Other Things That Didn't make the Blog but I don't Want to Forget

Today's post is a random collection of things I don't want to forget but am afraid I will if I don't journal it...

- I loved the way Euros are different sizes (including the paper ones) for different denominations. It was very handy to just look in my wallet and pull a small one if I needed a small bill, etc.

- I loved croque moiseur sandwiches - a grilled ham and cheese with cheese on top

- It is funny how different pizza can be in a different country, taking on the culture, even. In France a 'margherita' pizza (which you would think would be plain cheese) comes randomly with olives and sometimes even ham. We frequently had to ask for the pizza 'sans' something (usually olives). The pizzas were all about the size of a dinner plate and arrived totally uncut, as they expected you to just cut and eat with a knife and fork, similar to what you would do for a piece of meat.

- The French always have both hands visible when eating, usually holding both a knife and fork. Its actually considered rude to have you hands on your lap. This is amazingly easy to adapt to and in fact a very useful way of eating.

- People speak far more quietly in France. This was harder to adjust to, but incredibly pleasant in restaurants. John and I were in a restaurant in Severna Park, MD last night and it was really noisy (last night was our Anniversary, so that's why we were out - woot on 16 years).

- Light switches are not like typical US ones - they are more like the flat flippy ones - fun to figure out where they are too.

- Fixed price menus all over the place and desserts assumed.

- Appel (to call) and rappel (warning, we think) all over the place... so fun to see our names everywhere.

- The Holocaust section of the Caen Memorial - made both Alexa and I gasp and then tear up - a room full of electric candles.

- The roosters at Monet's garden in Giverny - fun and crowing

- The Texan family we met in the train station and then bumped into again in Bayeux - so nice and fun and sent us on an Oddessey for a wooden sword for Ben.

- The lovely pharmacists who were so helpful, and 'bon marche!'

- Frederick, my new friend, who is the manager at the hotel in Bayeux and was the most helpful host.

- The fabulous sense of relaxation that comes from slowing down at meals and just chatting as a family. And how amazingly easy it is to fall into the routine of having a drink at lunch (its sooo much cheaper to have cider than Coca-light - same price for a bottle that served both John and I).

Pictures from the last night in Paris

I'm finally getting the last photos loaded, so here are a couple from the last night.

As an aside, it would appear that we took about 2,000 photos in our two weeks... I'm thinking I have a large task ahead of me in deciding which to print and use for a scrapbook...

Twinkling lights, Jet lag, reintegrating, etc.

Just to fill in the last few details that John didn't get to -

Alexa got to pick the restaurant for our final dinner in France (Ben had picked lunch, and John had selected the last night in Bayeux - I had gotten my 'last pick' the day we were at Point Du Hoc - I wanted one last omlette mixte (a ham and cheese omlette). She wanted Italian (her favorite) and when the hotel receptionist told us there was a restaurant nearby called "Arlechinno" that sealed the deal for her - she loves Comedia Del Arte and Arlechinno is the clown-like character with a diamond costume. Anyway, we had a nice dinner and the waiter and Ben had lots of fun together - the waiter made faces with him, joked around with him, and gave both he and lollipops (actually, my favorite kind of lollipop - cherry flavored and cherry-like in appearance - two lollipops, one each on the end of a bent green plasic 'stem' - I actually ask for them every time I go to farmers market in Annapolis, only to be out of luck each time - I was soooo jealous that my kids got them).

In the end, John and Alexa had the twinkly night on the town, using up the last of our Metro tickets (and closing down the Metro at 12:30 am, followed by a cab back to the hotel). Ben and I were both tired and opted to stay home and go to bed - we watched Wimbledon in French and read stories from the Nicholas series (about a French schoolboy) that Ben has become quite fond of - he was turned onto them by the librarian at his elementary school. John and Alexa watched the Eiffel Tower twinkle (it does that for the first 10 minutes of each hour - they turn off the floodlights and let the twinkly lights), then saw the floodlit Arch d'Triomphe, headed over to the Louvre (for the lit pyramide), and eventually ended up back in our neighborhood near the Bastille monuments.

Saturday was exhausting, for a day that we just sat around (on the plane, in the airport). John mentioned that there was a national slowdown (apparently referred to as an escargot) which impacted our movement through security. There were only two security lines open for all of the international travel, as best as I could tell. We waited in line for an hour (luckily we had gotten to the airport 3 hours early on the advice of the hotel clerk) and then all of a sudden we were whisked to the front of the line. Apparently someone saw John's cane and decided we needed out of the line. Given that Alexa was just moments short of a meltdown (of the 'its loud, its hot, and there are too many people and I can't pace' variety), I was more than willing to have the temporary disability that was visible help us out of a worse situation caused by the one that's not visible.

Once we got on our way, things were rather uneventful. We flew Continental and had a nice flight (with an ice cream break, even, as well as a hot meal and a hot sandwich during the 10 hour stretch). We had to go through Houston (its a Continental hub, and it meant that we could get tickets for the four of us for under 6K), where we came in through immigration and customs and were once again pulled out of a line and sent to the front because of the cane. Our flight had several other injured folks - must have been a bad week for sprains in France as there was a young woman with a sprained ankle and another with a knee injury close to us - and Continental went out of their way to help folks. Several of the other injured people on the plane were given rides on carts - there must have been at least 5 wheelchairs waiting for our plane. It was kind of funny to see as we walked out.

As we were re-checking our bags (you have to claim your baggage to get through customs and then they re-check them immediately), I bumped into another person from the University of Maryland. It was very funny to just look up and see Bob Infantino (an Associate Dean in one of the colleges with whom I've worked on several committees, for those of you who are not from Maryland). We had a nice chat as we went back through security - he and his family were returning from Honduras. We bumped into them again as our kids were asking for Auntie Anne's and they were there already with their son - apparently kids miss 'American' food no matter what country they've been visitng.

We arrived home at about midnight, eastern time (which was 6 am France time, for those not keeping track). We all took melatonin and headed for bed...

This morning we were all up by 8 (our bodies thought it was 2 in the afternoon) and I headed out for Ben's favorite Sunday breakfast - Einstein's bagels. I didn't make it far as my neighbor greeted me and told me not to use my car as it had a flat she could see. Apparently there was a rash of tire slashings in the neighborhood - she said she had seen at least 20 flat tires. On the bright side, this is better car luck than we've had after other major vacations. After our last major vacations we've bought new cars out of necessity (John had overheaded cars on the beltway leading to cracked heads and then trashed cars after both our Colorado and Disney vacations).

