thefrenchfeed

Bonjour

Yes, we know, it’s been a while since the last post, so a bit of catching up to do.

D Day is a big deal in the part of the world and this year is the 74th anniversary of the invasion along the Normandy beaches. To commemorate, there are events all over the area, including a big weekend in Saint Mere Eglise so we scooted off there on D Day weekend. This town is particularly famous for what happened to Private John Steele. He was one of the thousands of US paratroopers who landed in northern France, behind the enemy lines, on the night before the beach invasion. Unluckily for Private Steele, his parachute was tangled on the roof of the church tower and was left dangling there for hours before the Germans cut him down. He escaped a few days later and soldiered on, eventually dying in 1969. There is an effigy hanging from the church today showing how lucky he was that he wasn’t shot.

The town really turns it on for D Day weekend. There were original tanks, military camp reconstructions, original army vehicles, lots of people dressed in WW2 uniforms and fashions of the 1940’s, and some tandem parachute jumps. There are also a number of photos on display at spots around the town showing the scene in 1944 and you can stand in the same spot to compare with today. For example….

And here are a few more photos…..

And then I headed to England. This time Lee dropped me off at the ferry at Cherbourg and I was at Portsmouth a couple of hours later. In winter the ferries are usually overnight crossings, but in summer they use the “fast ferries” and makes the trip much quicker. Only downside is that they are geared up for the English to pop over and buy their stinky cheese and cheap grog and so the ferries only leave in late afternoon and arrive at Portsmouth after 7pm.

I went to see my aunt and after picking up a hire car we headed to the Chilterns for a few days – an AONB as the English like to call these places (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty). It was quite lovely and the perfect weather (on one day anyway) helped a lot. I love the names of some of the villages – Bryant’s Bottom, Rotten Row, Gallowstree Common, Inkpen and Ogbourne Maizey.

It is quite close to London and there are obviously some very well heeled residents living in beautiful stately houses that are tucked away behind hedges along narrow country lanes. Our first stop was Tring and every where you look was a photo waiting.

Next stop was Jordans where William Penn, the Quaker (best known for founding the state of Pennsylvania) is buried. There is still a strong Quaker presence in the area and their meeting house is still in use.

Next stop was Hughenden Manor, in High Wycombe. This was the home of Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli (a favourite of Queen Victoria who visited on many occasions) and the house and grounds were well worth a visit. As well as being a stately home, it was also played a key role in WW2 when it was also home to a secret map-making operation and was on Hitler’s list of top targets (if he only could find it). It was such a well kept secret that this only became known 60 years later after a chance encounter when one of the house volunteers overheard a man telling his grandson he’d been stationed here during the Second World War.

And I finished off my English visit with a trip to National Archives where I attended a talk about their conservation techniques, and then did a bit of family history research. Then off to the British Museum for a quick look.

It was a very full few days and then I caught the Eurostar to Paris. More about that in the next blog.

L & M.

Bonjour

From Cherbourg, the road heads west, east or south. North gets a bit soggy. We headed west last Christmas and decided to retrace our trip without the driving rain and wind.

Driving directly, it only takes about 30 minutes to west coast, but we stopped quite a bit for photos. We stopped for lunch near Jobourg (see marker above) and after that we headed south as far as Siouville-Hague. The captions with the photos tell the story.

Au revoir

L & M.

Bonjour

Caen is a largish city about 120 kms from Cherbourg. We have passed through plenty of times on the way to or from Paris so last Saturday we went to have a closer look.

There is so much history there, thanks to a couple of things. Firstly William the Conquerer  based himself there and was responsible for some beautiful and very impressive buildings. He left from here in 1066 to go off and conquer England and eventually returned and is now buried there.

Things were pretty quiet for centuries and then in June 1944 Caen saw bombing and burning which destroyed about 75% of the city (about 10000 buildings). Since then there has been much reconstruction work, with varying degrees of sympathy to the old architecture.

The French are able to construct buildings that can remain standing for centuries but we wonder how many died in the process. Here’s some examples that would raise a few concerns at home (sorry about the quality of the photos).

Well that’s about it for this week, so au revoir pour le moment.

L & M

Salut,

This is the second time I am writing this post. The first one disappeared somewhere so let’s start again.

Last weekend we took Clio for a bit of a spin and also had my first attempt at driving on the wrong side of the road. I managed to get through roundabouts and park her without hitting anything, but my spatial awareness needs some work. I keep on drifting over to the right side of the lane and Lee was bracing himself for ending up in a ditch or side- swiping some parked cars.  Luckily the traffic around Cherbourg is not too bad but there are some pretty narrow streets, so with on-coming traffic and parked cars you just hold your breath and be thankful you are not driving a big car.

