Write Expressions

How I Spent My Summer: Adventures in Paris VI

If you’re feeling particularly inspired, click the links below for my previous Parisian posts:

Part I

Chris arranged to rent a car for the remainder of our stay in Paris. (Yeah! No more waiting for taxis!) And we arose super early the next morning for a day-long excursion to Normandy Beach.

Now, I’m about to confess something that will probably leave many of you thinking a lot less of me. But if nothing else, I strive to be an honest person. In my defense, I’ve never been a huge history buff (aside from reading historical romance novels) and I have only a rudimentary knowledge regarding the major wars in which the U.S. has been involved.

My confession: I had no idea what the significance of Normandy Beach was in regard to World War II. Neither could I understand why Chris--and my non-art-enthusiast son—were so adamant that we would drive three hours one way, just to look at a beach!

Needless to say, when we arrived, I was shamed and awed. Normandy’s Omaha Beach Museum was amazing!

We learned fascinating details about the brave, young soldiers who lost their lives helping reclaim the world’s freedom.

I studied the posted timeline which covered all significant events from the start to the end of the war, including an hour-by-hour account of the Normandy Campaign—the largest amphibious operation in history. This battle marked the beginning of the end of the war.

The Allied forces rehearsed their D-Day roles for months before the Normandy invasion, which began with overnight parachute and glider landings, massive air attacks and naval bombardments, followed by early morning amphibious landings on five beaches.

We wandered through the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial, where over 9,000 American soldiers who lost their lives during the invasion are buried.

The ocean glowed blue and serene in the distance, making it difficult to imagine the bloody battle that once took place there. The cemetery was beautiful. Immaculate. Peaceful. Fragrant with blossoming flowers, pines, carefully manicured trees and sunshine.

After leaving the cemetery, we drove to the quaint medieval village of Bayeux for lunch.

Chris often travelled to the nearby city of Caen for work and knew we would enjoy exploring the massive 11th-century cathedral located there.

Image by: Mcaretaker

As we dined in typical French style, facing the street from our little table, we noticed something odd kept happening. The narrow sidewalks were filled with people shopping among the charming boutiques lining the cobblestone streets. But every so often in the midst of the crowds, we’d spot somebody dressed like this:

Hmmmm…

These strangely dressed folks would walk past us, then disappear around a corner. Naturally, when we were done eating I insisted Chris wait on getting his gelato fix so we could follow the trail. I had to find out where those people were going!

We went around that mysterious corner…and discovered a fair! It just happened to be Bayeux’s 25th annual Medieval Festival! Complete with street performers, theatrical presentations, and costumed vendors selling their wares.

And the focal point of the fair was the very cathedral Chris wanted us to see.

The aptly named Bayeux Cathedral was consecrated on July 14, 1077. One reason it’s famous is because it was here that William, Duke of Normandy and King of England forced Harold Godwinson to take the oath, the breaking of which led to the Norman conquest of England.

It was massive and beautiful…

As we left the cathedral, we spotted these elaborately dressed women on stilts making their way through the crowd directly towards us.

Striding past, they came to a halt in the doorway of the cathedral we had just exited. Joining hands, they began to sing an enchanting medieval song in beautiful harmony.

It was so cool!

We finally left Bayeux, driving through rolling French countryside, past acres of golden wheat and this amazing field of sunflowers.

From the highway we spotted a castle ruin and spontaneously pulled off to explore it. The castle rose from a high hill and had a stunning view overlooking the entire Rouen region and River Seine.

Apparently we’d stumbled upon the Château de Robert-le-Diable. It was built during the 11th and 12th centuries and is a French feudal castle from the time of the Dukes of Normandy. The castle takes its name from Robert the Devil, a.k.a. Robert the Magnificent, Duke of Normandy and father of William the Conqueror! Another interesting tidbit is that King Richard the Lionheart stayed here.

Well, after our major road trip, we got back to Paris late that evening, ate dinner late (by American standards, anyway), and went to bed late--well after midnight (of course!).

Tune in next week for our trip to the Palace of Versailles!

