Honfleur
Calvados
Normandie
France
1 Night
After we were tucked up in bed the rain poured down accompanied by thunder and lightning.
Next stop was the town of Bénouville to visit Pegasus Bridge, originally called the Bénouville Bridge after the village, is a road crossing over the Caen Canal, between Caen and Ouistreham in Normandy. Our stop on route to Hornfluer for tonight.
Just after midnight on 6 June 1944, three British Horsa gliders carrying men of the 6th Airborne Division, led by Major John Howard, crash-landed astonishingly close to the bridge over the Caen Canal. Within minutes the troops had overwhelmed the German defenders and captured the bridge intact, preventing it from being destroyed.
The bridge was later renamed Pegasus Bridge, after the winged-horse emblem of the British Airborne Forces. The bridge standing here today dates from 1994, while the original wartime bridge has been preserved at the nearby Pegasus Memorial.
Our next stop was Honfleur, a beautiful old harbour town on the Normandy coast, where the River Seine meets the sea.
We’re staying at the motorhome aire in Honfleur, a large and popular aire within easy walking distance of the harbour and old town. It’s a great location for exploring Honfleur, which turns out to be one of our most favorite towns.
