Between Normandy and Brittney

Leaving the Normandy beaches and countryside, Marlene and I headed west first to Mont-St-Michel and then to the region of Brittney, the "arm" of France that sticks into the Atlantic Ocean. It was a peaceful and quiet few days. And, as was true throughout, the weather was beautiful.

The famed Mont-St-Michel abbey. Ever since I saw it on the cover of my friends' French books back in Middle School, I've wanted to see it.

Having seen enough abbeys/churches/castles living in Europe, the tour was interesting, but the only real thing I found cool was the causeway linking the island to the mainland.

Crossing into Brittney, near the town of Cancale, we stopped for oysters by the side of the road. This part of the coast of France is famous for oysters.

Turns out, I like the bigger oysters, rather than the small/baby ones.

We ended that night in St. Malo, a walled city on the water. Beautiful sunset......peaceful.

D-Day Sites in Normandy

D-Day. June 6th, 1944. Normandy. Marlene and I spent the day visiting the famous sites and paying homage and respect to the soldiers who served here, both the Allied and Axis.

In the beach town of Arronmanches, the British constructed an artificial port from which to offload troops and supplies. The Americans attempted to construct one to the West, where they landed, but it did not survive a mid-June storm.

They started by sinking old naval ships to use as ballast from which to construct temporary (and now here are the remnants) barriers to serve as the breakwater for the artificial harbor.

Can you imagine what it looked like when the port was in full swing?

I love this letter Churchill penned that one finds in the museum.

Outside the museum, they have this structure, which turns out to be one of the temporary bridges. You have to watch the videos in the museum. They are AMAZING.

Just to the west of Arronmanches, up high on a cliff, are these structures.

They are the defense structures the Germans constructed to defend this high point. This is a closeup of one of them.

The one closest to the cliff edge was the lookout.

Here’s what it feels like to be on the lookout! When the Allied arrived at this point on D-Day, the Germans had already abandoned it.

This beach is the famous Omaha Beach, where the Americans suffered the greatest losses. Trying to scale the hills above the beach where the Germans had the advantage…..the issue.

The US has a War Cemetery for soldiers who died here. Doesn’t it just look so……American. In both architecture and landscaping?

Just like the cemetery in Florence we visited last year, it’s a beautiful, yet sobering vista.

Marlene and I were wandering through the rows of crosses and happened upon the crosses of the Niland Brothers who are side by side. They were the brothers that were the inspiration for "Saving Private Ryan"

Normandy in springtime!

West of Omaha Beach, in Colleville, is the cemetery for the German dead. Whereas the US cemetery is funded by the American government, the German war cemeteries around the world and privately funded through donations and maintained by German citizens who travel and do the work.

The memorial to the Germans who died here is a stark contrast to the more upbeat memorial over at the US cemetery.

Giving the dates of birth and death, one does the math and learns the most of the German soldiers were no older than 22 years old.

This is a model of what Point du Hoc looks from the air. The first landing of D-Day was a group of climbers who landed and scaled this point to take control of the key location between Omaha and Utah beachers.

Here is Point du Hoc. Some 200 soldiers landed on the beach and using rope ladders scaled the cliff with Germans shooting down at them. Having scaled the cliff in mere minutes, the soldiers, who lost 50% of their squad, managed to hold the point for 5 days. 

Looking east from Point du Hoc.

Utah Beach, the westernmost landing point. The flatness of it, and without beachside cliff, made the landing here swift and without much casualty.

The Utah Beach D-Day museum. Why is all the architecture dedicated to D-Day so……

The memorial at Utah Beach. One cool thing was that they named all the ships that were used by Americans on D-Day and their purpose, even supply ships.

On the drive back from Utah Beach to Carentan (where we stayed and yes, it was featured in Band of Brothers) I noticed this amazing steeple on a church. When we got out to walk around, there was a GREAT set of signs relaying personal stories of individual soldiers and citizens on D-Day. The town is called St.-Mere-Egilise.

All throughout this area, streets and structures are named after D-Day people and events. Here in St.-Mere-Egilise the main road is Rue Eisenhower.

