France | LisaLarry.com

Normandy Day 1: Utah Beach Ceremony and Fireworks

Larry / June 5, 2009 / Normandy, Travel

I have never felt much for France or the French. Ironically, I have more French blood than any other but English and Norwegian, yet have never felt any sort of affinity for the place or the people. Through movies and literature I have a strong attraction to the south of France and the beautiful countryside and “provincial” living they have there (as for the name, Provence was the first Roman province outside of Italy), but Paris has only been a minor draw for me. Lisa, on the other hand, loves France. She particularly loves Paris, and has been here many times to satisfy — and feed — her affection for it. So I knew when we began planning this adventure that a large segment would be spent in Paris.

But ever since we had decided to begin our adventure in Paris, I have been determined to take a side trip northwest to Normandy. Ever since I was a child watching documentaries and movies about WWII I’ve wanted to visit the place where so many sacrificed everything for the noble cause of freedom. I’ve wanted to stand on the shores where they struggled and see the things that many of them saw as their last. I’ve always felt a strong and sacred reverence for those who’ve fought and died in honor (particularly Americans, being the patriot I am) — had their lives cut short, leaving families, wives, and girlfriends to spend a lifetime of grief over them. So a weekend in Normandy was in the plans.

Lisa has a special talent for planning excursions and with little persuasion she began a rough assembly of places and things to see. I thought it might be nice to go over Memorial Day weekend, since, well, it’s Memorial Day. But after a little digging Lisa let me know that not only was the anniversary of the Normandy landings coming up, but it was the 65th anniversary and likely to be the last one many of the surviving veterans would attend. What luck! We delayed the trip to June 5-7, the 6th being the D-Day anniversary.

We have been spending a lot of time on our work projects and touring Paris as much as possible so we decided to take this weekend a little more loosely than even we typically do. (We usually plan our trips very loosely because we like to leave room for flexibility to change our plans.)

Getting Out of Paris

We rented a little Peugeot very similar to the one that we’ve purchased for this trip (and will pick up on Sunday) from a local rental agency and began the nearly three hour drive northwest to Normandy. Traffic in Paris is not all that different from New York City, especially in rush hour. There are the drivers who are overly cautious, those that are frankly not fit for the road, and those such as taxis and sports cars who are certainly driving too wildly for the conditions. The roundabout surrounding the Arc de Triomphe is particularly harrowing, as the roundabouts we like are usually no more than 2, maybe 3 lanes wide. In this one, there can be 8 or more cars side-by-side going roundabout, each constantly darting in and out of each other, cutting each other off, merging without looking, stopping suddenly, or changing their minds simultaneously, all trying to make their respective exit of the 12 available. It’s a huge, high-speed, metallic mosh pit.

We continued past the Arc on the Champs Elysees toward the Grande Arche de la Defense, the giant square arched monument/office building in the business center of Paris. Before you reach the monument, the highway cuts underground and heads out of town.

Not far out of town, civilization dwindles to a minimum, giving way to sprawling green farms with tiny towns that dot the countryside. Our route passed Giverny where Claude Monet lived and painted some of his most famous works, including all of those in his garden with the red bridge over the pond full of water lillies. You know the ones. But that will be another trip, or this trip a little later on. Getting closer to Normandy, the flat landscape becomes one of rolling hills and larger farms. It reminded us of Scotland, which we loved so much, and pictures we’ve seen of Ireland where we haven’t yet been. The place reminded me of a beautiful lyric by Marillion, “a tattered necklace of hedge and trees on the southern side of the hill, betrays where the border runs between, where Mary Dunoon’s boy fell”. These same lines of hedge and trees were considered by Eisenhower to be one of the most difficult aspects of warfare on that land as their mass and shadows kept countless snipers and enemy forces well hidden at frequent intervals, and taking that land was both slow and very costly in lives.

Our Little Cottage by The Sea

As we always do on our excursions, we reported first to our lodgings, a little farmhouse conversion with cottages in the back, to drop off our belongings and then headed out to see the sights. Our first taste of the commemoration events was turning onto a small country road and finding ourselves following a vintage 1940’s U.S. Army Jeep meticulously restored and flying a Old Glory from its tall antenna. We drove in formation for some miles before we broke off to drive along the coast towards our planned destination of Utah Beach, which is on the far west side of the D-Day beach areas.

