{"id":148239,"date":"2024-10-05T20:34:03","date_gmt":"2024-10-05T20:34:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/10\/05\/d-day-cafe-owner-arlette-gondree-handed-prestigious-french-honour\/"},"modified":"2024-10-05T20:34:04","modified_gmt":"2024-10-05T20:34:04","slug":"d-day-cafe-owner-arlette-gondree-handed-prestigious-french-honour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/10\/05\/d-day-cafe-owner-arlette-gondree-handed-prestigious-french-honour\/","title":{"rendered":"D-Day cafe owner Arlette Gondree handed prestigious French honour"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"D-Day<\/div>


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The owner of a historic cafe next to Pegasus Bridge, famous for her support for British D-Day veterans, has received a major honour from the French government.<\/p>\n

Arlette Gondree, whose family was the first to be liberated by British soldiers in the early hours of D-Day<\/strong><\/a> in 1944, was named a Chevalier of the Order of Merit, one of the highest honours in France.<\/p>\n

She was given the special medal in a ceremony outside the cafe in Benouville, Normandy, also attended by representatives of the British and French armed forces.<\/p>\n

D-Day: 24 hours that changed the world<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Ms Gondree was just four when British soldiers liberated the family cafe.<\/p>\n

British airborne forces landed next to Pegasus Bridge and captured it in a daring raid, hours before the main invasion of the nearby beaches.<\/p>\n

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\n Arlette Gondree was awarded the Chevalier of the Order of Merit
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The cafe was used as an aid station during the fierce battle that followed.<\/p>\n

For many years she has hosted an annual service on the anniversary of D-Day to remember the British soldiers who died there.<\/p>\n

After the ceremony at the weekend, she told Sky News: “It’s a very moving and touching award, a beautiful medal, and a very high honour from the French government.<\/p>\n

“I think that the veterans themselves from the bottom of their hearts will be very pleased that the French government has recognised me for what I have done.”<\/p>\n

Also in attendance was Margaret Brotheridge, daughter of Lieutenant Den Brotheridge, who was the first soldier to be killed in combat on D-Day when he stormed the bridge with men from the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, who landed near the bridge shortly after midnight on 6 June 1944.<\/p>\n

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\n Arlette Gondree with Margaret Brotheridge
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The French government nominated Ms Gondree for the honour, saying she was being recognised for how she had made the cafe an emblem of the history of D-Day.<\/p>\n

Read more about D-Day:<\/strong>
D-Day veteran dies aged 104<\/strong><\/a>
11 things you may not know about D-Day<\/strong><\/a>
D-Day in numbers<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

She was handed the honour by the former president of the region of Lower Normandy, Laurent Beauvais.<\/p>\n

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More than 156,000 Allied soldiers landed on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day to begin the liberation of France from the Nazis.<\/p>\n

They were confronted by around 50,000 Germans and 4,415 Allied troops were killed on the day itself.<\/p>\n

In June, commemorations were held in France, the UK and across the world to mark the 80th anniversary of the invasion.<\/p>\n

At a ceremony in Normandy, King Charles paid tribute to what he called that “remarkable wartime generation”<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The owner of a historic cafe next to Pegasus Bridge, famous for her support for British D-Day veterans, has received a major honour from the French government. Arlette Gondree, whose family was the first to be liberated by British soldiers in the early hours of D-Day in 1944, was named a Chevalier of the Order […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148240,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/24\/10\/768x432\/skynews-arlette-gondree-d-day_6707474.jpg?20241005180542","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[117520,8253,51376,8456,117521,11136,7510,5900,25536],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148239"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148239"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148239\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":148241,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148239\/revisions\/148241"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}