From Caen we started down the Normandy Coast. The more northerly half of the Normandy beaches during the landing in the second WW was the responsibility of the British and the Canadians. We stopped at the Canadian Memorial (of course) which was created from money from the families of soldiers who died in this war. It was informative and manned by Canadian University students who apply to take this on for four months. The most amazing part of this stop was to see the artificial harbor that the allies dreamed up and actually created! It consisted of the placement of a string of cement barges out into the ocean off the beach. Between each barge a metal span was placed, which in the end created a road right on to the beach for the transportation of men, supplies and tanks. And it worked without the enemy knowing what was happening right under their noses. Maybe it was all that fog along the coast that helped make this happen. It is unimaginable to me that this plan succeeded.
Coutances. This small town was recommended by Doris Holdaway. We pulled into the town square at dark. There we stayed with the cathedral on one side and the town hall on the other. In the morning we walked to the city gardens. It is early spring so we did not see everything in full bloom but camelias, heather, daffodils, wild cherry and primroses were out. There were some excellent sculptures also. A really worthwhile stop.
Saturday, we made our way to the magical Mont Saint Michel. Parking lots abound. It was disappointing at first. We wanted the magic and sacredness we had in our imaginations. So we pulled our campervan up beside about 20 others. At dark, the fortress/abbey is lit up from the base to the tip of it's tallest spire. Stunning! And dusky beaches and sea all around. Quite beautiful. However, it would not have looked like that in Medieval times. No amount of lanterns and candles could have made all that light. The next morning, as soon as we entered the walled village we forgot entirely, that we had been disappointed. The narrow cobblestone streets wound uphill between shops...bakeries, butcher shops, wine cellars as well as all the souvenir stores and restaurants. Past the church where mass was to be held at 11:00. We were early birds and would miss this. There are now only 5 monks and 7 nuns at the abbey. Up and up we walked, stairs, pathways, archways...through stone rooms with high ceilings. ..meditation rooms, calligraphy work rooms, mess halls, cloisters with manicured gardens., rooms for meeting royalty and important people and rooms for administering to the poor. And the size of the fireplaces...sometimes three or four in a room. Stone rooms are cold. And always the views of the sand and sea. Back in the village we stopped in a small cafe for a baguette sandwich and a chat with a tour guide. His basic languages being French and Celtic. But he spoke many other languages also. We do feel so embarrassed at speaking only English.
On the way to see our Servas host we stopped at a Brittany sandy beach to watch sail-carts whip around a course. We headed for Breteil where Yves and Agnes (Onyes) live just outside in the country. We were welcomed with a lot of enthusiasm. The family is completed by two pretty daughters, Cecile (17) and Sophie (12). I can here Sophie practicing her flute as I write. Her mom plays the saxophone in a performing group, jazz, folk, classical. She is a German teacher. (She also has a clever and dry sense of humor!) Yves, her husband, is also a teacher in the nearby city of Rennes He is also very involved in editing and publishing the French Servas Magazine twice a year. Their original 1840 home is made of mud walls, a tradition in this basin as there are no stones but plenty of Brittany mud! So the people in this region used what was available. The stones for the first layer of the walls were imported. They provided stability for the mud. A wood frame was built into which the prepared mud was poured. The width of the walls is very thick...thick enough for a horse to stomp back and forth on the first layer of mud to pack it down well. After that layer has dried, they build another frame for the next layer on top. Each layer is about a yard thick, allowing each layer to dry before they continue. The next layers of mud are now stomped down by people. Yves took us for a walk to see a really good example of this....the walk was in the wind and the rain and through the mud! The windows are set in these thick walls with deep sills on the inside. Really cozy. We were served local French home cooked meals. Yves told us that it would be a simple meal. Hmmmm. Scallops in season, mussels and carrots in a cream sauce...and of course good bread. And a simple salad of endives. One evening we had galettes, a black flour of Brittany made into flat lacey crepes. Agnes filled them with ham,egg and cheese. Very good. We have bought some to give it a try in our van. And Sophie made us brownies from scratch. Every evening we started with apperitifs and wine. After salad, the main course, then a variety of Brittany cheeses with bread...and then...a bowl of oranges and walnuts to crack and eat from their walnut trees. Coffee. I think we are in France!
Their home is an exhibition of their travels and daily activities. Photos, pottery, books, paintings and Dali and HundredWaters prints....dolls, masks, puppets...bright blankets and tablecloths...and good CDs. There is a sailboat in their front yard which has sailed the Norwegian waters.
