Danielle DUBOSCQ

I have always worked in the Tourism industry (in both America and Normandy) but I finally decided after being a guide for 15 years, the time to retire had come for me… And although I just turned 80 years old last year, I am still in great condition and I realize how much I miss my American clients ! I recently gave 2 presentations to American groups in a big château-hotel as well as in a local restaurant.
The applause and favorable comments I received when I finished my presentation (between 20/30 minutes) gave me the idea to renew this experience, much less tiring for me than a full day tour…

I live in Bayeux and what I do is present the story of my parents : how in 1944 they escaped from Carentan to take refuge at my grand mother’s farm in St Jean de Daye as they could hear the bombing going on the nearby beaches. In 1940 my father was working at the Carentan train-station and he was a member of the French Resistance often putting the wagons full of German amunition on the wrong tracks and also with other members going through the roof of a warehouse where the Germans were storing some of their food : big bags of flour, sugar etc …they would cut the bottom of these bags so the content would spill on the floor (but my father always said that it didnt put the local population in danger of retaliation by the Germans)

At some point, he was put in the Caen jail by the Germans for a whole month and later on in the one in Saint Lô for 2 months. My mother was almost 8 months pregnant with me at the time. It was American soldiers who took her to the hospital to give birth to me ! Until the liberation my father lived most of the time hiding. But he was formed as a paratrooper by American soldiers in St Avold and it was during a jump on May 8th 1945 that he learned that the war was over.

I also add a few anecdotes about my life in Texas and some well-known people I met : for exemple in the sixties when I shook General De Gaulle’s hand and in 1987 in Caen where I was the Tourism Director ( 10 year): Prince Charles (now king of England)and Lady Diana. When I met Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks at the Cherbourg airport and was their guide and driver. I also try to add some humoristic details which I tell at the right time !

Danielle DUBOSCQ