France
3 December-21 December 2010
3 December
Crossing the Channel to the Continent
White Cliffs of Dover, Ferry Crossing
Spent the night in a French highway rest area.
Crossing the Channel to the Continent
White Cliffs of Dover, Ferry Crossing
Spent the night in a French highway rest area.
4 December
Rouen
City tour of Rouen, Joan of Arc Museum, Notre Dame Cathedral
Another night in a rest area
Rouen
City tour of Rouen, Joan of Arc Museum, Notre Dame Cathedral
Another night in a rest area
5 December
Caen
Caen, WWII Museum
Spent the night parked on a small street in Bayou
Spent the day in a French Memorial museum dedicated to D-Day and the events leading up to the war. We got on the road from our highway rest stop before light of day, which is still pretty late, 0800. We wanted to get to the museum early enough to grab a bus parking spot and we certainly did. There were about 80 bus spots and there was only one bus there the entire day and it only stayed an hour. It was a bus full of Japanese men and they ran through the museum in an hour, we took the entire day, from opening at 0930, until just before they closed at 1800. We learn so much at these places, on different levels. I'm pretty comfortable with the events of WWII, but what really interests me is the different views on the war from different countries. Like I said it was a French museum, and the treatment of France in the war was of particular interest. They did a pretty accurate job, France just folded into a humiliating defeat that allow the English Haters in the French government to take power and collaborate with the Germans. It is not well known that the first forces we fought in WWII were the French who opposed our landings in North Africa. The museum didn't mention the fighting, but was honest about the humiliation. What was interesting is that following the section on the French defeat there was a split in the route- the main route went on to discuss French Collaboration, followed by the resistance, a less obvious route that dead ended led to one of the only movies in English, about the English defiance of Germany, a very moving effort. The French subtitles were scarce and never translated any of the verbiage about the honor of the British stand. My guess is that the museum designers thought it would be just too humiliating to the French visitors, yet to leave it out would be to obvious an omission to the British.
Its great to have these discussions with the children, Shannon really gets it, as does Charles. Grace is getting there, she knows who fought who and kind of why- which is better than most high school graduates in the US.
Another observation concerns a display outside in front which housed stone tablets engraved with words from various governments (I'm sure supplied by the embassies) Most we pretty bland, Peace forever after.. blah, blah, the US played in safe and humble by quoting Eisenhower, but the Russian inscription was in honor of the 27 million sons and daughter who died in the struggle against fascism. They are effect saying, "so what, 10,000 died at Normandy, 27 million soviets died fight the Germans and we really won the war"
We find the days surprisingly full on the trip, not as much time to just read and chill as I thought there would be. We can easily fix that but I think the time for doing nothing will come when we travel through Sicily. Greece and Turkey will be pretty busy as there is so much to see.
Have spent the last two nights in rest areas. French rest areas are like RV parks, much more welcoming than anything we experienced in the UK. (The UK it turns out was the least RV friendly country we visited)
Caen
Caen, WWII Museum
Spent the night parked on a small street in Bayou
Spent the day in a French Memorial museum dedicated to D-Day and the events leading up to the war. We got on the road from our highway rest stop before light of day, which is still pretty late, 0800. We wanted to get to the museum early enough to grab a bus parking spot and we certainly did. There were about 80 bus spots and there was only one bus there the entire day and it only stayed an hour. It was a bus full of Japanese men and they ran through the museum in an hour, we took the entire day, from opening at 0930, until just before they closed at 1800. We learn so much at these places, on different levels. I'm pretty comfortable with the events of WWII, but what really interests me is the different views on the war from different countries. Like I said it was a French museum, and the treatment of France in the war was of particular interest. They did a pretty accurate job, France just folded into a humiliating defeat that allow the English Haters in the French government to take power and collaborate with the Germans. It is not well known that the first forces we fought in WWII were the French who opposed our landings in North Africa. The museum didn't mention the fighting, but was honest about the humiliation. What was interesting is that following the section on the French defeat there was a split in the route- the main route went on to discuss French Collaboration, followed by the resistance, a less obvious route that dead ended led to one of the only movies in English, about the English defiance of Germany, a very moving effort. The French subtitles were scarce and never translated any of the verbiage about the honor of the British stand. My guess is that the museum designers thought it would be just too humiliating to the French visitors, yet to leave it out would be to obvious an omission to the British.
Its great to have these discussions with the children, Shannon really gets it, as does Charles. Grace is getting there, she knows who fought who and kind of why- which is better than most high school graduates in the US.
Another observation concerns a display outside in front which housed stone tablets engraved with words from various governments (I'm sure supplied by the embassies) Most we pretty bland, Peace forever after.. blah, blah, the US played in safe and humble by quoting Eisenhower, but the Russian inscription was in honor of the 27 million sons and daughter who died in the struggle against fascism. They are effect saying, "so what, 10,000 died at Normandy, 27 million soviets died fight the Germans and we really won the war"
We find the days surprisingly full on the trip, not as much time to just read and chill as I thought there would be. We can easily fix that but I think the time for doing nothing will come when we travel through Sicily. Greece and Turkey will be pretty busy as there is so much to see.
