We are now back in Cherbourg after a few weeks on Oz visiting family and friends. Long haul flights are such fun – said no one ever. Here are a few fun facts and figures about our trip….
So by the time we got home we felt a bit like….
It was great to catch up with so many people and get a bit of a mental break from trying to work out French translations, shopping in Euro, driving on the left and just knowing how things are done. We are now back to bunker down for winter. The weather is still warmish but we noticed how much the days have shortened while we were away. Lee is back to riding to work in the dark. Daylight saving finishes here next week but won’t make a huge difference, it will still be dark till about 8am.
In other news, last weekend we went to the second annual “Australians doing Halloween in Cherbourg” bash. We weren’t around for the first one last year, but anybody who went said it was huge. This one did not disappoint. The family who hosted spent a week getting their place ready with cobwebs, gravestones, piano playing skeletons and some amazing costumes. Here are a few pics…..
Now we are back we have a few plans in store for the next few months, so thefrenchfeed posts should be appearing with a bit more frequency.
We have been enjoying a visit from Australian friends and so the last week has been an opportunity to show them some of the favourite thefrenchfeed highlights in the flesh.
They bought the good weather with them and every day has been fine and warm(ish). Yesterday we headed west and stopped at our favourite tiny boat harbour at Port Recine (the smallest in France) and always very photogenic.
Every road trip seems to coincide with peak flowering on a particular plant or shrub. Recently it was the hydrangeas which are now starting to decline, but these have been overtaken by fuschias which grow along the roadside as big hedges. It must be the perfect climate for them because, like the hydrangeas, they thrive in places that are clearly not getting much TLC.
And we finally got to dine at Auberge des Grottes – a restaurant that is on the edge of the coast at the Jobourg Nose. It is pretty remote and takes a bit of driving down narrow country lanes to get there, but they are doing something right because you can’t get in without a booking. This is what it looks like on a nice day.
And here are some of the dishes we ordered……
Poached egg and spinach TagliatelleFishmonger platter – (6 oysters, 6 prawns, 6 whelks, periwinkles, shrimps and 1/2 crab)
Skewers of lamb “La chaiseronne, mashed sweet potatoes with foie grasMeringue shell with citrus greedy
YUM
We obviously have become accustomed to the weather – yesterday’s conversation:
We haven’t been anywhere new this week, but returned to a couple of favourites so this blog post will be just some random stuff.
Our French lessons are still a work in progress. The reading comprehension is improving but trying to understand French people when they talk to us is still……..
The words run in to each other and they use so many words compared to our English version. For example, we would say “it’s quarter to 11”, they say “il est 11 heures moins le quart” (it is 11 hours less the quarter). We say “ninety-four”, they say “quatre-vingt quartorze” (four-twenty fourteen). And then you have to think about whether the words are masculine/feminine, whether it’s one of those adjectives that comes before the noun or after and if the verb should be the formal or informal version (depending who you are talking to). Our French teacher is incredibly patient. It must be excruciating for her to sit and listen to us murdering the French language.
A bit off topic, we were invited to her place for a small get together last night and it was her partner’s birthday last week, so one of the other Australians made this “explosion cake”. We had never heard of it, but it was a mountain of a pavlova. Two layers of meringue, with chocolate and fresh cream sandwiched in the middle, then a third meringue crushed into pieces and mixed with more chocolate and cream piled on top. Then the whole thing was drizzled with more chocolate. Definitely a dish for a large group of people.
Celine and Hugo trying to work out how to tackle it.
We are getting used to the fact that the French like to take their dogs everywhere – shops (both owners and customers), restaurants, etc. One of our regular cafes has their resident pooch – looks like a cross between a St Bernard and a great dane. He wanders amongst the tables (not that easy when you are that big) and waits for the small biscuits that everyone gets served with their coffee. Here are a few photos of dogs in patient waiting mode.
The French version of Bunnings is Brico Depot. It is obviously based on the same business model, and if it wasn’t for the French signage, who would swear you were in a Bunnings store. The big difference is that these places never seem to have any customers. We have been several times for various bits and pieces, always on a Saturday (they don’t open on Sundays) and are always amazed at how quite the place is. And it’s not just Brico Depot – other similar businesses are the same. Maybe they need Chez Theirry (more on that below). Here is a photo of the car park yesterday at 1pm. Deserted.
