title Cité de lar Mer and a Dakota Flight Home, Cherbourg - 7th June 2026 intro 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. imgp0443 We're at Norauto to get the hire-car tyre fixed imgp0451 We visit the Le Redoutable nuclear submarine imgp0453 Paul and Robert look at submarine stuff imgp0454 Lots of dials and submarine machinery imgp0456 The submarine is properly huge imgp0458 Massive insulated pipes imgp0467 The top floor of the missile room imgp0469 Red light in the control room imgp0474 A view of the control room, or "conn" imgp0477 A submarine head - the bog imgp0479 A very 60s/70s officer's day room imgp0480 Looking up through the conning tower imgp0482 The crew's mess room imgp0486 A stark view of Le Redoutable imgp0488 Robert does some sort of simulation imgp0494 Old retractable gangways at Cherbourg imgp0497 The former railway terminal imgp0499 We're in a sea-based exhibition imgp0515 Fish in a tank imgp0519 A giant aquarium imgp0530 Jellyfish blob about in a tank imgp0536 A seahorse drifts by imgp0540 A big spotty fish imgp0541 Lots of tiny blue/green fishies imgp0543 The cruise ship looks like a massive block of flats imgp0550 Deap-sea submersibles in La Cité de la Mer imgp0553 The breakfast room of the Louvre Hotel imgp0556 The Hôtel du Louvre imgp0557 The Rue Henri Dunant imgp0561 A private jet has someone important on it imgp0563 James is on his merchandise stall again imgp0565 Pegasus the Dakota imgp0576 Clive gets a photo imgp0585 Craig checks the engine oil levels imgp0586 Clive sits on one of the aircraft seats imgp0589 Clive does a spot of window cleaning imgp0594 The inside windows get a bit of a clean imgp0595 Get 'em Oot's cockpit and flightdeck imgp0597 Pegasus loads up with more parachutists imgp0603 Willjo givers a thumbs-up imgp0607 Pegasus starts engine number one imgp0647 Cherbourg airport is full of paratroopers again imgp0650 A C-130 loads up with paratroopers imgp0657 Paul hauls his luggage across the airfield imgp0664 A Hercules goes through engine start up imgp0669 We walk over to Get 'em Oot imgp0698 A view of the runway as we turn onto it imgp0703 A view of Normandy over the engine nacelle imgp0710 The beaches of Normandy imgp0714 Clive's got the jump seat for the flight back imgp0715 An oil flap and a hundred rivets imgp0723 There's light around the door imgp0724 We fly over huge algal blooms in the Channel imgp0730 On the flight deck of Drag 'em Oot imgp0736 We cross the English coast imgp0742 The river at Chichester imgp0765 The QEII bridge at Dartford imgp0771 The grim industrialism of the Dartford Crossing imgp0787 The M11 near North Weald imgp0798 Back on the ground at North Weald imgp0799 Drag 'em Oot is parked up by the hangar imgp0813 We stop for a drink at Rosey Lee's café imgp0815 A vintage coach is being cleaned imgp0816 A Bedford Super Vega imgp0818 A London Transport Routemaster imgp0820 Clive roams around the coach sheds imgp0822 The dashboard of a classic 1970s coach imgp0824 A coach that's yet to be renovated imgp0828 A nice collection of vintage coaches