#7 Playing in Paris

We had two nights and one day in Paris on the front end of our trip, and two nights and one day in Paris at the end.  In other words, 4 dinners and 2 lunches.

We had nothing planned to see in Paris this visit.  Jim did make some dinner reservations.

Our first night we ate dinner at A.O.C.,  which in France stands for Appellation d'Origine Controlée.   This is a mark given to certain food and drink items to certify that they are the real thing - Breton cream must come from Brittany, Calvados from Calvados, Champagne from Champagne, etc.   We had a great meal there.

We set out the next morning for the Musée d'Orsay.  It's been recently renovated and we hadn't seen it since it reopened.  The museum is in a building that used to be a train station, and is best known for its Impressionist collection.  This time we were able to admire some details.   Imagine this kind of structural beauty in a train station.

Galleries incorporated into the original structure

Detail of the decoration of the arched ceiling

Alcove in a grand reception hall used for the 1900 Exposition Universelle

After lunch, we did something kind of crazy and went to see the French version of the musical Sister Act.  Whoopi Goldberg had been in town for opening night the night before, and the morning papers were full of the story.  We were able to get two single seats at the theater for the matinee.

All the patrons were French, and they loved the show.  We did too.

Our dinner that night was in an out-of-the way location in the 20th arrondissement, with about 6 tables. They brought us a chalkboard to show us the menu.  It's so much fun that Jim finds these places that take us all over Paris.

Next morning, we were up early and off to Saint-Malo to meet our cycling group.   One week later, we were back in Paris on Friday in time to have dinner with some fantastic friends.

One more day in Paris  . .  . our last Saturday morning dawned bright and sunny - just perfect for enjoying the Tuileries Gardens.

This morning we headed for the Louvre, to see the newly-opened galleries of Islamic art.  We were immediately struck by the golden roof, made of gold glass and wire, and meant to look like a dragonfly wing.   Wow.

The art, including beautiful examples of tile and screens from Iran and Syria, was pretty amazing too.

We had lunch at a sidewalk cafe, complete with a serenade by a man playing the accordion on the street next to us.

We admired street artists.

And checked out the latest sensation near the Pompidou Center. The French people are very proud of their soccer star Zinedine Zidane.  Recently the Pompidou Center unveiled a 16-foot statue depicting Zidane head-butting Italian opponent Marco Materazzi in the chest, the infamous move that got Zidane ejected from the 2006 World Cup final.  Hard to say whether the French are proud of that particular move, but they've been flocking to see the statue.  

We wound up in the Luxembourg Gardens, where the flowers were gorgeous and it seemed like all of Paris had come out to play.  There was a band playing pop music in the bandstand, and the children were dancing and hanging out with the band.

Groups of young people were laughing and chatting.

Kids floated their boats in the big fountain in front of the Luxembourg Palace.

We posed for a picture, but finally, a statue pointed us in the direction of a beer.  We chose a cafe right in front of the lovely Pantheon building.

Dionysus pointing the way to a beer

The Pantheon 

We finished off this fabulous day with the five-course tasting menu, with matching wines, at Restaurant Le Gaigne in the Marais.  It was amazing.

That's popcorn garnishing this treat

The next morning we got up early to have time to walk the empty Sunday streets and enjoy a last look at Paris.  We tried to take advantage of that morning light for some last photos.

Until the next time.

#6: Bayeux to Caen

Like many towns in Normandy, Bayeux was the site of heavy fighting in WWII and so has been largely rebuilt.  It's a pretty modern town now.  It does have a lovely cathedral, consecrated in 1077 by Bishop Odo, the brother of William the Conqueror.  Although much of it has been rebuilt, the first level is mostly original and has some lovely examples of Norman decoration.

It turns out that while Brittany was settled by the Celts, Normandy was settled by the Norsemen, aka Vikings.  We were in a totally different mindset in this town.  And we had to take our historical sense back to William the Conqueror.  But first we had to go out to dinner.

 And of course, when we left dinner, it was raining.  It was still a lovely evening.

The next morning we saw the Bayeux Tapestry, which is really a long scroll of embroidery telling the story of William the Conqueror.  Photos are not allowed, but there are plenty of photos online.  It was pretty fascinating.  Somehow, decapitated bodies and spears through the heart seem like odd subjects for such lovely embroidery, but they had to tell the story somehow to an illiterate public.  It was really a work of propaganda but who minds.

After seeing the Tapestry, we were off to ride.  We had several interesting stops today, and time for a long ride.  First stop, the German battery at Longues-sur-Mer, where the Germans placed 4 large guns capable of firing 20 km out to sea, plus a large observations post,  at the top of a cliff.

Riding away from the German battery, a reminder of the region's idyllic charm, a thatched-roofed house.

Next stop was Arromanches, where a small museum tells the amazing story of building the "Mulberry Harbours."  Apparently the Germans knew that the Allies would need a harbor, so they piled on the protection at all the existing ports.  The British got around this by building a floating port.  They built the components in England, hiding large pieces in the Thames.  On D+1, they started putting it together in the harbor at Arromanchs.  Within 18 days they had a floating port.

Arromanches Harbor today

A piece of the floating harbor on display

Here's what it looked like in 1944.

And here is the view over the town today.  

After visiting the museum, we had lunch at a local creperie.  Then Sheila and Dawn decided to take advantage of the good weather and ride an extra 20+ miles up the coast to Juno Beach.  Compared to Omaha, it looked like the Canadians had it pretty easy.

We had a long ride back through the fields and the towns.  And then it was time to turn in the bike for the last time.

Next morning, we transferred to Caen for the Memorial Museum there.  We spent over an hour with a delightful 93-year old former Resistance fighter named André Heintz.  Here he poses with the crystal radio he built to listen for coded messages from England for the Resistance (and the spinach can he used to hide it in his pantry).  

He would have spoken to us for hours, but we had no time.  Just like that, it was over.  We left Normandy by train for Paris.  It was quite a trip.

#5: Normandy Beaches

We woke to a sunny day and several options to ride on quiet roads with the eventual goal of Omaha Beach and the American Cemetery.

There were choices to be made.  By this time, Sheila had found a riding buddy who wanted longer rides at slower speeds, and was just as interested in every detail of history.  Jim had his riding buddies too, who were going a little faster and skipping a few of the side trips.

We all started out together, following Jim in his day-glo orange.  Everyone appreciated knowing where to turn.  But then Sheila and Dawn split off to head to the German Cemetery.

Dawn at one of the many roadside memorials along the way

There is a church in nearly every town, and one is prettier than the next.

Our destination was the German Military Cemetery in La Cambe, which contains the graves of about 21,000 fallen German soldiers.   The land was originally an American Cemetery but was donated to the German War Dead Commission after the American Cemetery at St. Laurent-sur-Mer was established.  Most of the German dead were relocated there after having been buried in scattered places all over France.

A lot of the work in laying out the grounds was performed in 1958 by young volunteers from all over the world working under the motto "Reconciliation over the graves."  It is a peaceful place but totally different that the American Cemetery.

These sets of five black stone crosses dot the land but do not mark specific graves.

Each of these small markers adorns two graves.  Only a handful have any ornament.  And most of the soldiers were heartbreakingly young.

The mound in the center (called a "tumulus"), topped by these somber black statues, commemorates the unidentified and the lost.

We were really glad that we went to this out-of-the-way stop.

We continued on our ride to Omaha Beach and lunch.  Along the way, we saw various collections of the WWII hardware dotting the landscape.  These concrete obstacles, "dragon's teeth," were placed on the beaches to frustrate landings.

As we rode along Omaha Beach, we came to this Memorial to the Brave.

We stopped for lunch along the way, and then we were  back on the road to the American Cemetery.

We had a group tour of Omaha Beach before heading up the hill to the cemetery.  Our guide was fascinating.  But the cows were unimpressed as we headed out to the top of the cliff.

Our guide, Martine, explained to us how the topography of the land made it very difficult to land here. And of course, the German guns and the many obstacles along the beaches made for deadly combinations.

Jim found a long-lost cousin among the dead honored on this memorial.

It all looks peaceful now.

Martine explained the various concrete bunkers and "tobruks," holes in the ground where guns were placed.  The Germans had a concrete factory on the beach not far from here.

The entrance to an underground bunker

Tobruk

Observation post

 Don't be fooled by this view out to sea.  The drop off down to the beach is full of ditches and is so uneven that no tank or vehicle could possibly make it through.

Looking down onto Omaha Beach

Down on the beach

After making our way down to the beach, we climbed back up to the American Cemetery.  There's a nice path for us now.   

Probably every American has seen pictures of this cemetery.  It is amazing.  Every grave faces the sea.  9,328 Latin Crosses, 149 Stars of David.  41 sets of brothers.

The saddest are the ones with no names.

At the west end of the central aisle is this symbolic view.   On the left, the statue representing the United States holds the bald eagle.  On the right, the statue representing France holding a rooster.  Think the rooster is kind of silly?  Ah, but it is the first bird to greet the dawn.  In the center, a church steeple, representing the hometowns for which the soldiers fought.

As we were walking through, it was approaching the end of the day.  The strains of "Taps" sounded through the air as the American flag was lowered.  There was  not a dry eye.

At the other end of the central mall is a Memorial featuring a 22-foot statue, The Spirit of American Youth Rising from the Waves, facing west toward the headstones.

While we were there, a group of veterans commenced a ceremony to lay new flowers at the foot of the statue.  It was a fitting end to the day.