France Wrap-Up

Facts and Figures
Length of Stay: 35 Days
Miles Traveled to Enter: 525 by train from Venice
Miles Traveled: 400 by car (39,615 since landing in Quito)
Places Visited: Paris, Normandy
Intercity Trains Taken: 0
Buses Taken: 0
Fried Pig Snouts Eaten: 1

Bayeux Stopover

In addition to Juno Beach, we also made a pit stop in Bayeux on our way back to Paris.  It has the distinction of being the first French town liberated from Nazi occupation following D-Day, and since the Germans abandoned it to shore up the defenses in nearby Caen, Bayeux was spared the destruction that many other towns and cities in Normandy suffered.  As a result, it has maintained its very quaint character, with a mix of stone and half-timber buildings and a picturesque river running right through town.

The town is charming for sure, but its real claim to fame is the Bayeux Tapestry.  The tapestry, which apparently isn't actually a tapestry but an embroidered cloth (I wonder how many boring arguments historians/interior designers have had on this subject?), recounts the 1066 Norman conquest of England, led by William the Conqueror.  It was commissioned soon after the conquest and is in amzing shape for a 950 year old piece of cloth.  At nearly seventy meters long, the tapestry is like a huge comic book (or graphic novel, to use the modern euphemism) detailing the events leading to the invasion, the preparation of William's armies and the Battle of Hastings itself.  The museum containing the tapestry gives out audio guides that walk through the story frame by frame.  To give you an idea of how much information is on the cloth, the audio tour takes about twenty minutes.  All three of us really enjoyed the museum, as I think most people would, whether or not they're into the history of this period.

Scenes from a photographic copy of the Bayeux Tapestry (you aren't allowed to take pictures of the real thing)

The Longest Day, Canadian Edition

Photo by Dennis Sullivan. Department of National Defence / 
National Archives of Canada, PA-132790

As a Canadian growing up in the United States, I often received good-natured ribbing about my birth country's military might.  I heard comments like, "thanks for helping us out during World War II," and, "do you guys even have an army?" throughout high school, and I didn't know enough to be able to respond.  It wasn't until I took a World War II class in college that I learned that a Canadian division took Juno Beach, one of the five D-Day beaches, and even then, that was the extent of my knowledge of the country's involvement.  I really wanted to visit Juno during our time in Normandy, but our tour only covered the two American beaches and it lasted all day so I didn't think we would have time.  Thankfully, Lee and Magge indulged me and we stopped at the beach and the Juno Beach Centre, a museum dedicated to Canada's role throughout the war, on our way back to Paris.

The Juno Beach Centre, which only opened seven years ago, is extremely well done.  It covers a huge amount of  material in an engaging fashion using multimedia and interactive exhibits.  We spent nearly two hours in the museum, but I could have easily stayed for another hour or two.  Almost everything I read or watched there was new to me, from Canada's role as England's major ally prior to the USA's and Russia's entrance, to its efforts during the Italian campaign, to the details of the Juno landing, to its contributions to the final victory in Europe.  By the end of the war, Canada had the third largest surface fleet in the world, fourth largest airforce and had over one million men serve at a time when its population was approximately eleven million.  I'm embarrassed that I did not know the extent of my home country's participation.

Sitting on a bunker with the museum in the background

After the museum, we took a quick walk out to the beach itself.  Like the Omaha and Utah beaches we had seen the day before, it was a scene of tranquility with no sign of what happened sixty-six years ago except for a handful of German bunkers.  I got goosebumps as I tried to imagine what it looked like during D-Day.  Juno was the second bloodiest beach on that day, after Omaha, with the Canadian division taking over 1,000 casualties.  Despite the tough resistance, the Canadian forces actually penetrated more deeply inland than any of the other divisions.

Juno Beach

I've now lived more than half of my life in the US, and tend to think of myself as more of an American, but it would have been impossible that day to not have been swept up in Canadian patriotism.

The Longest Day (I'm referring to D-Day, not the tour)

As Jeff and I were planning the European portion of our trip, one visit we immediately agreed we needed to make was to the D-Day beaches in Normandy.  As luck would have it, Normandy was the final area that Mom and Lee wanted to explore in France, and so they decided they would join us for a long weekend on the northern coast of the country.  As I said in an earlier post, my mom was unfortunately not able to go, but Lee made the trek to enjoy a beautiful weekend with us.

In anticipation of our visit, I scheduled a day-long tour of the key beaches taken by American forces.  On Friday, we woke up bright and early to drive an hour to a McDonald's where we met our guide for the day, Eddie, a retired Lieutenant Colonel who served 28 years in the British Royal Marines.  Eddie's background showed through during the day, as he was able to give us deeper insight into the military tactics and strategy involved in the landings.  Having taken a couple classes on World War II during college, both Jeff and I had a fairly decent understanding of the war and D-Day.  Getting to step onto the beaches where these critical events took place and to have someone with military experience explain what had happened gave us a deeper appreciation for what occurred on that day than any book or class lecture ever has.

