8 Mai 1945
Le 8 mai 1945 est la date de deux événements historiques marquants :
La victoire des Alliés sur l’Allemagne nazie et la fin de la Seconde Guerre mondiale en Europe marquée par l’annonce de la capitulation de l’Allemagne.
Ce jour est appelé le « V-E Day » pour « Victory in Europe Day».

May 8, 1945 is the date of two historical events:
The Allied victory over Nazi Germany and the end of the Second World War in Europe marked by the announcement of the surrender of Germany.
This day is called “VE Day” for “Victory in Europe Day .”

Today I attended the Victoire 1945 ceremony in the small town of Aigurande, France. I was particularly keen to attend having missed out on attending ourvAnzac Day dawn service. All my attempts to find out from shopkeepers the previous day if there was going to be a ceremony, and if so when and where, were met with blank stares (note to self, brush up on war ceremony vocab) so it was lucky that on our trip into the town to buy our daily baguette we happened to notice a group of elderly gentlemen, some wearing medals, gathering at the town hall. This time I was lucky enough to find someone who’s war ceremony English was better than my war ceremony French, and also as luck would have it, we were just time for the ceremony.
It wasn’t a gathering as big as our Anzac Day ceremonies, attended mostly by elderly men and women and their families, with just a small gaggle of onlookers, and of course I only understood a smattering of what was said, but the feeling was the same.
As I watched the elderly men and women I wondered what their memories of the war were. Some of them would have been around the same age as my mother and aunty, whose memories were mostly of going down into the bunkers at Beaconsfield School in Fremantle with their gas mask, water and barley sugar when the air raid sirens went, and my aunty getting into trouble for eating her barley sugar. That story has been told over and over in our family, but I am sure there are stories that were never again told amongst these French men and women.

French flags around town

The war memorial in the town square


Gathering for the ceremony


This guy seemed to be the organizer but I just wanted to yell at him “Don’t let the flag touch the ground!”


Not sure who these guys were, cadets I think


Laying wreaths


Congratulations on receiving a medal, unfortunately I don’t know what the medal is.


Good to see young children involved


Salute to La Marseillaise, the French National Anthem