On Monday I spent most of the day on the computer (Yves computer with a keyboard that was different than ours!). David sat at the table mapping out ideas and routes for the next leg of our journey. In the evening we met Yves in Rennes for a tour of the old town. He loves this town and knows its winding and hidden streets and keeps a dialog of it's history going. A row of well used bars/taverns. The inside of a medieval jail. The old gate entry and city walls. The best examples of tall 3 floor wood framed homes leaning into each other. An old Roman church basilica. It was a treat to be on this private walk through history. Yves tells us that Bretons do not think of themselves as French. Actually he does not think that we have to go anywhere else other than Brittany! But Tuesday morning we took our leave along with them. The family was heading off to their work and the school bus. It was a hard goodbye.
Next stop in Vannes, a large coastal city. We walked the old city here, too. Nice Breton/English Tudor style buildings, again leaning and sagging this way and that. Lots of shops but they are tourist places...too cutsy for the likes of us....but we did find a deli with sausage, cheese, vegetables and fruits, savory pastries. So we bought our dinner and headed back to the van. Really, small shops and markets are the only way to buy food. Not only is it fun, but the quality is so high. On to Roden. A really nice small town. We parked by one of it's many inland canals for the night. Because of it's man-made network of canals it is a port far up a river. Washday. We shlepped our laundry each holding the handle of a very large bag to a laundromat. The experience was actually fun, interacting with the owner and employee. Early evening, we found standing stones of druid times. We parked, hiked up a hill and over the top the stones were in the fog in the near distance. I had searched out similar stones in Britain in 1982 and was surprised to find them here...but of course, why not! Still a mystery. Standing with those stones is like moving into a different time. In another small town on the river we walked a park that was filled with large scultpures. The end of that evening found us in the city of Nantes.
We are now entering the Loire river valley. Chateaux/castles and wine. We traveled one small village after another. The same old charm but every village different. In front of one school the children had planted flowers to make a pattern in different squares, rectangles etc. And added pottery shards or slate shards in some of the sections. A lovely touch in the early spring. Done with the flair the French people have.
I have been using my camera a lot. My hunt is always for the old surfaces of walls, doors, streets. It has taken the place of picking up stones to paint. I am very excited about painting these. David takes the beautiful balance. Yummy photos that will look good to show all of you.
And then...we are in Angers with a new host friend, Merielle. As it turns out she is a friend of Yves as they both have positions in the French Servas. Merielle is the secretary. How cute is she! And full of thoughtfulness and laughter. She is a traveler and has filled her home with reminders. She does not miss a thing that might be helpful to us. She makes us meals. She gives us suggestions for travel. She introduces us to fabulous French singers then burns CDs for us! She makes way for me to work on the laptop. And she is full of interesting stories. On Friday she takes us into town on the bus (no. 12) and walks us through the most interesting places...shopping streets, wide squares, Contro makers building, small art exhibit, the city chateau, views of the river Maine and stairs and a bridge to cross it to a fabulous tapestry and fabric arts exhibitions where she left us to spend a few hours to enjoy it...making sure we knew our way home. The first display was permanent, showing the tapestry works of Jean-Lurcat. Le Chant du Monde...Song of the World. Started in 1957, it took 10 years to complete. It fills the walls of a huge room from top to bottom. The weaving seems impossible to portray such scenes. How do you paint with little threads on a loom? The theme is about the atrocities of War and then hope. The next building had some amazing pieces of weaving by three women. And some small pieces by women from all over the world. We are seeing such variety in art almost every day. The next day we went back into town to the Saturday market. We were cooking dinner for Mirielle and her daughter's family who came to meet us from another town. How fun it was to shop for dinner for eight. Finding the right vegetables, salmon and freshly made pasta, cheese and of course baguettes. And a little pastry snack for us! Then we went off to the castle. Half the fun is putting yourself into another age as if you lived there. We made it back “home” in time to start dinner before the family arrived. Wow what a great family. Sophie was brought up in the Servas tradition and has passed it along to her family...husband Oliver, and their three children. Camille, Max and Antoine. (I know that I do not have these French names spelled correctly!) The fun we had with all these dear people. They stayed the night and we all left after breakfast of croissants and homemade jams. Merielle sent us off with stew, cherry pastries, jam and our CDs. What a lady. And now we have another great friend in our lives.