So I spent part of my day waiting for two new tires to be installed. It is rather frightening to re-integrate into the US state of mind in a Super Wal Mart (the closest place open and selling tires today). I don't really recommend it. I thought I was going to cry in the middle of a grocery aisle at one point (I did use some time to get shopping done). But I now have two new tires (and I'm pulling my car into the driveway before I go to bed).

We had a little 'birthday dinner' for Alexa tonight with an ice cream cake (her fave). John's mother and brother came over to join us and I think Alexa felt a bit more satisfied that her day was fully celebrated... I think it had been bugging her that she was cheated out of a 'real' birthday...

Its now 10:30 and everyone else is asleep.... I go back to work tomorrow and Alexa goes with me to Shakespeare camp. John has one more day off and Ben will hang out with him (they are going to build a model they got in Normandy and look at Pegasus Bridge maps... geeky bliss as Alexa would say).

When we finally manage to get readjusted we'll post the pictures from the nighttime tour, but I doubt John or I will post much more in terms of text.

Thanks for letting us share our trip with you.

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity-Jig

Just a quick note to say we're all back home as of a little after midnight Saturday night, thanks to my mom & Greg (whose porter services were invaluable). It was a long, tiring day starting at about 1 AM US Eastern time and ending about 24 hours later. Turns out a national strike (well, a slow-down) kicked off in France on Saturday, so things moved verrrry slowly at Charles De Galle.

Now to plow through our work e-mail boxes, the mail at the house, do a ton of laundry and deal with a flat tire on Michelle's car. But first, Einstein Bagels!

D-Day part 3; Down and Out to an Ending

John again. We're now settled in at our last lodging in Paris, a hotel in the Canal-St. Martin district. Today has mostly been either downtime or travel time, riding the train from Bayeux back to Paris. (We got a lesson in the importance of reserving seats on the train, though - we got displaced from our original seats in Caen and the conductor had to locate space for us in one of the private berths, which caused some frustration mid-way.) The kids and I did take a quick pass through the Battle of Normandy Museum in Bayeux (not bad for it's size, but not up to the standards of either the Caen Memorial or either the British or American Airborne Museums). All or some of us may be going out to see some of the major sights lit up at night, though, if stamina holds out. I'm still wrapping my ankle and using the cane occasionally, but at least it doesn't feel like someone's shoving a red-hot poker through my ankle at every step, as on Wednesday.

Yesterday, though - no museums, just the raw places - or as raw as they are today.

Michelle described our first stop at the massive German cemetary at La Cambe, west of Bayeux and almost due south 8 kilometers from Point du Hoc. The site used to house one of the temporary American cemetaries, but in the late 40s through the 1950s many of the American dead were repatriated - families were given the choice to have their loved ones returned home or left in the ground they'd purchased with their lives. (The British & Commonwealth dead almost all remain in Normandy in a number of cemetaries, the one just outside Bayeux holding 4100 of the fallen, along with a few hundred German dead.)

La Cambe holds over 21,000 German dead, and even on a sunny morning it's a quiet, somewhat somber place. There's a large mound in the center with three large, dark crosses, surrounded by the burial blocks holding 3-5 German soldiers, many unknown, in each grave. On one wall inside the gatehouse is engraved in both German and French, "Here lie soldiers of Germany, forever at peace."

(By the way, our Battlebus guide Dale mentioned that each year about a dozen war dead, almost all German, are uncovered. Given the number of missing soldiers of both sides, Normandy looks to yield this crop for many years yet.)

Next we crossed over the N13, the major highway through this part of Normandy, and struck north to Point du Hoc. This was the site of a German battery capable of hitting both Utah & Omaha beaches. The USAF tried to destroy it from the air, and the Navy made a few tries from the sea, but as is always the case it took a bunch of young men with rifles and guts to do the job - US Army Rangers in one of their most celebrated exploits.

Picture this: you've spent the last 6 hours in a landing craft, bucking 5-foot waves while you & everyone else gets seasick, bailing out the craft with your helmets from time to time as the pumps can't keep up. Your mission - nothing much. Just land on a tiny sliver of beach, scale a 70-80 foot cliff, under fire, and clean the Germans out of their foritifications at the top. To do the job, there's 225 or so of you, equipped with rocket-fired grappling hooks, rope ladders, and extension ladders borrowed from the London fire department. Cake, right?

The Rangers did the job, even found the relocated guns inland and destroyed them, then held out for two days against repeated counterattacks until troops from Omaha Beach relieved them.

Point du Hoc was donated to the US by the French in 1979 and is officially US soil. Original bomb and shell craters cover much of the ground, and the original fortifications have been largely left intact. Ben had a great time scrambling around the gun casemates and bunkers.

Next we moved east to Vierville at the west end of Omaha Beach, and one of the bloodiest spots on D-Day. Another unit I served in, the 29th Infantry, originally a National Guard division Federalized at the beginning of the war, landed on this end of Omaha. The Vierville Draw saw some of the most horrific losses of the day for the Americans - if you've seen "Saving Private Ryan", this is where the real events took place. "SPR" compresses the time greatly, though - picture that lasting over three hours... one company of the 116th Infantry regiment ceased to exist on that stretch of beach, and one small town in Virigina lost 35 young men that morning.

There's not much left from 1944 there today: some sort of German fortification on the eastern wall of the draw, and the seawall down by the water. There are a number of monuments, though, including a very moving one paying tribute to the 29th Division, and another to the Rangers. This is the place where the Rangers got their motto - General Norman Cota of the 29th, moving up and down the beach spurring the men forward ("There's only two kinds of men on this beach, those who are dead and those who are gonna die, so move your asses inland!"), came across a group of Rangers and told them "Rangers, lead the way!" pointing up the draw. They did, with boys from Maryland and Virginia wearing blue & gray on their shoulders beside them (and troops from other units - one problem at Omaha was that landing craft kept putting men ashore in the wrong places).

After lunch overlooking the beach (indoors as the day was chilly & breezy), we drove eastward along Omaha beach and climbed back out at St. Laurent-sur-Mer, just west of the American Cemetary. This was another draw the 29th took, at high cost but not quite so dearly as Vierville.

