What's up at home today...?

Southern Ontario, about 9:30 this morning


I see a bit of a difference...

Indeed, i don't see any shoes...


EDIT : On the other hand, seriously, this kind of landscape is very similar to those you got here when you go inside the lands, leaving the coasts.

This better?


My entire collection of Converse, right there.

Ahh, i see, a real volunteer for the infantry...

Are you kidding me? somebody could get hurt!

To be honest, I got my first pair of Converse (the plain red ones) after first watching David Tennant on Doctor Who

And you are right about the landscapes, Southern Canada is a lot like Europe. It's a bit flat in the middle, though.

70th aniversary of D-Day


Lads, here you can listen to this testimony from Léon Gautier, one of the last veteran of French Kieffer commando still alive.



I provide the translation



- We never forget, eh... To make completely the landing, it's as if we had lived a [full] war for us. All, we all are the same, eh. We remember very well ourselves what it passed. We had a work. We were 177 French, we were connected with N°4 Franco - British and we had for mission to take all these defenses. The troop 1 had to take the casino. During this time, the troop 8 to which I belonged, freed 1.8 kilometers of beach, up to here, there. See, that represents... We landed at 07:23 AM, at 11:30 AM everything was ended. In four hours, four and half, 1.8 km of beach, see...


(01:00 Journalist question fade... The old veteran speaks about his fallen comrades)

- Of course, that that marks, especially when it's about good friends. But finally, well, we had a work to be made, we made it, that's all. We were well trained to make it and it passed well. We landed with one meter precision, we had very good sailors who brought us, that it passed exactly as what was planned.

Happy moments? Well, we are satisfied to be in France, of course. But the unfortunate moments, when we lose good friends. I had friends since 1940, which had joined de Gaulle with me, you see, i had friends since this time. Then, when we lose them, necessarily... You know, after four or five years together, we made a family, eh...

What surprised me, when we made the attack in these trenches, there, I found a couple who had put themselves in shelters in the base of their house, there, hidden and slept inside, there, and she says: " Wow, what we are going to take when you will have left! ". And I answered her:
" We do not leave ". But you, remain there quiet, you are under good cover, stay there, it's better.


- People didn' t understand that it...

- No, they found strange and funny that we were French and that we spoke French to them

- And they didn' t understand that it was the real landing ? The liberation, the end ?

- No not no, they believed that it was a raid, as there was on Dieppe or somewhere else, you see? But here, it was the good one.
We did not intend to reembark.