Motorbikes and the Dordogne

What I did today

As you can see from the photo, today was a lovely warm day. At around 22 C, I went into the local town Rouffignac-st-Cernin. The picture above shows the church and the building next to it. These are the only two building to survive the war. After a confrontation with the local resistance during the war, the German army destroyed the village. They first made the inhabitants gather together all their sheets and blankets, loaded them onto a few trucks, and made the mayor write notices saying that they were a gift from hte people of Rouffignac to the people of Germany - as if they had a choice!
The Germans then forced the people out of the town and destroyed it.
This is the plaque that is in the entrance to the Mairie (town hall), which commemorates the crime. Note that it reads Nazis and not Germans. Many of these memorials did at one time read German, but were changed in later times to read Nazis.
The town war memorial, which lists all the sacrifices that this place made during both world wars.
This is the market building that was built when the town was rebuilt, just to the right of the blue bus stop sign there is a stone stating that this ist the place of 31st March 1944. Very sad, but not something that we should forget.
A picture of the Mairie building. There are fantastic views over the hills behind this and in some directions one can see for 20 or 30 miles.
When I got home I decided to fit a digital voltmeter into the car. I was lucky enough to get one that fits into the small shelf just below the radio on the left. Why? you may ask, well, I have got to have something to do and I love anything technical.

posted by madman @ 10:37 pm