Grandcamp-Maisy, france - June 10, 2008

In November 1972, the commune formerly known as Grandcamp-les-Bains amalgamated with the adjacent village of Maisy forming a new entity of 1,750 people, named Grandcamp-Maisy. Today, Grandcamp-Maisy is an active fishing port, with a fish market, a post office and the inevitable boulangerie.
Back in WWII however, both Grandcamp-les-Bains and Maisy, housed ferocious gun batteries that formed part of Hitler's Atlantic Wall - the intended impregnable coastal defenses against an Allied amphibious attack. The first battery, known as La Martine, was equipped with four, 100 mm Czech cannon, with a range of about 6 miles. La Perruque, the second emplacement 1/3 mile to the east, bristled with four, 155 mm French howitzers, with a range close to 7 miles. These French guns, commandeered by the Germans, were actually a holdover from World War I, a quarter of a century earlier. Both sites were protected by mine fields, and anti aircraft emplacements. We stayed overnight in a gruesome campsite right on the ocean or, more accurately, the English Channel. More pictures of this quaint town here.