70th Anniversary of D-Day

Today I'm remembering a trip that we took in March to the beaches of Normandy.
Omaha beach looks very different today,

but you can still sense the horror of all those who fought and lost their lives here.

The French are still grateful to the Allies as liberators.

Over 9,000 Americans are buried nearby.

Normandy American Cemetery

Normandy American Cemetery sits on a cliff overlooking Omaha Beach and the English Channel. It contains the graves of 9,387 of our military dead, most of whom lost their lives in the D-Day landings and ensuing operations.

A dense fog rolled in from the sea shortly after we arrived, lending an even more somber tone to our visit.

 

 

Pointe du Hoc

After visiting Utah Beach, an easy victory for the Americans, we traveled east along the coast to the Point du Hoc, a 100 ft cliff overlooking the English channel. During World War II it was the highest point between Utah Beach to the west and Omaha Beach to the east. The Germans fortified the area with concrete casements and gun pits. On D-Day (June 6, 1944) the U.S. Army Rangers scaled the cliffs and seized the German artillery pieces that could have fired on the American landing troops at Omaha and Utah beaches. At a high cost of life, they successfully defended against determined German counterattacks.

The ground still carries the scars of heavy shelling

Sainte-Mère-Eglise

2014 is the 70th anniversary of the landings on the Normandy beaches during WWII. We traveled to Sainte-Mère-Eglise about 3 hours northwest of Paris to visit the area where paratroopers landed during the night of June 5th. The town has developed an innovative way to visit the area using a GPS system loaded with video clips and other information to guide the visitor during a 50 km tour of the area.

Sainte-Mère-Eglise is the town where one of the paratroopers gets trapped on the steeple of the church, an event that was immortalised in the movie "The Longest Day."

The entire area is dotted with monuments thanking the Americans for their role in liberating France.

Étretat

The beauty of living in Paris (and having a car) is that in only two hours you can visit the seaside. This week's photo excursion took us north. First stop -  the cathedral in Amiens which has one of the few remaining labyrinths.

Next stop: Fécamp on the English Channel where high tides and lots of wind created some spectacular waves.

We spent the night in Étretat which we visited last May.

The next morning, we woke up to clouds and rain but it didn't dampen our enthusiasm.

On the way back to Paris we stopped in Honfleur for a tasty lunch of oysters and mussels.

Impressionists in Normandy

This year's Normandy Impressionist Festival is not to be missed. We began our exploration of the event with a visit to the Jacquemart-André Museum in Paris for an exhibit featuring Eugène Boudin. We then spent a weekend in Normandy with friends and took advantage of the proximity to visit some regional expositions.

First stop: the Musée de Beaux Arts de Caen for an exposition entitled "Summer at Water's Edge." We then drove along the coast, past the resort towns of Deauville and Trouville where visitors no longer dress like this:

Next stop: Le Havre to visit the exposition "Pissarro dans les ports." As you might expect, the port of Le Havre, heavily bombed during WWII, no longer looks like this:

After visiting the Pissarro exposition, we drove north along the coast to the town of Etretat, immortalized by many impressionist painters.

Etretat in the rain

Check out the size of the people below the cliffs!

The view from the top is stunning.

We had dinner in a lovely restaurant overlooking the town.

The next day, we stopped by the ruined Benedictine Abbey in Jumièges on our way to Rouen.

Jumièges Abbey

Last stop: the Musée des Beaux Arts in Rouen featuring an exposition entitled "Dazzling Reflections - 100 Impressionist Masterpieces." You have until the end of September to follow in the footsteps of the Impressionist painters throughout Normandy.

Weekend in Normandy

We've just returned from a weekend in Normandy at my friend Odette's house. On Saturday afternoon, we visited the ruins of an XI century benedictine abbey in Saint-Evroult-Notre-Dame-du-Bois.

It rained all day on Saturday. Who would believe that we'd need to build a fire to keep warm in July?

The sun finally came out on Sunday afternoon when we visited Honfleur, a picturesque port on the estuary of the Seine. We ate a traditional dinner of mussels and dreamed of sailing away.

Normandy

I spent the long Easter weekend in Normandy with my friend Odette and her cousin Simone. Both women are well read, well traveled, and well informed. Discussions were lively and wide ranging - especially since they are quite far apart politically; Odette votes with the Socialists and Simone votes with the conservatives. Their political debates were very insightful and they gently agree to disagree. It was also good practice for my French - both language and way of life. Every meal except breakfast started with an aperitif, then first course, then main course, then salad, cheese, and fresh fruit for dessert. We used linen tablecloths with linen napkins - and it was just a casual weekend in the country for the three of us!

Here is Odette's house in the country:


Simone travels a lot to visit her four children who live in Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Paris. Oh, did I mention that Simone is 80 years old and Odette is 78? That is not necessarily important although interesting to learn that Simone will be traveling alone to Taiwan to meet up with three of her children next week. It may also partially explain why I was so nervous with Odette at the wheel of a tiny French car driving 70 miles an hour on narrow roads without her glasses - despite rain, traffic conditions, or large trucks 20 times larger than us. Anyway, I made it back to Paris in one piece, and my white knuckles are gradually returning to normal.

Here is a picture of Simone (in grey jacket and skirt) and Odette (in white jacket) shopping for lunch in the nearby small town.


We visited a couple of minor castles nearby. This is a small one with a couple of different styles stuck together:


This is the chateau Beaumesnil. They call it the "Versailles of Normandy"