France Day 7: Paris (June 23, 2012)

I woke up feeling poorly today.  I’m not sure what is wrong.  I think I may have eaten gluten, Paris may have sucked the life out of me or my body is just done with museums and walking.  It could also be a combination of all of the above.

I tried to be a trooper and not spoil Angela’s time in Paris.  We went to the Musee d’Orsey and saw the Impressionist art.  I enjoyed that more than I enjoyed the Louvre. It was not nearly as crowded as the Louvre and I think that makes a difference in how you enjoy a museum.

We sat on the steps of the museum and had some water and a snack.  Then we decided to go to the Cathedral of Notre Dame.  The line to get into the cathedral was extremely long and the line for the stairs to the bell tower was even longer.  Angela had seen it before and I didn’t feel like it was worth the line.  So we went to find the Deportation Memorial, which is very close to Notre Dame.  This is a memorial to all the French men and women who were sent to concentration camps during World War II.  It is quite a powerful memorial.  It is built to give the feel of what it was like in the camps so there are high cement walls and bars. 

There is a small park near the memorial and we sat there for a while talking about the Holocaust.  Then we decided to go do some souvenir shopping.  We bought a few magnets and then I was done for the day so we decided to go home. 

From inside the Musee D'Orsey.  There are two clocks on either end of the buidling.  Well they are clocks from the outside and windows from the inside.

 The back of Notre Dame.

 The front of Notre Dame.

Angela went to the boulangerie to buy a bagette while I went to the grocery store to get ham cheese and a salad for me.  Then we put some towels down on our bed and had a picnic in our hotel room. 

France Day 6: Paris (June 22, 2012)

Today we were up and out of the hotel room by 9:30.  We went to Versailles and stayed until they kicked us out at about 4:30 PM.  We would have stayed longer but they were closing early for an event this evening. 

It was very crowded at Versailles.  While we were inside the palace there were people everywhere.  In some rooms there was no place to stand and at one point I found my self being pushed by the crowd into the next room.  I had no other choice but to go where everyone else was going.  But in spite of the crowds I have now seen the famous Hall of Mirrors and the King and Queen’s chambers.  

The gates of Versailles...

The Hall of Mirrors...

The grounds are massive!!!  We should have started in the gardens and grounds we enjoyed them much more than the palace.  We had lunch at a restaurant on the grounds.  We were exhausted after the palace and the crowds.  Then we walked to where Marie Antoinette had her hamlet built where her cottage was.  This was my favorite part of the whole place. If I were a queen, I would build a place like that too and live there.  I much preferred it to the garishness of the palace.  We weren’t able to go inside any of the cottages because everything was closing early but we walked around and took pictures of them all.  I don’t think there was much to see inside them anyway.  It doesn’t look like they have spent a lot of money and effort and restoring them.  But as I said, I did really enjoy this part of the grounds.  Not just the hamlet but the grounds and buildings around were just delightful.

A view of the Marie Antoinette's Hamlet.

One of the cottages near the Queen's

There were a few animals at the farmhouse in the Hamlet.  I thought the pig was cute...

The Queen's cottage from a distance.

The walk from the hamlet to the train station was quite a long one.  By the time we got on the train I was very ready to sit down.  We came back to the hotel, put our feet up and rested for a bit.  Then we gathered up our dirty laundry and went to the laundromat down the street.

After our laundry was done, we grabbed some turkey, cheese and bread and then gathered our jackets and walked back to the Champs de Mars and the Tour Eiffel so that we can watch the tower light up.  This is at my request.  Angela has seen it already – the last time she was here.  I think it sounds cool and so she is humoring me.  Sadly, the tower was already lit up as we approached, but we still enjoyed trying to take some pictures of it and we enjoyed our late night picnic along the Seine with the Eiffel Tower in the background.

France Day 5: Paris (June 21, 2012)

Happy Midsummer’s Eve.  Actually in Paris it is the Fete de Musique.  I guess that means that bands and musicians set up all over the city and play music in the streets.  I think Angela and I are turning in too early to see or hear any of it.  We heard a few bands as we were coming home tonight.

