France - sensory overload!

The smells, the food, the wines!   Fabulous.  

Meandering along cobble stone streets in medieval villages on market day is a sensory experience. 

There are colourful bunches of sweet-smelling flowers, packets of dried or fresh lavender, and handmade aromatic soaps - all available for purchase.

 

In another part of the market are fragrant fresh fruits, crunchy new vegetables, bundles of pungent garlic, plus savoury chickens grilling on spits and dripping hot fat onto potatoes roasting below.

In the tiny stores that proliferate along the village streets we can buy red, white or rosé wines, fresh crusty baguettes, pastries, salami, cheeses, or a variety of olives, black, green, dried, or flavoured with olive oil and rosemary.  Ah! 


Market day in Lyons - Lawrie buying olives

The background scenery surrounding the villages is stunning, changing from the rocky north coast of France, to poppy-strewn wheat fields in Normandy, to the lush vineyards and chateaux in the Loire Valley. 

Boarding a high speed train in Paris we traveled south to Avignon - speeding at 180 kilometres per hour through the rolling countryside dotted with thousands of the creamy-white Charolais cattle. 

Picking up our Renault van at the Avignon train station we set off to explore the remote little villages of Provence for the next five days.  

Passing lavender fields - not quite in bloom, the scent just beginning to perfume the air - Lawrie, and his brother Richard, muscled the over-sized van through the meandering village roads of Provence, then up the twisting barely-one-lane-wide roads overlooking precipitous canyons in the mountains of Haute Provence, until we reached the summit. 

 

Haute Provence

These roads are perfect for fast sports cars, powerful motorcycles, or crazy bicyclists training for the Tour de France. 

The roads are not suited to a cumbersome multi-passenger van.  Think of the fun - if we had rented three Ferraris instead!

 

Stopping for lunch at the only restaurant available at the summit we had a laughter-filled meal.  The 'cheeky' waiter told us what we were having for lunch.  No options! 

Slow-roasted pig cheeks served with pomme frites (we call them French fries) and a bit of salad.  With a bottle of rosé wine, and a basket of crusty hot bread - it tasted terrific.

Eventually, after spending a few nights in Haute Provence villages, we wound our way back down to traffic snarled streets in Nice on the Mediterranean Sea before returning the van to Avis. 

Linda Grierson - sampling chocolate!

The six of us are slowly sipping, sampling and smelling our way across France. 

Pure heaven.  
 

It's a family thing, her brother Lawrie and chocolate.

70th Anniversary of a ill-fated invasion

70th Anniversary services.  Photo Ann MacMillan CBC

Crouching on the waves in the moon-lit darkness, the Allied invasion force waits. 

They are waiting for the signal to invade the beaches of Dieppe, hoping to begin the liberation of France. 

It is August 19^th 1942.  The service personal are waiting, muscles coiled, breathing slowed – trying to control the fear and the adrenaline.  Prayers are whispered.  Photos of wives and children are kissed for luck, and tucked into a uniform breast pocket. 

A fleeting knowing look is exchanged between infantrymen, thinking; “Will we die here?” 

Dieppe France in May of 2012

At ten minutes to six in the morning the invasion began.  Long lines of ships crowd the coastlines, disembarking men and tanks.  Tracers light the sky as enemy guns fire upon anything that moves.  

German Junkers aircraft drop heavy bombs that thud into the earth, showering stones, and mud, and body parts into the air.  Boots scrabble on the smooth, slippery stones.  Men stumble and fall. 

An Allied Spitfire plane crashes beside a tank carrier, the pilot struggles to escape as the plane sinks below the surface.  The new Canadian Calgary Tank Division desperately tries to land their vehicles. 

The smooth beach stones jam tightly into the tank tracks, rendering the machines incapable of movement.  Another bomb thuds nearby.  Dismembered bodies floated past.  The beach stones turn red with splattered gore.

Ill-fated Dieppe Raid August 19th 1942

Smoke.  Screams.  Yells.  Commands.  Gunfire.  And explosions rip through the air.  It is not pretty, or cinematic-worthy.  It is nasty, and dirty, and horrible.  The ‘secret’ invasion was expected. 

An increase in British radio signal traffic, and a French double-agent had removed any possibility of surprising and overwhelming the German forces.   Eight hours later the invasion forces scrambled to pull back, returning to England, leaving behind some of the dead and all of the captured.  Of the nearly 5,000 Canadians who participated in the raid, 913 were killed.  About 1500 Canadians were taken prisoner.


Seaside cabanas in Dieppe

When Lawrie and I recently visited Dieppe we saw a peaceful little seaside town with little beach cabanas lining the seawall.  There were people enjoying the spring sunshine while eating at outdoor restaurants.  Children were returning from a day at school.  Adults were shopping for items for the evening dinner.  Normal people doing everyday normal things. 

We stayed overnight in the centre of town near the 600-year-old St. Jacques cathedral with its scowling gargoyles and intricate stained glass windows.  On the bluff, overlooking the town and the beach is the medieval Chateau de Dieppe.  It houses a museum that currently specializes in a collection of ivory artifacts from the 18^th and 19^th centuries.

Dieppe, our hotel was to the right

In the morning we wandered the landing area of the Dieppe Raid, trying in our mind’s eye to see what the invasion would have looked like. 

I picked up one of the elliptical shale stones, rubbing it absently between my thumb and finger – visualizing the challenge of running on this beach while scared, and loaded down with thirty-five pounds of equipment.   Running towards the gun emplacements, still visible seventy years later tucked into the hillside. 

How did anyone survive?






We stood silently, staring at the ocean, thinking about the very human cost of war.   Any war.   



