La Route de la 15 Aôut - Operation Dragoon(a)

It's been one of those weekends that you just want never to end. Of course clear blue skies and bright sunshine always help and we've had plenty of that, or at least as much light as you can have in each day as we hurtle towards the solstice. As it is also our second last weekend I guess there is an air of finality about too..

I've been fascinated with what went on down here during world war 2 since my dad found this plaque on Rayol Beach commemorating the first landing of troops there. My appetite was further whetted by the gun emplacements in Les Salins, just up the road from us.

I did some research on the web and while it threw back the usual 16,890,427 results I was barking up the wrong tree with my search words and was therefore 16,890,427 marks wide of the target.

Last week I tried another search and found this site detailing 'Operation Anvil' which was later to be renamed as Operation Dragoon. The site gives details of the background, build up, landings and aftermath of the Allied invasion of the South of France on August 15th 1944.

Reading through it I started to piece together some of the things we've seen during our stay here and thought that it might be interesting to visit all of the places that featured in the invasion.

First up on Saturday was Fort de la Vigie on I'le du Port Cros. The weather forecast for the crossing was windy but in actual fact it wasn't too bad and I think it was really interesting for us finally to sail out of Hyeres Port and have a chance to look back at our home for pretty much the last 9 months.

Port Cros is much smaller that Porquerolles and bikes are not allowed. Its also much more mountainous, incredibly lush and amazingly tranquil. Maybe the tranquillity had something to do with us being the only visitors to the Island for that day. The captain of the boat laughed when we bought tickets!

We ended up visiting each of the forts and in true Paulunas style even found our way into one of them! .Well the gate was open and no one said don't come in here - until we met this fella and he told us it was 'Prive'. He didn't seem too mind so much so no harm done.

The trip back was rougher but I got some great shots of the sunset and coming into harbour in Hyeres.

Part Deux
Today we were again greeted by clear skies and while we didn't need to set off so early we got on the road fairly sharpish with the bikes on the back. First stop was Le Rayol where my addiction to swimming literally spilled over. I couldn't help myself. Calm water, my favourite place in the world, warm sunshine, soft sand, the middle of December. In I went with Una taking snaps of the proof. Two locals appeared on the beach about 15minutes after I got out asking if I had really got in the water. In my best french I told them it was 'un peu froid mais incroyable aussi', they did not need convincing. Those mad tourists...

In the invasion it was on this beach that the French Commandoes were landed. There is a much larger memorial on the road going west towards Cavalaire - it's on the route map shown. Apparently the Commandoes were supposed to land on Cap Negre (further to the West) but due to a navigational error and they came in here.

Next stop was Cap de la Vigie. This is a headland that overlooks Cavaliere sur Mer It also has sweeping views of the whole bay all the way To Cap Lardrier. I'm guessing there were some guns up here and with 1300 ships (juicy targets) in the vicinity you can understand the importance of taking this headland asap.

We could not find any memorials to any action up here, only big (big) houses with stunning views and quiet little hotels tucked sneakily away behind the rather dull main town.

The latest Hike Credits Rating poll results have me at an all time low. The trip to Port Cros was actually Una's idea so all I had to do was tag on the visit to Fort de la Vigie with no loss to any credits I have been accruing of late. Today I had a 'little' cycle planned from Cavalier to a beach called Gigaro. While techincally Gigaro had nothing to do with the landings I though it would be good to have a look at it and see if it would be worthy of a mention in the Pauluna plage top 5. This trip would require plenty of credits.

On the map the route looks flat and while I was immediately busted for saying it was only 2 kilometres (more like 7) thankfully Una didn't spot the 'gradient' changes and after a delightful lunch we set off at a very agreeable pace along a very smooth 'piste cyclable'.

The first few kilometres were fine, then we got to the first hill and operation Dragoona began! I'm being a little unfair here and in actual fact Una was a very willing participant on this and all of our other adventures. There were actually some tough little hills but we made it to Gigaro in one piece where I toyed with the idea of another swim but bailed as I was happier sitting in the sun!

As we walked on the beach Una spotted this plaque which made the trip really worthwhile. The return trip (as always) seemed shorter and there was no walking up the hills.

In Cavalier sur Mer which really was the centre of all the action on the 15August 1944 we found some more plaques. It is interesting how little attention is paid to this invasion compared to Normandy. Reading through the complete chain of events it seems to have been a very pivotal move for the Allies to make.

While up on Cap de la Vigie I noticed a very tall wooden rig in the harbour. Before leaving we popped over to have a look and it turned out to be Moonbeam, one of the classic J Class Yachts and also a boat I raced against in Cannes in Sept. I will leave it to Uffa Fox, arguably the greatest ever yacht designer to sum up:
"No matter whether she is under way or at anchor, Moonbeam is beautiful to look upon and, combining the speed of a racer with the comfort of a cruiser, is a vessel any sea-man would be proud to own."

Sure. We'll have 2 please.
We're playing Euro Millions next week.
P+U.x

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