A Sunsoaked Village in the Limousin

Last Thursday we visited a charming small French town of about 1200 residents, quite typical of many French country towns. It has a couple of cafés, bars, a dentist, two small garages, even a blacksmith. It has a charming little church, with stained glass windows and a sunny grass square in the middle. It also has the distinction of a narrow-gauge tramway to the county town.
   Some time ago, the Authorities in charge of this little burg decided to hold a census and assembled all the inhabitants, men women and children in the grassy town square. The citizens duly assembled, no doubt laughing and joking, were counted and then the men were divided into three groups in separate buildings, while the ladies and their children were gathered in the church. Then at a given signal, all were cut down with machine-gun, rifle and hand grenades fire. Petrol from the garages was used to set fire to all the houses and the church. Only a handful of the citizens escaped....
  You can see what remains of this little place in the following photos.

  Yes, I expect you've guessed, this village is the town of Oradour sur Glane, over 600 of the citizens were murdered by the Nazis seventy years ago. The town was never rebuilt on its previous site, which has been preserved to remind posterity of the dreadful deeds carried out by the SS 'Das Reich' on unarmed civilians in reprisal for an ambush by the Resistance. I defy anyone to visit the site and remain un-moved, I had tears in my eyes several times and we still seemed to smell smoke in the air after seventy years have passed.  A sobering thought is that things have not changed much, some of the scenes in Gaza look very familiar, whatever the rights and wrongs of the situation out there.

Bye for now, trying to wash away memory with a cup of tea......

This little girl's pram still remains in front of the Church altar