We made our way back to Bayeux for a bit of snacking and souvenier shopping (Ben now has a wooden bow firing suction-cup arrows - how he pursuaded Michelle I have no idea!) and ended up at the hotel for some downtime and laundry.

I really wanted to eat at a place called "La Pommier", recommended by several guidebooks and the concierge of our hotel, but the kids were a bit leery. We did wind up there with a promise of pizza from the place across the street if we couldn't find something they could stand, but as Michelle said, the owner (who took our order, as well as everyone's) graciously made them chicken in cream sauce similar to what I've made for them before. The food was fantastic, every bit as good as advertised, and Dad got to scratch his itch to have some reasonably authentic Norman food (pork filets cooked in cider, yum!)

It's now time to decide on our plans for the evening - likely no more entries until we get home. Au revoir, and hope you've enjoyed peeking over our shoulders!

Why saying goodbye to Normandy will be hard

Tomorrow, we leave Normandy and though the children are happy (because this signals getting ready to head for the airport and home - we spend one night in Paris before the flight home on Saturday), I will be very sad to leave Normandy. We have had good weather, met delightful people, and seen some amazing sites. The blend of agriculture and beach is about as close to bliss as I can imagine.

Today, we fit in the few things we had been saying we 'need to do before we leave.' John will write that blog on the train tomorrow. The pictures are: the German cemetery (which they have worked hard to make a statement for peace and not to glorify the evil of the Third Reich - there were some young German volunteers there caring for it, scrubbing the markers, etc. while we were there - it was really touching), a peace statue along the road between the D Day sites, Ben climbing in a bunker at Point du Hoc, the awesome French sign to be referenced below, and a memorial at Omaha Beach.

Here are some of the reasons I love France:

1. The people love and enjoy children and go to great lengths for them. The hot dog from yesterday is a great example of them doing something for a child that they wouldn't otherwise do. Tonight at the rather upscale restaurant where we ate, they allowed the kids to order food from the mid-day menu. Museums (particularly those in Paris) are free for kids under 18, the Bayeux tapestry has a special recording just for kids... the list could go on.
2. Flowers and trees - the French are serious about their gardening, even in the city. There are flowers everywhere here in Bayeux (windowboxes and planters on the light poles etc.), and in Paris there were also plenty of flowers and gardens. I love that they take the time to just make things beautiful. As John said this morning about a lovely tree-lined (and well manicured at that) path to the German cemetery, you would never find this in the US because no one would want their tax money going to it and you can't make a profit off of it.
3. Appreciation for 'quality of life' - as noted above, the French don't impose the 'what does this do for me' standard when making decisions. And the pace of life, even in Paris, is generally much slower. They take time to greet each other, slow down meals, and generally worry about the pleasantries of life. Normandy is an excellent example of their desire to preserve history, do it in a lovely way, and not worry about the profits or taxes. There are miles of farm land right next to beaches that you would never see in the US ('why waste that space where we could make money?'). And the citizens of tiny towns have spent their own money erecting little monuments to ensure that the lessons of World War II do not get forgotten. It is clear that they care about things unrelated to the Euro.
4. Patisseries and amazing desserts - profiteroles will be tough to give up for Alexa; for me, it will be the amazing bread (particularly with butter, swiss cheese, and 'jambon' - ham - in yummy sandwiches) and pain chocolat (chocolate croissants), and for Ben... well lets just say we need to make sure we keep buying baguettes at home or else he might starve when we get back.

Here are some great ideas we could use, if you ask me:

1. Tasteful signs that depict (in shades of brown) the historic attractions at exits of the highway. One of these is pictured above. They were helpful and tasteful.
2. Marked 'spaces' in front of the gas pumps indicating where you should (and should not) park your car to fill up (it really cuts down on the people who block two pumps).
3. Little areas around grave markers that are filled with smooth, small gravel - gives families a place to put flowers and eliminates the need to trim around the markers... the mower can easily pass over these.
4. Dual flush toilets - almost every toilet here has had two push buttons - one for when you need to use less water.
5. Small cars - cute, easy to maneuver in the narrow streets, and economical

I'm sure I'll think of others, but I'm tired and its time for bed....

Surviving an ambitious schedule for Wednesday

Today was probably the closest to "death march through France" that we'll get. John was careful to try to pace us throughout the trip and he has done a magnificent job at getting A LOT of sites and activities into our two weeks. We have had an amazing trip and we all held up pretty well until today...

Lets start with John - he sprained his ankle yesterday, apparently, I'm guessing at Utah Beach or at our last stop at the village cemetery. Last night it was bothering him but it really started hurting today. Thankfully the pharmacies are well marked and the handy Rick Steves language guide has body part names - that plus some gestures crossed the language divide in Rouen and John now has an ace bandage and cane (I was pretty proud of myself, I must say).

That meant that I got to drive for most of our trip today (we have been trading off on other days) .... You might think that this is not so terrible, but today's itinerary was Giverny, Chateau Galliard L'Engleses, and Rouen. The farthest point (Giverny) is about 200 Kilometers from Bayeux. Our trip started with a likely speeding ticket for me - John saw the flash go off on what must be a classic speed trap - the road goes from 130 Km/hr to 70 Km/hr within about 500 meters, stays there for 500 meters, and then jumps back up. I guess we'll see what happens there.... Then, we selected a "Departmental" road that we thought would go fairly quickly (you can drive 90 Km/hr outside the towns) and appeared to be more direct. Unfortunately, there are A LOT of towns (all with roundabouts) along the way - imagine driving from Harrisburg to Philadelphia on Route 322, or from Baltimore to Charlottesville on 29. And have I mentioned that rental cars in Europe are manual transmission (which I am capable of driving, but prefer not to as I have had a lingering ankle issue, likely from a cyst)? After the first 90 minutes I basically demanded that John find me a high speed road. I don't think it was a pretty sight from the back seat (the poor kiddos, neither was the Rouen Oddesey to be mentioned later).

The kids were great - they were pretty quiet in the back seat, watching the rainy countryside go by, trying to amuse themselves and us with jokes. Poor things - I had the grumpies and I was not laughing....

We managed to get to Giverny and it was sooooo worth it. The gardens are just beautiful, and I think the damp day made them even more pretty. My camera will not have done them justice (particularly because I'm not the most adept at using it). Alexa and I spent at least an hour taking photos of flowers before a total downpour started.