Have spent the last two nights in rest areas. French rest areas are like RV parks, much more welcoming than anything we experienced in the UK. (The UK it turns out was the least RV friendly country we visited)
6 December
Big day, Normandy, Bayeux tapestry
Tapestry, Utah beach, US Cemetery, Coastal Road, Le Cambe
Parked- Utah Beach roadside rest area
Spent the night in the village of Bayeux. It was one of the first villages freed by the Allies, but is famous for the 210 foot long, millennium old, tapestry, that depicts the events leading up to the Battle of Hastings in 1066. Every English school child knows that date. It was the date that the Norman (from Normandy, here in france) William, conquered England and changed the way of life for the Anglo Saxons. We spent the morning in the museum looking at the tapestry and displays, as well as a great movie. We arrived last night and just parked on the street, surprised that there was no bus parking for such a major attraction, this morning we see a huge parking lot, empty, that we just didn't find last night.. The great thing about the out of the way sites we are seeing is that they are still popular enough to attract busloads of people on tours from the cities nearby, and in the winter we always have a place to stay, right at the attraction we are there to see. Right now we are in a shopping center lot, Stef and Shannon are buying food, we will then eat and head for the US Cemetery about 18 miles north of here. It is the only piece of US territory outside of the US and Puerto Rico (except the decks of our carriers) Colin Powel used this fact to great effect when accused by the French of representing the US Empire. He pointed out that despite our efforts, the only territory we kept after the war was the few acres of cemetery.
We saw Pres Obama highlighted in the museum yesterday as the 2009 Nobel Peace prize winner. Just two over from Al Gore who won one in 2007. Nuf said.
I really look forward to some dry warm weather so we can open the windows and dry out. I guess I have little to complain about, we can move south, and are doing so.
We are again Internet challenged, can't find WiFi or a decent service for the I-phone. Easily overcome, just stop at McDonalds or a Starbucks.
Big day, Normandy, Bayeux tapestry
Tapestry, Utah beach, US Cemetery, Coastal Road, Le Cambe
Parked- Utah Beach roadside rest area
Spent the night in the village of Bayeux. It was one of the first villages freed by the Allies, but is famous for the 210 foot long, millennium old, tapestry, that depicts the events leading up to the Battle of Hastings in 1066. Every English school child knows that date. It was the date that the Norman (from Normandy, here in france) William, conquered England and changed the way of life for the Anglo Saxons. We spent the morning in the museum looking at the tapestry and displays, as well as a great movie. We arrived last night and just parked on the street, surprised that there was no bus parking for such a major attraction, this morning we see a huge parking lot, empty, that we just didn't find last night.. The great thing about the out of the way sites we are seeing is that they are still popular enough to attract busloads of people on tours from the cities nearby, and in the winter we always have a place to stay, right at the attraction we are there to see. Right now we are in a shopping center lot, Stef and Shannon are buying food, we will then eat and head for the US Cemetery about 18 miles north of here. It is the only piece of US territory outside of the US and Puerto Rico (except the decks of our carriers) Colin Powel used this fact to great effect when accused by the French of representing the US Empire. He pointed out that despite our efforts, the only territory we kept after the war was the few acres of cemetery.
We saw Pres Obama highlighted in the museum yesterday as the 2009 Nobel Peace prize winner. Just two over from Al Gore who won one in 2007. Nuf said.
I really look forward to some dry warm weather so we can open the windows and dry out. I guess I have little to complain about, we can move south, and are doing so.
We are again Internet challenged, can't find WiFi or a decent service for the I-phone. Easily overcome, just stop at McDonalds or a Starbucks.
Later Same Day, Utah Beach, Normandy, France
Wow, what a visit. A long time past I read in a list of manly virtues that it's OK for a guy to cry during the movie "Saving Private Ryan." If that's the case I think it OK for a guy to sob like a 12 year old girl watching an Anne Frank movie after visiting the American cemetery at Omaha Beach. I came back from the freezing, snow covered cemetery and walk on the beach, sat in the soaking tub emotionally lubricated with "Pommeau du Normandy" hard cider (the famous Cavados is just too harsh), and sobbed in the only private place one can find in an RV, the bath. It wasn't a drunken sob, or a sad sob, it was a grateful sob. Grateful that we come from a society where people so appreciate what they have, that they are willing to fight and die for it. I don't think Americans are special, or better than the rest of the world, we are just lucky enough to have something special that we don't want to lose. Not hyped nationalist words like "the fatherland", or "the motherland" but a realization that we have something good. Sad to say that this appreciation was much greater 70 years ago, when things were not nearly as good. Too few Americans today will say to themselves, " We've got a pretty good thing going here, one we should be grateful for." Gratitude and courage defeated Nazi Germany.
I worked with the Russians when I was the Navy European Liaison in Naples and I know they would think our measly sacrifice not worth a tear, they lost 10 times the men and women we did fighting the Fascists, the difference being that Russian fought out of hatred, fear and threat of reprisal if they surrendered. Our soldiers died because they believed they had a pretty good thing and felt a debt for it.
I recently discovered that my Grandfather, who had fought with the Scottish Fusileers in WWI, then emigrated to the United States, was a conscientious objector in WWII. I'm sure he had his reasons, religion I think, and though I can't judge, my religious faith is not that strong and I was not tested in the trenches of WW!, Though this news was a slight jab to my sense of lineage, I am thankful there was no single gravesite that I had come to visit, I had 9387 family members buried there, and on Dec 6 2010, as I walked through the cemetery that pays tribute to those men, I walked with the pride that I had faithfully served my country for 26 years, and that my daughter walking among those heroes, will serve her country as a Midshipman with the class of 2015. I realize after looking for my ancestral roots in Europe, the real sense of pride comes from what you have done, and what your children do.
