Through the end of the month, I will reflect upon my travel and two weeks in Europe. It is hard to encapsulate everything I did, as when I travel, I am constantly on the move, and often do so much in a single day. But, I wanted to reflect in greater depth and detail on some of the things I did and experienced and what all of this meant to me.
[Most of the photos which accompany this part of my trip are on Facebook here, and I had to reload them without my previous captions in order to put them in a separate album (I am not sure why!). So, if you are perusing them and wondering what something is, please just leave a comment. I wish Facebook would make it easier! (The original postings with all of my original captions are also all together with all of my European photos here, if you scroll way back.) If you can’t access either or both of these, please add me first as a friend on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/davidreinwald]
I am also feeling very lucky at the moment that my travel occurred last month, with all of the disruption of the travel industry at the moment, and I am really sorry to those who had current travel plans which are being affected by everything that is happening. I obviously knew nothing of what would be happening at this time when I set my plans in motion, and likewise, have found myself creating plans B and C this month in replacing original plans that I created to travel to Japan (and my figure skating lessons that I just had planned even just got cancelled yesterday … at least for now, as the rink decided it was closing late yesterday until, at least, late March).
And now, February in France …
I flew direct to Paris from LA, and flew on an airline I hadn’t flown on prior — Air Tahiti Nui. This is a partner airline of American Airlines, and I flew with miles that I had accrued and saved, so that is why I went with them. I found this airline to be a really great experience, and I would highly recommend them for any future travel.
When I landed at the break of dawn in Paris, I knew I had a REALLY long day ahead of me, so I kind of held my breath and said, here we go! It took me a little time to get my rental car in place, because we had arrived a bit early and they weren’t able to check me in until the time noted on my reservation. I got an almost brand-new Toyota hybrid that had GPS installed within it. It ultimately was a great choice, as I never had to remove a GPS unit from the car. I otherwise was really cautious about never leaving anything in the car, as I had read about break-ins, especially in rentals. I gladly had no issues the entire time.
As I drove out of Paris, it was a Monday morning, and I was in traffic, but it soon thinned out and I headed north. As I entered the southern part of Normandy, everything just turned into gorgeous rolling fields that you could see for miles, and I was in total awe. It reinvigorated me early on in the day and filled me with the spirit of adventure! I was heading for the ruins of a castle that I had found in one travel guide — I had seen they were on my way to the area I was staying in Normandy (Bayeux), so I thought it would be great to stop there. This was called Chateau Gaillard. Once I arrived there, it was very windy — make that a very cold wind, so I didn’t stay outside much. But, it gave me enough time to snap a few photos. As I have mentioned in the past, I have a penchant for “thin places,” like these ruins, where past meets present. There is just something incredibly powerful being in these places that connects with my soul. When I first got there, I climbed up a hill, and it was a moment before I got to a point where I was literally standing above the castle ruins. It was a breathtaking moment for me, despite the cold wind. Okay, a cold breathtaking moment! :)
Chateau Gaillard from afar. I saw it from above and then from over the river after I had driven about five minutes away. Both were stunning, but this was likely the best view. In fact, there was a small Bed and Breakfast located right there at this point with this very view.
Driving around Normandy was easier than I could have imagined. One thing that American drivers could learn from the French is how to drive on the highway — French drivers only use the left lane for passing, and then so politely return to the right lane, even if they are passing another car a few seconds later. It makes for a very orderly style of driving. Navigating the roads with the GPS was a cinch, and for all I read about managing tolls in France, all I needed to do was put my credit card in the machine, and I was on my way in seconds. Simple! The hardest part of driving may have just been the downpouring rain throughout the week, and even that was simple to deal with as a driver with experience driving outside of California! (Sorry, Californians, but you don’t know how to drive or manage in the rain. hehe!) I was learning the road signs as I went, and I will admit, when I was taking a break eating, I returned to the picture I had snapped from a Rick Steves guide of road signs to make sure I knew what all of them meant. European road signs are fairly ubiquitous throughout all of Europe (or, at least, the EU), but they have some strange looking pictures on occasion (for example — the picture of an intersection to be aware of almost looks like a cross — not entirely intuitive in its meaning). Oh, I also did make sure to change the language in the car GPS to English. I kept everything in KM, though, and I have to say, I am now an expert in translating from Celsius to Fahrenheit in my head rather quickly (double the temp. and add 32!).