We had lunch in Giverny at the waterlily cafe (its name is essentially that, but in French). The waiter was great - he not only allowed us to grab hot dogs for the kids from the sister 'take out' attached to the restaurant, he actually took their plates of fries (which we had ordered from the restaurant so that we were getting something for them from there) to the take out to get the hot dogs. The hot dogs here, by the way, come in a baguette. Ben was soooo happy.

Their lunches must have looked quite appetizing because the mother and daughter who sat down next to us (coming in drenched, did I mention the rain?) asked for the same thing and the waiter said they couldn't have it - it was a special exception. Who says the French aren't nice?!?!

We ended up chatting with the mother and daughter (they asked us about the Monet house and garden - they were still debating whether to go in the rain) and it turned out they were from Denmark. The daughter was working for Ikea in Paris, so of course we had to have an Ikea love fest. In the end we gave them one of our umbrellas (they had none) and told them they really should go to the garden at least...

From Giverny it was off to the Chateau Galliard - the ruins of a castle built by King Richard the Lionhearted. Remember that the movie John managed to get me to watch was The Lion in Winter. It was a really cool castle (though we didn't go in it - recall that John has a sprained ankle and at that point I still had not managed to locate appropriate supplies) and it was amazing to look up and think that a KING (John reminds me it was really three kings) walked around in there 800 years ago. Its also quite apparent why he chose that spot to build upon - its on top of a hill that commands a spectacular view (and would therefore have been easy to defend). The drive up and back was interesting - hairpin turns and 15% grades on gravel road... poor John having to sit in the passenger seat with no control over my driving - I'm sure I would not have sat there too comfortably.

Finally, we headed to Rouen. For those that don't know, Rouen is famous as the site that Joan of Arc was burned at the stake as well as the site of the cathedral Monet painted. I knew it had sustained heavy damage during WWII, but I was still looking forward to seeing it, imagining a quaint town with half timber buildings, based on what I had seen on Rick Steves show.

Well, Rouen is the largest city in Normandy, so quaint is not really a good descriptor. And I probably should have read the part in Rick's book that notes that EVERYONE gets lost in Rouen (because we did). At a minimum, I probably would have had a better set of expectations had I read about just how much had been flattened (as in, none of the original Joan of Arc stuff still stands, some destroyed well before the war, the cathedral sustained damage and is in the midst of being restored, the half timber buildings were re-built, etc.). In the end, we had a reasonably nice time, saw what we came for, and were glad to put Rouen behind us (particularly the graffiti on the old Palace of Judgement that appalled both Ben and I).

We had promised Ben a trip back to Hippopatamus for dinner and we saw one on our way into Rouen, so we managed (with a fair bit of effort) to find our way back to it and ate dinner there before heading back to Bayeux.

In the end, we saw some really great sites today, and we all managed to laugh and have fun on the ride home (for those who ever saw the Rugrats, we are big fans of the "Reptar on Ice" episode and had a little sing a long at one point... silly, but fun).

PS - The best news of the day is probably that the New Jersey bicyclists have moved out of the hotel (at least for the rest of our stay - they'll be back in 10 days to finish their trip, apparently)!!! Individually they were nice - they said hello and wanted to chat as we passed in the evening. As a group they were a nightmare - they moved in a pack and as such consumed all of the breakfast space at one time, spread their bikes through the driveway in the mornings, and even have taken about 4 parking spaces in the covered barn with their bike cases (because they did not put them all at the same spot). I really felt for the hotel staff because they always seemed to be running for something for one of them - usually around food (the hotel provides breakfast, but the bike group also made their own dinners in the garden and then had the person working the front desk running drinks out). In fairness to the biking group, I think the hotel is too small for them - it has 30 rooms and there were 35 bikers, so they were using over half of the rooms and the place is not set up to move that many people all at once.

All American Screaming Eagles (And some Ivy, too)

(Dale, our guide, orienting John, Alexa & Ben at La Fiere)

John here expanding on Michelle's account of our day.

I'll first reiterate what she had to say about our private tour through Battlebus and our guide, Dale. Like me, Dale is a 40-something ex-serviceman, from the British Army in his case. He is a fabulous raconteur and kept all four of us spellbound despite the differences in how much we all knew about the battles described. Battlebus consistently gets glowing recommendations on independent sites like Trip Advisor and Lonely Planet, and it's easy to see why. Dale also connected very well with the kids and Ben really seemed to take a shine to him. We had a number of far-ranging discussions on some of the longer legs of our journey.

Bottom line: don't do some canned tour with a bus full of 40 other people, book a tour with these folks. It's worth every cent (American or otherwise).

I won't take everyone blow-by-blow through our day, but here's the list of the various stops during our journey - some just for a picture or two, but most for at least one personal story about the men who fought at or near that very spot, or the French civilians affected by the fighting:

• Angoville-au-Plain
• St. Mere Eglise
• US Airborne Museum
• Neuville-au-Plain
• La Fiere
• Coquiny (drive-through)
  
• Hill 30 (Shanley's Hill) (driving over and across)
  
• Chef-du-Pont
• Beauzille-de-Bastille (The bridge Dale & I believe Pam's dad was assigned to blow)
  
• Dead Man's Corner
• Causeway #2 behind Utah Beach
• Utah Beach (Jahnke's Resistance Point)
• Brecourt Manor (featured in "Band of Brothers")
  
• Bocage Country (for an explanation of what it was, and how the Allies coped)
• Grainges

(Anyone interested in learning more about what happened there, consult your Internet search engine of choice, or contact me & I'll be happy to flood you with excessive detail. ;) )

Yes, that's a lot of stops! We left Bayeux at 8:30 AM and were largely on the go until we arrived back around 5:30 PM. Dale also knew the best places to get lunch - they normally stop at a bed & breakfast that serves sandwiches that looked very tasty from the menu, but due to circumstances we wound up eating at an excellent beach-food stand just behind the dunes at Utah Beach.

We heard stories of incredible heroism (American, German and French), atrocities (some small American ones and a truly horrific German one), and many about men under fire simply coping as best they could in difficult circumstances. Dale also told us about an incredible reunion in 2004 between two American paratroopers, best buddies, both wounded within days of each other and each thinking the other dead for 60 years - and each blaming themselves for the other's supposed death.

