We're at Norauto to get the hire-car tyre fixed
Cité de lar Mer and a Dakota Flight Home, Cherbourg - 7th June 2026
At the invitation of none other than Nicholas Witchell, both the Aero Legends Dakotas that we're hanging out with had been due to do a fly-over of the British memorial behind Gold beach, however French air traffic has shut down all civilian flights around the entire area, putting paid to that plan. Worse than that, there had been rumours that one of the US squadrons wanted to do some sort of combined Dakota/Hercules flypast with the deal being that the C-47 crew, including Nosher, Clive and the Essex Massive, would get to do a "ramp ride" on a Herc, which would have been obviously pretty amazing in its own right. Hey ho. Anyway, the weather's also taken a turn for the worse so we do an indoor activity in the shape of the Cité de la Mer museum not far away from the hotel in Cherbourg. This includes the retired French nuclear submarine Le Redoutable, which as well as interesting is unexpectedly enormous; an exhibition about the Titanic, hinging on the fact that the doomed ship stopped off at Cherbourg on its fateful voyage; and a nice aquarium section. There's also a good display of deep-sea submersibles in the impressive Art Deco former port railway station, built in 1933. The next day, it's the journey home, which Clive's moved up a day, partly because it means we actually get to fly back on the other of the two Dakotas - Drag 'em Oot, a veteran of the actual Normandy parachute drops as part of the USAAF's 87th Troop Carrier squadron, in what is a lovely, smooth flight over the Channel. Finally, on the drive home, Nosher and Clive stop off to see Robert's impressive collection of vintage coaches at his depot in Essex.
previous album: A D-Day Veteran's Dakota Flight, Cherbourg, Normandy - 5th June 2026
We visit the Le Redoutable nuclear submarine
Paul and Robert look at submarine stuff
Lots of dials and submarine machinery
The submarine is properly huge
Massive insulated pipes
The top floor of the missile room
Red light in the control room
A view of the control room, or 'conn'
A submarine head - the bog
A very 60s/70s officer's day room
Looking up through the conning tower
The crew's mess room
A stark view of Le Redoutable
Robert does some sort of simulation
Old retractable gangways at Cherbourg
The former railway terminal
We're in a sea-based exhibition
Fish in a tank
A giant aquarium
Jellyfish blob about in a tank
A seahorse drifts by
A big spotty fish
Lots of tiny blue/green fishies
The cruise ship looks like a massive block of flats
Deap-sea submersibles in La Cité de la Mer
The breakfast room of the Louvre Hotel
The Hôtel du Louvre
The Rue Henri Dunant
A private jet has someone important on it
James is on his merchandise stall again
Pegasus the Dakota
Clive gets a photo
Craig checks the engine oil levels
Clive sits on one of the aircraft seats
Clive does a spot of window cleaning
The inside windows get a bit of a clean
Get 'em Oot's cockpit and flightdeck
Pegasus loads up with more parachutists
Willjo givers a thumbs-up
Pegasus starts engine number one
Cherbourg airport is full of paratroopers again
A C-130 loads up with paratroopers
Paul hauls his luggage across the airfield
A Hercules goes through engine start up
We walk over to Get 'em Oot
A view of the runway as we turn onto it
A view of Normandy over the engine nacelle
The beaches of Normandy
Clive's got the jump seat for the flight back
An oil flap and a hundred rivets
There's light around the door
We fly over huge algal blooms in the Channel
On the flight deck of Drag 'em Oot
We cross the English coast
The river at Chichester
The QEII bridge at Dartford
The grim industrialism of the Dartford Crossing
The M11 near North Weald
Back on the ground at North Weald
Drag 'em Oot is parked up by the hangar
We stop for a drink at Rosey Lee's café
A vintage coach is being cleaned
A Bedford Super Vega
A London Transport Routemaster
Clive roams around the coach sheds
The dashboard of a classic 1970s coach
A coach that's yet to be renovated
A nice collection of vintage coaches
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We're at Norauto to get the hire-car tyre fixed
We're at Norauto to get the hire-car tyre fixed
We visit the Le Redoutable nuclear submarine
Paul and Robert look at submarine stuff
Lots of dials and submarine machinery
The submarine is properly huge
Massive insulated pipes
The top floor of the missile room
Red light in the control room
A view of the control room, or 'conn'
A submarine head - the bog
A very 60s/70s officer's day room
Looking up through the conning tower
The crew's mess room
A stark view of Le Redoutable
Robert does some sort of simulation
Old retractable gangways at Cherbourg
The former railway terminal
We're in a sea-based exhibition
Fish in a tank
A giant aquarium
Jellyfish blob about in a tank
A seahorse drifts by
A big spotty fish
Lots of tiny blue/green fishies
The cruise ship looks like a massive block of flats
Deap-sea submersibles in La Cité de la Mer
The breakfast room of the Louvre Hotel
The Hôtel du Louvre
The Rue Henri Dunant
A private jet has someone important on it
James is on his merchandise stall again
Pegasus the Dakota
Clive gets a photo
Craig checks the engine oil levels
Clive sits on one of the aircraft seats
Clive does a spot of window cleaning
The inside windows get a bit of a clean
Get 'em Oot's cockpit and flightdeck
Pegasus loads up with more parachutists
Willjo givers a thumbs-up
Pegasus starts engine number one
Cherbourg airport is full of paratroopers again
A C-130 loads up with paratroopers
Paul hauls his luggage across the airfield
A Hercules goes through engine start up
We walk over to Get 'em Oot
A view of the runway as we turn onto it
A view of Normandy over the engine nacelle
The beaches of Normandy
Clive's got the jump seat for the flight back
An oil flap and a hundred rivets
There's light around the door
We fly over huge algal blooms in the Channel
On the flight deck of Drag 'em Oot
We cross the English coast
The river at Chichester
The QEII bridge at Dartford
The grim industrialism of the Dartford Crossing
The M11 near North Weald
Back on the ground at North Weald
Drag 'em Oot is parked up by the hangar
We stop for a drink at Rosey Lee's café
A vintage coach is being cleaned
A Bedford Super Vega
A London Transport Routemaster
Clive roams around the coach sheds
The dashboard of a classic 1970s coach
A coach that's yet to be renovated
A nice collection of vintage coaches