We visited Chateau des Ravalet which is only about 10 minutes away. The gardens were open to the public, as well as a number of local nurseries selling plants etc. We particularly wanted to go there because of the painting we bought several weeks ago at Barfleur. The artist told us he painted it at the Chateau so we were on the lookout for the same scene. Here is a picture of the painting and the photo we took of what we assume is the same aspect.

The gardens were lovely and many things either in full flower or getting close. It was funny to see so many Australian Native plants for sale. They are not uncommon in Cherbourg, particularly callistemons. Here’s a few photos of the many that we took.

Last Sunday we went for a country drive and headed to Maison du Biscuit which we have heard a lot about. It’s a very touristy place that sells all sorts of over-priced biscuits and other tasty treats.

And then we headed west to Barneville-Carteret which is on the coast and easy sight of Jersey. It’s a very pretty place (although the perfect weather helps a lot).

This is one of the departure ports for the ferries to Jersey but we couldn’t understand why the timetables were so random. The departure times were all over the place, and then we realised that it might have something to do with the tides.

And then it was time for lunch. We found a nice little waterfront place that does a Sunday seafood buffet. Most of the offerings were things that used to live in shells – mussels, oysters, prawns and these things….sea snails (or whelks and winkles) and taste worse than they look. Which is not pretty. But the locals were digging in, so they are obviously popular.

Bye for now.

L & M

Bonjour,

We have bought a car. And she will be named Clio. That’s because she is a Renault Clio.

Like many things in France, dealing with the bureaucracy of buying a car is not for the fainthearted. We ended up buying through a type of broker arrangement which meant paying and having it delivered before we had even seen it. Clios are very common in France so that says something and so far it seems fine. It’s all been experience and here are some things we have learned:

• Nearly all cars are manual and diesel. Buying or hiring automatics is a LOT more expensive.
• Most cars we see are French – Renaults, Peugeots and Citroens. There are a smattering of other makes, but those three make up the huge majority.
• Don’t assume that the four door car you see advertised has back seats. These are sold as commercial vehicles by the manufacturers so they can be used as a van substitute. Didn’t occur to us that seats were an optional extra.
• And it all takes time. And forms to be completed. Lots of forms. And making sure that everybody has every copy of all these forms. In French.

Anyway, she’s here now. So let the road trips begin. Just have to learn how to drive on the wrong side of the road (yikes!)

The other news (not so exciting) is that I joined the library. It’s a pretty impressive three-story place with a underwhelming selection of English books (about 20 I would guess). But probably that would be 20 more than you would find if you were looking for French books in a regional library in Australia. Apart from the usual books etc, you can borrow music and musical instruments. So far they only have guitars but they are getting keyboards and drums. I’m sure the neighbours would love that.

That’s about it for now. But here is a feast for your eyes. We just went out to the local boulangerie for lunch (basically a sandwich shop) and here is a small selection of what you can drool over while standing in the queue.

love

L & M

Bonjour

We don’t have a lot of news this week. After the Easter break, then Anzac Day, we had a public holiday last Tuesday to celebrate Labor Day. Same as home, it’s a day off which everybody is always happy about, but also a day when trade unions etc organize marches for whatever the issue of the day is. At the moment there is a lot of angst about Government cutbacks of workers’ privileges and pay cuts. (sound familiar?)

Then next Tuesday is VE Day – (Victory Day in Europe) – a public holiday always celebrated on 8 May each year to mark the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Nazi Germany’s unconditional surrender of its armed forces. We’re not sure what will be happening here in Cherbourg, but in 1944 it looked like this.

We had our first visit from Australian friends this week and showed them a few sights around town. Craig is a big military history fan and we took them to see the Musée de la Libération near the fort we visited  few months ago.

We went for a bike ride this morning and even though we have been past this Abbey plenty of times, today we stopped to take a look. It was started in 1145, and although it needs a bit of work, they built them to stay standing in those days.

I doubt the gardens are that old, but some amazing plants that are in full flower at the moment.

And here is a closer look at what is definitely a rhododendron – even the bees buzzing around it were huge. The bike is to give an idea of its size.

And here is an example of Australian/French culinary harmony. Not sure if it will go down as a classic.

Love

L & M

Bon weekend

With Anzac Day nearly upon us and the weather warming up, I took up an offer of a trip to some of the Normandy Beaches where the D Day landings were the main event in 1944. These are a must for anybody visiting this corner of the world. The stretch of coastline where the invasions happened goes for a long way, but we (my travel buddy, Karin and I) just went to Omaha Beach.

It just looks like a lovely, serene beach along a beautiful piece of coastline and it’s hard to imagine the bloodshed that occurred. Here’s a few pics – no captions needed.

