Wrap It Up

Truly Global

Returning from Paris on the train...doesn't that sound great?  We hopped on at Gare Montparnasse and soon were speeding away, back to our home away from home.  It was Friday and before we knew it, the River Loire was in view, welcoming us back.  I do love towns with rivers, being a resident of one of the best.  We rolled off our bullet train, crossed the street and right away our city tram arrived to whisk us up to our stop where we parked the Peugeot.  Miraculously, it was still where we parked it, no tickets or dents. 

It was already the weekend, our last in Nantes.  I remembered to call Christine and let her know we survived Paris.  We agreed to meet at midday Saturday for lunch and a last champagne toast to our new friendship.  We wanted to take them out for a meal and repay them a bit.  We had a lovely lunch at an old inn along the highway just out of town and were introduced to beurre blanc sauce.  Heavenly! 

Colorful Harbour

This photo is one of the most colorful ones I took this trip.  Last year we took so many amazing brightly colored pictures, being in a tropical land.  This year our voyage took us to another country with much more subdued colors, but what history!  The people and sights overwhelm and surprise you with their warmth - who would have thought I'd spend so much time shooting a metallic structure painted brown...but France captures your imagination and awakens your heart to the beauty of everyday life.

A marvelous structure!

I come away from our adventure with the impressions of old and new...France is a very modern country with highways that whisk you along and deposit you quickly into towns that are aging gracefully but with streets that take you on a wild ride.  No matter how many times you think you've got an area figured out, another road sign will trick you.  There is a brilliant feature to all the newness and that is traffic circles - if you don't see the right sign the first time around...keep going!

Red awning = relaxation

Another fabulous feature of towns big or small, are the red awnings which are cafes, brasseries, bistros - you name it, there's always a waiter to greet you and set you down and then bring you a taste of France.  Food or drink, hot or cold.  All there to refresh your spirit.  Yes, there are a ton of people who smoke here...you just have to adjust and sit inside.  Even with all the smoke and quick walking, you'll always come away with the olfactory memory of a great fragrance...the French do use it wonderfully and both of us would apply ours faithfully. 

Red or White

We barely had time to visit the famous wine region of the Loire nor did we visit a ton of fancy Chateaux...but we did enjoy the simple, everyday wine we were served and our city tram in Nantes would take us by a beautiful Chateau each day we journeyed into town.  The French do have public transportation down...what an easy system once you master it.  We felt we had just scratched the surface of Nantes, and the french way of life.  We must return to walk past the Elephant again and to  visit the Lu Biscuit factory.  Take an electric boat out to explore the Erdre River and eat crepes at a local creperie on the water.  So much to do, but we'll just have to come back.  Au Revoir, Nantes!

Paris - Day Two

Hotel room with limited head room!

Booking a hotel room in Paris is a crap shoot...you know that if you find a place in a popular location, you'll pay through the nose.  I figured this place, which is a ways away from all the action but still pretty close being on a Metro line, would do...it looked so romantic on the website - it's billed as a 'Mansard Chambre'.  Yes, that's the interior view of a mansard roof...you lose headroom when you get the 4th floor room...poor Dave kept bonking his head trying to get dressed.   

Mansard Bathroom

...and the shower!  Don't get us started!  Yes, you see a tub...you would normally stand up and use the hose to wet your hair, etc...well, the roof doesn't permit you to stand up!  OY!  I had to wait to return to Nantes to wash my back.  Oh well...on to the rest of our city tour!

We had experienced rain the first night and luckily missed another one in a bistro yesterday.  Today, the weather was clear, sunny and COLD.  Guess what I thought would be a good idea - to book a day tour on an open top double decker bus, called Open Tours - you can hop on and off anytime you want so you get ferried to your sites!  What a good idea....but man - it was chilly.  Our first stop we decided was at the department store area so we could go into Galleries Lafayette and buy hats and gloves.  Now. on to the tour! 

The Louvre is such a captivating sight - there was simply no time to view the museum, but we wandered around the grounds and enjoyed the architectural blend of old and new.

