Vaux under Chamigny - August 1944
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Since Vierville became inaccessible to us Parisians, my parents and I were putting ourselves in the green in a countryside close to Paris, on the banks of the Marne, with friends of Bonne-maman.
We had been there by train, taking two bikes. It was about the 1st of August. The Allies appeared to be engulfed in Normandy for a while.
We could swim in the river with the children of the house. We often began to see the US fighter-bombers who were looking for prey, locomotives or trucks, the Germans were only circulating at night. By day, only civilian fuel trucks from Paris were moving, dangerously, we had to watch the sky, and at least alert ourselves to the ditch.
There was a railway on the other side of the Marne, and one day I saw, running westward, a train of about sixty flat cars, all loaded with a brand new German tank, Tiger or Panther, each with its anti-aircraft machine gun, to deter allied aircraft.But very quickly we knew that the Americans had pierced in Avranches and were moving very quickly. If we stayed in Vaux, we could be afraid of seeing Paris liberated and we blocked in Vaux. We had to go back, but there was no train for Paris. We took the two bikes for us three, and started riding to Paris by exchanging a bike every 20 km. Not very practical. Finally, I remember that we got on a veggies truck that dropped us off at Pantin's door. There were still some metros (rare, they only stopped at the connecting stations to save electricity).