I once asked a midshipman why he joined the Navy, and he told he couldn't explain it but when he heard the national anthem it made him shiver. That young man was a poet.
I swear that the emotional response wasn't caused by the fact I took some of the best pictures of my life without a data card in my camera.
Wow, what a visit. A long time past I read in a list of manly virtues that it's OK for a guy to cry during the movie "Saving Private Ryan." If that's the case I think it OK for a guy to sob like a 12 year old girl watching an Anne Frank movie after visiting the American cemetery at Omaha Beach. I came back from the freezing, snow covered cemetery and walk on the beach, sat in the soaking tub emotionally lubricated with "Pommeau du Normandy" hard cider (the famous Cavados is just too harsh), and sobbed in the only private place one can find in an RV, the bath. It wasn't a drunken sob, or a sad sob, it was a grateful sob. Grateful that we come from a society where people so appreciate what they have, that they are willing to fight and die for it. I don't think Americans are special, or better than the rest of the world, we are just lucky enough to have something special that we don't want to lose. Not hyped nationalist words like "the fatherland", or "the motherland" but a realization that we have something good. Sad to say that this appreciation was much greater 70 years ago, when things were not nearly as good. Too few Americans today will say to themselves, " We've got a pretty good thing going here, one we should be grateful for." Gratitude and courage defeated Nazi Germany.
I worked with the Russians when I was the Navy European Liaison in Naples and I know they would think our measly sacrifice not worth a tear, they lost 10 times the men and women we did fighting the Fascists, the difference being that Russian fought out of hatred, fear and threat of reprisal if they surrendered. Our soldiers died because they believed they had a pretty good thing and felt a debt for it.
I recently discovered that my Grandfather, who had fought with the Scottish Fusileers in WWI, then emigrated to the United States, was a conscientious objector in WWII. I'm sure he had his reasons, religion I think, and though I can't judge, my religious faith is not that strong and I was not tested in the trenches of WW!, Though this news was a slight jab to my sense of lineage, I am thankful there was no single gravesite that I had come to visit, I had 9387 family members buried there, and on Dec 6 2010, as I walked through the cemetery that pays tribute to those men, I walked with the pride that I had faithfully served my country for 26 years, and that my daughter walking among those heroes, will serve her country as a Midshipman with the class of 2015. I realize after looking for my ancestral roots in Europe, the real sense of pride comes from what you have done, and what your children do.
I once asked a midshipman why he joined the Navy, and he told he couldn't explain it but when he heard the national anthem it made him shiver. That young man was a poet.
I swear that the emotional response wasn't caused by the fact I took some of the best pictures of my life without a data card in my camera.
7 December
Pearl Harbor Day/Travel to Mt St Michel
Parked- Causeway to Mt St Michel
The weather is lousy, but the parking spots are plentiful. We have set up "residence" for two days on the causeway that connects Mont St Michel to Normandy. I look to my left and see the coast of Brittany, to my right the coast of Normandy, and if I could see through the bookshelf in front of me would be Mont St Michel, rising out of the ocean. We walked through it last night- it could be another new favorite for me. It feels like you are living in the tower city of Gondor (Lord of the Rings) with steps running everywhere to towers, abbeys, and Japanese celebrating Dec 7th in one of the fine restaurants. Last night the workers far outnumbered the patrons, we saw maybe 20 people the entire night, French workers hauling bags and making omelets, and Japanese, celebrating something (maybe just happy to be on holiday)
We are being invaded!
I just turned around and see three landing craft (buses) filled with maybe 200 Japanese, armed with cameras, and we are taking direct hits. They can't see me watching them and they are executing the photo antics that only Japanese can, it wouldn't matter if they did see me, they are in a photo frenzy, let me grab my camera.
Pearl Harbor Day/Travel to Mt St Michel
Parked- Causeway to Mt St Michel
The weather is lousy, but the parking spots are plentiful. We have set up "residence" for two days on the causeway that connects Mont St Michel to Normandy. I look to my left and see the coast of Brittany, to my right the coast of Normandy, and if I could see through the bookshelf in front of me would be Mont St Michel, rising out of the ocean. We walked through it last night- it could be another new favorite for me. It feels like you are living in the tower city of Gondor (Lord of the Rings) with steps running everywhere to towers, abbeys, and Japanese celebrating Dec 7th in one of the fine restaurants. Last night the workers far outnumbered the patrons, we saw maybe 20 people the entire night, French workers hauling bags and making omelets, and Japanese, celebrating something (maybe just happy to be on holiday)
We are being invaded!
I just turned around and see three landing craft (buses) filled with maybe 200 Japanese, armed with cameras, and we are taking direct hits. They can't see me watching them and they are executing the photo antics that only Japanese can, it wouldn't matter if they did see me, they are in a photo frenzy, let me grab my camera.