All photographs © Holly & Chris Bowne unless otherwise noted.

Quote of the Week

"The only thing we can count on to see us through an uncertain future is our ability to ask questions."

~ Andrea Batista Schlesinger ~

(The Death of "Why?")

Image by: Teo Sze Lee

How I Spent My Summer: Adventures in Paris V

If you’re feeling particularly inspired, click the links below for my previous Parisian posts:

Parts I, II, III, IV

Figuring we’d pushed Joshua’s museum gallivanting to the max, we visited the L'Hôtel National des Invalides, a complex of museums and monuments relating to France’s military history, as well as the burial site for some of France's war heroes, including Napoleon Bonaparte.

Later, the boys humored Ashleigh and me by accompanying us to the Latin Quarter and the famous book store, Shakespeare and Company!

It was exactly what you might expect--this totally cool, cluttered shop with loads of new, used and rare books crammed into floor-to-ceiling shelves, and overflowing from cardboard boxes scattered outside the shop’s door.

Image in public domain

I ended up buying a book about Paris in the Middle Ages (which Ashleigh yawned at!), plus I picked up an 1866 copy of Beethoven’s Letters from 1790 – 1826 for FREE, baby!

The boys were anxious to move on, so from there we went to ancient Sainte Chapelle.

Image by: marsupilami92

This church was commissioned by King Louis IX to house his collection of Passion Relics, including part of Christ’s Crown of Thorns. (Although this relic is now kept in Notre Dame’s Treasury.) But the church is really famous because it contains one of the most extensive collections of 13^th-century stained glass anywhere in the world.

Well, we got there, and naturally the line to get in was miles long. We knew La Conciergerie, another site we wanted to see, was around the corner. So we went there first.

Image by: Hugovoyages

No line at all! Plus, we discovered that by purchasing a dual ticket for Sainte Chapelle and La Conciergerie, we would get to skip right to the front of the ridiculously long line for Sainte Chapelle. How cool is that?! La Conciergerie is the famous prison where Queen Marie-Antoinette was locked up during the French Revolution, before being carted off to the guillotine.

Waving “au revoir” to the poor suckers still waiting in line, we sailed into Sainte Chapelle. We explored the lower chapel...

...before climbing a narrow spiral staircase to the upper chapel. As I came up through the floor of the upper chapel, my first impression was just…WOW.

Framed by eloquently painted stonework, fifteen stained glass windows stretch from mid-wall to the incredibly high ceiling. Stories from the Bible are told in rich, glowing color within these shimmering panels of colored glass.

It was awesome! After dinner we visited Le Tour Eiffel at night.

We were herded like sheep into elevators which took us to stop number one for this beautiful sunset view:

We then boarded a second elevator with took us to the ear-popping 1000-ft. top. It occurred to me that while we were crammed together in the elevator, I had a captive audience.

“Hey kids,” I said, pulling out my totally cool fact sheets and turning to the Eiffel Tower page. “Did you know the the Eiffel Tower never sways more than 4-1/2 inches, even in the strongest wind?”

“That’s really interesting mom,” said my captive audience.

“And did you know that originally, this tower was never intended to be a permanent addition to the city? It was created for the World Exhibition of 1889. For years Parisians hated it. They called it the Giant Asparagus!”

The elevator doors opened and my kids rushed out ahead of us.

“Some day they’ll be grateful that I shared all this stuff with them,” I grumbled to my ~~captive~~ husband, who merely nodded, towing me forward to see the view.

The AMAZING view!!

It was windy and cold, but soooo magical. At one point, Chris and I heard happy cheers and whistles which we assumed were in celebration of the Eiffel Tower’s twinkling light show. The lights twinkle for 10 minutes every hour at night.

But we later discovered through Ashleigh and Joshua, who were on the opposite side of the tower, that the cheers were for a young man who had just proposed to his girlfriend. Trés cool!

Once again, no taxi in sight and we got home in the wee hours of the morning. We decided our official theme phrase was: You cannot go to bed before midnight in Paris!

Jusqu'à la prochaine fois, mes amies!

(Until next time, my friends!)

