Café Gondrée
The Café Gondrée today Pegasus Bridge Café , is a small cafe in the French community Bénouville . It is located directly at the Pegasus Bridge on the west bank of the Caen Canal . The red, two-story brick building was the first French house to be liberated on D-Day .
history
The building was erected at the end of the 19th century. At the time of the nightly liberation by three British paratroopers from D Company of the British 6th Airborne Division of Major John Howard on June 6, 1944 at 0.20 a.m., the café was run by Georges (1898–1969) and Thérèse Gondrée (1904–1984) , the parents of "Madame" Arlette Pritchett-Gondrée.
Todays use
The building is still used as a café. Since June 5, 1987, it has been one of the listed monuments historiques .
When the bridge was rebuilt in 1994 (on the 50th anniversary of the conquest), the café was about to close and the museum was cleared.
Others liberated places and buildings
According to other versions, there are other places and buildings that claim to have been liberated first. Including Sainte-Mère-Église , Bayeux and Ajaccio .
See also
Footnotes
Web links
- Pegasusarchive.org: The Gondrée Family (English)
- Zeit Online: The Second Battle
- Heise.de: You couldn't see the sea
- Photo album and newspaper clippings on pegasusbridge.fr
- Interior of the cafe
Coordinates: 49 ° 14 ′ 32.7 " N , 0 ° 16 ′ 29.9" W.