As to our tour, I would start by saying that Robin’s enthusiasm and work ethic are excellent.  Although I haven’t taken a battlefield tour before and didn’t really know what to expect, it was obvious from the start that he had put a lot of work into personalizing our tour.  The specific work he did on the South Saskatchewan Regiment and their specific actions around my relative’s movements and injuries were unexpected.  I wanted to see where my uncle got hurt near Ifs in July 1944 and he did his best to take me to the exact spot.  We did see the main sights for sure in Normandy, but he did a lot of work in making the tour relevant to me and my family.  A highlight was him playing for us a CBC radio broadcast after the Dieppe raid where my uncle was interviewed!  Amazing!

He also spent a lot of time trying to show us graves of some of the boys who would have known my relatives, or who they would have commanded.  The visit to Dieppe was a real highlight-we traced the SSR company that my Uncle was CSM of during the day right to the point where he was commanding a company headquarters.  Seeing Dieppe and Green Beach was something I’ve wanted to do my whole life and it didn’t disappoint.  He also ordered a couple of wreaths which were personalized for the SSR from the British Legion and we did a wreath laying at Bretteville and Dieppe which were emotional and very gratifying.

One unexpected thing was once my wife indicated she had relatives flying Mustangs with the RCAF, he did some evening research and the next day showed her some flight records and a location of one of the airfields they flew out of in France.  She really appreciated that.

I found the days long, but rewarding.  My wife probably would say they were a bit long for her, but she hung in there.

We added on Abbey d’Ardenne at my request, and I’m glad we did.  My wife knew nothing about the SS, atrocities, or Kurt Meyer.  She was shocked when she found out it was not an uncommon occurrence and said afterwards she found that part haunting.

As we travelled and stopped for lunch I generally picked up the tab, which I was happy to do. He did use his own car which was roomy and comfortable, and tried to get us off the beaten track locations for snacks and meals which we really liked.

On the last day after we finished touring, he drove us back to Pourville and we spent some time on a patio discussing the tour, his plans for the remainder of the year, and life in general.