We also visited the Normandy American Cemetery where over 9,000 soldiers are buried, as well as the Garden of the Missing with over 1,500 names engraved. (just to add a bit of perspective, the nearby German Military Cemetery is the final resting place for over 22,000 Germans, and this is only one of six German cemeteries in Normandy).

The cemetery has been photographed and filmed many times (e.g. in Saving Private Ryan) and is been beautifully built and maintained.

So moving. Unfortunately we won’t be able to get to the Anzac Day service at Villers Bretonneux. Malcolm Turnbull and Prince Charles will be there in our absence. We hope to get to the Remembrance Day service in November.

Well that’s all for now.

Love

L&M

Salut

This is a bit of a long one – so you may want to get a cup of tea.

No sooner was I back from Oz when I went with a group of Australians to Versailles for a couple of days. Even after all these centuries, the Palace is still incredible in its scale, lavishness and beauty. The gardens were looking bit bare after the harsh winter but you could see the beginnings of shoots on many of the trees. (Here’s a fun fact – when the gardens were being built and it was decided which type of trees would be planted, the spotters were sent out to find trees of the right variety and size and just dug them up. So you could wake up one morning to the sound of your prized birch tree being removed from the front garden.)

During winter months, the gardens offer free entry for visitors. There are plenty of places for picnics, riding bikes and just walking or going for a run. But in summer months they charge entry. I guess they have to make some money somehow to pay the army of gardeners it takes to look after the grounds.

Here’s a couple of outside pics

And then there is the inside. There is so much to see and learn about. The cost of building the Palace and the egotistical whims of the royalty who lived there are just as fascinating as the building itself. The statistics are eye-watering – 700 rooms, 67 staircases, Hall of Mirrors contains a total of 357 mirrors and about 20,000 candles were used to light it up to all its glory. The list goes on.

And some inside pics

But there’s much more to Versailles than the Palace. Before Louis XIV decided to take over the place, it was a sleepy hamlet about 10 miles from Paris. Now it is an affluent outer suburb with lots of beautiful lane ways and old buildings. We did a walking tour and were joined by an Australian who has lived there for years.  She explained that this is the most Catholic town in France, with an average of 4.5 children per family. It takes a lot of money to live in Versailles and rates are based on the size of families – the bigger the family, the more you pay (as opposed to Australia where the more children you have, the more government benefits you get).

One of the quirky things we saw in Versailles was the work of “Invader”, an incognito French street artist who likes to decorate street corners and public spaces with tiled mosaics. These are based on video game characters such as Space Invaders.  Apparently the French authorities were not too fond of these when they first appeared but now there are thousands of them, even in Hong Kong. There is also an app so you can add photos and locations. Here’s an example

Well that was my week. Lee went to the markets on Saturday and bought a sausage on bread. For market research purposes. These cost €3 (about $5) and come with pommes frittes if you want them but no onions.

Well that’s about it for now.

Bon soir

L & M

Bonjour

Yes, we know it’s been a while since the last post. The copywriting team made a quick trip back home for family catch ups, house and medical stuff and re-acclimatizing to warm weather, humidity and all things familiar. When I say a quick trip – 60 hours from door to door. No dramas, but just very long. Don’t really want to watch another movie for a while, although I watched the entire first season of Young Sheldon which was unexpectedly very good.

I arrived back on Good Friday but to break up the journey back we met up in Paris for a couple of days before a train trip to Cherbourg.  The plane landed at 7:30 am and it was great to be able to go straight to the hotel, and freshen up and try staying awake till normal bedtime (failed at that). Good Friday is not a public holiday in France – just a normal work day, although Easter Monday is a holiday with most things shut. On Easter Saturday we played tourist and spent the day on one of those hop on/hop off buses with English commentary which was a great way to see the main big attractions in Paris. Even though it was cold and a bit rainy, there were crowds of people everywhere. Huge queues at Louvre, Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame. The Arc De Triomphe roundabout has the crazy, free-for-all traffic shooting off in all directions and suicidal tourists standing in the middle of it all taking selfies.

Here’s a few photos

But now back in Cherbourg and Spring is springing. Daylight saving started last week and so it’s more or less light till 9pm and the days will keep getting longer. And many trees are showing signs or green shoots and flowers.

That’s about it for now. But before we go, thanks for some very nice feedback from some of our readers. Sometimes we get comments that suggest people don’t know when a new post is published, so we think you can actually get an email alert to let you know if there is something new to read. You just place your mouse over one of the headings (e.g. Finally another post”) and you should see a little window pop up in the bottom right hand corner that says ‘follow”. If you click on this and enter your email address then you should get notifications in future.

Well, off to French lessons now. Our French teacher, Celine has the patience of a saint.

Au reviour

L & M.