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Loc'Hall Collection: on the road to victory, the venues of the Liberation
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by Jade Caillot
- June 17, 2024
- Events, History and Heritage
- 0
Summer tells of harvests, the sweetness of life on sun-drenched terraces, golden beaches and heat-swept cities. But in the universal memory, another story persists, heavy and vivid: the victory landings in France.
When you hear the word "landings", the name of verdant Normandy immediately springs to mind. But there were other landings, with more or less happy fates. In this month that celebrates the 80th anniversary of the event that changed the course of our contemporary history, Loc'Hall invites you to take a walk down memory lanelight and serious.
Let's visit venues heritage and cultural sites marked by a double history: theirs and that of the thousands of combatants in this war which, no, was definitely not fun. For a moment, let's remember. These men and women of all origins: too often at the cost of their lives, they gave back their freedom to the exceptional sites we love so much. In these venues, the extra soul is tinged with the scent of broom, blue and green reflections, and the tutelary shadow of the most beautiful avenue in the world. A stroll through venues Loc'Hall, on the road to our victories.
Contents
In Normandy, a landing for history
June 6, 1944, Operation Overlord: the bitter battle for freedom begins in the merciless waters of an icy dawn. A symbolic date, the Longest Day was only a stage, albeit a crucial one, in the interminable road to final victory. At the end of D-Day, thousands of dead littered the landing beaches. In all, some 73,000 Allied soldiers lost their lives in the great battle of Normandy. A heavy price, which opens the gates of eternity to them.
80 years later, in the cemeteries of white crosses that make Normandy a little corner of America, the walker swings between sorrow and gratitude in the memory of a landing for history. An unmissable visit to venues is an exceptional and forever inseparable part of this French period, between bravery and infamy: how many heroic Resistance fighters were there in those troubled times? Who remembers that with a few valiant companions, a certain Charles Gilles, accountant of the sublime Benedictine Palacedefended the town of Fécamp valiantly, keeping the Wehrmacht at bay for hours on end.
The Mont-Saint-Michel was also to experience a strange war: a town of peace invaded by the winds of an absurd conflict, venues a place of worship that became a holiday resort for occupying troops, then the final refuge for routed German soldiers. The mountain was liberated in July 1944, without weapons having spoken, and without hatred.
Exactly under the sun: in Provence, the last landings
It's too sunny in Cézanne's beloved South of France: the landscape is hardly suited to war! Is this why the Provence landings of August 15, 1944 didn't make as much of an impression as Manet's Normandy landings and the gardens the Impressionists' beloved gardens?
However, it was in Provence that the motley crew of the B army created its legend. Made up of African and colonial battalions and Free Frenchmen, it made an outstanding contribution to the success ofOperation Dragoon, bringing Allied troops even closer to final victory.. And if, nowadays, friendly Germanic hordes peacefully disembark each year in the high venues of Cannesor discover Mediterranean culture at Marseille's Marseilles Citadela sublime seafront museum, we owe it all to this army of circumstance, soon to become France's first army.
... but Paris, liberated: in the footsteps of victory
On August 25, 1944, General de Gaulle, standing on the square in front of the town hall of a capital restored to the light, exclaimed, in accents that still resonate in our memories: "Paris!Paris! Paris outraged! Paris brisé! Paris martyred! But Paris liberated! Liberated by itself, liberated by its people with the help of the armies of France, with the support and help of the whole of France, the France that fights, the only France, the true France, the eternal France."
The long march down the Champs-Élysées was not the end of the war - it officially ended on September 2, 1945 - but the return of hope. Paris rediscovers a taste for happiness, and for a few hours, we forget about settling scores that will in turn lead to much suffering. It was a time for joy, for young, handsome Gi's who could be kissed with their mouths watering as they handed out chewing gum and chocolate bars to children who had forgotten their childhood.
In the streets decked out in tricolor cockades, people are laughing, singing and dancing. In a Paris the wolves have deserted, monuments are regaining their color and function as sublime ornaments for the world's most beautiful city. Soon, we'll be back to breakfasts atop the Arc de Triomphe. Tomorrow, we'll be strolling down the Champs-Élysées again, stopping to enjoy a macaroon a macaroon at Laduréeand if war is re-enacted there, it's at the Studio de l'Étoile, now Club de l'Étoile.
Life, always, takes its course: in this uncertain June of 2024, Loc'Hall, the 1st BtoB platform for the privatization of venues heritage and cultural venuestakes a step aside. For a moment, we're leaving the shores of events for those of remembrance. We celebrate, in our own way, the armies of the Liberation: American, British, Canadian, Belgian, Danish, Dutch, Norwegian, African, Polish, Australian and, of course, French. All have left their footprints on the road to victory. So that tomorrow, light will triumph over darkness.
Your next event in the footsteps of the Liberation!
