2022 May Day 03 - Normandy and Le Mont Saint Michel

3rd Day has begun.  Our AIRBNB last night was about 15 miles north east of Le Havre in a village called Maneglise.  The. AIRBNB was part of a farm in this village.  The accommodation was nice…beds a bit small.  But they forgot to leave us muchd paper products and bath towels.  So showering this morning was a ‘drip dry affair’.  But I did it nonetheless.  All in all it was very comfortable.  We did not get there until really late and the lady of the farm came out to greet us and get us in.  We also met her husband, I assume, who finally delivered towels about the time we were going to leave.

Naturally I was the first one up, showered and ready to go.  So I decided to go for a walk to see if there was anything around.  Across the street was a cool church.  Down the street further, I could see parents walking their children to school.  So I followed them to see what it was like where the school was.   About 100 yards or so down the road was the ‘center’ of town and there was a little ‘market’.  Unfortunately I did not have money with me (euros) so I headed back to the BNB to get some coinage.  When I arrived back there, Mike was outside.  So I told him about the market.  So together we went back there to get some Orange Juice, pastries, ham croissants and so on for breakfast.  It tasted good in the end.

After everyone was ready, we loaded up and off we went to Normandy…our first stop to be at the museum at Omaha Beach and the cemerary there.  This has been something that Denise and I had talked about and always wanted to someday visit.  It did not disappoint.  The feelings I felt here are quite overwhelmingly humbling.    All I could think in my mind was ‘Thank you’…to the brave men and women who sacrificed their lives to take on this important job of fighting for the freedoms that we continue to enjoy today.  I felt the prompting to know that these brothers and sisters of mine have their elections made sure.  As a matter of fact, I believer, our Savior will weep with gratitude for their mortal time on earth and the work they did in fighting for human freedoms.   At the judgement bar, they will receive their ultimate medal, one of eternal lives.  Such a sacred place this place is…2nd largest American military  cemetery.

After spending a good 1.5 hours there, we jumped in the car and headed to Omaha Beach.  While waiting for a few to get back to the car though, security came over and really questioned us.  I think that they thought that Mike was a hired driver and not parking in the right place.  He had been sitting there by himself for a while.  He probably looked like a hired hand.  They were nice but very questioning of us.  Fortunately Josh could speak a bit of French to get through it.  The drive down to the beach was about 10 minutes.  There we could see the bunkers the Germans had and visualize how difficult the assault that day had to of been.  The area is very pretty.   Omaha Beach is a nice, sandy, beach.  But it was red with blood that June day in 1944.  I’m grateful to be here and see this with my own eyes.  Very blessed Denise and I are.

We next headed about 1.75 hours down the road to an interesting place called ‘Le Mont Saint Michel’.  This is a monastery built on an a rock of an island.  It is quite large and very high up.  We decided to pay to do the whole deal and we climbed hundreds of steps, 27 floors worth.  Our legs are feeling it.  It was nice through to see this place.  As you start your journey, you walk through a medevial ‘mall’.  That was pretty fascinating.  Upon completing our walking tour, we found a place to finally get some dinner.  We skipped lunch  so all of us were pretty hungry. 

I’m writing this now as we start our 2 hour drive to Le Mans, our next place to stay.   This time we will be in a hotel, I think.  But we shall see.

It has been a nice day…raining a bit in the morning and blue skies in the afternoon.    On the coast, the weather has been much cooler than the past few days inland around Paris.  I suspect the rest of our trip will be fairly cool as tomorrow we head to the Swiss Alps….a long drive.

Pictures….sorry for the random sequence of the pictures.  The import tool does not put them in any particular sequence and it is too much work to manually move them around with this tool.\

The group at the ‘mall’ at Le Mont - Saint Michel (LMSM).

The draw bridge as you enter the mall portion of LMSM.

One of the pretty areas with water at the Omaha Memorial for d-Day.

Our buggy parked just outside our AIRBNB.  You can’t see the AIRBNB which is to the right of the van.

Le Mont - Saint Michel

Memorial at Omaha Beach.

Pretty flowers on the bluff overlooking Omaha Beach.

The Hunter clan at LMSM.