About Chez Theirry – he and his trusty sidekicks sell sausages at the Saturday markets (see OTT Versailles blog from 11 April). There was a big scandal a couple of weeks ago when another van pulled up next to Theirry and also sold sausages. Then Theirry didn’t show up the next week. But he was back last Saturday so all was right with the world.
Theirry with his highly motivated and skilled team members. He was offering me a chip. The health and safety inspectors at home would be beside themselves.
As the heading suggests, we think we have seen the last of summer. It’s not exactly cold yet, but definitely cooling down and we are getting a bit more rain. The long summer holidays for the schools ends next week and so people are starting to settle in for the inevitable cold months. It was good while it lasted.
There hasn’t been a lot to write about since the last post.
Clio wasn’t in the mood for going anywhere, but a new battery has sorted that out. So we took her for a spin to Saint Vaast la Hougue, a famous fishing and sailing port. There is a spot of land just off the shore, which is a peninsular or an island, depending on the tide. You can walk across at low tide or catch the amphibious vehicle. We didn’t do either because it was a wet miserable day. Maybe next time.
That’s the amphibious vehicle heading over to the island (on right of photo). Not very inspiring view.
The other place we visited that has been on our list was the La Cambe German Military cemetery (one of six located in Normandy). During the war this area was where two battlefield cemeteries were located next to each other for both German and American soldiers, sailors and airmen. After the war the American graves were exhumed and the remains returned to U.S. or buried at the nearby American Cemetery (depending on the wishes of the family). La Cambe was then formally recognised as a German War Cemetery and the remains of a further 12,000 German soldiers who were buried in over 1,400 scattered locations have now been transferred here. They are still discovering graves around the countryside and each time a formal reburial takes place, although these are rare nowadays.
The sign next to the entrance reads: “The German Cemetery at La Cambe: In the Same Soil of France. Until 1947, this was an American cemetery. The remains were exhumed and shipped to the United States. It has been German since 1948, and contains over 21,000 graves. With its melancholy rigour, it is a graveyard for soldiers not all of whom had chosen either the cause or the fight. They too have found rest in our soil of France.”The two statues and large dark cross are made of basalt lava. This mound marks the resting place for 207 unknown and 89 identified German soldiers, interred together in a mass grave
Unlike the American and Commonwealth War Graves Commission, the German cemetery is maintained solely by donations of money and labour. Some bright spark put out the word to Americans of German descent for donations and this proved very successful with development of the cemetery advancing much more rapidly than they expected.
International school students volunteer during the summer holidays to tend the graves as well as visiting the American and German war cemeteries, memorials, sites of the invasion.
Having visited the American War Cemetery a few months ago, there is a distinct difference between both places. It’s hard to describe, but the American cemetery is all ‘spit and polish’, pristine paintwork, immaculate grounds and coastal views. While both are very dignified and respectful, the German version, which is next to a main highway, is very memorable with its austere simplicity. Probably their budget has a bit to do with it.
Apart from that, other news from Cherbourg is the arrival of the Galleon Andalucia, a replica of a 18th century galleon boat that sails around the world and ‘carries out knowledge transfer and promotion actions’. Whatever that means. It looks like something out of Pirates of the Caribbean but no Johnny Depp in sight.
Last weekend we watched the finish of the Drheam Cup (no that’s not a typo, it’s actually got a ‘h’ in it).
This is a boat race along the lines of Sandgate to Gladstone in Queensland at Easter. The race started at La Trinite-sur-mer and there were two courses, the short one to Wolf Rock was 428 miles and long one to Fastnet Rock was 736 miles.
It was a very slow race because there was no wind. Until nearly everybody limped into Cherbourg and then of course we had gale force winds and most things got rained out.
The photos below show the scenes on Saturday before the rain set in. You can see from the flags how windy it was. (Copied these from the official site, so can’t take credit for the photos.)
That’s our place – the tallest building on the left. We had the best view in town.
For some reason they decided to add a bit of an Aussie touch to it all by having a “Australian Cafe” with some interesting activities on offer, e.g. make your own didgeridoo or create a papier mache kangaroo sculpture.
There were some pretty expensive looking boats in the harbour and the crowds came out in force to get a closer look.
That thing on the top right is supposed to be a kangaroo.