8 December
Mt St Michel
Parked- Mt St Michel Causeway
Mt St Michel
Parked- Mt St Michel Causeway
9 December
Medeivel Villiage Ansieres, Carafouer
Parked- Alongside the Loire River near Amboise
Medeivel Villiage Ansieres, Carafouer
Parked- Alongside the Loire River near Amboise
10 December 2010
Leonardo House Clos Luc
Parked- Along Loire
Leonardo House Clos Luc
Parked- Along Loire
11 December 2010
Day Off
Parked- Caravan park Amboise
I love days when we settle into a caravan park and charge batteries. Literally and figuratively. I know there is little sympathy for the rigors of travel, but it does feel nice to just stop our weekends, our Sabbath, regardless of the day of the week. I think we have them down to one day in park and 7-9 days on the road. It was the coldest day yet this morning. I need to get a thermometer when we hit the Leroy Merlins next (Europe's Home Depot) so that I can accurately record the temps - get one for the outside, one for the cabin, and another for Charles' room which is consistently the coldest in the RV. The girls sleep next to the boiler so are nice and warm. This morning I had to scrape the frost off the inside of the cab before we got underway. We only had 5 miles to go to get to the camp and had to pour hot water over the water faucet to get the water to flow. We were lower on water than we have ever been, and I still think we could have gone two days. The fire is on, the cabin is warm, we just watched a few episodes of "Planet Earth" and Stef is washing clothes. The washer takes a very long time to wash and to dry, so Stef keeps at it for 24 hours until all is done, then we unplug the washer and plug in the water heater to give the diesel boiler a rest and save fuel. Caravan parks, in winter, are odd places, inhabited by private people. I think during the summers the pools are filled with people wanting to socialize, that come here to meet other vacationers. The winter caravan park attracts travelers that want to remain alone. There is also the people who live in these parks on what seems like a permanent basis. I feel bad for them...behind is a static trailer 8X20 that a father and two daughters live in, and we drive up in our mobile mansion. In Britain you can't live in the parks year round; they have to close down for at least one month a year, so the residents all take a vacation. Everyone got in runs today including me. I actually wanted to check out a gypsy camp we saw along the road driving here. I am fascinated by gypsies, "pikeys" as some call them. We have seen them all over the world, mainly in cities with lots of tourists to rob. They are ethnically the same, descended from some wanderers from India hundreds of years ago. They are the opposite end of the spectrum from the Jews. Both ethnic groups that are very closed and isolated by choice, but where Jews always become part of society and make lots of money, gypsies never integrate, and live off theft for the most part - but nobody is allowed to say that - you can't characterize an ethnic group. I'd never trust a gypsy with my wallet. I saw a gypsy camp while I was biking through England about ten years ago, just a mass of trailers that had moved onto a farmer's field. There was no trace of them in England this last trip; the English have made so many rules that don't let them squat anywhere - that is the reason there are "No Overnight Parking" signs everywhere. It gives the police a reason to move them on. The gypsy camp I ran by today is situated next to the Loire River and is a designated rest stop, obviously a place the French authorities wanted to keep them at. I'll bet the government even has water that runs there. All of the roads down to the river near there have barriers that will only allow a car to pass under; these are built specifically to keep gypsy trailers out. Unlike us, who can pull over onto a small patch off the road, the gypsies travel in large groups and need large fields. I stopped in my run to check out the camp and immediately 4 girls standing by a fire of old pallets began to shout something in French at me. I didn't acknowledge them and they started to get pissed off - not sure what they were saying, but it wasn't nice. I just started to run on. The camp is just a collection of old trailers and vans, with junk everywhere, old washing machines sitting out. I wonder what they will do since there are so few places for them to set up camp that they can't trash an area and move on, which was what they did up in England. It would be a tough existence. They are born into a nomadic lifestyle that is disappearing because it's just getting too hard. I can't imagine being the head of one of those groups, trying to figure out where we can live in the old style; they just aren't raised to live in our society. When we were in Spain two years ago they were everywhere. Now I know why they move from France down to Spain - because it's so cold up here. We'll follow their lead and head south as well. We are still near the small town of Amboise; will leave here tomorrow with full batteries and tanks and take a short drive south to Chenonceau and visit the most famous French chateau. We would spend a bit more time and see more of them here in the Loire Valley, but they are so expensive, nearly $50 for the family. We'll hit the best of them and head south. Plan is to spend the night at Chenonceau and then tackle a long drive south for about 4 hours. Great days, relax today and tomorrow and drive the next on good highway. We'll stop for fuel on the drive south, even though we aren't yet at 1/2 tank, and even when the tank shows empty we still have 60 gallons left. More frequent fill ups is less of a shock to the pocketbook and is our form of dollar cost averaging with fuel. Yesterday we visited Leonardo Da Vinci's house, Chateau Du Clos Luce. He lived there his last 3 years, and died in the house. It is within sight of his patron's palace, the King of France, Francois I. It was a great museum of his ideas and inventions, in addition to his chateau, which is huge. It is interesting that he moved when he was 64 and only brought three paintings with him - one unfinished, which he completed (John the Baptist), St Anne, and the Mona Lisa. The two must have been special to him, certainly became special to everyone else in the world down the ages. HIs one regret he expressed near the time of his death was that he hadn't spend more time with his art - guess his many inventions got in the way of his painting. It was a good day of history and science. Grace gets back and is worried that she didn't spend enough time doing schoolwork! We came back from a walk in town and the river had seemed to rise so we moved up to the top of the embankment (the Loire has a 15 foot or so embankment built up its entire length that the road runs on) In the morning, the spot we had been was completely under water. I think we would have been OK, it didn't rise 18 inches, but it sure would have given us a scare when we woke up and saw we were in a boat. Speaking of boat - I am really glad we didn't go with our original idea and do this year in a boat on the Mediterranean. The weather would have been much better, but we would have seen so little, and provisioning would have been so hard. We stop at a food store every day or so, never going out of our way, and stock up. We have so much more storage space than we need, and we have shut down the freezer, just didn't need any frozen supplies. We never eat out, it is just so expensive. We will get McDonalds, but mainly because they have free Internet. Stef makes awesome meals, the family favorite being spaghetti. We also make stew in the crock pot- can't seem to match Dad's but its still good. We eat lots of rice dishes, chili, stew, canned curry and have sandwiches and soup most days for lunch. When we see pop-tarts we buy the entire stock, the children love them for breakfast. I like oatmeal and coffee because I can make them both in our red ceramic cups on top of the stove, it's great for keeping them hot too.