We had another great day in Paris although it started out a little disjunct.  We had planned to got o Versailles today and were at the train station trying to buy tickets to Versailles but there was no person at the ticket desk so we had to buy them from the machine however, with the machine you have to have a “chip and pin” credit card (which we don’t have in the USA) or enough coinage to pay for the tickets.  Well, we didn’t have either of those.  We had plenty of money on us, just not in coins.  So we had to regroup and try to find someone who would change our bills to coins.  We made two unsuccessful attempts.  Then we decided to go to the Louvre today instead, since it was already 11:30AM and make some purchases so that we had change enough to buy the tickets tomorrow.

The good news is that when we got off the train for Versailles there was a window with a very cheerful lady working there and we were able to buy our train tickets for tomorrow with our bills.  So now we have our tickets and we just have to get on the train tomorrow. 

As we walked across one of the bridges on the Seine River we saw these padlocks on the sides of the bridge.  Apparently it is tradition to put a lock on the bridge and throw the key into the river.  A romantic tradition started by someone.  Now there are vendors on the bridge selling padlocks to tourists.

 

We made our way towards the Louvre and had lunch in the Tuilleries which is a park adjacent to the Louvre which used to be a palace.  At the end of the Tuilleries is the Place de la Concorde which is plaza that was home to Madame Guillotine during the French Revolution and where Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were beheaded.  

After lunch we went into the museum.  We spent about 4 hours there.  About half way through we found a bench and sat down and both started dosing.  We had a little power dose and then were off again.  After we had seen all the art that we could absorb we left and found some dinner.  I am not going to starve in France there are salads and omelets at most restaurants.  I will eat omelets but I am not particularly fond of eggs.  I feel like I have eaten a lot of ham, eggs and cheese since coming to France.  But tonight I got a salad with chicken!  The salad dressing here tastes like horseradish so mostly I just eat the salad with out any dressing. I guess I can be grateful for my gluten intolerance.  We walk past boulangeries and patiserries all the time and the window displays looks so yummy – if I could eat them I would probably eat myself sick.  Tonight after dinner we found a health food store and they had some gluten free things there.

Outside of the Louvre...

As we walked home from the store we passed the Eiffel Tower and took some more pictures, this time from the other side in the park called the Champ du Mars.  These are some of our favorites.

Each evening when we get back to our room we have what we call “picture sharing.”  We download our pictures and now video to my computer and look at them all.  Then we make some selections to put into our “contest possibilities” album.  We quite enjoy this hour or so.  It is a really fun way to end the day.  

France Day 4: Paris (June 20, 2012)

I got up a little earlier today and we were all packed and ready to go at about 9 AM but checkout wasn’t until 10 AM and our train for Paris didn’t leave until 11:40 AM.  So we spent some time trying to figure out how to get to our hotel in Paris from the train station.

We walked to the train station in  Bayeux.  It is about a 15 minute walk but we stretched it out to a 45 minute walk or something like that.  My bags are heavier than Angela’s and we had plenty of time so we stopped to rest a couple of times.  We sat and had a snack at the half way point.

After we had been sitting on the platform at the station for a few minutes, the owner of the hotel where we had been staying came running up to us.  We had forgotten to give him the key to our room.  I had in it my jacket pocket.  I put it there so I could carry my bags down the stairs and then we paid for the room and forgot to give him the key.  It was a real key – not a credit card key.  And the custom here in France is to leave your key at the reception desk when you leave the hotel and then pick it up when you come back.  Anyway, the poor man seemed frazzled and grateful that he found us with the key.  We apologized but laughed about it afterward.  Poor man!  I feel bad that he had to come all the way to the train station just for the key.

The journey to Paris was pretty uneventful.  I fell asleep on the train and apparently was doing some entertaining head nodding.  Angela didn’t take any pictures but when I woke up after hitting my head against the window she was heartily laughing at me.