This is ‘City Center’ at Maneglise… where our BNB was.

One of the few spiral stair cases with Denise physically looking down on me.  I suspect mentally she looks down on me lots.  :-)

This is the church just 30 yards from our BNB.  On the hour the bells would ring out.

Part of the cemetery at Omaha Beach Memorial.

Omaha Beach…the actual beach!

Nice statue at Omaha Beach Memorial.

Climbing stairs at LMSM.

One of the memorials at Omaha Beach memorial.

Our BNB was a farm and there were chickens and goats there staying to destroy things.  

Nice view of a small part of the cemetery at Omaha Beach.

Josh and Riley in the fireplace at one of the rooms in LMSM.

Up top, there was this nice little area that had some grass in LMSM.  Pretty little courtyard.

I was standing in front of the town church looking down the road where our BNB was.

I thought this hall was pretty cool to look at and Denise made it even more amazing.  Had to get a picture of both!

One of the many bunkers that the Germans had built all along the western seaboard of France.  It must have been brutal to get to these guys as they shot up mortars and fired bullets.

2022 May Day 02 - Hello Versailles and France West Coast

2nd day in France (Paris).  It has been warm here so far.  And the apartment we are in does not have air conditioning.  So I had to get creative on how I opened the window last night.  They all have security bars but know screens.  So you can reach out and touch someone if you wanted to scare them as they past by.  Anyway, we had a small fan that I placed near the window to circulate air.  It helped and by the time we woke up, the room felt nice.  Now I slept pretty good.  But Denise says she slept quite hot.  But honestly, a bomb could have gone off and neither of us would have woke up.  I did get 6 good hours but woke up at 3 AM for a bit.  Body clock still on Utah time.  But I did fall back to sleep after an hour of texting and stuff.

Mike and Josh were out the door by 8 AM to go back to the airport to rent the van.  It is an hour metro\train ride to the airport.  B it it took longer for them to get back driving.   But we were loaded up and on the road by about 10:30 AM heading to Versailles.  Prior to leaving Paris and our AIRBNB, I did hit the corner bakery for some nice pastries for breakfast.   Gotta love Europe and the baked goods over here on every corner.

We drove about an hour to the Palace of Versailles.  Brings back some nightmarish memories when we were here last time.  Not to fear, however, very few tourists here today.   And Denise and I did not want to go through the Palace again.  So we just bought a garden ticket and headed off into them.  The rest of the group bought tickets for it all…Palace and gardens.

The gardens are quite pretty.  The area is huge…lots of walking to cover it all.  Unfortunately, only a few fountains were flowing.  Most were not on which I find to be very disappointing.  It’s like buying Broadway play tickets only to find out the actors only perform on Tuesday and the Weekends!  You just get to enjoy the theater.  Pretty lame.  Anyway, we walked around a bit then found the cafe and stood in a very SLOOOOWWWW line to greet some crepes and a sandwich to split later once the Hunters hooked up with us.  After an hour or so, they appeared, we ate and then went with them to see some of the gardens.    At some point, we had to make a decision how to do this as Riley likes these type of gardens and wants to look every plant.  Most of us…seen one…you’ve seen it all.  So we decided to leave Riley at the gardens while the rest of us went over to the temple which is about a 5 minute drive from the palace.

The temple is unique to me here as it fits into the city block that it is found in.  It doesn’t stand out much.   It is somewhat like New York City in that way.   We went right into the Visitors Center there and struck up a conversation with Elder and Sister. Gilchrist from Mesa, AZ.  They have been out for 6 months and having a very nice time.  But like Denise and her Spanish, Sister Gilchrist does not speak French and is working hard to conquer it.  But not easy.  We visited and took pictures for about an hour.  We then put the signal out to Riley that we were returning to pick her up to begin our journey over to Le Havre on the West Coast.     We are really excited to see the beaches of D-Day (Normandy). 

The van we rented is beautiful.  New, large and very roomy.  Mike did a wonderful job getting this nailed down.  It will cost a bit.  But at least we are comfortable and we will be doing a lot of driving in it.  I’ll try to get a picture of it and post it.  Mike drove early and Josh is driving now as I type this on our way to Le Havre.  