On the way we passed through the small town of Insigny-sur-Mer. It was full of vintage vehicles, Jeeps, motorcycles, trucks, personnel carriers, etc. all parked around the tiny circular town square. We pressed on westward and arrived not long before dark at Utah Beach.

Utah Beach

Much like a massive rock concert, the parking extended a half mile away from the beach itself and we walked quickly to catch as much light as possible. When we arrived to the event area in the grass and dunes near the beach, a ceremony was already underway honoring the veterans who were present. US military, French military, and government officials paraded by the crowd to the recently Utah Beach Museum where they broke ground for a new wing that is being financed by the son of an American Normandy Beach veteran. Afterward, we beat the crowd down to the beach itself where coordinated fireworks in 25 different locations across all of Normandy’s beaches soon began. Certainly not the biggest or most impressive round of fireworks we’ve ever seen, but the special meaning of the time and place, with the coordination along the many beaches, made it very memorable.

After stopping by a closed McDonald’s on the way home, and camping out in front to use their WiFi for a while, we returned to our small cottage on the farm and turned in for the night with big plans for the following day.

More to come…

Orsay and The Moon

Larry / May 29, 2009 / France, Photography, Travel, Vagabonding

We spent the morning working on our various projects, but by mid-afternoon we were itching to get out of the apartment. Being an overcast day with gray, useless light, the next thing we thought of was a museum. As we hadn’t been to Orsay yet this trip we grabbed our cameras and headed out.

For something so seemingly relaxing and non-active, museums take a lot out of you. After three hours of ambling through a place we’re usually ready to sit, or sometimes fall, down. We also find that in most museums, fortunately, those three hours are plenty to see the “important” or otherwise notable or attractive pieces — obvious exceptions being the bigger museums in NYC, D.C., and here in Paris. Orsay is a former train station, as Lisa mentioned in another post I believe, and a feature of that past is a cavernous main hall that is quite a sight to behold. Most of the museum’s sculptures stand in the main hall, giant figures among the many ant-like figures roaming around them in the clothing of either brightly under-dressed tourists or desperately fashionable Parisians.

As you can see by the picture of the grand hall below, the museum was sparsely attended while we were there. We were glad to be able to take our time and stop in front of our favorites, rather than wrestling with the mob from place to place.

We began with the temporary exhibitions, as they weren’t there last time we were here and may not be next time we come. One was an event marking the centenary of the death of painter Ernest Hébert (1817-1908) which consisted of his and his contemporaries’ paintings of Italian peasants. While portraiture is not my favorite type, his depictions were very impressive. One of my favorites was a little peasant girl. Cute as cute gets.

After that exhibit and some of the surrounding content, we decided to get a late lunch at the Cafe on the top floor. As we ate, we considered possible plans of attack. As we have enough time to return at least once or twice before we leave for the south, we decided to take our time on the top floor (impressionists and others) like we haven’t been able to do before, on shorter, more concentrated trips.

Orsay houses a few of my favorites by Van Gogh and others, and most of them are on the top floor. We took the next 3 hours to make our way through them. It was wonderful. I highly recommend it, as it necessarily comes with the highly recommended slow travel method we are experimenting with as well.

As always, though, after four and a half hours in the museum, we were ready to call it a night. We may have to rush the other floors on our next visit as we have many other museums to visit during our last weeks in Paris.

When we got home and settled in I looked out the window to see the crescent moon setting in a path toward the Eiffel Tower. I grabbed my camera and tripod and set up on the balcony to capture some nice long exposures for the collection. See below (click to enlarge).