You all must join Servas! As you can see, these contacts are making our trip so much more meaningful. The premise is...If you get to know people all over the world you will come to understand that we are all the same...that really, there is nothing to argue or war about. Since about 1985 David and I have hosted people from Switzerland, Germany, Britain, Australia and various places from the US. Some of these people we have welcomed two and three times in our home. Once you have joined you receive lists of members where you are planning a trip and you call or email and ask if the host is free to welcome you. Good food, good conversation, good bed...and new friends. It really is quite remarkable.
Since leaving Merielle yesterday morning we have been continuing our journey along the Loire River. We visited Chateau de Breze. Besides the rooms that the owners lived in we went into the jail/dungeon and into the bowels of the earth where the working village people who supported the castle lived. Some folks actually lived in rooms that were carved out of the stone with a few air vents coming in from above. We wound down staircases and lanes to the road that ringed the main buildings...the road being very deeply dug out. This was in place of a mote filled with water. There were underground stables, silk-worm farm, ice house, bakery, wine presses, barrel room and wine cellars. These chateaux were built by rich people of the time. They welcomed Kings and other important people. The valley was the place to live, to be seen and to show off. There are places like that now but circumstances were different then. They needed to be fortresses also. And the building material was different. I would think everyone was cold all the time! No wonder all the tights and layers of dresses. Stone cold!
Next stop. Fontevraud Abbey. This time the home of nuns and kings. A monastic city. Buried there are King Henry II, his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine and their son, Richard the Lion Hearted! Eleanor is the most interesting. She was a woman of power and culture...audacity and strength. And last night we found a lovely place to park by the fast moving wide river. Bateaux (boats) lined the shore “helter skelter”, long thin black boats some with sails, most with oars. A grassy trail led along the river for a long ways. This place was quiet, beautiful and all ours. When the morning sunshine came we watched two men row by in perfect rhythm...and two bicyclists race up the grass path. A fluffy cat came by for a session of petting. So a slow start this morning but we did manage another Chateau. This one was really just a beautiful large home...just enough furniture, paintings and wall hangings to get the right feel across. My favorite was the morning room.... happy colors, table set for tea...another for cards....and huge logs in the fireplace. The buildings are entirely surrounded by water and gardens. Also today, we drove to a wonderful panorama view of the country where the Loire and the Vienne rivers meet. All soft and beautiful and watery....but in the distance is a huge nuclear plant spouting billowing steam over the land. Tonight we are camped by the road near Villandry...another chateau. David and I are surprised that we are interested in these medieval movie star houses...but the architecture and decoration are smashing!
This morning, it is Tuesday March 13th...Happy Birthday Gerry and Sheldon (Harry, if you see this will you send this on to Sheldon and send me his email address. Thanks!) We spent the morning in the Chateau Villandry. The gardens took us at leasst an hour. Organic and laid out as a French garden...geometric, flowers, shrubs, vegetables and an herb garden. Play area inside a hedge square. A grassy field hidden behind rows of trees. A long pool flowing into the other water areas where one beautiful swan added her beauty. Gardens on three different levels. Many, many gardeners and others working on tile floors and walls etc. Inside the Chateau such care had been taken to make us feel that we were in the 18th century. A gas fire going in the drawing room, each room had furniture and paintings and photos of the family. Rugs and tapestries. Nursury, child's rooms, adult rooms and fresh flower displays. A truly lovely experience...and the birds sing and the sun shines. And as we said goodbye to a Frenchman, he said, “Be kind, be good and be careful.”
Some thoughts and observations:
> There are round balls of mistletoe in all the leafless spring trees. Quite a sight. And did I tell you that many trees have been planted in multiple rows with lots of space between...often used in squares and parks almost as sculptures....and maybe for wood lots but they don't seem to get cut. It is almost a game to check these rows on the straight and diagonal lines as we drive. They are tall and regal groves.
> We have our routines established now and continue to refine them. It is so helpful. Keep it simple.
> We finally decided on a coffee maker. Bought an espresso maker. Makes great coffee and is the easiest to clean.
> We have come across some double roundabouts which are mind boggling. Once we found ourselves stopped in the middle with a few cars facing us (coming at us?) from different directions. We haven' figured that one out yet.
> There are mostly newer small cars on the road and more choice to buy from.
> Eric, there is Scotch Broom here and lots of ivy growing up the trees....and the trees are all pruned to the nubbins.
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