Day Off
Parked- Caravan park Amboise
I love days when we settle into a caravan park and charge batteries. Literally and figuratively. I know there is little sympathy for the rigors of travel, but it does feel nice to just stop our weekends, our Sabbath, regardless of the day of the week. I think we have them down to one day in park and 7-9 days on the road. It was the coldest day yet this morning. I need to get a thermometer when we hit the Leroy Merlins next (Europe's Home Depot) so that I can accurately record the temps - get one for the outside, one for the cabin, and another for Charles' room which is consistently the coldest in the RV. The girls sleep next to the boiler so are nice and warm. This morning I had to scrape the frost off the inside of the cab before we got underway. We only had 5 miles to go to get to the camp and had to pour hot water over the water faucet to get the water to flow. We were lower on water than we have ever been, and I still think we could have gone two days. The fire is on, the cabin is warm, we just watched a few episodes of "Planet Earth" and Stef is washing clothes. The washer takes a very long time to wash and to dry, so Stef keeps at it for 24 hours until all is done, then we unplug the washer and plug in the water heater to give the diesel boiler a rest and save fuel. Caravan parks, in winter, are odd places, inhabited by private people. I think during the summers the pools are filled with people wanting to socialize, that come here to meet other vacationers. The winter caravan park attracts travelers that want to remain alone. There is also the people who live in these parks on what seems like a permanent basis. I feel bad for them...behind is a static trailer 8X20 that a father and two daughters live in, and we drive up in our mobile mansion. In Britain you can't live in the parks year round; they have to close down for at least one month a year, so the residents all take a vacation. Everyone got in runs today including me. I actually wanted to check out a gypsy camp we saw along the road driving here. I am fascinated by gypsies, "pikeys" as some call them. We have seen them all over the world, mainly in cities with lots of tourists to rob. They are ethnically the same, descended from some wanderers from India hundreds of years ago. They are the opposite end of the spectrum from the Jews. Both ethnic groups that are very closed and isolated by choice, but where Jews always become part of society and make lots of money, gypsies never integrate, and live off theft for the most part - but nobody is allowed to say that - you can't characterize an ethnic group. I'd never trust a gypsy with my wallet. I saw a gypsy camp while I was biking through England about ten years ago, just a mass of trailers that had moved onto a farmer's field. There was no trace of them in England this last trip; the English have made so many rules that don't let them squat anywhere - that is the reason there are "No Overnight Parking" signs everywhere. It gives the police a reason to move them on. The gypsy camp I ran by today is situated next to the Loire River and is a designated rest stop, obviously a place the French authorities wanted to keep them at. I'll bet the government even has water that runs there. All of the roads down to the river near there have barriers that will only allow a car to pass under; these are built specifically to keep gypsy trailers out. Unlike us, who can pull over onto a small patch off the road, the gypsies travel in large groups and need large fields. I stopped in my run to check out the camp and immediately 4 girls standing by a fire of old pallets began to shout something in French at me. I didn't acknowledge them and they started to get pissed off - not sure what they were saying, but it wasn't nice. I just started to run on. The camp is just a collection of old trailers and vans, with junk everywhere, old washing machines sitting out. I wonder what they will do since there are so few places for them to set up camp that they can't trash an area and move on, which was what they did up in England. It would be a tough existence. They are born into a nomadic lifestyle that is disappearing because it's just getting too hard. I can't imagine being the head of one of those groups, trying to figure out where we can live in the old style; they just aren't raised to live in our society. When we were in Spain two years ago they were everywhere. Now I know why they move from France down to Spain - because it's so cold up here. We'll follow their lead and head south as well. We are still near the small town of Amboise; will leave here tomorrow with full batteries and tanks and take a short drive south to Chenonceau and visit the most famous French chateau. We would spend a bit more time and see more of them here in the Loire Valley, but they are so expensive, nearly $50 for the family. We'll hit the best of them and head south. Plan is to spend the night at Chenonceau and then tackle a long drive south for about 4 hours. Great days, relax today and tomorrow and drive the next on good highway. We'll stop for fuel on the drive south, even though we aren't yet at 1/2 tank, and even when the tank shows empty we still have 60 gallons left. More frequent fill ups is less of a shock to the pocketbook and is our form of dollar cost averaging with fuel. Yesterday we visited Leonardo Da Vinci's house, Chateau Du Clos Luce. He lived there his last 3 years, and died in the house. It is within sight of his patron's palace, the King of France, Francois I. It was a great museum of his ideas and inventions, in addition to his chateau, which is huge. It is interesting that he moved when he was 64 and only brought three paintings with him - one unfinished, which he completed (John the Baptist), St Anne, and the Mona Lisa. The two must have been special to him, certainly became special to everyone else in the world down the ages. HIs one regret he expressed near the time of his death was that he hadn't spend more time with his art - guess his many inventions got in the way of his painting. It was a good day of history and science. Grace gets back and is worried that she didn't spend enough time doing schoolwork! We came back from a walk in town and the river had seemed to rise so we moved up to the top of the embankment (the Loire has a 15 foot or so embankment built up its entire length that the road runs on) In the morning, the spot we had been was completely under water. I think we would have been OK, it didn't rise 18 inches, but it sure would have given us a scare when we woke up and saw we were in a boat. Speaking of boat - I am really glad we didn't go with our original idea and do this year in a boat on the Mediterranean. The weather would have been much better, but we would have seen so little, and provisioning would have been so hard. We stop at a food store every day or so, never going out of our way, and stock up. We have so much more storage space than we need, and we have shut down the freezer, just didn't need any frozen supplies. We never eat out, it is just so expensive. We will get McDonalds, but mainly because they have free Internet. Stef makes awesome meals, the family favorite being spaghetti. We also make stew in the crock pot- can't seem to match Dad's but its still good. We eat lots of rice dishes, chili, stew, canned curry and have sandwiches and soup most days for lunch. When we see pop-tarts we buy the entire stock, the children love them for breakfast. I like oatmeal and coffee because I can make them both in our red ceramic cups on top of the stove, it's great for keeping them hot too.
