BigBlue

In building our detail travel logs over the years both my wife and I drew a blank when it came to remembering the name of a village in Normandy on the banks of the Seine where we had seen and taken photos of at least one major wall sculpture of a WWII fighter plane's propeller. Alas, those photos are lost but I've been looking for new ones. When I realized I had also lost the name of the village I called upon a good friend in Normandy to do some detective work for me and this is what he sent me:

"After some investigations it appears that the place you describe is most probably Les Andelys.

The propeller and wings rock carvings would refer to a very famous French Air Force squadron "Normandie Niemen", created in 1942 by de Gaulle to fight jointly with the Russians. This squadron was under French command as a unit of the French Air Force. When created the squadron had 60 people of which 15 pilots ( the most brilliant of them was born in Les Andelys). The aircrafts were Yak fighters. All pilots were French and achieved nearly 300 victories . At the end of the war they came back to France with their aircrafts as a gift from Russians. At the initiative of the norman pilot's brother a memorial dedicated to the squadron was created in 1992 in Les Andelys. It has been moved now to the French Air Force Museum in Le Bourget near Paris

At the end of the street you were following, you had to take a 90 degrees turn away from the river because of Saint Sauveur church, built at the beginning of the thirteenth century at the period when a well-known old castle Château Gaillard was erected by Richard Coeur de Lion, King of England and Duke of Normandy, on the bank of the Seine river close to Les Andelys."

The second paragraph refers to my statement to him in my query that we recalled having to take a 90 degree turn away from the river because of a church.

Does anyone have a photo of the stone carvings there which you might be willing to share, please?

Many thanks,
MisterBuster

PalenQ

how precious - thanks for sharing!

PalenQ

topping

latedaytraveler

Hi BIGBLUE,

Have you checked out these pics on google images?

https://www.google.com/search?site=&...rial+Museum%2C

BigBlue

latedaytraveler, thanks very much for the link. Unfortunately the image I've been seeking is not shown there. My wife and I both have a vivid recollection of the sculpted propeller and we think it was carved into the hillside right off the main road through town.

PalenQ

https://www.google.com/search?q=Les+...=1600&bih=1075

Images of Les Andelys show show statues of planes but did not check all of them for what you recall seeing.

BigBlue

Thanks very much, PalenQ. No joy there but your effort is very much appreciated.

Perhaps we just imagined it all in a parallel universe...