I M Pei pyramids at the Louvre

Back on the bus, we next landed close to Notre Dame Cathedral.  First, lunch.  Had french onion soup to check another food item off the list.  Another first at this bistro...usually big places like train stations charge you to use the toilet.  Well, this joint had stalls with coin-operated doors!!!  Wow....

Dave in new cap & scarf - a true french man!

I have been to Notre Dame a few times, Dave experienced it for the first time.  He of course was amazed by the architecture inside and out.  It is a place that you can spend a lot of time exploring.  He also was impressed with the religious feeling you get being there.  We witnessed a group of Japanese women who were obviously pilgrims - they were very inspired and rushed around rubbing the statues and crossing themselves. 

We sadly moved on, picking up the bus one more time to be taken to the Champs Elysee for a walk to the Arch de Triomphe, a monument that honors those who fought and died in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. In order to reach the arch, you have to go under the road and back up to the center so you can see it up close.  It is wild watching the cars careen around the circle, seeing as how there are 12 streets that intersect at this place!

We found life in Paris to be more frenetic than Nantes, but people here really have to move - we simply strolled and watched them fly by. 

Paris Bucket List

Our first view of the Eiffel Tower

Yes, we really did go to Paris!!! What a fun time - we took in many of the sights, but basically we concentrated on the top 5: Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Notre Dame and Arc de Triomphe & Champs Elysee.


Our commute up to Paris was speedy...the TGV (train grand vitesse...very fast train) flys at 150 mph!!  Check out this video...

 

We arrived at Gare Montparnasse but it took us awhile to figure out where the heck we were...we had assumed that we'd arrive where we first left town but happily we were much closer to the heart.  Bought a 3 day Metro pass and found the #6 line which we used exclusively for our stay.  Near the eastern end of the line was our Hotel Claret in the Bercy district. At the other end (west) of the line is the Arc de Triomphe...our last stop for our tour. 

We arrived at the hotel and the clerk handed us the key.  Things are very streamlined here...they don't require ID at this time.  When we wanted to use WIFI, then I had to cough up the passport....go figure! Also, you must hand your key to the clerk when you leave the hotel...i'd forgotten that detail and had a mini lecture the first time we came home...oh well!

We strolled to Bercy Village, a collection of shops and bistros centered around the Cinematique, their movie palace.  While we ate a snack and had a bit of wine, the heavens opened up and rain started...our first storm since we've been in France and out walking!  We managed to get back to the hotel, but were drowned rats. 

In the morning, we arrived at La Tour Eiffel at 10:15,  miraculously there were probably about 50 people in line to take to elevator up, so we hastily made our way to the line and were up to the middle of the tower by 11:30!  I've been under the Tower before, seen it from a distance but never ascended to the heights.  What a view!  The sun was out and everything looked sparkly after a bit of rain from the night before. 

Looking down at the Arc de Triomphe

Here is the Arc de Triomphe from the Tower...very impressive.  The layout of the streets are amazing...not a straight line to see, except the Champs Elysee...

We did a little strolling around the district, had lunch and decided to take a boat ride, a tour of the city from the water.  Such a different way to see Paris.  I am in love with the amazing penthouses you see as you motor by. 

Ah, a boat tour of the Seine, how fun...except as we waited in line to embark, 4 busloads of children in bright green vests arrived and got in line, also!  Hey, it's 2pm - shouldn't they all be getting ready to head home?  Nope, this is France...things start later than at home.  So, with the amazing views we were subjected to kicking, screaming kids.  That made us even more sure we needed to find a place to have a cocktail.  As we walked back to the Metro stop, I viewed a red awning down a side street...aha!  We made a beeline for this lovely bistro - where we ate escargot and sipped Champagne while another rainstorm missed us!  This picture was taken after we left - sunshine!!!