Mont Saint-Michel

Along with the D-Day beaches, Mont Saint-Michel was the reason I wanted to visit Normandy. From pictures, the fortified island village looked more like a The Lord of the Rings set than reality, and I've been looking forward to seeing it in person since this our trip began.  I thought we might have to cancel when Marcia had to cancel her trip out to France, but luckily for us, Lee decided to come and fought through jet lag to drive us.

Normandy: How I Wish You Were Here

I have to admit that I have been pretty darn lucky with how many times I have been able to see my mom over the past year. I cannot, however, deny that I was distraught when I found out that yet another of her employees felt the need to throw a wrench in our plans to meet. I have told my mom numerous times now that next year she will look back and be very happy that things have turned out the way they have for the business, but that does not mean I didn't want to go wring a few necks over in Durham (nobody makes my mamma mad and gets away with it!).

The trip was all paid for and the bags were all packed when my mom made the decision that she could not go. Fortunately, she did not see any reason why problems at Triangle should mean Lee's trip should be ruined as well, and so Lee, the trooper, made the trip over to France on his own to meet us. For the record, this means that Lee wins the award for meeting us the most times during the year. GO, LEE! (We'll definitely have to think up some awesome award for you.) Though the three of us did end up having a fantastic weekend together - or, as I dubbed it, "Kids' Weekend" - we did think about my mom a lot and comment frequently that we wish she could have been with us.

Our plan had been to meet up at the CDG airport and drive out to the northern coastal area of France. Our first stop together was to be Giverny to see the home of Monet. I know that this is probably one of the places my mom most wanted to see. The grounds were amazingly beautiful. We felt as though we were walking through Monet's paintings as we strolled the idyllic grounds of his home. Since my mom was unable to be with us, both Lee and I felt it important to take as many pictures as possible to at least give her a taste of what we experienced. So, Mamma, here are some flowers to make you smile :-) Love you!

Versailles: Opulence, Crowds and Japanimation

In the seventeenth century, King Louis XIV turned one of his hunting lodges in the town of Versailles into one of the grandest, if not the grandest, royal residences in the world.  He moved his capital here out of filthy Paris, and it stayed here until angry Parisians forced King Louis XVI and his family back into Paris during the French Revolution.  Following the fall of the French Monarchy, the palace's most notable uses have been related to international relations.  The country of Germany was born in its Hall of Mirrors following the Prussian's crushing of France in 1870-1871, and the Treaty of Versailles that intended to cripple Germany was signed in the same hall in 1919 following World War I.

We generally did a good job in scheduling our time to Paris' major sites around crowds, but we failed with Versailles.  Bad weather at the end of our time in Paris forced us to visit the palace on a Saturday, and it was packed.  I'm pretty sure that it was the busiest attraction we've seen on this whole trip.  We couldn't even walk through the palace at our own pace; we had to walk lockstep with the crowds at the risk of being trampled if we misstepped.  Shoulder-to-shoulder tourism isn't really my thing and it was a big part of my not liking the Palace of Versailles that much.  Also, crowds aside, I just wasn't blown away as much as I thought I would be.  Yes, it was incredibly opulent, but it didn't seem to be heads and shoulders above other palaces and castles I've seen.  In fact, I prefer the Bavarian castles Magge and I saw (Neuschwanstein, Hohenschwangau and Nymphenburg) during our trip to Germany a few years ago.

Requisite Eiffel Tower Pictures

We've got a lot to post on our time in Normandy, and I still have to write about our visit to Versailles.  However, it's late here, I'm sitting in a hotel lobby, I just watched the Vols lose to Florida for what seems like the tenth straight time, and the woman next to me is humming what I assume are songs by Justin Beiber.  So, I'll just post some pictures of the Eiffel Tower to prove we really were in Paris and then get to bed.

View while walking up

There Are More Than Three Items in the Louvre

After nearly four weeks of avoiding it, we finally visited the Louvre.  The world's largest museum is probably also one of its most crowded, and we decided to try to wait out the summer tourists and get our art fix once the kids went back to school.  The plan mostly worked, as we didn't have to wait in line to enter (the lines can be hours long), but there were still plenty of people jockeying for position around the museum's three star attractions: La Joconde (Mona Lisa), Venus de Milo and Winged Victory of Samothrace.  Visitors were practically throwing elbows in order to get the "perfect" shot of the Mona Lisa.  I found them more interesting than the painting itself. I'm fairly certain that approximately one third of the Louvre's visitors make the rounds to see just these three pieces of art, take their pictures, post these pictures on Facebook with the caption "I <3 the Louvre!" before venturing to the gift shop to buy overpriced postcards featuring the same three pieces of art and then leave the museum.

In front of the Mona Lisa

I don't remember who sculpted this, or what it is called, but I do remember that it is awesome

We made the requisite rounds, and then headed across to the other side of the Louvre to the Richelieu Wing, which was far less crowded.  In fact, the Near Eastern Antiquities felt nearly empty, which was great because it has some of the most interesting objects in the whole museum (to me, at least), including my favorite - the nearly 4,000 year old Code of Hammurabi.  We also walked through Napoleon III's apartments, which were a good appetizer for our later trip to Versailles, and then spent some time in the Dutch and Flemish painting section.  That was enough museum time for me, even if we did avoid most of the crowds.