We also learned something that I'm going to be sure to repeat at home: the local French people donate the land for these monuments, pay for many of the monuments, maintain them largely at their own expense, and decorate many with fresh flowers. There's nowhere near the tacky commercialism you'd expect to find near sites like this in the US, if any existed. Most of these people lost their homes, and many lost one or more family members, often from Allied fire - but they still regard the Americans and British as peoples very highly. (Our government, not so much, but we hardly blame them.) They know full well the price paid for their freedom, and express their gratitude for it.

It was simply incredible to see so many places I'd read about, and in some cases fought over in my wargaming, and to stand yards away from places where such acts of desperation and courage occurred. As a former paratrooper and lifelong military history buff, I've always felt a connection with those who fought here. Like Michelle at the Orsay & Orangerie, I'm seeing things I've always wanted to but never thought I would. To be able to share them and the lessons they teach with my family is something I feel incredibly fortunate for.

PS - Mom, Michelle says you should have Dad read this post, if nothing else. ;)
PPS - All Americans - the US 82nd Airborne Division; Screaming Eagles - the US 101st Airborne Division; Ivy - the US 4th Infantry Division, whose unit patch resembles an ivy branch.

D Day continued - Michelle's Version

First, let me add to what John said yesterday about the cemetery. I was a bit concerned that, having heard about how moving it was and given my general pacifist outlook, I might be let down. No need to have worried. Looking out over all those markers, seeing the beach and water beyond them, contrasting the death and destruction with the tranquility of the pastures and farmland that now line the beaches - I was in awe. Then, I noticed Ben, who was moving slowly along the line of markers, looking down (at what I later discovered were the names of the fallen) and taking his hat off in respect. Then, the clock struck 6 and was followed by the Star Spangled Banner and Ben moved away from the markers and, totally unprompted, gave a little salute. I just started sobbing.

On a day where we learned all about the horrors of war, there was still a clear message of the desire for peace.

For those who do not know, I am a member of a traditional peace church and am a pacifist. I absolutely think that there must be a better way to resolve disputes. John was a member of the 82nd Airborne and I think that I am accurately representing his views by saying that he thinks that war should be the last resort but is regrettably necessary. I think our day yesterday represented a good balance of these two views which are more close than one would think.

Today we went on a private guided tour which was absolutely amazing. Our guide, upon hearing that I was a member of a peace church and a pacifist, remarked that he typically talks about the conscientious objectors and their bravery at our first stop (which he did - in a story about a medic that was amazing) and in fact we talked throughout the day about the various aspects of being a CO and the horrors of war. I couldn't have asked for a more balanced and fair perspective on the issue - being able to converse and to take things at our own pace was worth every bit we spent on the Battlebus private tour (which was about the cost of two nights' lodging, by the way - 450 Euros for those looking to plan their own vacation).

John has been trying to get me to watch this movie, The Longest Day, for ... well, as long as I've known him probably (after convincing me to watch The Lion In Winter, which I still hate to this day, he's not had much success on a three hour war movie). Well, I think Dale (our guide) has shamed me into it. We saw lots of things today that were depicted in that movie and Dale put a personal story on all of them. I think this approach really helps to personalize what goes on and to give you a feel for the real stories (and he told us the good and the bad - it wasn't all a white washed, we won so we're great thing) not some glorified and glamorous adventure.

As we were planning our visit, we arranged to meet the father of a close friend who was a member of the 82nd Airborne and landed on D Day (Bill Bladen, Pam's father for those who know Pam). When we talked with him we found out that he was in one of the groups that was badly scattered, far from his unit (to the point of being off the map he was given and needing several days to get to where he should have been). He is now in his eighties and couldn't remember the name of the bridge he was supposed to have taken, and John made it his mission to "find Bill's bridge." The bridge in the picture above is at the spot where both John and Dale, our guide, believe Bill's bridge was (the Air Force took out the bridge before Bill and his unit got there, so they had to have built a new one by now, I'm assuming). We will be happy when we can talk to him again in person to show him his bridge, as well as the new monuments at Chef du Pont, where he met up with his group (these were erected in the past year and he was last here in 1994 for the 50th Anniversary).

I'm sure John will want to give you all the details of all the places we saw today. Frankly, I can't remember them all. My favorites were the first stop, the chapel where two young medics kept almost 80 people alive for several days (in that 80 were German soldiers and townspeople) until the fighting subsided and they could get real medical help - only two people died; and our stop at Utah Beach, where Dale taught us how the German's had set up their defense (very smart, these nests of fortifications), how the US had made a lucky accident and landed at a less fortified spot, and a story of a young German soldier that put a human face on that side.

Ham & Jam on the Day of Days

John reporting again. It's Monday evening and we've wrapped the first of two days immersion in D-Day history, one of the prime reasons Normandy made it on our itinerary. (I should note the kids were given the choice of Normandy or Provence, and picked Normandy!)

A quick note about our dinner last night. We've had pretty reasonable success finding places that had at least something Ben & Alexa would eat, which has included a few chicken nugget and pizza meals. (Actually, our lunch Sunday was in a delightful little neighborhood pizzeria in Pontorson, near Mont St. Michel.) But last night we went to a place Michelle had been eying since our cab ride to the hotel Saturday - La Boucherie, which looks to be part of a chain. La Boucherie means "The Butchery" and as the name implies, red meat was their specialty. But the kicker is the mascot - a cow, of course. Cow lamps, cow clocks, cartoon cows throughout the decor. Michelle was a happy camper, and everyone had food they really enjoyed.

It would be immodest of me to gloat about our ability to handle the French menus while the table full of New Jersians, part of a group of 35 who are staying at our hotel for three nights as part of a bicycle tour, had to go ask for the English version. Fodor's & Rick Steves phrasebooks, don't visit France without them. :) (And mentioning to the waiter or waitress that "Nous parles une petit peu Francais" salted with routine politenesses seems to earn us a fair bit of goodwill.)

Anyway, back to today and our sojourn, which was primarily spent in the British sector.

Hold up your left hand, palm toward your face, with the thumb extended up. That's more or less the shape of the invasion sector. Where we're staying in Bayeux is pretty close to the pad just inside your index finger. It was liberated pretty quickly by the British, late on June 6th or early June 7th, which is why so many medieval structures remain. Caen, located right about the first joint of your middle finger, was another D-Day or D+1 objective for the British, but it took them a month to capture it for a variety of reasons (two panzer divisions being nearby didn't help) and it was flattened, so pretty much everything there is new. And one of the newest things there is the "Caen Peace Memorial".

