D-Day cafe refuses to service the English

[John Lever]

Some people have very short memories

A Second World War tour guide has criticised a cafe overlooking Normandy’s Omaha beach, claiming it declined to serve a group of visiting British soldiers “because they are English”.

Creperie la Falaise, in Vierville-sur-Mer, sits near the famed coastline stormed by Allied troops on D-Day as they battled to liberate France from Nazi occupation.

With the landmark 80th anniversary of D-Day just weeks away, and despite local businesses being reliant on foreign visitors, battlefield guide Eugenie Brooks said the soldiers she took to the eatery were refused service.

“This cafe at Vierville Draw at Omaha Beach, in Normandy, refused to serve my British Army soldiers today as ‘they are English’,” she wrote on Twitter, adding: “An utter disgrace and I will never ever, ever take any of my tours there again.”

Ms Brooks said the group were “well-behaved junior soldiers all smartly dressed”. She said the incident left her “fuming”.

The American diner-themed cafe has pictures inside it showing the flags of the world, including Britain’s Union flag.

The cafe did not respond to calls from The Telegraph.

The group were far from the only ones to leave the premises with a bad taste in their mouths. TripAdvisor gave it a two-star rating and many of the comments were deeply negative, with several describing the experience as “horrible”.

The complete article is in The Daily Telegraph

 

[ButteMT61]

So sad. We were there in 2011, and they treated us like royalty (Americans). Told us stories, and even bought us a beer.
What the hell has happened to people in the world? Young ones especially have been brainwashed by university staff.
I'd be pissed too. Just thankful our trip there was so nice.

 

[Smithy]

That's disgraceful.

Such a difference from how grateful some countries can be for the sacrifice of foreign soldiers. For example in the small tavernas on Crete you'd get a free meal and a ton of drinks if they found out you were a Kiwi and you'd be blind drunk without paying a cent if they found out your family fought there. It was still good up until a few years back, my wife was on a girls week holiday in Crete in 2019 and she got free grub and a bottle of plonk when the old geezer running the joint found out she was married to a Kiwi.

Some people seem to remember and be grateful, sadly the above says that some are a bunch of forgetful and/or ungrateful bastards.

 

[John Lever]

I think President Bush summed it up perfectly

 

[leper-colony]

Forget history or it might repeat.

 

[Pilot]

Sorry if beeing the devils advocate…
Respect to all fighting women and men!
Please kindly keep in mind that in preparation of D-Day approx 20.000 French civilians and non combatants were smashed to droplets by The USAAF and RAF.. from early May to mid of June 1944….
Lots of French families lost a lot of their beloved ones due to collateral damages…
My inlaws were amongst them.
Hence the still existence of „unfriendly“ attitudes
Google or Youtube for details if you have doubts..

 

[ButteMT61]

Sorry if beeing the devils advocate…
Respect to all fighting women and men!
Please kindly keep in mind that in preparation of D-Day approx 20.000 French civilians and non combatants were smashed to droplets by The USAAF and RAF.. from early May to mid of June 1944….
Lots of French families lost a lot of their beloved ones due to collateral damages…
My inlaws were amongst them.
Hence the still existence of „unfriendly“ attitudes
Google or Youtube for details if you have doubts..

Yeah, but at what point do we forgive the errors of our ancestors? Seems to me the current trend is to go back as far as we can and try to make living people pay for the sins of our combined fathers.
It's bunk.
Life needs to move on, and I'd wager the folks who acted like fools don't know squat about why they're hating on anyone...
Just my 2¢, highly inflated.

 

[Skyhawk]

Unfortunately civilians do get killed in many bombing operations. There is no way to destroy targets without an explosion and a resulting kill radius. A firecracker ain't going to do the job. There is going to be a boom. The options need to be weighted out.
Was Nazi occupation a better option?

 

[Otter]

I think the owner has seen the online backlash and article in the Daily Wail. He is probably thinking "Oopsies".

 

[bn1966]

Did the D-Day beach visits to pay my respects a few years ago..& everyone was very pleasant (thankfully), off the beaten track we found a village that had an allied tank in pride of place in the square. Visited Crete once & the older generation were very warm towards the English if not too happy with resort ‘Lager louts…unfortunately an export of ours.

 

[Capt]

I have visited Normandy a few times with different family, on the occasion I was with my elderly in-laws who knew were they were on D-Day we visited a museum close to Sword Beech, as we left they said there is no mention of of England having even contributed, nothing. I suspect all schooling never told them about hitler and world war 2 and what all countries gave there lives for our there freedoms. My grandad was a fireman in Liverpool through the blitz times and stood by on the south coast on D-Day in case of a catastrophe. Someone needs to remind them.
I know I’m going to get shot down for this but if this story if true, shame on you.

 

[Capt]

them!

 

[Skyranger]

Nearly 57,000 dead, 74,000 injured, 300,000 homes destroyed: from June 13, 1940 in Dunkirk to April 15, 1945 in Royan, Allied bombers dumped 518,000 tons of bombs on France in an attempt to destroy the German military system.
Of course I have a great "respect" for all the liberty troops, they are my heroes, but I can understand that some people don't like those who killed their family, after 4 years survey of german occupation.

 

[Saint-ex]

Frankly guys, we're on a real pub talk here.

Seriously, the Daily Telegraph has nothing to do but take up the Twitter testimony of someone who says something without anyone corroborating his testimony?

And even if it's true, I've met some big jerks who didn't like the French in England and the USA, so there's no reason why you would have big jerks and not us.
However, I didn't think about posting it on Twitter at the time. I might have ended up in the newspaper.

 

[Harris_HTM]

in the small tavernas on Crete you'd get a free meal and a ton of drinks if they found out you were a Kiwi and you'd be blind drunk without paying a cent if they found out your family fought there

As a half Cretan I can verify that's true.

 

[Erwin]

She said the incident left her “fuming”.

 

[MikeyB-17]

I’ve seen another report where the cafe proprietor denies this, that the British guys turned up in a coach, and he apologised but said he didn’t have room. He strongly denies any anti-British sentiment.

 

[VeraVoulik]

It's very sad to see some educated people supporting an article of a well known "french bashers" newspaper, taking every bit of scum to ridiculize French and France.

Wherever you will go in Normandy, being polite, you'll be wellcome.

 

[Shanghai-Mayne]

When I visited Verdun many years ago, I was at somewhere near train station, I don’t have a map, so basically I was lost, a French gentleman and his wife which I never know them before, personally lead me to the right way towards Douaomont. That was the moment, I found out it’s fXxX ridiculous to believe any BIAS content.

 

[flyincowboy]

Yep a little bit surprised with that kind of behaviour ?? Been in normandy many times and despite all bombing and people killed (civilians and soldiers from both sides )seems that there is a lot of respect for soldiers who lost their lives fighting the nazis! JUNE THE 6TH there is a great ceremony for the 80th anniversary of the D DAY and absolutely nothing against the english which were our allies!