Weekend Chores

'Drying' the duvet

Ma - you should be proud of your son!  This is what has to happen after you wash the sheets...first thing in the morning!  They hang out in the garage 'drying' but at 19:00 they are pretty cool to the touch.  So, out comes the iron on a Sunday evening.
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Backyard

Front yard

The next door neighbor fired up his lawnmower Saturday afternoon.  It sounded like a junior dragster...gas powered mowers sound like this, we guess.  After a thorough raking of the front and back yard, we decided to get our electric mower out and see what we could accomplish.  The mower was a 10" beauty with a little plastic grass catcher.  It actually did a nice job of handling the fairly long, thin grass. I handled the long cord...I'm pretty handy!

Agriculture on the Loire River

Champtoceaux scenery

Sunday afternoon the weather was gorgeous, not a cloud in the sky so we took a drive out of town to tour the river valley just out of town.  There is a fascinating mix of old and new...to see the villages at the center, you'd think you were back in time.  At the outskirts, all the industry for a brisk agricultural business is evident. Sunday the wine business along with just about every other business except restaurants are closed, hence no wine tasting.  We saw where the places were, however. Next time!!

Everyday Life

Cheers from Nantes!

So our days have some definite high points.  Among them, our nearly daily lunch in a brasserie or bistro. This photo was taken at our first time downtown on our own using public transportation - we celebrated at this Bistro du Canard (Duck Bistro)  Neither of us had duck but were offered a choice of four large salads.  I ordered a seafood one and Dave ordered a pork version.   We are a bit off on the French schedule for food...they eat lunch from noon to 2pm.  We arrived around 2ish and they were nice enough to let us eat something cold - the burners are turned off or something...!  We are happy here since it was our first bottle of Muscadet wine from the Loire.  Yummy!  They were also able to bring us these luscious desserts. Amen!

Grand Marnier souffle and chocolate mousse

From the sparkling to the somewhat drab...housework.  We do not have a housekeeper or laundress...boo hoo!  So, we vacuum and dust pretty regularly.  Laundry is the interesting task.  We deposit the clothes into this top loading vertical drum that has 8 rubber balls in it.  You latch the lid to the drum, close the top and voila!  The washer works for about an hour and then the trick is to unload the clothes without losing the balls which like to get lodged into pockets, pants legs and anywhere else you can imagine.  It does a wonderful job of getting clothes clean. 

Laundry drying in the garage

Then the fun begins...hanging all your items on the laundry lines!  Wow...it's been a long time since this was a task...I complained bitterly the first time because I couldn't reach the line to attach items.  I looked around and found that you can lower those lines - hallelujah! 

Steam Iron

If you want to iron some items, there's this lovely contraption to really get the wrinkles out of things.  You can hold shirts up and steam the heck out of them or use an ironing board. 

Television continues to be a crap shoot.  Some evenings they show US shows like 'NCIS' or 'Bones' without dubbing...you watch an hour and then the next hour it's another one in French...our family doesn't have basic cable, just local stuff but occasionally an HD show comes on.  They have this 42" TV that has wonderful reception...where's CNN???

Voyage to Normandy - Part 2

Memorial de Caen Museum

Our day began by visiting this wonderful museum, which is a real center for the history of the 20th Century.
We learned that the city of Caen, during the Liberation of 1944, had 3/4 of the city destroyed.  Wow...
It is thriving now, and this memorial showed many facets of the period during World War II - how the period of peace from WWI was a failure, how it was a truly global war, how a man such as Hitler could come to power and wreak such havoc.

                                                                                                                                                          

Hitler takes Paris

We went through with an audio guide and listened to many stories from the French perspective which is fascinating.  The French resistance worked very hard to keep life normal.   This photo below shows a man smiling during his death by firing squad.  It is a very famous photo intended to keep up morale during the country's low time of German occupation.

The Smiling Prisoner

We spent a lot of time at the exhibit about D Day at Normandy.  The city of Cherbourg is famous for being the US supply area - we shipped all the war supplies directly there by boat while most of the other countries worked on British soil to prepare for the invasion of Normandy.

Supplies from Cherbourg for the US Troops

Liberty Ship probably built at Kaiser Shipyards, Portland

Dave with handmade weapons from French Resistance

After this, we had a leisurely lunch at the Terrasse Restaurant in the museum to get us ready to drive up to the D Day Beaches.  It is a beautiful drive through truly gorgeous country with old farmhouses and rolling countryside.  Here is a map of the beaches and will show our progress. Click on photo to enlarge.

