A trip from Paris through the Loire Valley, St. Malo, Mont Saint Michel to the invasion beaches of Normandy
Spring 1995
Tuesday,
May
9 1995
Arrived
Paris, Orly, after an overnight flight from JFK on Delta.
Paul is on business; Rosemarie is using a free (business-class) ticket. Delay in getting to the taxi because of a bomb scare.
We were held in the terminal for about a half hour.
Rude French woman tried to push ahead of us in the taxi line.
We pushed back.
Our
hotel is the Regina de Passy. Very nice. This
is the second time we've stayed in the Passy district of Paris (very expensive
area). Walked to the Trocadero,
Palais Challiot, to view the Eiffel tower.
Paul started his videotape here with an opening shot of the French flag,
followed by the tower. Had a snack
(waffle with whipped cream). Rosie
also had a chocolate bar. No diet in France!
We walked along the Rue Kleber to the Etoile. There had been the big VE day celebration here on May 8th (one day earlier). Saw the reviewing stands. Photographed the Arc de Triomphe and the eternal flame surrounded by floral wreaths. Still light at 9 PM local time. Walked back along Kleber and had nice dinner at restaurant called Cotton Club after the Harlem club of the thirties.
Wednesday,
May 10
Paul flew to Amsterdam on business. Rosemarie took bus 72 along Seine to Notre Dame. Very dark inside. Saw Pompidou Centre, but did not visit because there was no special exhibit. Visited Picasso Museum (second time there). Lunched on Quiche on the Rue de Rivoli 72, opposite the hotel de Ville. Returned to Passy, past Louvre, Concorde and along the Seine. Paul returned at 9 PM. Dinner together at Le Petite Tour, 11 Rue de la Tour. We ate there in 1992, another first class meal.
Thursday,
May 11 1995.
Paul picked up by Bruno Pezzali. First to his representative, MB Electronique at Buc, then to visit customer Dassault. Rosemarie went via metro to the Louvre, 40 FF. Lunch in museum at Cafe Mollien, Denon wing, first floor (41 FF baguette, jambon & coke). Photographed Winged Victory, Venus de Milo, the Richelieu wing: Napoleon's apartments, sculpture garden and Egyptian art. Bus 72 back to hotel. Dinner at Le Petit Columbier with Michel Guerin and J.P. Martenot. J.P. drove through the Etoile with abandon! His secret? "Don't make eye contact." Had pigeon.
Friday
May 12 1995
Paul went again to MB Electronique for business. Rosemarie bought the red Guide Michelin of French hotels and restaurants. Took Metro 6 and Metro A to Galleries Lafayette. Lunch at Printemps. Walked to Madeleine. Lit candle, 5 FF. Continued past elegant shops and Maxims to Jeu de Paume. (Used to house the impressionist collection, now moved to the museum in the old train station, the Quay d'Orsay). Now the Jeu de Paume houses an exhibition of contemporary artists, Rosemarie’s verdict: "could have done without." Cold windy walk through the Tuilleries across Concorde to get the 72 bus.
Dinner with Bruno Pezzali and his wife, Veronique at a bistro on left bank. Restaurant Le Clocher St. Germain. Asparagus, salmon, strawberries. Raining heavily.
Saturday,
May 13 1995
We rented an Avis car near the Dom Invalides. Got hopelessly lost trying to find the A-10 to Orleans. Wanted to get off the Autoroute to drive smaller roads along the river, but there is no exit to do so. Had to drive several km beyond. Miserable weather all the way. Took a peek at Chateau Chambord but did not stop. Too tired. Will return tomorrow. Most houses in this region have their windows decorated with stone and brick. Very distinctive.
Sunday
May 14 1995
In
the AM we drove from our hotel, the Chateau de Breuil, in the woods, near the town of Cour
Cheverny to the Chambord castle. Chambord
is huge, on a large piece of land walled in as a hunting preserve.
Although well preserved on the outside, it is sparsely furnished on the
inside. We spent the morning there
and attended an exhibition of horsemanship at the adjacent stables.
In
the early afternoon we drove to Blois, across the Loire River.
We had some trouble driving (and parking) because there was a road
marathon in progress. We parked on
the street and walked to the Chateau. The
exterior was under renovation but the interior courtyard was nice. It overlooks the river from the center of the city.
We then drove back to Cheverny to the local Chateau. This one is privately owned and may even be partly occupied. The interior furnishings were exquisite. An antiques auction was being held in the adjacent Orangerie. We stayed for only the first few items, and then went over to the chateau itself. Gourmet dinner at our Chateau. Excellent service, many strange dishes. Deer in the meadow attracted a lot of attention. (We're accustomed to deer).
Monday
May 15.
We
drove to two Chateaux, stopping at Chateau Chaumont on the south side of the
Loire. It, too, had stables, but no
horses. We had a nice lunch,
Quiche, with wine in the town right outside the gate. Then we went on to
Amboise. This is only partly
restored. It is located right on
the riverbank. We crossed the Loire
in order to photograph it. Leonardo
da Vinci is buried here. We had to
join a tour in order to view the interior.