We found our hotel with out any trouble and there are a few really great things about it.  There is a lot of light.  I have never stayed in a hotel where there is so much light.  And there is an elevator.  Our room is on the 4^th floor and I am so grateful that we didn’t have to carry our luggage up 4 flights of stairs.  The elevator is very small we barely squished ourselves and our small suitcases inside.  It is a 2 person max elevator.  But it is an elevator none the less and I am grateful.

We entered our room and dropped on the bed.  It is considerably warmer in Paris than it was in Normandy.  We slept for an hour or so and then got up and went the the grocery store to scrounge up some dinner.  

After we ate we went to the Eiffel Tower.  It was a lovely evening.  We can easily walk to the Eiffel Tower from our hotel.  We took the stairs to the second story and then took the elevator to the top (the only way to the top).  We took lots of picture and when we came down it was about 9PM so the sun wasn’t setting but it was low in the western sky and quite lovely.

 The every ten or so steps there is a number indicating how many you have gone.  This is the top step of the Eiffel Tower.  We made it to the top!

We came home and I ate again then we wrote in our journals, looked up some gluten free stores and restaurants on-line and then had our picture sharing.

France Day 3: Bayeux (June 19, 2012)

Well my video camera is buried somewhere in a field near a place that Angela and I named Hidden Bridge (Angela is reading Anne of Green Gables right now so everything has to have a poetic name).    I have been back twice to look for it.  I am very sad to have lost it, but at least it has a lovely final resting point near Hidden Bridge.  The good news is that I didn't lose my passport or my wallet of money AND I still have my iPhone!!!  So, when we were done looking in the field I pulled out my iPhone and told Angela to do the frolicking she was doing yesterday and filmed it on my phone.  Angela was right yesterday when she said at least it wasn’t my passport or something else that was more valuable and harder to replace.  All I really lost were a few silly memories and a camera that could be replaced for less than $100.  There are a lot worse things that could happen in a foreign country.

So, when we were done re-enacting our frolicking and tripping (skipping) we walked to a monument dedicating the liberation of Bayeux by British forces on June 7, 1944.   Incidentally, Bayeux was the first city in France to be liberated and then became the headquarters of the French Republic.  

Then we went to the place where we met our tour guide.  We went first to Gold Beach (Arromanches).  This is where the British forces built a temporary harbor for the invasion. Fascinating how they did it!

 Remains of the temporary Harbor.

 The Flags of the Allied Forces.

Then we went to Longues-Sur-Mer where we saw German fortifications from the Atlantic wall that were used to defend themselves against the D-Day invasion.  The German forces here surrendered without a fight probably because the majority of the soldiers were Polish men drafted into service.  Our guide told us that the soldiers manning these guns were all deaf from the sound of the guns and that they probably had burns and blindness from the force of the guns when being shot.

We saw the American Cemetery that over looks Omaha Beach where over 9,000 soldiers are buried.  It was a very moving experience.  In the cemetery there is a chapel and on the ceiling of the chapel there is a mosaic that portrays the ocean, the beach, the soldiers and angels.  There is one in particular where a soldier is dying in the arms of an angel.   I feel a great appreciation for the sacrifice made by so many young men.  Our guide told us that the average age of those buried there is 21.  So young, and they sacrificed so much for the freedom of mankind.  And the 9,000 that are buried there are on about 30% of those that died there.  The other 60% were sent home to be buried by the request of their families.

When I was on my mission in the Philippines I went to the American World War II Cemetery in Manila where there are something like 40,000 American soldiers buried.  I think what was so sobering was having had that experience and seeing all of those white crosses and Stars of David in combination with those seen today.  In completely different areas of the world and yet the same result.  It really gave me a scope for how huge the conflict was and how much we were spread out trying to preserve freedom.  

 

Then we went down to Omaha Beach where the American forces landed and had quite a difficult time.  There were a lot of lives lost there.