This is a really innovative and excellent war museum in many ways, though I have some quibbles with it. After taking one through the end of WWI and the rise of Fascism, it takes you through the course of the war. Things are pretty easy to follow up until the fall of France, but after a short (and well-handled) section on Vichy and collaboration, it opens up to the rest of the war. That section is still high-quality but hard to follow, as there's no clear organization to it - odd juxtapositions like a section about a British doctor, part of a sanitation & hygiene unit next to a display of weaponry. But almost everything is in trilingual form somehow - French, English & German. There's a lot of audio-visual stuff and there's a definite emphasis on how people of all types got by. As Michelle put it, it balances the desire for peace and the horror and suffering brought on by any war against the need to stand up to truly evil regimes such as the Axis of WWII.

The museum shows a couple of movies which take you through D-Day itself (which cribbed a lot of footage from The Longest Day intermixed with actual battlefield film), followed immediately by one that covers the roughly 100 days from D-Day to the full liberation of France. Both are well-done, though Michelle found it hard to stay awake in the first one and I spotted some glitches in the CGI sections that display the progress of the front (US 401st Airborne? Huh what?)

After lunch in the rather nice cafeteria we descended to the lowest level, which is a former German command bunker from the war. It's been refitted as an excellent museum showcasing the winners of the Nobel Peace Prize, and others who while not winners of the Prize who have worked for peace. As crowded as the main museum upstairs was, we had this section to ourselves and didn't encounter anyone else until we were heading back up to depart.

Our next stop kicked off the actual battlefield tour at Pegasus Bridge and the British Airborne Museum & Memorial. (Using the hand-map, move up to the middle of the joint-crease of your index finger.) This was the first objective seized by the Allies a few minutes after midnight on D-Day, with British glider troops landing in a coupe-de-main attack scant yards from the bridge, capturing it intact. The museum is relatively new and on its grounds is the original bridge, moved there when it needed replacing. I know quite a bit about the action here from my wargame playtesting days, and showed Ben where some of the early fighting took place as the Ox & Bucks fought off the Germans in the lonely pre-dawn hours. We had a quick snack at the Cafe Gondre, still run by Madame Gondre who was a child living within on D-Day - still as formidable as ever from what my old ASL pals Perry & Brian told me. (Ham & Jam were the code words for the two bridges in the area, and after both were seized the British radio operator continuously sent the message "Ham and Jam, Ham and Jam" to let command know they had succeeded.)

We stayed in the British Airborne sector a bit longer and visited the Merville Battery. (Center of the pad of your index finger.) This site has four original bunkers which on D-Day held 100mm guns and could have rained fire down on Sword Beach, the easternmost beach, and on the ships offshore. 600 British paratroopers were assigned to attack it, but they were badly scattered and when the time came to actually attack, only 150 men with a small fraction of their equipment had assembled. The paras cleared the mines on their bellies by hand, used their own bodies as bridges across the barbed wire, and took the battery in 20 minutes of hard fighting - but took over 50% casualties in the process. The site is almost pristine, with all four bunkers still present and a nice walking path with explanations through the site.

Back west across the Orne River (the crease of your index finger) for a driving tour of the British beaches. Today, these towns are fairly built-up as beach resorts and overall quite pretty. There are museums and memorials scattered along the length. Moving westward, the middle part of your index finger would be Sword beach; the first part, Juno Beach, the Canadian sector; then the side of your knuckle is Gold Beach, with the town of Arromanches just inside your knuckle. Here the Allies did something really remarkable - they built an artificial harbor through which they poured several hundred thousand men and huge amounts of vehicles and equipment. You can see the remnants of that harbor (called a Mulberry) above, and a good look down the British beaches.

After a small gap, along the section between the base of your thumb and your knuckle lies Omaha Beach, where we ended today's tour. We didn't make it down to the beach itself, but did get to the American Cemetery & Memorial (the one shown in Saving Private Ryan) about a half-hour before it closed. Even the normally ebullient Ben was strongly affected by the sight of row upon row upon row of crosses (with the occasional Star of David). We were able to spend a few minutes on a viewing platform overlooking the Coleville Draw and part of the beach itself before being literally escorted out (along with a number of other visitors, including a trio of what I believe were Buddhist monks!) by the security guards as it was 15 minutes after closing time.

I had a few minutes alone overlooking the beach while Michelle & the kids were hunting for a restroom after we arrived, and looking down that draw with a trained soldier's eye, I marveled at the sheer guts and tenacity of the men who clawed their way across the sand and up the draw and hillside under murderous fire.

Tomorrow we have a guided tour of the thumb - the American Airborne sector & Utah Beach.

Medieval Sunday

We spent the day in the middle ages ... sort of. We began our day with a trip to Mont Saint Michel, a small rocky island with an abbey named after the Archangel Michael. The first things were built on the island in 708, though parts of the abbey are new - built in the 1500s! Its about a 90 minute drive from Bayeux, where we are staying (we have a lovely rental car - a Peugot with a sun roof). We arrived about 9:30 (you can do the math - we even had breakfast before setting out so we were ambitious) and were glad to beat the crowds of tour buses.

You can see 'the Mont' from miles away, sitting out in the bay. You need to take a causeway to get to the parking area and then walk the rest of the way through the town and to the abbey. The streets are narrow and lined with many opportunities to spend one's Euros, from the upscale (60 E omelets and Saint James clothing) to the downright tacky (orange and green plastic swords made in China). The hike up through the town (or along the ramparts, where John and Ben went) is steep but well worth it to get to the abbey. Apparently, only about a third of the visitors to Mont Saint Michel actually go IN the abbey (because the climb is daunting), but we did and were so pleased. The views are spectacular and the building itself is sparse but lovely. It befits the cloistered monastery it was (there are still a few monks living there, and we saw one of them as he dodged into a hallway). Mont Saint Michel is part of a worldwide celebration of sacred mounts and as such there were photos within the abbey of people climbing similar heights in Ireland, China, etc. It was really moving to think about others around the world making similar climbs to see sacred spots.

