Taking Portsmouth '40s style' to Caen

The content of this post will be updated with more specific timings once they are assured.

This post was first published on June 22nd, 2019 and updated on June 25th, 2019.

An easy to remember link to this page is tinyurl.com/beckicaen19

Pour une idée de la programme de la journée en français cliquez ici ou allez au fond de la page.

On June 30th I will be off to Caen with Miss Becki Short and professional photographer Julie Cottrell.

Many thanks go to Brittany Ferries for their invaluable help in organising this promotional tour for Caen-Portsmouth twinning, Portsmouth's Miss Becki Short and Julie Cottrell.

Our itinerary is still being confirmed. However, we will arrive very early in the morning in Ouistreham.

We will head towards the Grand Bunker in Ouistreham, which will not yet be open, but we can do some photography outside and of course, on Sword Beach itself, which is the beach at Ouistreham-Riva-Bella.

We will then make our way for around 9am to Bénouville/Ranville for a breakfast performance by Becki at the café 'Les 3 Planeurs', opposite the Café Gondrée, the first family liberated on D-Day over 75 years ago. This café is right next to Pegasus Bridge, taken by the troops who landed in the Horsa gliders, designed by Nevil Shute-Norway at his Airspeed company in Hilsea.

We will then go to the Mémorial Pegasus Museum, in the hope of fine weather, for a performance or two by Becki in the Museum grounds where there is a replica of the Horsa glider, plus the original bridge itself, complete with shrapnel damage from the raid.

We are due around lunchtime in Arromanches-Les-Bains to perform at the café 'Les Bains d'Été' a 1940s themed café in the very town, which became the focus of the landings after D-Day as it was here that the Mulberry Harbour, made in secret by various different factories all over Southern England, was put together, and where it still stands today, although 75 years of Channel storms have not been kind.

We will then go to Bayeux and visit the British war grave near to Bayeux Cathedral and make our way into Caen for mid afternoon.

Becki is due to sing in a vegan café called 'Greedy Guts' in rue de Bras in the mid-afternoon and then Becki will perform a solo concert at 'Le Dansoir' in Ouistreham Riva-Bella from 5pm.

A further post with many pictures taken by myself and Julie Cottrell photography will, of course be posted in due course.

Below a video of Becki performing at the Twinning Association's D-Day 75 event at St Mary's Church.

Itinéraire possible pour dimanche, le 30 juin 2019.

Ouistreham arrivée prevue à 6h45

Sortie du Terminal vers 7h15…

Sword Beach - photos

Le Grand Bunker - photos

Le dansoir – coup d’œil pour préparer le soir… (si tout va bien)

Départ de Ouistreham vers 8h45 pour l’arrivée à…

Bénouville – Au Café Les 3 Planeurs - 9h00

Ranville – Musée Mémorial Pegasus vers 9h30/10h00

Départ 11h15 pour l’arrivée à…

Arromanches-Les-Bains – Au café 'Les bains d’été', 8 Cale Neptune entre 12h – 13h

Départ 13h30 pour passer à

(Bayeux – photos cathédrale – musée de la tapisserie – cimetière britannique)

Une arrivée à …

Caen – vers 14h45 Café Greedy Guts – 15 rue des bras, Caen

Départ 16h00 pour arriver à Ouistreham, le dansoir vers 16h30

Ouistreham – le dansoir pour le spectacle de 17h – 19h le dansoir

22h00 Terminal départ 23h00