The other highlight this week was a visit to a garden (yes – more photos of plants). Some Australian friends have introduced me to Caroline, an English lady who has been living in France for 20 years. She may have been already a little bit eccentric or maybe that is what France does to people. She bought an old stone cottage on 10 acres with a total of about 2 trees on the land and proceeded to plant whatever she liked. There’s no planning or thinking behind what she does and so the garden has just evolved around the cottage. She has two horses that she loves to bits and one of her favourite things is to hook them up to her carriage and take them for a spin. She also has two dogs – Cashew and Owie. The younger dog, Owie is four months old. She took him to the vet for his shots and the vet asked her what his name was. She had decided on Bowie, after David Bowie. The vet told her that was not possible because this was the year of O. So all dogs born this year must have a name starting with O. Next year will be the year of P. So that’s how Owie got his name.
I thought it might be a bit rude to take photos of the inside of her house, which was a fusion of French country/farmhouse/dogs/books/stuff…..can’t really describe it better than that.
Her favourite place to be is obviously outside in her garden. I asked her what she did in the winter months – “stay inside, be miserable and drink”.
Caroline with her gumboots. All this has been planted in the last 20 years.
We are now in August which is the time when the French take their holidays. So if you have in mind a particular place to go, don’t be surprised if they have shut up shop for several weeks. No matter if things are busy at work. It’s August so it’s holiday time.
Sending warm thoughts to those who are freezing in the southern hemisphere.
Yes, they won. Yes, all very exciting. Yes, there was a lot of celebration. Yes, there are idiots in France too. Hanging out of moving cars or jumping up and down on a council bus can often end in tears. Or worse. Apparently in some of the major cities there was senseless damage to property etc, but generally everyone was just very happy and it was a great time to be here. The security must have been a nightmare, but we were not aware of any problems.
We were in Honfleur and here are a few snaps of the celebrations. You will have to imagine the noise – it was a constant roar, interspersed with the crowd breaking out into singing the national anthem. They are very patriotic, but then winning the world cup in anything will bring that out in a nation.
The day before the win was Bastille Day, the French National Day. Because it was a Saturday there was no public holiday but apparently fireworks are what most people think of when it comes to Bastille Day. Because the sunset is so late, the fireworks were not scheduled to start till 11pm. Here is a little education about why they celebrate Bastille Day.
Honfleur is a place we had heard much about and so decided to go and stay for the weekend. It is on the mouth of the Seine, opposite the large port at Le Havre.
The coastline from Cabourg along to Honfleur is lovely. With the perfect weather and the start of school holidays, most places were really busy but still easy to get around. One of the noticeable things about most places we go to is the lack of commercialism that you would see in coastal towns in Australia. No continuous strip of chain hotels, or fast food places. Occasionally you might see a McDonalds, but their signage is really insignificant.
We stopped at Trouville-sur-Mer and checked out the beach. Going for a swim and playing in the sand is just a fraction of what you can do there. They had volley ball nets, mini cars, bungy jumping, pony rides, kids clubs, swimming pool with slides and amusement rides. I guess swimming is not so much part of the culture here, so they need to offer other things at the beach. And none of these things are free.
We were also there to see the seafood market. Most of the seafood seems to be locally caught and looks amazing. We don’t know if they pump them full of steroids but they were huge.
Check out the size of these oysters. That is a normal sized lemon. 16 euro for a dozen.Everything looked super fresh. The prawns were as big as the crayfish. Not sure what they taste like but at A$100 per kilo they would want to be good.
We also went for a road trip around the inland area of Normandy, where the area is well known for apples, cider and cheese. Everything was so green and everywhere we looked were beautiful old stone houses, apples trees and well fed cows. We stopped in at Camembert, the village where they say the cheese was initially developed.
Next stop was Lisieux, famous because of Saint Theresa of Lisieux and is the second-most important pilgrimage site in France after Lourdes. Saint Theresa died before her 25th birthday and both her parents have also be beatified. The Basilica was consecrated in 1954, so very modern compared to many of the French cathedrals that date back many hundreds of years. Instead of stone and painted ceilings, this one was decorated with mosaics and looked very colourful.
And of course there was Honfleur itself. We took a boat cruise around the mouth of the Seine and wandered around the town. It it more touristy than Cherbourg and we could hear English people everywhere. They have kept much of the old world charm and go to great lengths to make the place look pretty with potted flowers everywhere.