12 December 2010
Day off
Parked- Mall parking lot near McDonalds internet
Day off
Parked- Mall parking lot near McDonalds internet
13 December 2010
Chenonceaux
Parked- Highway rest stop
Chenonceaux
Parked- Highway rest stop
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14 December 2010
Oradour Sur Glen
Parked- Rocamadour, Parking lot next Church of the Black Madonna.
We entered Southern France today, the land of the infamous Vichy Government, sun drenched French Riviera, and snow. Where is global warming when you need it. We had an exceptional day yesterday, visiting a war memorial, and spending the night in another medieval village that I thought was a cave. Our first stop was the village of Oradour-Sur-Glane, a French village that was demolished by the Germans on June 10 1944, and has been left in exactly the same state since. It is the most tragic and senseless of war stories we have heard. 4 days after the Allies invaded Normandy, a division of Germans ordered North to fight the invasion forces, stops for 3 days to senselessly slaughter 664 men women and children with premeditation and freezing cold efficiency. Efficient, but ruthless and not very inaccurate. They got the wrong town. They had been instructed to capture 100 men from a nearby village to exchange for a hostage taken by the French resistance. They not only get the village wrong, but decide to kill everyone. This was no frenzy of killing, they circle the village, round everyone up for "document checks," herd the women and children into the church which they have loaded with incendiary devices, herd the men into barns that had machine guns placed in them, then open up, aiming at the mens legs, immobilizing them, so they can douse them with gasoline and set them on fire. The women and children they then kill by lighting off the explosives set in the church. Amazing brutality. There was only one survivor. There was no reason for it but spite, they should have been heading north to fight. But it gets worst. I now understand better why the French are so confused and disillusioned. In 1953 they brought the murderers to trial, only 21 were alive and outside of the Soviet Union, 14 were Frenchmen from Alsace, that had been annexed into Germany at the start of the war! So you have French citizens on trail for German atrocities, and they gave them all immunity to prosecution! Only the Germans were sentenced. The basis of the uproar in Alsace that lead to the immunity (the area threatened succession if the soldiers were sentenced) had to have been that France abandoned those from Alsace to the Germans, then prosecute when they do what they were "forced" to do. A very weak argument, but France is so ashamed, still, of what they did and didn't do in WWII. A sign as you enter the village says only "Remember" What good is it to remember if you don't do anything about it? The town was oddly demolished, it looked like it had been through a major battle, but it hadn't, the war never hit that area. The Germans remained for two days to burn the bodies and destroy the city. The museum claims this was to deprive the surviving families of a grieving process, but who was left to grieve? I think they said Oh shit, we better get rid of this mess. All that was left was a huge pile of ashes. So we moved on, drove to what I thought was to be the cave system made famous by the book "Clan of the Cave Bears" Rouffignac Cave. I inadvertentlyy navigated us to another tourist site an hour past it, Rocamadour. It is actually a great site, another medieval village (we are experts by now) that is obviously busy during the summer, there is a huge parking lot with a cable car down to the village. The lot is completely empty, and the the village is empty, closed down. Only the sights people come to see, the monastery and palace are open. It is so cool to enter a castle after dark, empty other than two people praying down in the crypt. Turns out we were there just prior to Vespers, where the monks sing. We stayed to watch but the monks never came- as we were leaving at 1815, there was one guy that went rushing by us, it turned out to be the lone monk, and he did vespers with his guitar. Far cry from the benedictine monks at Monte Casino doing there Gregorian Chants. We will explore today and get further south- we just can't seem to get ahead of the freezing weather. The real claim to fame for Rocamadour is the Black Madonna statue that was carved by Saint Amador. I'm surprised that the some French are as pagan as the Italians, will travel on a pilgrimage to pray to a statue that grants miracles. To each his own, I just have a hard time with them claiming to be monotheistic. Enough for now, before I make Connie curse me.
Oradour Sur Glen
Parked- Rocamadour, Parking lot next Church of the Black Madonna.