This afternoon we visited the Bayeux tapestry, best described as the story of William the Conqueror told in pictures on fabric. It is very long and thin and is amazing in its detail. More amazing is that it is about a thousand years old. The people of the town treat it with the respect and care it deserves - the visitor's center is wonderful and they even have a children's audio tour which tells little stories of interest to kids. There are no pictures posted of the tapestry because cameras are prohibited - you'll have to wait until we get home to see the book we purchased. Bayeux itself has been populated for 2,000 years - it is mind boggling to think that people have been living in this spot for that long and that some of the buildings here date to the middle ages.

I finished the day doing laundry at two laundromats - yes, two. I did the wash in the first but then the machine that takes the money stopped taking money so I had to move to a different one to dry it. But hey, at least I had dryers available (not to mention automatic washers)! Met some lovely French women in the laundromat, and managed to figure out which machines were for washing (lavage) and drying (sanch-something), even though nothing was in English.

Two final notes (particularly for the Gingrich family members): First, we bumped into a group of people from southern Ohio and Kentucky staying at our hotel, all Kentucky fans (they went there together). We had a great chat with them about Sam Bowie and basketball in general and I told them that my grandpa taught me to cheer for UK. Second, we are seeing tons of cattle and sheep and I keep thinking how much Grandpa would love to see the small farms. We took a picture of a sheep crossing sign for Martha.

The Boys Stayed Back In Town

John's turn again. We're comfortably settled onto our train, departing momentarily from Gare St. Lazaire in Paris to Bayeux in Normandy. Big comfy seats, plenty of baggage space, airily designed-cars - should be a fairly relaxing trip. I may not finish this entry before we get there, as I do want to see more of France!

Flash-back time to yesterday (Friday, June 27th). As Michelle wrote we split up for the day - she & Alexa on their Versaille trip while Ben & I visited a few more sites in Paris. Since we'd been up fairly late the night before he & I got a late start, and ran into some delays at Gare d'Austerlitz procuring Metro passes for the day. Friday is a BIG travel day in France and it seemed everyone was trying to get out of town.

Our first stop of the morning was the Rodin Museum, located just across the street from the Invalides complex. The museum occupies the house Rodin lived in during the later part of his life, as well as the extensive gardens behind the house, separated by a tall wall from the rest of Paris. Sculptures by Rodin, his companion Camille Caudill and a few works by his friends (we came across a painting by Monet and another by Van Gogh) are located throughout the house and gardens. Ben took some really terrific pictures including the one above of his favorite sculpture, The Tower of Labor. We spent a few minutes in the garden cafe having a drink and a bit of bread (Ben is definitely the bagette-powered boy!) but the lunch offerings weren't to his liking, so we ate lunch at a cafe across the street from the museum.

I'm not the art fan Michelle is, but I'd wanted to visit this museum since I'd first heard about it. Rodin's mastery of his chosen form struck me very viscerally - one small piece, The Cry, shows little more than a male head clearly crying out - in anguish I thought, but another might see exaltation. The Gates of Hell, located in the garden, is simply phenomenal.

After lunch we returned to the Invalides complex to what seems to be a little-visited section of the museum - the Musee des Plans Reliefs. Its location on the fourth floor (no elevator) of the east wing, which is undergoing renovations, is probably the main reason it was almost entirely deserted for the hour that Ben & I spent in it. The contents? An extensive collection of scale models, incredibly realistic, of various citadelles, fortresses and fortified towns in France. Some were relatively small, a few feet on a side, but several were over 10 feet across. The oldest dated model I found was from 1700. Apparently these were maintained secretly by the French Army until the 20th century. Ben was fascinated by the models, and we spent a while discussing the science of this kind of military engineering (the ideas of bastions, lazarettes, why you'd put a separate citadelle next to a fortified city, etc.).

We departed Invalides for good, getting into a glimpse of the Eglise St. Louis which shares a wall with Napoleon's tomb. From there we hopped onto the Metro and across to the Right Bank of the Seine for a visit to the National Maritime Museum at Trocadero Square.

More models here, but this time of ships - everything from 64-gun ships-of-the-line to France's modern aircraft carrier, the Charles de Galle. The explanations are only in French but we were able to puzzle things out well enough. There's also a big collection of nautical-themed art, from some panoramic paintings of various ports to scenes from famous battles, Trafalgar among them.

We popped out onto the plaza on Trodcadero square and discovered that the guidebooks were correct - it's the best view of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Definitely tourist central! Ben finally got a vanilla-chocolate ice cream twist he'd been wanting but been unable to find (the soft-serve stuff is known as glace itallienne, by the way). We had a couple hours yet to kill before meeting back up with the girls, so we found some bench space and did some people-watching while Ben played with some of the toy knights he's picked up. I probably could have offered to take pictures of groups for a euro a pop and paid for our Metro passes for the day!

We ventured into the Metro again to the Latin Quarter and our designated meeting place, the church of St. Germain de Pres, parts of which date from the sixth century - yes, parts of the walls are 1500 years old! We staked out the entry from a cafe across the street while Ben had build-your-own hot chocolate & I had tea. After rendevousing with the girls we hacked our way down Blvd. St. Germain to a family-friendly restraunt we'd eaten at earlier in the week, and Italian chain called del Arte. Then back to the Chalik, where Michelle & I packed while two tired kids rested!

We did our final packing this morning; Michelle in her wizardry only needed to pop out one of our spare bags, and that mainly for dirty clothes. We "checked out" with Mssr. Valat who helped us maneuver our luggage off the boat and gangway onto the quai. We said our farewells, crossed the street to the Gare and caught a cab to Gare St. Lazaire, where this train awaited us.

We're now zipping through beautiful countryside and occasionally very small towns. We'll be in Bayeux in about another hour or so...

Addendum:

We arrived in Bayeux a little at about 3:15 today. The Bayeux station is tiny, just a few older buildings next to the tracks and absolutely no line at the counter. The available taxis were all snatched up before we made it over to the taxi stand, but it's a small town and one swung back by a short time later to take us to our hotel, the Hotel d'Argouges. It's a 16th-century townhouse built by the eponymous Lord d'Argouges. We're in one of their apartments, in the main building, with the window of the master bedroom overlooking the garden. What's really neat is that despite being located on the main east-west street through town, the house itself is actually set back from the road and from our window, the only things I hear this moment are the birds in the garden. (Well, there's some horns honking a good ways off, but it's still pretty peaceful.)

Aside from a bit of exploring Ben & I did around the block, and a nice walk to and from dinner, we've pretty much taken the night off. Tomorrow we plan to get up early to make the trek to Mont St. Michel before the hordes of tourists arrive, and then hopefully see some of the sights in Bayeux in the afternoon, with some country driving in between.