Before I arrived in Bayeux, I stopped for a few hours in the sea town of Honfleur. I visited the playful museum of Erik Satie, a museum that is in a modified interior of his home. Most of you likely know his Gymnopedie no. 1, but I heard a lot of music that made me want to explore his unique music much further. While a well-known composer, I wouldn’t say his music is played as often as it should be, and I never studied any of his music when I was in school. After exploring the museum and taking a pleasureful stroll around a few of the narrow streets of the town, I had about an hour remaining on my parking meter, but was feeling that I needed to get going, as I still had over an hour drive to Bayeux (Normandy is really large, and I was on the eastern border of Normandy, needing to drive to the central area). I didn’t want to get tired, while still moving on a lot of adrenaline, but I knew it wasn’t going to last much longer.
I drove to Bayeux. When I arrived at my AirBNB, I had trouble getting in. I later learned that the owner had emailed me information of the code to get in the gate, but I hadn’t had anywhere to access my email throughout the day. Luckily, I called a customer service number, and got everything I needed. Meanwhile, it was absolutely pouring outside, and about all I wanted to do now was retire to my room. If I was to change anything about my trip, I would have stayed at a hotel for the first place that I chose — as I would have had the amenities of food available through the hotel. The AirBNB room was super nice, but this was probably the only minor misstep I made in organizing everything for my trip. I had chosen that location, though, because it was central to everything in Bayeux. And, I later saw that Bayeux is an extremely quiet and sleepy town, where much of nothing was open later at night. I think later that night, I decided to go find a grocery store, and happened upon a smaller grocery store. I bought what I thought was yogurt. When I tried it later, I was like, Wow, this is super good and sweet! I then realized that I had bought vanilla pudding! hehe! Oh well! It’s vacation.
I had long wanted to visit Normandy. I wanted to visit the WWII landing beaches. I wanted to visit Mont St. Michel. I wanted to eat fresh camembert cheese. (And I recalled once I was there that the American author David Sedaris lived somewhere in Normandy with his husband … although a friend told me recently that they thought he had since moved to England.) This was the sole purpose of my trip to France.
Driving in Normandy, you find yourself driving through countless small towns, and there are these signs that note you are entering the town, and then sometimes 30 to 60 seconds later, there will be a sign with the name of the town on it, now crossed out. This means that you are exiting the town. It cracked me up how small some of these places were. There also often is a demarcation on the road to show that you are driving pass the border of the town. This may be for legal purposes showing the legal border of the town. I got used to the speed limits in KM/H, but I rarely knew how fast or slow I was driving in MPH. It often felt slower, and yet on the highways, you could drive a bit faster than what I was used to in the US (I later came to calculate that it was somewhere between 65-80 MPH on highways, but a bit slower on residential streets in the towns — generally closer to 20 MPH, as compared to the usual 30-40 that we are used to).
After a good evening of rest, I began my tour of WWII sights the following day. I will say that if one spent a full week in Normandy, there still would likely be WWII sights left to see, among the actual historical sights, as well as countless museums. I started off with Omaha Beach and Pointe du Hoc. The latter has impeccably preserved German bunkers that you can climb in and out of. It is a visceral experience seeing and feeling what this part of the German front consisted of. And, the more you visit all of these sights, you realize you are standing on the precipice of what began the end to the European element of WWII. It is such an important part of history.
The craters created by the bombs at Pointe du Hoc are deep, and remain a visual example of the perils of war.
The cliffs at Pointe du Hoc and the view beyond are beautiful, until you also understand that the U.S. and British forces climbed these cliffs bravely to arrive on the shore.
Here, one can see the elevation and steepness of these cliffs even better. This view reminds me of what one sees in Ireland (which isn’t really all that far away across the British Channel). The elevation is not as high as in Ireland, but this was a steep obstacle for the troops with the Germans above.