The boat cruise included going under the Pont de Normandie, linking Honfleur to Le Havre. This is the last bridge across the Seine before it flows into the English Channel. About 800 metres long and 5.60 euros for a one way trip.
It’s only a few days since the last post, but we are off for a few days break so thought we would do a quick update before it becomes stale news.
We went to Bayeux last weekend to look at the famous tapestry – a 70 metre long piece that depicts the Norman invasion in the 11th century. Well, that will have to wait till next visit because there were too many other things going on and we ran out of time. We had no idea till we got there that this was happening…….
It was amazing. Many of the locals were dressed up in medieval garb and there were markets selling arts and crafts with jewellery, dolls, sculptures, and pottery as well as stonemasons and street performers. As you can guess, we took so many photos it’s hard to pick the best ones.
Walking on stilts over cobblestones is a broken neck waiting to happenThose boys in the background were not part of the act
Bayeux is a very pretty town and, although it was a lovely sunny day, it wasn’t the best it terms of lighting for good photos. But this is a sample
In the Cathedral this family was soaking up the experience. Although, to be fair, 10 minutes later we were sitting staring at our phones too. Our excuse was that we were googling the history of the Cathedral and the crypt in English so that we knew what we were looking at.
And in other news, guess who made the finals of the World Cup???? The French won the semi final on Tuesday night (our time) and there was a big screen set up in the Town Square showing the game. We don’t know if this a French thing, but after the win apparently the thing to do is jump in your car with a bunch of mates and drive through town with one hand on the wheel and the other on the horn. The louder the horn the better. And if you hear other horns then you must try and drown them out. Very much like dogs barking and setting off every other dog in the street. This went on for hours.
Here’s a taste of what the Square was like just after the game.
So this coming weekend we have Bastille Day on Saturday (national day of partying) and then the World Cup final on Sunday. If France wins then I am sure you will hear the cheering from wherever you are.
This week, we had a lovely Sunday drive to Granville, about 100 kms south of Cherbourg. It is on the coast facing west, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean and runs ferries across to the Channel Islands when the tides are right. It was first settled in the 11th century and the old town is all about narrow winding cobblestone lanes and stone buildings.
But one of the main attractions is the childhood home of Christian Dior which has now been converted to a museum with many of his originals designs plus many family photos. The house was not huge but still lovely and overlooks the ocean. The gardens were beautiful and probably at their peak at this time of the year. The hydrangeas grow like weeds everywhere, even along the roadside, and at their best in the garden (see bottom left photo). The lower centre photo doesn’t look much, but it was a lantana that had been trained as a standard. Not like the weeds that grow at home.
The house itself was full of displays of original Dior designs that had been donated to the museum by family and friends of Christian Dior. It started from the early designs just after the war when fabric was starting to become more available. The models must have had 18 inch waists to fit into the dresses.
The early days of his designs were characterised by tiny waists and very full skirts. All plain colours, unlike more recent years with florals and patterns.If you are in to dress making, this dress is perfection. The pleated feature disappears into a flawless invisible seam.These are dummies created for Dior clients for their custom made gowns. Names of the clients are displayed on the left shoulder.
After the museum, we explored Granville and checked out the beach. Along with crowds of other people. It’s hard not to compare these French beaches with what we have in Australia. And they don’t come close.
It’s a long walk to the wavesBut first you have to get to the beach.
We have just passed the longest day of the year. The daylight hours on 21 June were 5.59am to 10.17pm. That’s over 16 hours of daylight, compared with the winter solstice hours of 8 hours, so we should start noticing the days getting shorter pretty quickly.
The summer solstice is a really big deal in France with the annual “Féte de la Musique” celebrated throughout the country. This started back in the 70s and it involves free musical performances in the streets of cities and towns. In Cherbourg, all the streets were closed to traffic and the town became one big street party. This was hot on the heels of many of the bars packed by people watching the French play at the World Cup (they beat Peru). It could have turned in to a big drunken mess but it was the complete opposite. There was a great party atmosphere and we didn’t see anybody being a goose. The logistics around all the heightened security that we have become used to must have been a headache, but we didn’t hear about any problems and everybody we knew who went really enjoyed it.
It was a bit hard to get decent photos with all the crowds but here are a few….