DDay beaches

We drove from Caen up past Bayeux then north to Arromanches which is the most westerly of the Gold Beaches for the British.  As we drove over the bluff and looked for the first time at the North Channel, we saw what's left of the land bridges that enabled the troops and cargo to be unloaded due to the extreme tides. We then drove west and parked in a wonderful port town called Port-en-Bessin.  We walked out to the outer harbour and took a bunch of photos of the low tide and lovely clouds over town.

Low tide looking East

Steep and slick put-in at low tide~!

Port-en-Bessin from the harbor wall

 We really enjoyed our time at this lovely port town, but were ready to venture to the WWII 'ground zero' for us Americans, Omaha Beach.  Besides, it was getting late! 

At Colleville-sur-Mer, which was not a long drive, we came to signs to the beach and cemetary.  We drove down to the beach, first.  What a setting!  It was so beautiful but you couldn't help remembering what took place here, the landing craft, the pillboxes, the thousands of Americans who perished during the first couple of hours...very haunting.

Omaha Beach sign

Where the troops marched and tanks rolled

Imagine trying to march through hedgerows

Looking west down the beach

It was nearing 17:00 hours (5pm) and we had to get up to the  Normandy American Cemetery which is located on a bluff overlooking Omaha Beach.  The French government has granted the US a special, perpetual concession to the land occupied by the cemetery, free of any charge or tax.  Here are buried  9,287 American soldiers, mostly killed during the invasion of Normandy. The photos say it all.

Normandy American Memorial

Gravestones

Honoring our Brave Soldiers

Voyage to Normandy - Part 1

Home Sweet Home

We set the alarm Tuesday morning so that we could begin our voyage to the city of Caen in Normandy.  Not the easiest task, since we were renting a car and had to pick it up before beginning the trip.  We aren't that familiar with this city yet, so we had to plot out a route to drive to a new tram stop, park our house car and then take the tram into town to pick up the shiny new rental car.  Then drive the car back to the tram stop, pick up the other car and leave it back home before starting our drive north...
Note: we do not live anywhere near a bus or a tram line - the closest bus line into town is 1/2 mile away...it's kind of like us at home trying to get to the airport with the Max line...we don't live anywhere near and would have to transfer from a bus to a train to reach the airport Max...eek.

The downtown of Nantes

I know it sounds rather dumb of us to be stressing about a task such as this...well here is a small map of the city here...sorry I'm blowing it way up for you to get an idea of our driving challenge.

Green labels denote tram stops near unrelated streets!

And after picking up the rental car near the river downtown, we had to navigate roughly Northeast up to a tram stop along these crazy streets...no road goes through!!!  Luckily Dave looks for landmarks - tall ones - and found a yellow crane to drive close to and we found the car. Whoo Hoo! So now back to the house to drop car #1 back.

The night before, I printed up directions on Google maps for our voyage north.  Good thing I did...but at REALLY crucial places they let us down...way down.  Oh well...

Circle road around Caen

So...we took a wrong turn and landed on the 'Peripherique' or circle road around Caen because the crucial road I was going to use wasn't marked. We ended up driving in a huge circle not recognizing any names or numbers on the exits. I see a sign to downtown and decide to wing it...heck every town has a big church with a steeple in the center...let's try our luck....OMG!!!

One Way Capitol

Well, this map is gorgeous but it doesn't show the one ways, pedestrian-only streets or roads packed with double-parkers.  Suffice it to say, if we were married, we'd be divorced by now.
I ordered Dave to park the car in a Monoprix parking lot and made the decision to walk around and find the hotel...we were painfully close - in fact just across the street!!

The lovely lady at the front desk calmed us down and patiently explained the way to their parking lot with 6 spaces.  We survived!!!  We felt like the Allied soldiers who arrived in Caen to liberate the French -  but that lesson is for the next post...A Demaine~ (until tomorrow...)