We entered Southern France today, the land of the infamous Vichy Government, sun drenched French Riviera, and snow. Where is global warming when you need it. We had an exceptional day yesterday, visiting a war memorial, and spending the night in another medieval village that I thought was a cave. Our first stop was the village of Oradour-Sur-Glane, a French village that was demolished by the Germans on June 10 1944, and has been left in exactly the same state since. It is the most tragic and senseless of war stories we have heard. 4 days after the Allies invaded Normandy, a division of Germans ordered North to fight the invasion forces, stops for 3 days to senselessly slaughter 664 men women and children with premeditation and freezing cold efficiency. Efficient, but ruthless and not very inaccurate. They got the wrong town. They had been instructed to capture 100 men from a nearby village to exchange for a hostage taken by the French resistance. They not only get the village wrong, but decide to kill everyone. This was no frenzy of killing, they circle the village, round everyone up for "document checks," herd the women and children into the church which they have loaded with incendiary devices, herd the men into barns that had machine guns placed in them, then open up, aiming at the mens legs, immobilizing them, so they can douse them with gasoline and set them on fire. The women and children they then kill by lighting off the explosives set in the church. Amazing brutality. There was only one survivor. There was no reason for it but spite, they should have been heading north to fight. But it gets worst. I now understand better why the French are so confused and disillusioned. In 1953 they brought the murderers to trial, only 21 were alive and outside of the Soviet Union, 14 were Frenchmen from Alsace, that had been annexed into Germany at the start of the war! So you have French citizens on trail for German atrocities, and they gave them all immunity to prosecution! Only the Germans were sentenced. The basis of the uproar in Alsace that lead to the immunity (the area threatened succession if the soldiers were sentenced) had to have been that France abandoned those from Alsace to the Germans, then prosecute when they do what they were "forced" to do. A very weak argument, but France is so ashamed, still, of what they did and didn't do in WWII. A sign as you enter the village says only "Remember" What good is it to remember if you don't do anything about it? The town was oddly demolished, it looked like it had been through a major battle, but it hadn't, the war never hit that area. The Germans remained for two days to burn the bodies and destroy the city. The museum claims this was to deprive the surviving families of a grieving process, but who was left to grieve? I think they said Oh shit, we better get rid of this mess. All that was left was a huge pile of ashes. So we moved on, drove to what I thought was to be the cave system made famous by the book "Clan of the Cave Bears" Rouffignac Cave. I inadvertentlyy navigated us to another tourist site an hour past it, Rocamadour. It is actually a great site, another medieval village (we are experts by now) that is obviously busy during the summer, there is a huge parking lot with a cable car down to the village. The lot is completely empty, and the the village is empty, closed down. Only the sights people come to see, the monastery and palace are open. It is so cool to enter a castle after dark, empty other than two people praying down in the crypt. Turns out we were there just prior to Vespers, where the monks sing. We stayed to watch but the monks never came- as we were leaving at 1815, there was one guy that went rushing by us, it turned out to be the lone monk, and he did vespers with his guitar. Far cry from the benedictine monks at Monte Casino doing there Gregorian Chants. We will explore today and get further south- we just can't seem to get ahead of the freezing weather. The real claim to fame for Rocamadour is the Black Madonna statue that was carved by Saint Amador. I'm surprised that the some French are as pagan as the Italians, will travel on a pilgrimage to pray to a statue that grants miracles. To each his own, I just have a hard time with them claiming to be monotheistic. Enough for now, before I make Connie curse me.
15 December 2010
Rocamadour, France
Parked Rest stop 18KM north of Toulouse
Rocamadour, France
Parked Rest stop 18KM north of Toulouse
16 December 2010
Carcassone/ Accident in Toulouse
Parked- Rest area near Nime
Carcassone/ Accident in Toulouse
Parked- Rest area near Nime
Interesting day. Started out about 18 miles north of Toulouse France, where we spent the night in a rest area. French rest areas are just like caravan parks but without water and electricity, they even have waste dumps. The day started out on the wrong foot with snow flurries, we were in Southern France and the snow followed us south. Toulouse wasn't part of our plan, but as we were passing through, we decided to stop at a museum they have, so we started out early, well before dark, so we wouldn't have traffic to contend with. All was well until the GPS Nav system had us turn left onto a one way street, new lesson, never turn onto a one way. We followed the direction as the road turned into alley , hoping that we would flow out to a main road. But we didn't. We were stuck, came to a spot where we couldn't make any of the turns ahead, and with little hope of backing out. It was horrible. Finally the police arrived and were very helpful, they somehow got the traffic behind us cleared and I was able to back out far enough to make a turn off the street we were stuck on. The police had asked Stef where we were going and they offered to give us an escort, one car in front, one behind. Unfortunately the route they had to take was still very tight and while making the last turn onto a straight road leading to a 4 lanes of freedom, we clipped a van that was parked on the street. I didn't even feel it. The van owner, still being very nice, tried to convey to the American that he had hit his car, with the American at first having no idea what he was talking about, and then denying any fault for the damage. The policeman in the trailing car ended the discussion by letting all know he had seen the RV hit the van, and then showing us the scrapes on the rear quarter of the RV. Guilty. The only good that can out of it is the knowledge that in a matchup between the RV and a car, The RV will literally crush the opposition. There are black smears that were the van mirror and bumper, but no damage. We'll sand it down and paint it in Naples- need to add that to the task list. All that remained was the hour of filling out forms and passing insurance date prior to heading for the Walled city of Carcassone, which was amazing. After we left Carcassone we passed into the Provence area and saw signs for beach, sun and swimming, just as the sun came out for the first time today. I am hoping that is a good omen, our cold weather to be passed. Two hours of misery and we come away with the lesson that the French are great, everyone was surprisingly helpful to the dumb Americans that blundered down city streets in a behemoth. Carcassone is an amazing, complete ancient city that is the source of great stories. In the 11th century it was a stronghold for the Cathars, a christian sect that wanted to break away from the Catholic church. This entire area is dotted with ruined castles that used to belong to Cathars. But for some reason I'm not sure they decided to assassinate one of the Popes boys, and the result was a crusade that wiped them off the face of the earth. Convert or die.