Well, I’m finishing this at 10:30 PM sitting in the van with Denise.  We just complete a very nice seafood and steak dinner on the beach watching the sun set across the English Channel.   The name of this village is Etretat.  The white cliffs and 3 arches are what attract folks to this place.  It is a really cute little village nestled up to the sea.  We arrived here at about 7 PM.  After driving around a bit, we found a place to park the van..  Getting the van into one of the small spots was a bit of a challenge.  But eventually one worked out.  We then headed to the beach and to the base of the cliffs and headed up the trail to get to the top.  It was a good climb for Denise and I but we made it..  The view was really nice.  

We sat down to eat dinner a little before 9 PM.  We ate right on the beach and watched the sun go down.  The food was pretty good.  Mike went large and got the cold seafood plate that had crab, snails, all kinds of different shell things, shrimp with the eyes looking at you and so on.  Everyone enjoyed watching Mike try to take down some of the ‘bottom of the ocean’ stuff.  Me….I ordered a pail of muscles in a nice cream sauce.  I really liked it….very tasty.  Once the sun had set, however, it became extremely cold.   I noticed they had space heaters under the umbrellas.  But there were not turned on.  Our server told me it was illegal to use them in France.  I thought, but did not say, ‘Then why have them?’.    Anyway, the Hunters were going to order dessert and I was frozen.  So I paid the bill and with Denise, we walked to the van to get out of the cold.  So here I am.

It has been a fun day seeing the things that we’ve seen today.   

More to come tomorrow….

Some pictures:

Me on some of the steps in the Versailles Palace Garden….

The group together in the garden.  Josh, Mike, Riley, Zachary, Denise, Tim and Jenny.

The white cliffs in Etretat.  Really nice views.  Really nice little village.

Lunch time in the Palace Garden.  The line was so slow…that is one thing I’ll remember about eating here.

The group prior to entering the palace area.

Riley trying to mimic the sculpture.  I teased her about having her arms a bit different than the sculpture.

A couple more photos from the Cliffs at Etretat.

Lots of fountains in the gardens but only a few were flowing.  This one had some nice music playing with it.  This is called the ‘Mirror Pool’.

Tim and Denise just chilling while we waited for the Hunters to complete their Palace tour.

Looking out over one of the many garden areas.  We walked down through this area to kill some time while waiting for the Hunters.

The Hunter family (minus Maddie who is in the military) at the Cliffs of Etretat.

Mike bought the big, chilled, seafood plate.  Not sure he liked what he got.  But the group got a big laugh watching him trying to consume some of it.

Denise and I at the front steps of the Paris France Temple in Versailles.  Good to be back!

That is how Mike felt about what he ordered.  But he made it through.

Me (Tim) posing in the Palace Gardens.

The Christus on the Temple grounds.  It is so peaceful here.

While we waited for the Hunter family in the Palace Gardens, a couple came over and sat down.  The lady pulled her shoes off and the man began to give her a foot rub.  I wanted to take my shoes off and have my poor feet rubbed!

Who did the best pose?  We three gave it our best shot!

2022 May Day 01 - Hello Paris (France) Again.

We’re traveling again!  Today is the 18th of May…in Paris, France.  But we left the SLC airport at 9:30 AM on May 17th.  Our initial flight took us backwards to San Francisco where our flight to Paris was leaving at 2:30 PM.  Unfortunately there were mechanical issues with the plane and we left 2 hours late.  In between flights, we did use our Priority Pass at  different restaurant called ‘Mustards Grill’…or something like that.  The food was ok…but REALLY expensive.  But who cares, Priority Pass covers $28 per guest and allows for two guests.  So it works out well.