And then to wrap up the music week, we attended a free concert at the Cherbourg theatre. The main reason we went was to get a chance to see inside the theatre which was built in 1882 and overlooks the town square. The theatre (like the Town Hall, and Basilica ) is so impressive, especially considering that Cherbourg is not a big city. This is typical of so many French towns and villages when, back in the day, so much money and effort was put into making their buildings look beautiful, not just functional.
Théâtre à l’italienne
We have seen often from the outside but you don’t often get an opportunity to see the inside.
The inside was just as impressive as we thought it might be.Close up of the ceiling. Paint job has lasted well for 135 years
And now for something completely different – fruit……. When we were in Paris we went to a restaurant on the Champs Elysees (not cheap but worth the experience) and this is the dessert menu. So if you are ever wondering how to fancy up the serving of a half a pineapple – here is the French way. The bottom photo is some peaches we bought at the local Saturday markets. They are shaped like donuts or bagels but taste like normal peaches.
After a week in England, we met up in Paris as Lee was working at the Australian Embassy for a week. We stayed at a hotel next to the Embassy which also happens to be right near the Eiffel Tower, so as Lee trudged off to work every morning I walked Paris. And walked. And walked.
According to Fitbit I walked about 43 kms around Paris. Sounds about right
It sounds a lot, but one of the nice things about Paris is that you don’t have to go far before you see something beautiful, different or just curious. So there was a lot of distractions as I was walking. Around every corner was a small garden, a church (much grander and older than anything in Australia) or shops. As I am writing this, I realise most of my photos are of gardens, so you’ve been warned.
I usually had a rough plan of where I was going, but often ended up finding unexpected gems that I never knew were there. I avoided the major tourist traps (tried to go to Musee D’Orsay but the queues were crazy so maybe another time). Here are some of my discoveries…..
Just around the corner from our hotel was the Jardin des enfants Juifs du Velodrome d’hiver or Garden of the Jewish children of the winter velodrome. This is a really sad place. The garden opened in 2017 and is just a small park on the place where the Vel D’Hiv (winter velodrome) was located. In July 1942 the French police rounded up all the Jews living in that area and took them to the velodrome where they were detained for some time before being loaded on to trucks bound for concentration camps. The garden is a memorial to all the children who were part of this group and there is a long wall with all their names and ages, as well as photos of some of them.
Inscribed in this wall are the 3,900 Jewish children who were rounded up and deported to concentration camps.Here is a close up of the wall. It shows the names and ages of the children who were deported. In total, over 13,000 Jews were arrested over two days in July, 1942 in the nearby area.There were a number of photos of the children (with their families) whose names are included in the memorial.
Here is a photo of the original velodrome with the carriages waiting to ‘deport’ the families.
The photo on the left shows the entrance to the original velodrome with the carriages waiting to ‘deport’ the families. The photo on the right, showing the entrance to the garden, is more or less the same location today (see the overhead railway line in the top left corner).
On another day I discovered the Catherine Labouré garden. I first noticed this because (fun fact) we had a nun at our convent in primary school with this name. The garden was named after a young nun who had apparitions of the Virgin Mary in the 14th century in the chapel adjoining the garden. It is a walled garden that was the former nuns kitchen garden. There are what looks like community garden vege plots, an arbor planted with vines and many fruit trees and it’s just a nice place to sit and do nothing for a while. I love that there seems to be lots of places like this (even small squares) for all those apartment dwelling Parisiens.
And the last time I rabbit on about a garden (for this post anyway) is this little patch that I found. I was on my way to visit the Museum of Modern Art (don’t bother – the Pompidou Centre is MUCH better). There was a bare patch of land near the Palais de Tokyo and so an artist was commissioned to do something with it. He recruited some amateur gardeners who lived in the area to develop a small patch along the lines of allotment gardens. Each one developed a different aesthetic, with flowers, herbs, veges etc as well as a beehive. Some are very tidy and manicured and others are a bit messy with quirky garden ornaments. With all the concrete and hard surfaces around, it looks so lovely (in summer anyway, winter is probably a bit different).
And a couple of random pics – not of gardens……
The obligatory selfie of arguably the world’s most photographed landmarkHow to get your new bathtub delivered to your 6th floor apartment.
C’est tout.
thefrenchfeed 