While my visit thereafter to the American cemetery was a solemn and moving one, I was just as moved when I visited the beach at Arromanches. This was one of the first landing sights for the U.S. and British troops, and they created an artificial port there with floating roads for tanks. It was quite an achievement in engineering. Parts of the port still remain, both on the beach and floating far off (further off, what remains is basically a breakwater that enabled the port to float without damaging waves … it obviously didn’t last though for 75 years).
American Cemetery, Normandy
Remnants of the artificial port at Arromanches
One funny story — in my attempt to visit the German battery at Longues sur Mer, my GPS was routing me and told me to drive down a tiny residential alleyway. It then said “you have reached your destination,” and at that point, I had entered a stone-fenced courtyard of an old home. A man was outdoors tending to his garden on the side. I realized I was not in the right place, and at that point, I heard his lawnmower stop, and he came to look to see why I was now trying to turn around in the courtyard of the home. I waved at him, a bit embarassed, realizing that the GPS didn’t seem to be set right. I headed back on my way, and found the battery several minutes later.
One of four preserved artillery at the German battery at Longues sur Mer.
My drive to Mont St. Michel on the following day was incredibly rainy for the first 2/3rds of the drive. I was wondering if it was going to be this wet as I arrived, but the weather said it was supposed to clear — and, with luck on my side — it did! Somehow, I had really wonderful weather karma throughout almost my entire trip. Anytime, I was going to visit somewhere, that was pretty much when the rain stopped! I found Mont. St. Michel to be really a beautiful and unique place to visit — albeit, it has its touristy nature as well. It was the perfect time to be there, as I can see how visiting it during the high point of the tourist season would make it overly crowded and not as pleasant an experience.
Mont St. Michel, upon arrival the tide was coming in. When I left, all of that water had subsided (and left a lot of mud — the mudflats, as they are called).
I also got to visit the Bayeux tapestry, which was only a short walk away from where I was staying. I thank those who encouraged me to go view it. It was really an interesting view into the earlier history of Normandy — specific to the Norman conquest. The namesake history of Norman-dy. ;-)
I spent my last two days of my France trip based in Versailles. I ventured into Paris for one evening, and that was enough of a visit to Paris for me — most likely since my feet and legs were VERY tired. I also found navigating the train into Paris to be one of the most confusing things I ever did. I later discovered this was because there were two different train lines traveling into Paris, and there was also a service change on one of the lines. All of this caused a delay on my trip into Paris, so by the time I arrived, I was a little “vermished.” I did get to stop in at the Shakespeare and Co. bookstore — a place I’m sure I would frequent often if I actually lived in Paris. It was fun seeing many books available here in the U.S. in their British printings. Back to Versailles—a funny note is that I had this image in my head of Versailles as this quaint town. In reality, it is much more a small city, and so once I arrived there, I found I was done driving for over a day and happy to park my car and leave it be. There were just too many pedestrians everywhere, and, in fact, I was about to become one of them.
My tour at Versailles was super interesting, and filled also with crazy amounts of walking. It was there that I think I really felt my feet were going to fall off! It was next to impossible to find the Queen’s Hamlet (which has been compared to Disneyland). This was Marie Antoinette’s little playground area. Because of construction on the property, it was very roundabout walking to and from it, and that was probably what killed me the most! :) As Shabbat descended upon Versailles, I actually found the synagogue there, but I think I was an hour too late for their service — and the door wasn’t open either. I was ready, though, to get my bags together to get ready to travel on to Vienna the next day.
I had five days in France that I will certainly remember for a lifetime and I am so grateful to have had that experience.
Versailles Palace — I don’t think any pictures one takes of large edifices such as these really ever do them justice.
Paris — eternally beautiful, especially at night. This was enough to take in and know that I had gotten a taste of Paris on this trip (this was my second time there).
A super powerful moment for me when I saw this French phrase book in a display case at the American Cemetery museum. I have the very same one that was issued to my Grandfather, Aaron Newman, a WWII veteran (who escaped the Battle of the Bulge by a single day).