After the cemetery and the Omaha beach we went to Ponte du Hoc.  Another place where American troupes landed on D-Day and fought.  It is quite a heroic story about 200 or so rangers who landed there and fought more than 200 Germans for 2 ½ days before getting reinforcements.  When the reinforcements came there were only something like 85 rangers still alive.   It is amazing to me that we succeeded in our D-day invasion.  I think the guide said that of the first 600 troupes to land on Omaha Beach 500 were killed.  And there were certainly plenty of things that went wrong that day.  It is amazing that the allied forces succeeded.

 So, it was an afternoon where we saw some gorgeous Normandy countryside and beaches, but it was also a somber and a reflective afternoon.

We had dinner at a creperie in town.  They had gluten free crepes.  They are actually called gallettes and are dinner crepes.  They are made with buckwheat. Yay!  I saw this on the sign outside and said this is where we are having dinner.

Bayeux is a great place.  I highly recommend it for anyone coming to France.  Tonight we are going to have our nightly picture review and then shower and prepare to travel to Paris tomorrow.

France Day 2: Bayeux (June 18, 2012)

Today was a really mellow day.  We slept in and eventually made our way to see the Bayeux Tapestry.  It was really quite fascinating.  It is a tapestry (an embroidery really) that tells the story of William the Conquerer and his conquest of England.  I have seen pictures of the tapestry before in some textbook either in Humanities at BYU or in high school.  Today I got to see it in person.  It dates back to 1066 AD.

After that we scheduled our D-Day tour for tomorrow.  Then we got some water and an Orangina and sat for a few minutes.  Then we spent about 3 hours walking along the river.  It was lovely.  We took lots of pictures for our photo contest.

  

 And some fun pictures also...

Then we got dinner.  We had omelets and chocolate mousse.  It was good.  It was the first real meal we had eaten in 2 days.  So it was really lovely. 

After dinner I realized that my video camera was missing.  I had put everything I wanted into the pockets of my coat this afternoon because my shoulders are really sore from carrying my computer around all day on Saturday and my video camera fell out of my pocket somewhere.  We remembered the last time we used it and it was in a field where we had filmed some frolicking vs. tripping (English for skipping).  We were having a delightful time but my camera must have fallen out of my picket.  It has to be in that field somewhere.  We walked back to it and looked but didn’t find it.  So, my little video camera is gone.  I thought it was broken in London and then I fixed it – how sad to lose it now. I am going to go back and look again in the morning.

This is a picture from our hotel window at aprox. 10:30 PM.  It is still amazingly light outside.

France Day 1: Bayeux (June 17, 2012)

I am in France!  We got up at about 5AM this morning.  Put some clothes on and brushed our teeth and got in a cab that took us to the pier.  We were quite early, but we didn’t know what to expect and so we made sure that we had plenty of time to spare in case something went wrong.

We got on the ferry and stood on deck taking pictures as we left the harbor at Poole.  Here are some examples of the beautiful landscape we passed.  This was a great way to travel from England to France.

We took a train from Cherbourg to Bayeux. One thing that I noticed about the French that endeared me to them right away is that at each station there were families bidding farewell to loved ones.  At Cherbourg there was an older couple with the wife leaving she was standing on the train in the door and her husband was standing on the platform waiting for her to leave.  At another station a husband and wife stood on the platform saying goodbye to their daughter.  The dad came right up to the train window.  It was really cute.

We arrived in Bayeux, climbed the flight of stairs to our room with all our luggage, opened the door looked around for a moment, decided who gets the big bed and then promptly crashed on the beds and fell asleep.  I think we slept for a couple of hours and then we showered and walked around Bayeux and got something to eat.

Bayeux is the most quaint and picturesque town I have ever seen.  I just kept taking pictures of everything I saw.  It is quiet and slow paced.  Just Delightful!  There is a large gothic cathedral in the center of town and it was open so we went inside and looked around.  The stained glass windows were beautiful.  The colors are so rich and vibrant.

We came back to our room and spent about an hour looking at pictures we have taken.  Angela has challenged me to a picture taking contest of our trip.  We both have some really great possibilities at this point.