La méridienne ou La sieste, Vincent van Gogh, 1889

Londres, le Parlement Trouee le soleil dans le brouillard, 1904, Claude Monet

Bal du Moulin de la Galette, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1876

One of the many self portraits, Vincent van Gogh, 1887

Rue du Bac Home, in Paris

Lisa / May 19, 2009 / France, Travel, Vagabonding

Larry likes to make lots of little word plays and jokes for places and names – the title of this post is his latest. As we approached our place at the end of a long day he said “Well, it’s good to be Rue du Bac home.” Our apartment is on the Rue du Bac, in the 7th Arrondissement, on the Left Bank. I couldn’t have asked for a better location. We are no more than 15 minutes’ walk from the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, Orsay, and Notre Dame. We are less than two blocks down the street from the most famous gourmet grocery store in Paris, La Grande Epicerie de Paris. Those of you who know me well know that I have what borders on a fetish for gourmet markets. I could spend hours perusing all of the gorgeous produce, meats, fish and exotic ingredients in each aisle.

The apartment is pretty much as I expected based on the pictures and floorplan we received from the owners. It’s a decent sized one bedroom + office, with a tiny little Parisian kitchen and a balcony that looks over to the Invalides and Le Tour Eiffel. The view is really great. We’re on the 6th floor, and our view is unobstructed to the West. We were both thrilled as soon as we got up here and opened the blinds.

We spent the first afternoon unpacking and settling in, then went out for one of my favorite meals in France, an omelette. Eggs are just better here – whether in quiche, an omelette, or on top of a croque madame. Probably because everything is made with a gallon of cream and/or butter. My cholesterol levels may need some emergency intervention when we go back to the States. We walked around the entire large block around our apartment on the way back to get a feel for the neighborhood, and found a Tabac and a convenience store where we severely overpaid for some Coke Zero. I think we’re going to have to cut back on our habit if we’re going to live economically over here.

The next day we got lost in the Grande Epicerie (at least for as long as Larry had the patience) and then went down the street to a regular grocery store to stock up on some regular items. Food is a lot more expensive in France. You’ve gotta love the T.V.A. (taxe sur la valeur ajoutee) or for those who know it by its English name, the VAT (value added tax). Invented by a Frenchman in 1954, it is a consumption tax that was originally directed at large business but really everyone pays the price (cap and trade, anyone?). VAT is currently 19.6% in France.

Our goal as it relates to grocery shopping is that we will never buy the same thing twice (except the basics like milk and bread), thus forcing us to try lots of new and different things. We also have a goal of buying two new types of cheeses each time we visit the market so we can spread out our cheese tastings among the more than 1,000 types of cheese currently being produced in France.

On Sunday we walked over to the Eiffel Tower. It was a beautiful sunny, cool afternoon and there were a lot of Parisians and tourists alike enjoying it.

On Monday we ventured over to the Louvre for our first of hopefully many visits while we are here. We spent about 2 1/2 hours covering the Denon wing, which included the Mona Lisa, Galerie de Michel-Ange (Michaelangelo), the Victoire de Samothrace and Cupid and Psyche, which is one of my personal favorites.

Victory des Semothraces — Victoire de Samothrace

I love beautiful paintings but there’s something about the luminous, life-like, peaceful stillness of marble sculptures that entrances me. Standing near them feels like I’m standing next to a person who will spring into animation at any moment.

Rodin is one of my favorite sculptors – and lucky me – the Rodin museum is just down the road! We’ll definitely be spending some time there as well.

After we left the Louvre we wandered through the Tuileries, past the Place de la Concorde and down the Champs Elysees.

We finished the evening off by seeing Angels and Demons in a movie theater on the Champs-Elysees and eating omelettes – again. Larry spent quite a bit of time in the middle of the Champs Elysees trying to capture the perfect blend of moving traffic with the Arc de Triomphe at the center.

Tuesday we explored more of the left bank as we searched to do a little window shopping and ended up at the chapel of Saint Germain des Pres which is one of the oldest churches in Paris. The bell tower was built beginning in 990. The tomb of Rene Descartes (“I think, therefore I am”) is there, among others.

After the church we stopped to eat in one of the famous left bank brasseries, the Cafe de Flore. We had the BEST quiche Lorraine ever (more eggs!) while sitting in the sun terrace and watching passers-by. Larry spotted who he thinks was Faye Dunaway leaving the cafe surrounded by a handsome male companion and a personal assistant. Unfortunately I only saw the back of her head.

(All photos (c) Larry L. Hanson or Lisa Hanson, 2009)