Code of Hammurabi (which is covered in engraved rules like, "eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth" and, "if during an unsuccessful operation a patient dies, the arm of the surgeon must be cut off")

The capital of a column from the Palace of Darius, which gives a good idea of the palace's size 

One Month in Paris Gone

Our time in Paris generally reflects our time on this entire trip.  We felt like we had plenty of time, but we're currently packing our things for our departure to Normandy tomorrow, and we don't know where all that time went.  We hit all the city's major sites, and a number of lesser known sites, but we still don't feel as though we did everything we wanted to do.  I guess there never is enough time.  We haven't posted that often recently because our internet has been on the fritz, but we'll try to catch up on a least a few posts.

To celebrate our last night here, we stopped at a local patisserie to pick up some pastries.  The goods here are pretty expensive (€4-5 each), so we had stayed away until tonight.  Magge chose a macaron, a staple of French pastries, and I got Le Récif, chocolate mousse with thyme covered in ganache sitting on a brownie.  It wasn't the best dessert I've had in Paris, and the thyme-chocolate combination was definitely a little different, but I still enjoyed it.  I later found that this exact pastry was absolutely skewered by a pastry critic: "The Récif is like the sad, maladroit fumbling of a first year pastry student at a 3rd-rate culinary school.  This is a piece almost completely bereft of anything redeeming... This is trash."  To each his own, although the level of vitriol in the review made it sound like the sad, bombastic fumbling of a first year pastry critic that failed out of a 3rd-rate culinary school.  If having a sophisticated palate means you can be that angry at dessert, then I don't care to develop mine any further.

French Hot Dog

Who goes to Paris and eats a hot dog?  I do.  Emily took us to one of her favorite crepe stands for lunch, and mentioned that their hot dogs look good but she had never had one.  I stepped up to the plate.  A thick layer of emmental cheese is placed on a hot griddle.  Once that has melted, two franks (and that's for a simple, you can get a double if you want your heart attack a little sooner) are placed on top and then smothered in ketchup and mustard.  The cheese is then wrapped around the hot dogs like a crepe and is then placed in a baguette.  Count on the French to make something like a hot dog a little more elegant.  And delicious.

Empire of the Dead

Paris had a hygiene problem in the late 18th century.  In addition to your run of the mill sewage issues, the city's cemeteries were also overflowing, sometimes literally.  Because most people were being buried in mass graves without coffins, the bodies were decomposing directly into the ground and contaminating the well water, which was the same water many Parisians drank.  Gross.  The city's solution was exhuming the bodies and moving them underground into disused quarries, and now these catacombs are a morbid tourist attraction.  I can't say no to that, so Magge, Emily (a high school friend who has been living in Paris) and I checked it out this past weekend.

The skulls and bones are so meticulously placed in geometric patterns that it's easy to forget that you're walking underground with thousands of dead people.  However, ubiquitous plaques with both uplifting and grim quotations about death (example of the later, paraphrased: "whenever you see someone die, remember that one day you will die as well") help to remind you that you are indeed in the empire of the dead.

Entrance to the catacombs

More pictures in the full post.

Baguette to Bistro: A Culinary Tour of Paris

After almost nine months of being constantly on the move, Jeff and I have been relishing our month-long sojourn in Paris.  I have been excited for quite some time now to get to spend a month being a Parisian.  Albeit a Parisian that doesn't actually speak French, but I'm trying!

So what are some of the perks of being a Parisian?  Well the food, of course!  Sadly, due to our budgetary constraints, we have not been able to partake in many of the gastronomical wonders Paris has to offer.  Prior to leaving for our trip we thought New York was an expensive city.  We have come to find, however, that New York is in fact one of the less expensive major cities.  Go figure.  Though we cannot afford to eat out, we have quickly adapted to the Parisian custom of buying fresh baguettes every day at the local boulangerie (see, look at my fantastic French skills.)

To further our experience of French culinary culture, we decided to take part in the Baguette to Bistro tour offered by Context Travel.  As the title promises, we began our tour with a discussion of the iconic baguette.  Interestingly, we found out that the baguette came into fashion following the Second World War as a backlash to the large, round loaves of dark bread that were given as rations.  What's the opposite of big, dark, and round?  Long, thin, and white . . . the baguette!

Église de la Madeleine

We came across this church while walking around the Place de la Concorde, and although we're at the point where we don't feel the need to go inside every church that looks old, it's odd (for a Church) design drew us in.  From the outside, it looks more like a Roman temple than a Catholic church.  It was actually originally designed as a temple to the glory of Napoleon's army, but after his fall the newly restored king decided to use the building as a church.  The interior was intense.  The dark lighting, shadows cast by stern-looking statues and thundering, ominous organ combined to give our time inside an almost apocalyptic feel.  I don't get goosebumps often, but I got them here.

Apocalypse avoided on the front steps, with Les Invalies, the National Assembly and the obelisk from the Place de la Concorde in the background