Bastogne seemed like a long bus ride from where we were at Sainte-Mère-Église . Truth in advertising, after looking at a map, it really seems that nowhere in that area of the tour is really that far. But, then again, I am in a very nice tour bus, watching a movie, not slugging it out on the ground in pitched battles. Those who were there talk about distances in terms of yards. Distances were measured in days, not movie lengths.
We finally got there and checked in to the hotel (BTW - if you have not been in a European hotel, you are in for a treat, especially on a hot, humid August night with no air conditioning).
Even though the town is obviously changed and recovered from the war, the heritage is pretty much every where you look. There are American tanks and monuments throughout the countryside, sitting in silent testimony to the fight. They are clean, no graffiti spray painted on them (like we saw on a lot of other things in France on the way to Normandy) and the area is neat and there is no trash blowing around. Several times our guides told us how the Americans were still held in high esteem here for the efforts and sacrifices of our forefathers. That is not so much the case in the rest of France. Didn't feel the love.
Our group was pretty much on its own to explore the town of Bastogne. The pictures will pretty much show you what we saw. I would have to say Bastogne was quite a town.
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| The American tank in the center of town is quite a monument to the sacrifices of the soldiers who fought here. The towns people I talked to (mostly waiters at the restaurants and bars, along with a couple of shopkeepers) really treated us well and went out of their way to talk to us about the battles, monuments and take good care of us in their establishment. BTW, the tank is pointed toward the battlefields. |
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| These three pictures were just a few of the "sculptures" in the square. This was obviously an artisan's hometown. It was interesting to see all of the different things that were used to make these pieces of art. |
An area that really got our attention was a part of the main street, a bit removed from the square. As you can see from the picture, they strung up colorful umbrellas for the whole length of this section. We saw it and wondered what it was, so Keith and I went down there and found several shops and lots of eating establishments. We went into one, a pizza place, and ordered dinner. Boy were we surprised. We each ordered a pizza and when they came out, there were 4 of them. Seems that their custom is that one person orders for both of the people, and since we both ordered different kinds of pizza, they just assumed we were ordering four of them. Oh well, we were certainly hungry and the pies weren't that big - kinda like a small or medium in the US. We really had a good time there and some of my old high school and college French came in handy. The owner of the pizza place said the umbrellas were an attempt to draw tourists down to this part of the village.
The streets were really narrow and there was not much room for cars and buses. With all of the war damage, it was probably hard for military vehicles (tanks especially) to make their way through during the battles.
Below are a couple of short videos that might also help one visualize what the town went through.
Original Film Footage of Bastogne WWII
There are several other videos on YouTube that can give you a great deal of background on this town and the battles that took place during the Bulge. Most/some of them have ads, but you can click out of those and continue on with the video.
"Whoever said the pen is mightier than the sword obviously never encountered automatic weapons." (D. MacArthur)
Hooah
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