Editor's blog June 2007

You can live in many parts of the world without giving WW2 much thought. Not so in Normandy. Virtually every town, village, field and crossroads has a story to tell. Anyone over the age of seventy remembers both occupation and invasion - the sight of foreign soldiers on their land. Farmers still regularly turn up the detritus of war - indeed an unexploded 500lb bomb was found just last month on the edge of the A 84.

But as the numbers of veterans and witnesses dwindle, Normandy wants to ensure that the event which changed the course of the war is not forgotten after the few remaining participants are gone. Whilst not ignoring the fallen, the idea is to promote the idea of June 6 as Normandy Day and put the accent less on commemoration and more on a celebration of freedom.

A cynic might suggest that the motive is also not to lose the significant revenues generated by both military tourism and a big June event. But Normandy’s tragedy was the war and certainly today’s Normans are at least as entitled to reap some benefit as, say, shopkeepers in Stratford-upon-Avon whose tills rattle because William Shakespeare was born there.

Encouraging us to celebrate freedom - and to understand the price paid for it - is the right way ahead. It is also an enormous challenge.

It is very difficult to get people to appreciate what they have always enjoyed. Citizens of the former Soviet Union were appalled at how lightly Western visitors treated their free access to information and knowledge. Today’s Russian teenagers have no concept of a grandparent’s terror waiting for a midnight knock on the door. Can someone who has never been short of money really understand what it is like to go without? One who has never been hungry appreciate the luxury of a well stocked ’fridge? If you have never lived under a dictator can you understand the fear generated by the sight of a uniform?

Most of us are lucky to have known only freedom of choice and well stocked bellies. So it up to us to make an extra effort to try and appreciate how fortunate we are and grasp what it is we are celebrating.

It is when we don’t, of course, that the mistakes of history are repeated.

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Two years ago, three of us started talking about launching a magazine. One year ago, having (almost) got to grips with the paperwork involved and having found our wonderful printers, we launched the first issue of the Rendezvous and wondered if anyone would be interested?
The response was overwhelmingly positive and today we print our anniversary edition and the company has doubled in size. We are pleased that those who initially dismissed the magazine as a “separatist Brit” venture see that that was never the intention; we are delighted to count many French among our readers and subscribers.

The success of the Rendezvous is thanks to you, our readers, our advertisers and all those who have voluntarily helped us out in so many ways. Thank you.