Hmmm. . .

[mryc2903 at tiscali.be]

A friend of mine who recently returned from a trip to Normandy, pointed me
to a strange Pynchon mention in 

Greg Ward, 'The Rough Guide to Brittany & Normandy', London, 2001

where the city of St-L? is discussed (on the map: not far from Caen). 

This region has suffered tremendously during WW II.  On page 194 of this
travel guide:

"[A]t the foot of the rock under the castle you can see the entrance to caves
where citizens sheltered from the onslaught (= the bombing of the city in
1944), while somewhere far below are great vaults used by the German command.
 In Studs Terkel's book The Good War, a GI reminisces about the huge party
thrown there after the Americans found vast stockpiles of champagne; Thomas
Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow has a crazed drinking scene based on that tale.
Samuel Beckett was here during the battle and after, working for the Irish
Red Cross as interpreter, driver and provision-seeker - for such things as
rat poison for the maternity hospitals. He said he took away with him a "time-honoured
conception of humanity in ruins." "



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