorial in the middle. We followed the information on the war commission’s site and looked on the right but the information we had of Plot 6, Row 4, Grave 11 didn’t fit at all because this was too small. After checking 100 or so graves we were confident it was not the right cemetery.

By then it was close to 1.30pm so we went back to the Mayor’s office. Here three people tried to help us. They were puzzled why we were not in the main town until we showed them the street name. They had no English but we managed to ‘explain’ what we were looking for and showed them the details we had on the computer. They did a number of internet searches and tried making phone calls but no luck. They couldn’t find another street of that name or the cemetery, and the LA FOIRE-AUX CHATS meant nothing to them.

By then the only thing we could hope was that a cemetery we could see on the map that the original Information Centre had given us might be correct . There were 2 in the area so maybe it was the “New Communal One”. It was in the NE but well inside the town and there was no street of the right name. However I noticed a street at the front had the name of a doctor and that it appeared a longer street might have been renamed after a number of doctors. Maybe the information we had was a number of years out-of-date.

We drove the 15 km back to the main town and found the cemetery. Immediately we were hopeful as there was a CWGC sign at the entrance. This was much bigger and we knew to look on the right and also a plot row and grave number. We spotted a list of names and were about to look when we realised a man was in the shed. He spoke no English but raised 4 fingers to indicate there were 4 soldiers graves here. We then knew we were at the right place. The very first spot he took us to was the one with Dick’s father’s headstone. We explained he was the father of a friend.

After we thanked him he said a bit to us that we think said that flowers are put on the graves every 1st November . The 2 headstones were in a plain setting with gravel but it was well tended. We took a number of photos and put a few sprigs of lavender at the headstone. On the way out we found the CWGC sign had been presented by the Mayor of Worthing which seemed nice but odd until we went past a sign that said that Worthing is a sister town to here. So it was a couple of hours of hopes being raised then dashed with a great result in the end.

French people have a reputation for arrogance and lack of helpfulness. Today 7 people helped us and 3 in particular went well out of their way to do so. Our 2 hour hunt had finally been rewarded.

We then headed for Normandy (390 km away) with an anticipated arrival time of 6.45pm. It wad lucky we had food from the market with us so we could snack in the car. We saw .the Loire as we passed over it, plus an interesting sign on a field saying “Not an airport”. There were also police giving 2 bikes a ticket, a rather basic roadside stop with plastic religious symbols for sale and lots of the attractive brown signs advertising tourist places to visit if you take the next exit,

It was a long day of driving for John so we did a lot of talking for the last hundred km, as well as a coffee stop to keep him alert . The last bit of the road was more interesting with rolling hills, trees (many of them very dark green) and a number of attractive bridges. We did take the exit one too early in a large 6 exit roundabout and ended up in a truck stop but otherwise it was a smooth trip with relatively quiet roads.

We did not recognise the name of the BnB, but the GPS coordinates took us to the front door. We were offered tea and coffee, then the other guests from Sweden arrived. We talked about our day – they had had a 1 hour holdup with an accident. We sent an email with pictures to tell Dick we had found the grave and then went out for tea at nearly 9pm. It was raining but we managed to find one of the restaurants in the local town and had the Menu Traditionalle. We both had terrine which arrived in the container for us to serve ourselves and with a jar of pickles. I then had salmon and rice and John had ham. Dessert was lovely but so rich I couldn’t finish my chocolate mousse. We then went back to the BnB via the supermarket to get fuel. The intermarches (supermarkets) are cheap for fuel and they always accept our card.

John’s notes:

And then finally, after our many earlier challenges, we reached the graveside we had been seeking. There were all kinds of emotions at this time - relief, elation and also some sadness that Dick could not be with us. The most overwhelming emotion however was one of privilege. Here was a tomb stone that had stood for 70 years and we were able to finally make the connection between Dick in New Zealand and his dad. It was a very moving moment. I said a quiet word and Christine placed a small sprig of lavender at the foot of the stone. After taking some photos, we then quietly returned to our car, thanking on our way the caretaker who had so kindly assisted us.

After leaving the cemetery we finally managed to extricate ourselves from the myriad of narrow, winding streets that so typify these French villages and headed for the motorway and the freedom of the open road.

Christine tore me off a large hunk of grissly French sausage and a piece of cheese that we had been carrying for over 3 days. I washed it down with warm water from a plastic bottle that had been stewing in the car. For some reason it didn’t seem to matter and it tasted just fine…..

Sapper L.W. Bird number 1913351 – rest in peace.

Footnote: email received the next morning

“Dear John and Christine.

 Thank you so very, very much.

There are no words that can truly express my gratitude for what you have done for me.

Would you believe it is my mother’s birthday today 13/7!

Birdy”