Location 3 – The Café Gondrée

During the Second World War the café was owned by George Gondrée, his wife and their three daughters. Alerted by the noise of battle, the family watched transfixed from the top window of the café with George shouting occasional encouragement to the would-be liberators. When it was over, the enterprising café owner disinterred ninety-nine bottles of Champagne from the garden and distributed them amongst the grateful soldiery. The family and their home were the first in France to be liberated on D-Day and, after the war, the café became something of a “mecca” for airborne soldiers returning to visit the battlefields and beaches.

The current owner is Madame Arlette Gondrée, the youngest of the three daughters who was just four years old in 1944. The café still functions as such and the interior contains many interesting exhibits, and photographs of the period as well as selling numerous D-Day books and maps.