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| Victory in Europe ceremony |
The 8th May is a
public holiday in France to commemorate the anniversary of Victory in Europe Day. Every year our village, along with other communes, large and small, holds a
small ceremony of remembrance; the Maire wears his sash, the village flag is
unfurled and a small group of villagers gather together.
Until today, the flag has always
been held with pride by one of the old soldiers, but sadly we lost our last one
earlier this year (see here). Our Maire has decided that now is the time to
pass this honour to the younger generation and today he asked Ed if he would hold
it, and as you can see from the photo above, he did it with style.
It was a proud moment for me, but
tinged with sadness as I stood next to the widow of our last village soldier,
whose absence today was felt by all of us there. This week, our family have also
lost our own old soldier. My Dad’s cousin, Cyril, who was only 19 years old when
he was one of the first to land on Gold Beach on D-Day. I wrote about Cyril
here and when we visited Normandy in 2014 we saw a bulldozer just like the ones
that he drove in June 1944 to clear the beach of mines. Without Cyril and the
thousands like him, there would be no Victory in Europe Day to remember today
and I think it is important for the younger generation to understand this. As
Ed stood tall with the village flag, I took a moment to remember Cyril, my
Grandad Albert and Jacky who always held the flag with pride.
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| Norrmandy Beaches D-Day |
After the ceremony we gathered in
the Salle des Fêtes for a vin d’honneur (wine of honour) and aperitifs, and the
tables had been decorated with lilac flowers that looked stunning.
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| Lilacs decorating the vin d'honneur table |
Food and flowers have been a bit
of a theme for today as before the ceremony we held our annual plant swap. An
informal gathering where seedlings, cuttings and anything plant related is
brought along and shared with coffee, cakes and friendly chatter. Village life
at its best.
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| French Village Plant Swap |
This post has been linked to Paulita's Ponderings Dreaming of France blog link-up.
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