One of the interesting things on our flight to Paris was that I could have got better seats had I flown stand by.  It was tempting to list myself for a 2nd reservation.  We bought one-way tickets to make sure we made it to Paris to be with Mike, Jenny and some of their kids….the cheapest, Basic Economy.  The system assigns seats in these cases.  The good news was that it put Denise and I together.  The bad news, we were on row 52 in a plane where there were only 53 rows.  And I can’t recall when I’ve been more uncomfortable flying.  The plane was pretty much full, maybe 5 or 6 seats not taken.  But that was after a few stand by flyers got on and got Premium Economy.  So I paid money and got worse seats.  You’d think the system would look at stand by flyers who have purchased seats under an employee and treat them equal to stand by flyers possibly giving them better seats.  But their systems are not engineered that way.  The system does know we are stand by (Pass Rider) flyers as it does not charge for checked luggage and puts us in Boarding Group 3.  They just need to go the next step and include us as revenue stand by and place us at the top of the list.  :-)

We arrived in Paris at around noon.  Getting through customs was not bad…about 15 minutes.  The walk to the train into Paris was about a 15 minute walk…but the SLC airport has prepared us for such walks!  The train into Paris was over crowded and very, very hot and muggy.  Some college aged girls wiggled their way on to seats by us, over our carry ons and all.  The one I spoke with most was from an island country on the east side of Africa.  She was Muslim and full dressed as such.  She had to be really hot.  We arrived just fine to our first and only train connection.  After a couple of stops, we got off and walked about 100 yards to our AIRBNB.  Mike, Jenny and their kids are out touring.  We’ve been here and done Paris.  So we think we’re going to relax and maybe catch up to them for dinner.  But we’ll see.  The AIRBNB is nice…but no A/C.  But lots of fans are blowing and if the sun is not beating down, it feels ok.

Well…I wanted to get the Blog going.  More to come I suppose later tonight.  And I hope to post some pictures too.

So around 5 PM, Denise and I decided to go to the Eiffel Tower hoping to meet up with Mike, Jenny, Riley, Josh and Zachary there as they had indicated that they would be going there.  Well, we found our way on the subway to the tower and walked underneath it a bit eventually finding a nice bench in the shade to wait for them.  We eventually received a call from Mike saying that Riley was too wiped out from traveling today from SLC and that he and she were headed back to the AIRBNB.  But Jenny, Josh and Zach were going to come and meet up with us…which they did.  It is great to see all of them.  Josh being just back from a mission and Zach has his papers in and is waiting..  We walked around the tower taking some pictures.  We eventually headed to the Subway and headed to the AIRBNB.  We were getting hungry.

For dinner, Zach wanted us all to try the French ‘Tacos’ here that are apparently made in most greasy spoon places on the street.  So that is what we did.  We walked a couple of blocks to get to one of these greasy spoons.  The food was pretty good.  They actually made ‘Donor’.  We ate a lot of those in Germany.  Anyway…it was all good.  

We are all back in the AIRBNB.  It is almost 9 PM here and Denise and I are heading to bed.  Our room is on the front of this very hot apartment…so I have the windows open, with only security bars to the sidewalk on the street.  It is still light so people walking by get a full view of me snoring I guess.  I’ll take a picture!  Mike, Jenny and Riley headed back to the Eiffel Tower (about 45 minute train ride) to see it at night.  Go get ‘em guys….more energy than I have. 

Until tomorrow…..

Pictures:

Our big bird.  777-200.  I’m always amazed these big ships get off the ground with over 250+ people an all their things on it.

The International Terminal has a small, but nice patio that you can go out to and get some nice fresh air.  It was a little breezy making it a bit cool.  So we did not last too long.

Lounging around waiting, waiting, waiting.  I took some time to brush up on the Paris Metro system so it did not surprise me once we arrived.

Us at our gate watching the ground crew work.  They do lots, as it turns out.

Five years ago in April, we were taking the same shots.  have we aged?  You’ll have to go compare!

Denise with her two handsome nephews.  She really loves being with her family a ton…no matter where we are in the world!

Nice photo of us with tower behind us.  Too bad Jenny could not be in the picture with us.  But good picture Jenny!

I took this picture sitting on the edge of my bed.  People walk by fairly often between the window and the cars…and they kind of glance in.  I hope it cools down quickly so I can close these windows as I know there will be street lights.

French Taco!!!!  Pretty yummy.

One of the many subway stops that we’ve seen already.  But this will be it as tomorrow we get a van and head out of the city.

Happy campers at dinner!!!