Back to Paris

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Normandy is a lovely part of France, rolling rural landscape with cows and horses, hay rolls and high hedge rows. The small villages reminded us of England. The rugged coast and unspoiled beaches look peaceful and it’s difficult to believe that they were the scene of the death of so many Americans and allied forces, French civilians as well as German soldiers during D Day June 6, 1944. The people and stories came alive for us after two full days of tours; every small village had a memorial erected by the French citizens of the village. Today we followed the combat course of the "Band of Brothers", part of the 101st Airborne Division". Many buildings showed damage. Bayeux, where we spent two nights, was one of the few villages that were spared air attack or ground attack. Bunkers and evidence of German occupation and fierce fighting by the allies were visible in many of the places we visited. One of the most moving sites was the American Cemetery. It is on a bluff overlooking Omaha Beach 172 aces and over 9,000 graves marked by white crosses and stars of David.
We ate some memorable food but I must say that the local cider was not a hit with Bev; September was a great time to come, cool sunny days and free of the tourists that come to see the D Day sights and enjoy the beaches in the summer months. We are on the train traveling towards Paris to spend the night before we board Air France for the 11 hour flight to Johannesburg.

Bev and Ron

Carving

Third try

Here is the carving referenced in the last post.

Normandy, continued

The previous post got published before we were ready. The photos show, as well as Bayeux, Omaha Beach and Pointe du Hoc, two of the beaches in the American Sector. Finally, we see the American Cemetary overlooking Omaha Beach. It is a moving and beautiful area. We took an all day tour with a French tour company specializing in the invasion. Very well informed and articulate British guide. Tomorrow we take another tour featuring the events surrounding the Band of Brothers, part of the 101 st Airborne "Screaming Eagles." The last picture is of a carving on the wall of a memorial at the American Cemetary.

Normandy

Wednesday, September 17, 2008,

Here we are in the delightful village of Bayeux. We are here for two nights at the Churchill Hotel (Rick Steves find) enjoying the Normandy countryside, famous for cows, camenbert , calvdos, and cream. Very quaint and dedicated to the memory of D Day, when so many Americans, among others, died on the beaches of Normandy during World War ll.
Yesterday we saw the Bayeux Tapestry, a record of events of 1066 when William the Bastard became William the Conqorer and Harold became, well, dead. (It always helps to be the winner)

Off to France

Left for the airport for a 1:00 pm departure for...Salt Lake City. (Delta no longer has a direct flight to Los Angeles, the tickets were frequent flyer business class, so on to LA via Utah.) Our connection was canceled for mechanical reasons but they had a spare and we got to LA with time to spare. While at the Air France counter in LA we observed a French women "of a certain age" having a discussion withe a supervisor. It seems her traveling companion, a dachshund, was, in the words of the supervisor, "overweight". I think he meant over the weight allowed for dogs in the passenger cabin, but she took it to mean he was fat. Heated discussion occurred-"Overweight, nonsense, just look at him" etc. We had to leave the scene before the outcome was known.





Boarded the AF flight at 11:30 pm, got into the comfortable Business Class seats, had a glass of champagne, and slept until about 2 hours out of Paris CDG. As we were waiting for our bags I got paged by AF. They were concerned that our bags had not made it. As I was filling out the paperwork the bags were found. Bev was making a mental note of the missing items that would have to be hastily replaced and our good luck in having key items in the carry ons. We have never had this misfortune in all of our traveling and our record remains intact. We are now at the hotel and leave for Normandy tomorrow. Time for some wine and food.





Ron and Bev





PS As Ron was filling out the paperwork for the (not) missing bags Bev observed the French lady and her dachshund strolling through the arrival hall. AF rules are no match for an aggravated Frenchwomen of a certain age.

We are off !

Sunday, September 14

The beige safari clothes are in the suitcases, passports at the ready, the shot records up to date, the dog nanny arranged and we head for the Sacramento Airport in 45 minutes. We leave on a happy note after celebrating the wonderful wedding, of Ian and Kareena Parks yesterday in San Jose.

We are headed for the beaches of Normandy for a few days. Ron, in his trip planning extraordinaire, figured out that it was someplace we'd always wanted to see and happened to be almost the same time zone as South Africa so would afford an opportunity to change our time clocks.

Botswana

Zambia

South Africa