Here the Protestants (who had assassinated the King and Cardinal) were
tried and either hung from the balcony, beheaded or drowned in the Loire.
To the left (or above, depending on your browser) is Amboise and Leonardo's tomb
We stayed the night in Hotel Chateau de la Menaudiere in Montrichard. This was the most elegantly furnished room and the most modern bathroom. Our room faced the tennis court. But, the dinner service was a bit lacking. The food was good.
Tuesday
May 16.
In
the pouring rain, we drove to Chateau Chenonceau, which stretches across the
river Cher. This has a huge room the whole length of the building.
It was used as a hospital during the 40-45 war.
The gardens were very large and formal.
In the afternoon we drove to Chateau Azey.
This is also on a river. It
had nice tapestries and a moat. (That's
Rosemarie on the right.) The
guard tower is now the gift shop. Chateau
Azey was the smallest that we visited. We
continued along the Loire to Chenehutte. Our
hotel (the most expensive) is Le Prieure. It
features a stunning view of the river and a very nice dining room. (Rosemarie
worried whether we were using the right fork.
The dining room staff seemed to watch).
Our corner room had its own entrance and faced the Loire. The Loire is a shallow river with lots of sand bars. Our guidebook says it was navigable in the last century.
Wednesday
May 17.
After
a shower in the morning, the weather cleared.
We drove back toward the town of Saumur.
We toured the Champignon museum run by the Royal mushroom company.
We lunched there on stuffed mushrooms.
Then we toured a winery: Cratien & Meyers. This is a much larger operation than any on the North Fork of
our Long Island.
They bottle a million bottles per year.
We saw the bottling operation. Both
of these are built into caves dug into the "Tuffeaux" caves from which
the stone to build many of the Chateaux, had been mined.
In the mushroom cave we were 30 metres underground.
Temperatures a constant 14 C.
Late
in the afternoon we drove to see the Abbey at Fontevraud.
This is in a poor state of repair. It
has not been an Abbey since the French Revolution having mostly been used as a
jail. It is now being expensively
renovated. Aside from some
exhibits, it is largely empty. We
had a simpler dinner at the hotel. We
dispensed with the drinks and entree (appetizer) and just had a green salad and
some medallions of veal. No cheese
or dessert. We felt very righteous!
Thursday,
May 18.
It
rained, again, over night, but cleared mid morning as we departed after
breakfast (a sort of scrambled egg and bacon concoction) We drove about 4 hours
to the coast and, under sunny skies visited Le Mt. St Michel (after working our
way past a flock of sheep, blocking the causeway). The Abbey is visible
from a great distance. It was
low tide. The sign warned that high tide would be at 2130.
Although the parking lots were not full, the narrow alleys were quite
crowded. We climbed to the top but
declined to pay for a tour of the Abbey. Mont
St. Michel is most charming seen from a distance.
We
drove along the coast road to St Malo. Had a lot of problems finding the
hotel... mainly because they have very few street signs so it is very hard to
figure out what street you are on. The
lady at the Hotel Le Valmarin said that they had complained to city hall but the
only remedy was to put up their own direction signs.
It was one of these that finally pointed the way.
Le Valmarin has no restaurant so they reserved a space for us across the
street. Rosemarie was unhappy with
the first room they showed us because our private bath was down a spiral
staircase from our room. They gave
us another, larger, room that was upstairs but quite satisfactory.
A
husband and wife Brazilian couple runs the restaurant, L’Amadeus.
She was very charming. Had a
full house of English-speaking guests from the hotel.
Friday,
May 19:
Before
heading for Normandy, we drove to the old city of St Malo. (That's Paul standing
before the fortress.) This was largely destroyed in the invasion, but has
been rebuilt. Very touristy.
We took a half hour "Le petit train" ride through the walled
city by the port. Returned later to buy a newspaper. Tried to buy batteries for Rosemarie's organizer, but the
shops close from 1215 to 1400... so we decided to drive on. Could again see Mont St. Michel in the distance.
We
stopped for lunch and gas and got to St Lô about 1430.
We went up to their Notre Dame Cathedral... mostly destroyed by the war.
The town was 95% destroyed and has mostly been re-built in a modern
style.
Leaving
St Lô (after buying our batteries), we drove to Port en Bessin (via Bayeux,
where we, again, got lost) and found our Hotel, La Cheneviere, a four star.
Very nice room with a large bay window.
It is set on a large property with cows grazing beyond. As in all of our hotels in France, we could log onto
CompuServe using our little Psion organizer, and exchange e-mail with Sylvia, Steffie, Kathy, etc.
We
changed clothes and headed to the port at 5 PM. Port en Bessin featured a
charming harbor with numerous boats bobbing at their moorings.
At last, found a Herald Tribune newspaper. Alongside was the remains of a
German blockhouse and on the beach, where the British Rangers came ashore on
June 6 1944, was the burned out hulk of a landing craft.