Rocky beach of Dieppe

Dancing Fountains of Versailles

Apollo Fountain at Versailles

“Huh!  That’s it. 

That’s what we paid extra money for, and then waited three hours to see?”

The twice daily “Dance of the Fountains” at Versailles occurs at eleven in the morning, and again at three-thirty in the afternoon. 
 
“Why?”  We wondered gazing around the vast and meticulously groomed gardens.  Why such a short amount of time, and why not leave the fountains working all day from the time the park opens until sunset? 

Water – or more correctly the lack of water is the problem, and has been since Versailles was built in the 1660’s during the reign the Sun King, Louis the 14^th. 

Waiting for water!

The gardens of Versailles cover eight hundred hectares; have fifty fountains, with over six hundred jets to spray the water from the mouths of Gods, water nymphs, horses, or mythical sea creatures. 

The original gravitational hydraulic system included thirty-five kilometers of piping.  Before the advent of electricity a combination of windmill-power and horse-power was used to pump the water, diverted from local rivers, up to the reservoir on top of the beautiful Grotte de Thétys.  From this reservoir the water would make its way back through the fountains returning to various streams or ponds.

Rental boats on Grand Canal

Around 1668 the 1500-meter long Grand Canal was constructed as a pretty venue for boating activities, doubling as a collection basin for the water. 

Still there was not enough water.  The head Fountaineer Jean-Baptiste Colbert devised a system of signaling, via whistles, to warn other Fountaineers that the King was walking towards their area.  

One arm of the Grand Canal at Versailles

The workers would scramble to turn on the appropriate valves, ensuring the fountain was working as the king strolled past with his entourage, then turn off the valves to feed the next fountain on his route. 

It must have been a bit of a comedy show at times, anticipating where his royal highness intended to stroll next. 

Perhaps the Sun King had a mischievous sense of humor, making last minute adjustments to his promenade – just to see if the workers could keep up with him.



People watching, waiting for the fountain show.

Two more attempts were made to solve the critical water shortage at Versailles.  In 1681 a complex system of waterwheels and pumps was engineered to pump water from the Seine River up 100 meters above the level of the river into the fountain system at Versailles. 

With various equipment failures and conduit leakage the expected volume was reduced by half. 

Then in 1685 twenty thousand soldiers were employed to divert water from the Eure River.  The war of 1686 – 1689 ended that project, unfinished. 

Versailles with its stunningly beautiful setting still has water problems.  The twice daily Dance of the Fountains is quick, and a tad repetitive. 

Go, enjoy!   Just remember; it’s not Vegas.




Hotel de France - perfect, just outside the main gates.

Lisieux France, Normandy

Saint-Dennis Cathedral in Lisieux France

Begun in the 6th century and completed in the 12th century the ancient limestone structure of Saint-Pierre Cathedral dominates the centre of Lisieux France. 


Gazing at the intricate carvings and the buttressed walls I was reminded of my favourite novel: Pillars of the Earth, written by Ken Follett. 


In the book the author describes in detail the effort, the materials, and the skills required to build the massive cathedrals of the era. 

Cathedral details

The novel recreates, quite vividly, the entire life of the village surrounding the cathedral, and of the people who live there.  The construction of cathedrals typically happened over a span of a hundred or more years. 

It was at Saint-Pierre Cathedral in 1152 that the future King of England Henry II, married the richest woman in Europe - Eleanor of Aquitaine.


However, this cathedral is noted for a less noble distinction.  The Bishop Cauchon, who in the 15th century played a key role in the trial and death of Joan of Arc, is buried in there. 

Luckily this ancient cathedral somehow escaped serious damage during bombing campaigns of the World War II. 

Lisieux is a small city in the northern reaches of France - called Normandy.  The area has been inhabited since pre-historic times, by an amazing mix of people. 

Cathedral details

 In the late 3rd century, barbarian raids devastated Normandy.  Coastal settlements were raided by Saxon pirates.  In the 5th century, Germanic tribes invaded from the east, while the Saxons subjugated the Norman coast. 

The area was also very desirable for the occupying armies during both World War I 1914-1919, and World War II 1939-1945.  It would seem that everyone wanted a part of this fertile area with its rolling hills, that dip down to the valley of the Seine River. 

Normandy is famous for cattle, cheeses, butter, apples, apple cider, and the potent apple-brandy known as Calvados. 



Ancient wooden houses in Normandy


Looking for something interesting for dinner we wandered away from the centre of Lisieux towards a group of ancient, sloping, half-timbered houses: still inhabited. 


In the bottom of one of the houses is a restaurant, the Vieux Norman, that has been in existence for hundreds of years at that location. 


The personable proprietor of the restaurant sold us on the Normandy speciality - galettes - a thin, buckwheat flour pancake slightly larger than a crêpe, traditionally folded over a savoury filling of cheese or cream-based sauces, and garnished with a slice of ham, or eggs.  We gave it a try - ham for Lawrie, and smoked salmon for me.   


Galettes are a hearty meal perfect for a day when the chilly fog rolls across the English Chanel and blankets the low-lying land of Normandy. 

Galette - hearty meal in Normandy France

Stuffed from dinner we wandered back towards our hotel. 

Exploring the backside of the cathedral, we poked under tarps that covered scaffolding, piles of limestone blocks, carved stone decorations, and a myriad of building materials stockpiled while yet more repairs are made to the ancient Saint-Pierre Cathedral. 


So, maybe there is no actual "end date" to a cathedral.  Maybe they are on-going projects - built, and re-built over the centuries, with additions and improvements appearing as money is raised from the populace.

Materials to repair the cathedral



Lisieux was a very pleasant, and quaint stop on our way through Normandy.