Berneval and a bit of Dieppe

During World War II, little Berneval-le-Grand was nearly leveled. Of the 210 buildings that were there before the war, 135 were destroyed.  

So whenever I catch site of one of the remaining old homes, I pay attention.

Here's one:

Many of the old buildings and walls were constructed with stones from the sea walls interspersed with brick. 

Below you'll see just part of the foundation of the home that used to be here. Where did the people go, I asked? Oh, they were evacuated during the war, said Marie. Yeah, but later on, when they came home? Can you imagine?

Here's another one of the survivors. Look at the interesting mix of brick and stone in the wall:

Darn privacy hedge! Looks like a charming house hiding behind all that green. 

 

Here's another one of the remaining pre-war houses. They had a good time playing with the bricks.

The center of town was almost totally destroyed in the war. The photo below shows you the center of town today. There's that one house behind the hedge...

Pretty flowers. There's a post office and a town hall. A new church built where the old one once stood. Not many stores — there's a boulangerie-pâtisserie and a little épicerie. There's a bar, but it closes around 7:00 pm and is never open on Wednesdays. No café in town, no library. No place to hook up to internet. (Says she who was desperate for a few days!)

But there's plenty of life! Here's a lovely piece of art about half a block away from Marie's home, made by children under the supervision of a local artist. (Reminds me a bit of the children's mosaics in the Kids' Garden at Troy.)

And another piece of art made by children with an artist.  Notice the sailboats way off in the distance.

Fishing is still going strong here. There's a tiny little shop nearby where we stopped to get some fish. Marie bought some sole — that smaller flat fish, so lovely and delicate. The woman who sold us the fish said her son had just caught it yesterday.

Look real hard in the photo below and you can see the remains of that German bunkhouse that fell into the sea about 50 years ago:

The seashore here brought artists to Berneval. Many impressionist painters lived here for a while. And Oscar Wilde took a room in a hotel here for several months in 1897.

Marie and I set off to drive into Dieppe. On the way we came across another old German blockhouse.

Just before you come into Dieppe, there's a little fishermen's church overlooking the sea.

The detail in the brickwork is lovely.

Inside, it's small and very peaceful.

But then, you look at the side walls and see that they're covered with memorial plaques.

Here's a relatively recent one for a fisherman who was lost at sea in December of 1968. The work of a fisherman is, indeed, dangerous.  The plaque begins, "To our son and grandson, Pierre Quedrue,...." 

Doesn't your heart break?

And here's one for a 20-year-old kid who died fighting in Argonne in 1915 during the first World War. Starts out, "In memory of my son..."

The oldest memorials dated back to the 1800s.

I found this place unbearably sad. Could not hold back the tears.

To be continued...  on a lighter note!