Day 22 - Tuesday, May 15th - Sarlat to Amboise

This morning we bid farewell to Sarlat and the Dordogne region and head for Amboise and the Loire Valley, known for its elegant castles and palaces (over a thousand in fact, and hundreds of them are open to the public).  We drive pretty much straight through to Amboise, making only one stop along the way in Oradour-sur-Glane.  While we saw many more beautiful sights on our trip than this, Oradour-sur-Glane was so powerful and moving that it wins the prize for photo of the day.

On June 10th, 1944, four days after the Normandy invasion, Nazi troops methodically rounded up the entire population of the town of Oradour-sur-Glane, known as "Village des Martyrs" and methodically gunned down 642 townspeople including men, women and children.  Next they set the village on fire leaving its victims under a blanket of ashes.  The town was been left untouched for more than 60 years as a reminder to visitors to simply" Remember"and never let an atrocity like this happen again.  We were visibly moved by the enormity of the carnage and the stoic resolve of the French to remember it is this graphic reminder.

Oradour-sur-Glane
"Remember"