Michelle's Addendum:

I've added a photo of the hotel where we are living in the lap of luxury. Two items John did not mention -1) there is a Christmas card (the photo type) from Rick Steves hanging in a nook in the reception area - he stays here every year (for those who don't know, Rick Steves is THE authority on European travel and has a PBS show and writes guidebooks; we are traveling with two of his guidebooks, one of his backpacks, and a money belt sold by him); 2) apartment here means, essentially, two bedrooms with a bathroom. It's roomy (particularly given French standards), and has a BATHTUB. WOOT.

Also, a totally cute thing from our journey this morning. There was a family near us in the train station with a son who looked to be about Ben's age. So I urged Ben to go up to him and ask if he spoke English (in French, of course). Turns out they were from Texas so the boy and Ben hung out together trading Gameboy tips. Yet another cool encounter from the road - we've met all sorts of interesting people from many countries (including Australia - a mother and daughter on the tour bus in Paris who were traveling with a choral group) who strike up a conversation when they hear you speaking English.

Finally, I forgot to mention an incident a couple days ago that shows how 'unplugged' I've become. We were eating breakfast at the train station (the only breakfast outside the boat when we were in Paris), and the waiter, upon hearing us and hearing where we were from, asked us (in a very French accent just after taking our order) "Hillary or Barak Obama?" Between the accent and the timing and my being totally out of the political scene - I totally had no clue what he was talking about. It took at least three times before John told me what he was asking. Apparently the French (like much of Europe, I hear) thinks our election was between just those two. Also, I am apparently able to totally get away from it all... we had no TV for a week without any real pain. Go figure.

The Girls' Day Friday

So, a few posts ago we noted that the Army Museum could easily take more than 3 hours for the men in our family... today they proved that correct! They went back (yup, and I'm sure one of them will blog about it later).

Since Alexa and I (Michelle) wanted to see Versailles and John and Ben did not (and John and Ben wanted more Army Museum, plus the Rodin Museum and the Trocedero), we split up. Yes, you heard me right, and we did it the old fashioned way, without cell phones!

Versailles is a 40 minute or so ride outside of Paris via train. There were masses of people headed there today, plus buses carrying half the children of France, I think. Alexa noted that it is proof that there was too much money and too much in-breeding in the French royal system, as you would have to be insane to put that much gold into a place.

All that aside, it is amazing and I got goosebumps seeing the Hall of Mirrors in real life (as opposed to my Art History books). The gardens are huge and impressive, somehow combining very tailored, manicured shrubbery with wild flowers, plus ornate fountains and statuary. We ate lunch at a cafe next to the canal where you can rent row boats. Alexa and I decided that if you combined Williamsburg, VA with Newport, RI (as in the mansions of Newport), you might get close to the guest quarters at Versailles.

After we left Versailles we headed back to Paris to try to take advantage of the famous Soldes - the summer sales! We went to Paris's oldest department store, Le Bon Marche (http://www.lebonmarche.fr/#home) - in a building designed by the builder of the Eiffel Tower! We were amazed to find a few choice items - a Pac Man pashmina (yes, as in the video game layout put onto a shawl, selling for only 85 Euros on sale), electric neon pocket knives, and a plain white nightshirt on sale for 80 Euros. We were amazed at our restraint - I really wanted to buy the first two items for the kids! We found out that Paris is where the department store was invented, and like the big stores in NYC, this one's first floor is devoted to perfume. Unlike those in NYC, the top floor had the most lovely and amazing sewing department - imagine a Sak's Fifth Avenue-like display of buttons (in drawers and jars), thread, embroidery floss... it was amazing. I asked if I could take a photo but of course its not allowed.

Its sad to be packing up to leave Paris already, but Normandy awaits!

The city of lights

We finally stayed out past dark (which is kind of tough, because it doesn't really get dark here until about 10 pm and the thought of both keeping the kids up that late and dealing with the Metro that late were daunting). It was well worth the tired kids and the 15E cab fare home.

We went to see Sacre Coer (a church atop the highest hill in the city). We actually didn't go IN the church, but we did see the outside and the spectacular view. We rode a finicular (an elevator up the side of the hill) to get up there, then walked down steps to a restaurant (with a menu of almost exclusively French cuisine - I had a really great traditional veal dish I would never have tried a week ago, and Alexa and John had cheese for dessert). Then, Alexa and I walked back up the steps to see the view with the lights.

The above photos are: the view from Sacre Coer just before dusk, the restaurant we ate at (the one on the right), Sacre Coer at night, the view at night, and the flame twirler at the 'party' at Sacre Coer (yes, flame twirler... there were hundreds of people watching it and listening to a guy singing Beatles songs).

Its the stuff you don't plan that can be really fun

So, our plan for today was to see the spot the Bastille was on, to see the Victor Hugo House, and to see the Opera. We did all three of those. However, we got some neat surprises.

First, we stopped at the train station to make reservations for our travel to Normandy on Saturday. The line was long (as the woman behind us said, you know its not a good sign when they put chairs in the line), but we passed some of the time talking to a pair of young people in line behind us. She was a student at UMass Amherst (we had a little academic advising session in line - these students and their double degrees, yeesh). He was in the Air Force at 'weather school' in Germany. It made the time pass (and I think we got a better explanation of the weather, to boot).

In the end it was good that it took so long at the train station because as we were walking down the street on our way between the Bastille and the Victor Hugo house, we bumped into a mounted band (as in a marching-type band on horses). So cool.

Finally, we saw the neatest Metro station between the Pompidou Center and the Opera House - it had walls that made it look like you were inside a copper chamber, and there were neat little portholes with replicas of, among other things, a sattelite.

As a side note - the Opera House is spectacular. Its easy to see how someone (like a Phantom of the Opera) could live there and not be noticed, it is HUGE. We were not able to see the actual auditorium, but we still spent an hour there. Magnificent ceilings, sculptures of famous composers and performers, and grand spaces.

We didn't really spend too much time in the Pompidou Center (too many of us were tired, grumpy, or uninterested in modern art), but the fountain outside was really quite neat. It is whimsical and fun and shows a cool part of modern art, if you ask me - conveying a spirit and feeling in a unique way.

We are now off to the Monmarte section - the highest part of the city - to get a view of the city at night...