We
drove to the Omaha beach memorial and to Pointe du Hoc where the American
Rangers came ashore aided by the 14" guns of the Battleship Texas (her
craters are 30 ft across and 15-20 feet deep, still).
The craters were very impressive in the waning sunlight. These Rangers
penetrated the German "Atlantic Wall" and got behind the German shore
batteries that had pinned down the Big Red One (First Infantry) on Omaha Beach
itself. Rosemarie met a nice
Englishman who was a bombardier during the war and lost all of his fingers to
frostbite. He gave her a brochure on Omaha Beach and told us about the concrete
piers that Churchill had ordered built and towed across to be sunk and used as
piers to unload heavy equipment. We
could see them in the distance off Sword Beach.
We will visit tomorrow. These beaches are very wide at low tide (14 metre
tide) and the cliffs are steep and high, perhaps 30 meters or more. Rosemarie decided not to attempt to climb down from the cliff
top to the beach.
We
returned to Port en Bessin and had dinner at the Marine restaurant.
By then, the tide had gone out and all of the boats were sitting in the
mud. There is a dam behind which
the large trawlers still floated. It
is strange since high water at Mont St. Michel, barely 200 km up the beach, but
on the other side of the Cherborg peninsula, is at 2200 and here it was clearly
low tide. The tides here are 13-14
meters (40 ft). 8 noisy uncouth
Englishmen came to the restaurant. (They
may be football players). Scrumptious
ice cream desert!
Saturday,
May 20
We
visited the American cemetery at Omaha beach.
This is the largest of the cemeteries, with some 9000 graves, still. Very
beautiful. An emotional experience.
They had small American flags decorating each grave marker... preparing for a
Memorial Day ceremony the next day, May 21st.
We decided to come back.
Remains of a German pillbox (right) protecting Omaha Beach with heavy artillery facing the sea.
A monument remembers the Ranger Commandos who stormed ashore at Pointe du Hoc.
Drove
to Ste-Mere-Eglise, where the airborne troops parachuted into town.
This is where paratrooper John Steele became entangled with the bell
tower of the church (we had thought it was St Lô).
The church displays a parachute and the figure of John Steele dangling
from the spire. Has stained glass
window dedicated to 82nd and 101 airborne.
Lunched
on crepes. Elderly Americans in
restaurant. Retracing their steps
during the war. After VE day their
unit was redeployed to the Pacific. When
the atom bomb was dropped, they were on an island 7 mi. off the Japanese
mainland, poised for an invasion there too.
They had no problem with President Truman's decision.
The
villages are mostly of stone buildings close to the road.
Many in attached style. Often
there is a walled courtyard enclosing stables, houses barns etc.
Many were destroyed in the fighting after the invasion, but clearly most
survived or were repaired. We could
see the hedgerows that impeded the early fighting.
We saw many cows, necessary, we guess, for the cheese. Also strange round leafy clumps in some trees that appeared
to be separate plants, like orchids, except that they grew in the branches,
rather than along the trunk. Never
did figure out what they were.
Toured
a museum dedicated to parachute and glider and C47 aircraft.
Lots of memorabilia including German surrender documents from Brussels.
We
drove to Utah beach. The older buildings along the beach faced sideways.
Perhaps to avoid the brunt of the on-shore wind.
Looked at several memorials to Engineers, Coast Guard etc.
Not as impressive as Omaha because there are no cliffs... but the assault
there was more successful. (Probably for that reason).
Back near hotel toured museum dedicated to recovered salvage from the
ocean waters... mostly French language.
Returned
to hotel 1830. Nice dinner at hotel. Paul:
beef, Rosie: chicken.
Sunday
May 21.
This
is Memorial Day in France. Ceremony
at the American Cemetery at Omaha Beach. Went
there at 1030 and watched the flyover, speeches, taps, wreath-laying etc. Very appropriate. The
Commander of the American airbase at Ramstein made principal address.
Mayor of Port en Bessin also spoke, as did other local dignitaries.
It was a nice ceremony. The
French WWII veterans carried flags in an honor guard remembering their old
units. One bemedaled veteran posed
for our photography.
Drove
to Longues-sur-Mer where the remains of four German gun emplacements are still
intact as a battery post. Their guns are still there, though rusting.
Saw the forward observer's post at the edge of the cliff.
Lunch
in Arromanches (Crepes). This is
where the British built the Mulberry artificial harbor (The rusted remains of a
landing craft can be seen in the photo on the left.) Climbed a steep cliff to a
360-degree cinema with dramatic footage of the area then and now.
1500
hrs: Got on the A-13 to Paris. 232
km. Went around the Peripherique to
the port that leads to Orly. Checked
in at 1830 and returned Avis car. (Paul could not actually find the return
office, so he returned the car at the Avis maintenance depot.)
Spent
night at Hilton at Orly. Poorly
ventilated room, hotel-type restaurant... nearly forgot we were still in France.
Monday May 22nd.
Returned to NYC via
Delta. Met at JFK by Limo-driver,
Jim Ray, driven to Southold.