Today was our last day in France, and had a leisurely departure as we only had a short journey to do. We travelled the As 28 and 88 to Caen then on to Camping des Capucines. Thankfully we found it straight away – nothing like the nightmare journey we'd had all those weeks ago! We had to cross the bridge at Bénouville to get to the site and were delighted to find it lifting to allow a yacht to pass through. Having chosen a nice pitch (its so much easier in the daylight!) we used the time to go & visit the Pegasus Bridge Museum, a close-by relic of WW2.



Bénouville Bridge itself is a strange affair – a lifting bridge with a huge cantilever to open it, allowing passing ships to access the Caen Canal. The original bridge was built in 1934 and along with 2 others locally was the focus of the Allied troops in the Normandy landings of 1944; their mission was to secure and hold the bridges to halt the German advance, and a fleet of gliders delivered the soldiers nearby. Their success turned the tide of the war and the bridge was renamed Pegasus in their honour – the winged horse is the emblem of the British airborne forces.

The museum was most interesting, with a large display hall and extensive outdoor areas. We saw the original bridge (the current one is a copy) and a mock-up of the gliders that brought the troops, marvelling at how such a flimsy looking plane made of balsa wood and canvas could hold so many soldiers as well as armoured vehicles – and land safely in the dark. But land safely they did, with the loss of only one man, and captured the bridges, again with the loss of only one – a remarkable feat.

Inside was a small theatre where a film of the taking of the bridge played on a loop, so we watched that then browsed the display cases. There were so many artefacts and so much information that it was hard to take in, but it was all fascinating to see and read: uniforms, photographs, log books, letters, official documents, the original sign for the bridge, and we learned such a lot.



Returning to the car, we tried to cross the bridge to Ranville to do some shopping, but came to an abrupt halt: it seemed the bridge was up again so we sat & waited. we got caught again after the museum visit, but no boats seemed to be passing - the traffic was stacking up by the minute and eventually a van raced up the wrong side of the road - and out hopped a man with a large bunch of keys. He climbed the ladders up the bridge to the control tower, and when we heard the roar of the engine starting to lower it, we realised the bridge had been stuck. There were a lot of interested tourists taking photos and a LOT of cursing locals.




We finally made it to the supermarket where we stocked up with food and to a wine outlet where we stocked up with.....well, you know. It was a fairly early night for us as we had a forthcoming very early start to get the ferry so after a nice meal we turned in.