Category: Informations
As every year, the re-enactment of an exodus will precede the arrival of the Carentan Liberty March!
If you’d like to take part, meet up on Saturday June 7 at 3:00 pm on the esplanade of the Aquadick swimming pool, arriving at Place du Grand Valnoble at 4:00 pm!
This event will once again be eagerly awaited, as it pays tribute to the civilian victims of war and to the people forced to take to the roads to flee the fighting.
It is therefore important for participants to maintain the seriousness and attention to detail for which the re-enactment of the Carentan exodus is renowned:
- Sober attire
- No lipstick
- No pin-up
- No ballroom/wedding attire
- No weapons
- No Resistance armbands
The organization reserves the right to refuse anyone who does not meet these criteria.
If you’d like to take part but are unsure about what to wear, don’t hesitate to ask the question via Messenger on the Carentan 1944 page.
La Barquette Parachute Drops by RCPT and US Army
Parachuting by the RCPT association and the US Army, Saturday June 7, 2025 :
- Drop zone Goodgal, Route de Saint-Côme, 50500 Carentan-les-Marais
- Starts at 10:00 am
- Catering on site
Grand Bal de la Libération
Grand Bal de la Libération at the Salle du Haut-Dick, 50500 Carentan-les-Marais, Saturday 7th June, 2025:
- Concert by the 101st Airborne Band, the Carentan Municipal Band and Madeeson & Co
Admission 12€ – Online ticketing at: https://carentanlesmarais.vostickets.net/billet/
Doors open at 7:30pm / Start at 8:30pm
Large dance floor
Catering
Dress code appreciated
As part of the festivities to mark the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings, the commune of Carentan-les-Marais is announcing the introduction of free shuttles to facilitate travel for visitors and residents during the first two weekends of the month. The shuttles will run on June 1 and 2 and June 8 and 9, from 9am to 10pm.
Two shuttles will run every hour, one from each museum, ensuring a regular connection between the various stops and smoothing the arrival of visitors to the commune.
The commune of Carentan-les-Marais invites all visitors to make the most of this free service to reduce the number of vehicles circulating in the town center in particular. To this end, 7 parking lots will be available for cars from Saturday June 1 to Sunday June 9, and 3 motorhome parks from Friday May 31 to Sunday June 9.
🔥 This Sunday, May 12, around 5:00 pm, La Flamme de la Liberté is passing through Carentan-les-Marais!
📍 On a 2km course from Carré de Choux, Route de Saint-Côme, to Place de la République. 44 runners (22 boys and 22 girls) will carry the Flame to the Carentan War Memorial.
💥 All Carentan runners are welcome to join the procession. The Flame of Liberty will remain in Carentan’s Notre-Dame church until Sunday June 9, 2024 and the ecumenical celebration.
To find out more about the Flame of Liberty: https://carentan1944.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Communique-de-presse-Flamme-de-la-liberte.pdf
As every year during the commemorations of D-Day, the US Army and the town of Carentan-les-Marais are organizing a parachute drop along the legendary “Purple Heart Lane” linking Carentan to Saint-Côme-du-Mont on Sunday June 2!
A not-to-be-missed highlight of the 80th anniversary of the Normandy Landings!
Denis van den Brink publishes a book retracing his history, to be found at In Octavo Editions
The exceptional testimony of a hundred-year-old American veteran!
I don’t know if this modest book really does justice to the man Tom Rice is. He personifies and
He personifies and embodies in the most beautiful way the GI of the Second World War, this “Greatest Generation” dear to the heart of the Americans.
Descendant of French immigrants, he could have, like his fellow citizens of Italian, German, Polish, Greek origin… lost interest in the endless European conflicts. But his ancestors had left everything behind 160 years earlier to build a better life in America, free of all ideology and less affected, they hoped, by injustice.
It was this American dream, this ideal of a life based on the realization of one’s potential and intimate dreams that Tom and his millions of comrades spontaneously wanted to defend in 1941. Even if it meant sacrificing 3 years of his youth. Even if it means experiencing the terrible fury and blood of a devastating and merciless war. Even if it meant risking death or mutilation.
He came back, mute on his sufferings, deaf to his past, and totally turned towards the future. Is it the harshness of a childhood lived in the heart of the Great American Depression, is it the merciless selection to become a paratrooper, is it the conviction that life is fragile and must be lived happily from day to day, that makes Tom Rice this rock of optimism and good humor?
In any case, he remains an inspiration and an example, as do all his brothers in arms.
Denis van den Brink