17 December 2010
Nime
TTemple of Diana, Arena, Maison Carree, Jardin de la Fountain
Parked- Rest Area
Nime
TTemple of Diana, Arena, Maison Carree, Jardin de la Fountain
Parked- Rest Area
We visited the city of Niem today, famous as the birthplace of Denim (pants de Neim) It has some of the best Roman remains in the world and we had a good walking tour. I took the first break in the cold weather to do some resin work while Stef and Shannon shopped for food. We park miles from town now and walk, after our Toulouse event. We can always find a McDonalds or someplace with a large parking lot to stay in. I also needed to find an Internet cafe so I could send the accident report to the insurance guys in Germany. It will be so nice to have internet and phone once again when we get back to Naples. We are in a rest stop, with the water tanks full and the crapper empty. The sun is getting better and with all of our driving we are doing pretty good on batteries as well. Life is good at 59 degrees!
18 December 2010
Pont Du Gard
Pont Du Gard
19 December 2010
Avignon France
Parked- Large lot used by circus across the bridge
Avignon France
Parked- Large lot used by circus across the bridge
Two days until our 25th anniversary. I can't forget! We sit in an RV parking lot just across the bridge from Avignon France, well away from the tiny streets waiting to lure us into their trap. We are parked next to a huge lot that a carnival is setting up in. It is fascinating to have a front seat in a theater that shows a carnival setting up. I walked around a bit, they accept me as one of their own as they love Shachagra. They have one RV that makes Shachagra look tiny, but it is a truck with a trailer, very expensive I'm sure.
We visited the Pope's palace....
How you ask, did we visit the Popes palace while not in Rome? Avignon was the seat of the Roman Catholic world starting in the 1309-1377. After that they moved back to Rome and a Schism started when Avignon appointed a Pope to challenge the Pope newly moved to Rome. Amazing that there would be that much confusion over who is the infallible representative of G-d on earth, what if they got it wrong? regardless, they had a neat palace and fortification built. The Popes from Avignon following the split have been called the "Anti-Popes" since then.
I have started planning Shachagra build, phase II for when we get back. I need to pull the systems in place, finish the compartments in fiberglass and put it all back together in a more professional looking way. Its not just looks, I have found that water will get everywhere, you need to plan on it, so even though the body is marine grade wood, I need to resin all the wood surfaces so that they shed water (and look good) It will be nice to work on it in a leisurely manner. She may be the "Pont du Gard" of RVs, great design that warrants the maintenance work. Frank Loyd Wrights house in Pennsylvania, Falling Water would have been torn down Falling-water needed to be completely rebuilt once it was shown the design was great.
Departing Avignon today, reluctantly. This was the nicest place to stay, there was free parking for RVs with a shuttle bus into the city. We were entertained by the circus- they are setting up camp just to take a holiday break and had a holiday party till 0200 last night.
We visited the Pope's palace....
How you ask, did we visit the Popes palace while not in Rome? Avignon was the seat of the Roman Catholic world starting in the 1309-1377. After that they moved back to Rome and a Schism started when Avignon appointed a Pope to challenge the Pope newly moved to Rome. Amazing that there would be that much confusion over who is the infallible representative of G-d on earth, what if they got it wrong? regardless, they had a neat palace and fortification built. The Popes from Avignon following the split have been called the "Anti-Popes" since then.
I have started planning Shachagra build, phase II for when we get back. I need to pull the systems in place, finish the compartments in fiberglass and put it all back together in a more professional looking way. Its not just looks, I have found that water will get everywhere, you need to plan on it, so even though the body is marine grade wood, I need to resin all the wood surfaces so that they shed water (and look good) It will be nice to work on it in a leisurely manner. She may be the "Pont du Gard" of RVs, great design that warrants the maintenance work. Frank Loyd Wrights house in Pennsylvania, Falling Water would have been torn down Falling-water needed to be completely rebuilt once it was shown the design was great.
Departing Avignon today, reluctantly. This was the nicest place to stay, there was free parking for RVs with a shuttle bus into the city. We were entertained by the circus- they are setting up camp just to take a holiday break and had a holiday party till 0200 last night.
20 December 2010
Avignon
John Stewart Mills Gravesite, Petite Palace
Parked- Same lot
Avignon
John Stewart Mills Gravesite, Petite Palace
Parked- Same lot
21 December 2010
Les Baux Di Provence/ 25th Anniversary/ Robbery
Parked- Rest area just prior to Aix un Provence
Les Baux Di Provence/ 25th Anniversary/ Robbery
Parked- Rest area just prior to Aix un Provence
22 December 2010
Aix un Provence
Parked- Rest stop with a view of Monaco below
Aix un Provence
Parked- Rest stop with a view of Monaco below
23 December 2010
Last day in France, Enter Italy
Rest stop near Genoa
Last day in France, Enter Italy
Rest stop near Genoa