Giverny

The home of Monet, his flowers and Impressionism. The flowers were out, the sun was shining and all was peaceful in Monet's garden and pond.

Consulting the Rick Steves (yeah, I'm a Rick fan) at the "blueberry car" before entering the gardens.

The pond....

The willows.....

Marlene told me that the mix of flowers and colors, instead of the order of one color/flower, is what is the crux of the beauty of the gardens and ultimately the idea of Impressionism.

 

The French Revolution....through Painting

So, we all have heard about the French Revolution, the names Robespierre, Napoleon and Marie Antoinette. But beyond the names, what actually happened? How do they all fit together? Well, in Paris, there is an AWESOME museum that allows you to see (through the paintings of the time) what happened. For some reason, I was totally into history during my visit to Paris and spent a great morning at the Musee Carnevalet and later at Invalides with the WWII exhibit. I have to give a shout out to the Rick Steves commentary in his guide book, it was great and I learned much from it. In fact, I have to attribute much of the commentary of this post to his book.

Louis the XIVth, the Sun King was NOT a player in the French Revolution.

Louis XVIth in this allegorical painting is the king (being tempted by black tyranny to the right, along with the clergy and nobles rule France. However, it is the people who rise up to demand a voice in their government.

So the people split and form their own National Assembly here shown in the "Oath jeu de paume"

We've all heard of Bastille day, June 14th, 1789. On this day, the people of Paris seized weaponry and stormed the Bastille where the gunpowder was stored, which was also the prison.

A model of the Bastille, which no longer stands today.

Here in "La Fete de la federation", on the one year anniversary of Bastille Day, it is the celebration of Liberty! Equality! Fraternity!

More celebration!

The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen. To me it's strange to think that this was essentially concurrent with the battle for independence in the United States. For some reason I never think of these events in the same time frame.

Recognize this guys name....Guillotin? When the Assembly abolished torture, Guillotin's "razor" was introduced as the more "compassionate" execution device.

Louis the XVIth didn't understand the unhappiness and discontent that lead to the events of 1789. As the Assembly was making society more democratic (i.e. making the king irrelevant), Louis XVIth let it all happen without much resistance.

1792, the Royal Family, Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette (his wife) and their son were imprisoned separately. Here is the split of the family in "Les adieux des Louis XVI a se famille"

January 21, 1793 Louis XVIth is executed. By guillotin, of course!

October 16, 1793, Marie Antoinette herself was executed.

By 1793, the French democracy was driving by strong personalities such as Georges Danton. But there were those, who might be called a bit McCarthy-like, who saw enemies (those who wanted to reinstate the monarchy) everywhere and had them executed.

Jean-Paul Marat was another proponent of democracy for the people. He became a rallying symbol of the movement when he was killed by a woman who was bent of "saving France."

And we come to Maximilien de Robespierre, the Master of the "Reign of Terror". By 1794 he was having 30 people executed a day for being enemies of the revolution. Robespierre even had Danton executed. In July 1794, Robespierre himself was executed.

By 1799, Napoleon Bonaparte returned to Paris a hero of many foreign battles and established himself as the "first consul" of France.

Napoleon in military dress. In 1812, Napoleon invaded Russia (never a good idea) which became a losing battle and in 1815, he was defeated by other European countries at Waterloo. He was exiled. Between 1815-1830, the monarchy was restored.

1830, revolution in the streets again.

Louis-Philippe was installed as the constitutional monarch.

Celebrating at the Arc de Triomphe. But in 1848, Parisians took to the street again and the result was The Second Republic, power in the hands of the people, again.

In 1848, Napoleon III (nephew of the exiled Napoleon) was "elected" as the "Emperor" combining democracy with monarchy....again.

Although Napoleon III promoted economic liberalism, he also pursued wars. But in 1870, Paris was surrounded by foreign armies and in this painting we see Parisians being notified that Paris surrendered.

Without an emperor, and sending up a leading minister in a balloon to rally the countryside, the French were overwhelmed and in time a Third Republic was established.

There was more the museum, but I ran out of time before it closed for lunch. I enjoyed myself, and more than anything, it gives meaning to the words I know in my favorite national anthem, La Marsailles!