To celebrate the good weather this weekend (the temperature was over 16C both days), we spent the time outdoors. As usual, Yolanda and David had their tennis lessons on Saturday (Andrew and David played soccer too). On Sunday we went to Toulon to do Mount Faron, the formerly fortified hill behind the port part of town. The fortifications are mostly ruins (in worse shape than Nice's), but there is a very scenic (and very scary) drive up the mountain and ample hiking trails dotting it. For the less adventurous, you can park your car at the bottom and take the cable car up.
We first visited the Fauverie du Faron, i.e. the Toulon Zoo, which is almost completely cats. They have the usual lions and tigers, leopards and panthers, but they also have many other less-common cats, including the most endangered lynx in the world (the Iberian Lynx), servals, caracals, jungle cats (Felis chaus), and ocelots. Unfortunately, this is an old-style zoo with animals in small habitats - it's good for viewing, but not healthy for the animals.
We then backtracked to the Mémorial du débarquement de Provence (if you're looking for it, follow the signs for "téléphérique", as it is right by the cable-car station). When someone says "D-Day" now, it generally refers to 6 June, but the term was a generic one for the starting point of any military operation. Appropriately enough, it's "Jour-J" in French. Jour-J for Operation Dragoon, the American-French landings in Provence, was 15 August 1944. Of course, the Nazis had their hands full with Patton and Monty in Normandy, so resistance was less in Provence and the landings were only lightly opposed. Toulon was chosen to host a Dragoon memorial-museum on Mount Faron, which is small but interesting. One thing we learned was that there were 1200 Canadians (landing at Hyères) and two Canadian ships involved (HMCS Prince Henry and Prince David). The museum has a room for each nation involved including the British and Canadians, which is nice considering they were minor participants. There are the usual maps, models, and equipment pieces as well. Outside are three large pieces: a 7.5cm PaK 40 (German anti-tank gun), a Free French Sherman M1A1 tank, and an American 90mm M1 AA gun.
No comments:
Post a Comment