All photographs © Holly & Chris Bowne unless otherwise noted.

Quote of the Week

"Success is a finished book, a stack of pages each of which is filled with words. If you reach that point, you have won a victory over yourself

no less impressive than sailing

single-handed around the world."

~Tom Clancy ~

Photograph © Joshua Bowne

How I Spent My Summer: Adventures in Paris IV

If you’re feeling particularly inspired, click the links below for my previous Parisian posts:

Part I

Part II

Part III

I left off last time with our glittering view of the Eiffel Tower. A perfect ending to a beautiful day. Or so we thought…

It was around midnight, when we attempted to catch a taxi to take us home. Key word here: attempted.

For the next hour, we tried everything we could think of—waving wildly, dancing, showing some leg, standing at high traffic street corners, low traffic street corners—all to no avail. Every taxi we spotted whizzed past, ignoring us completely!

Except one. Somewhere around 12:45 a.m., a taxi pulled up alongside just to let us know that he would not accept our fare.

“Mais pour quooooiiiiii?!” I whined through his open window.

He indicated a young couple across the street from us who had only just stepped up to the curb.

“Because,” he explained in halting English. “Zey standing under ze sign.” He indicated a miniscule “Taxi” sign above them which we had failed to notice. And with that, he raced off with the beautiful people, leaving us breathing in his exhaust.

Image by: Dave Newman

A short while later we admitted defeat. We were freezing, our feet ached like crazy, but we started walking the endless miles back to our apartment. We distracted ourselves by singing loudly (& badly) as we trudged along and by watching Joshua try cool Parkour moves on the nearly empty sidewalks.

At one point we cut through the Jardin des Tuileries park. It was so dark we could barely see the dirt path, but I smelled an unmistakable aroma.

“Watch where you step!” I warned. “We don’t need horse poop on our shoes!”

Becoming grumpy and slap happy in turns, we laughed hysterically after encountering a young couple on the darkened path, walking in the opposite direction. They were each towing a huge suitcase through the dirt and horse poop. We didn’t need a translator to understand what the woman was saying in an unending French diatribe.

“See kids,” I giggled. “Things could always be worse!”

Famous last words.

Now, there are positives to staying in an old Parisian apartment building, and there are negatives.

Positive: You get to experience life as a true Parisian. You get to open screenless windows each morning and experience the delightful fragrance of fresh baked goods while observing the pigeons roosting on your neighbor’s rooftop. (I wonder if they ever fly in through one of those open windows?)

Negative: You get to experience life as a true Parisian. Arriving back at our apartment around 2:30 a.m., we discovered that while we’d been gone some pipes had burst. The apartment above us had leaked toilet water all over our kitchen counter, soaking everything on it including our food and my camera battery charger complete with back-up battery.

Awesome.

But we were just too tired to care.

In the morning we called maintenance, then closed the door on the mess inside in favor of enjoying a L’Open Bus tour.

It was lovely riding around, listening to French music and learning about the city via the multilingual headsets. At Ashleigh’s insistence, we got off the bus to explore notorious Moulin Rouge.

I knew the area had a “naughty” reputation, but I had no idea how naughty. At one point a woman approached Chris saying something I couldn’t quite catch, while he just looked surprised. Suddenly, she glanced behind him to see me, Ashleigh and Joshua hot on his heels.

“Oh, you’re with them,” she said in English, and moved away.

“What did she want?” I asked curiously.

“I’m not sure,” he said. “But I think she was a female pimp.”

Interesting. Are you paying attention to all this culture, kids?

We caught the next bus for Montmartre to see the famous Sacre Coeur Basilica, constructed with donations from people who thought the French Revolution and Paris Commune uprising of 1871 were punishment from God for their lack of faith.

“Hey guys,” I said, as the bus glided to a halt. “Did you know that every time it rains, the basilica’s white dome gets even whiter because of the type of stone they used?”

“Mmmm…” Ashleigh and Joshua murmured, quickly exiting the bus.

Hmph! Well, I was excited I was finally going to see this famous building. So you can imagine my disappointment when we reached the top of the hill and saw this: