Fete de la Musique

Paris is NORTH of Minneapolis and therefore has very long days. It stays light in the summer until well after 10:00 pm, which makes for very long evenings. Maybe that's why they eat dinner so late here, and discos and dancing do not start until nearly (or after) midnight!

After the past few years of rainy weather on the First Day of Summer, the solstice, Paris was ready to celebrate the promised clear evening. Bands and singers were on the street corners, in front of museums, in churches and bars in all of the arrondisements. We decided to seek out these bands in the St. Germain des Pres neighborhood, as our quiet one in the 7th only had a few scheduled. After cleaning up after the bike-ride, I persuaded Lyle to take the short metro ride because my legs were ready to drop off.

The streets were crowded with people (the paper the next day said around 350,000), cars, bikes, and music of all sorts -jazz, rock, classical, oldies (American songs in English by a German band), and even a Christian group in front of the old St. Germain church. We found a table in a cafe and enjoyed a late dinner, some wine, the people-

watching, and the music.

It was fun to see Paris so lively and having a good time. As the crowds thinned, we listened to the music on our walk home. Needless to say, our bodies were crying "enough!" as we looked at the clock that said nearly 2 a.m! Who says being "50-plus" is boring?

Trying out the "Velib"

Summer has arrived in Paris and we have been enjoying warm, sunny days and, happily, cool nights. This is the Paris weather that the tourists (and "moi") love. Last Saturday, we had to take advantage of it, and decided to go bike-riding. We had endured 4 days of sirens from the ambulance strke on the street below, another strike by health workers a few days later, and a fire in the Health Department building across the street (just smoke, didn't see much damage). We looked forward to spending a day away from the excitement a city sometimes offers.

Last summer, Lyle and I did a LOT of biking all around the twin cities back in Minnesota. There are wonderful bike trails all around the lakes, rivers, and into small towns and I know I logged in over 100 miles. But, I am pretty choosy about bike rides - they need to be relatively flat with just small hills, and they need to be scenic without a lot of traffic.

Well, Paris is relatively flat, but I am still not ready to tackle riding in the craziness of traffic here. I know, people do it all the time, but I get stressed riding in a car in the round-abouts, let alone navigate a bike! So, we opted for renting two of the thousands of rental "Velib" bikes stationed all over Paris and joined our friends Stephen and Frances at the southern edge of Paris. They told us about a great bike trail that leads out of Paris and goes through a number of small towns, all through beautiful parkland. Sounded like just the ticket.

Our first challenge was to translate the directions at the bike station, putting 150 euros EACH on our credit card, as a deposit. We succeeded in unlocking the bikes and we were off.....




I thought I was in shape, having lost a few pounds, walk daily, and work out (sometimes) with my ball and weights. Well, these bikes had three speeds, and I was panting and sweating as we hit a few hills on the trail. I couldn't understand why it was so hard......until Lyle told me my seat was way too low. After fixing that, it DID get easier, although I have a ways to go to match Frances, who bikes and works out every day! (She is also a dancer and in great shape!)

We biked about 10 kilometers south, arrived at Sceaux, and walked our bikes right through the center of town.
They told us about a chateau south of the town and that sounded like a great destination (another chateux???? Haven't we seen enough to last us through the summer?)

We weren't disappointed! We arrived to a beautiful public park with gardens, canals, waterfalls, and a rebuilt chateau that houses a free museum.


I learned that this chateau is not the original. The earlier one was a spectacular masterpiece built in the 1600's by Jean Baptiste Colbert, a finance minister of King Louis XIV. Gardens were designed by the famous Andre LeNotre, who designed gardens at Versailles and at chateaux throughout the Loire Valley. The king's son took it over in 1700 and it was made into quite the showplace and party-place.....


......but during the French Revolution, it was confiscated, looted, and then destroyed in 1803. It wasn't until the 1850's that it was rebuilt, only on a much smaller scale, although the land around it seems to go on forever. In 1937, it was turned into a public park. What a wonderful place to visit to get out of the city, with it's beautiful trees, cascading waterfalls, and "grand canal". This is definitely a place to head for a relaxing day out of the city! I just have to figure out how to get there besides on a bike!

We headed home, riding to the end of the trail back in Paris, dropped off our bikes at a different bike station.....and hopefully received our "deposit" back on our credit card. Hot, sweaty, and a little worn out (an understatement?)we found the metro station to go home and clean up so that we could enjoy the "longest day" of the year. This is a big deal in Paris (and throughout Europe) and we didn't want to miss the "Fete de Musicale" and the 1,000 bands all over Paris.

Is this Wisconsin or San Diego?

The shores of Normandy reminded us so much of San Diego or even Oregon, with the cliffs going down into the sea. We looked north to see if we could get a glimpse of England, and realized how close we were (we couldn't, obviously). I viewed the famous "Bayeax Tapestry" in a museum, which is 230 feet long, telling the story of William the Conqueror's invasion of England. Lyle visited a church instead, but I know he would have liked it......maybe another time!

We drove through the Normandy countryside with its rolling hills, cows, and wheat fields, reminding us now of Wisconsin. Is this why the Vikings came here back in the 9th century? Normandy is known for their cheese and apple orchards and have a "hard" cider called Calvado, which is sold everywhere.

"Now, WHERE are we staying?", says my hesitant husband. Not another chateau......

"It's a mill. It was built in the 17th century", I replied.

And we arrived to this........

Yeah, it was an actual mill that the owner had taken three years to completely renovate. Inside the entry were still the gears from the grindstone....

It was such a peaceful setting, complete with streams, bridges, horses, cows, and flowers everywhere. We looked at her albums at the work she did to make this one of the nicest places we have stayed in.......and one that we would love to return to. This is just a few hours north of Paris and would be a great destination for to bring visitors. She decorated it with beautiful pieces from all over the world.....it was truly a gem. Even Lyle admitted it beat the Marriot.

It was hard to leave Sunday morning, but we discovered that we were a few hours away from one of the top tourist destinations in Europe westward on the Atlantic Ocean between Normandy and Brittany......Mont-St-Michel.

"Shrouded in mist and encircled by the sea" as my travel book put it.......

.....the clouds parted and we drove across the causeway of the receeding tide to walk to the top of this Benedictine monastery founded in 966 A.D. and added to in the 12th and 13th centuries. It was also built and used for defense, using the tides that surround it to keep enemies at bay. It also served as a prison after the Revolution. There are medieval houses, now turned into restaurants and stores, that we walked past, and then climbed the MANY steps up to the top of the abbey, where Benedictine monks still live.

The "dining hall"

I guess they needed BIG fireplaces to heat this place!

View from the TOP!

Another walk through time........and then we realized we had a four-hour drive ahead of us to get back to 21st century Paris.

Normandy D-Day beaches

Normandy and the D-Day beaches have been a destination goal of ours since we arrived in France. Last weekend, we rented a car and drove the two hours north of Paris to arrive in Bayeux in time for our afternoon tour. Our young French guide picked us up in her van and we climbed into the front seat, joining six other Americans ready to remember that somber day. The weather was appropriate.....cloudy, cool, and a few raindrops. It fit.

Our first stop was the Point du Hoc, nestled between Omaha and Utah beaches. We walked among the craters created by the bombs, and saw the remnants of that day.... June 6, 1944, when around 156,000 Allied troops came ashore to liberate France from the German occupation. Bunkers were still visible and it all became more real to understand how over 2,500 Allied soldiers died that day. Visions of "Saving Private Ryan" and "The Longest Day" went through our minds, as well as World War II documentaries....

Our next stop was Omaha Beach where the biggest battle took place with the most casualties. We could see bunkers still in the cliffs surrounding the beach. Our guide also told us that the French civilians were casualties too....nearly 20,000 died as a result of the bombings. As we drove through the small villages, she pointed out where buildings had been rebuilt.

We stopped at a museum, watched a short movie there, and visited both the German and American cemeteries. The numbers were hard to comprehend. By the end of the Normandy battles that lasted through the summer, there were over 425,000 casualties, either killed, wounded or missing. To see the rows and rows of crosses and Star of Davids gave us a glimpse of the numbers......The American cemetery has nearly 10,000 markers, all of them facing towards the United States. Yet, it is in a beautiful setting and it is operated by the American government on land overlooking the sea, given to them by France.

The afternoon ended in beautiful sunshine and we looked forward to turning our minds to something more pleasant.... staying in a 17th century mill in the Normandy countryside. Do we ever stay somewhere "normal"? More on that in the next post.....

Those crazy sirens

We live across the street from the Ministre de Sante (Department of Health).....and therefore we have seen our share of strikes from all sorts of medical workers, including doctors and nurses. They occur at least once or twice a month, like this first one I witnessed in March from the physical therapists. They are usually relatively quiet and peaceful. Until today....



We had returned last night from a weekend trip to Normandy. We both wanted to see the D-Day beaches, as well as to take a small break from all of the noises that a big city like Paris can give you.....like sirens going off all day long. (But more on that in the next blog). What we noticed in the country was the QUIETNESS......no sirens! Can you remember the sound of the European sirens from the movies? Well, we hear them countless times a day here and we so enjoyed getting away from them for awhile.


What did we wake up to this morning back here in Paris? At about 6:45 A.M. , sirens were going off everywhere. After incorporating them in my dream for awhile, we both figured out that this is not a dream....but occurring right on the street below us. It was another strike (or "manifestation" as they call them), this time by the ambulance drivers. This group has a weapon....their sirens! So, they have been lined up on our street and around the block and turn on their sirens every hour for about 5 minutes! Then they shoot off firecrackers! This has been going on ALL DAY! My French tutor told me that they are not just from Paris but from a lot of other towns....there must be 100 of them, along with media and police. Life gets pretty exciting in the 7th arrondisement sometimes! I am including a few pictures, but to get the full effect of the cacophony of sound that is not easy to describe, I shot a sound video of it and will try and attempt to download it.



Of course Lyle asked me how to say "Get back to work" in French so he could yell it out the window. I told him "Non, je ne sais pas! Vive le France!" I don't think he buys it.

Still crazy after all those years.....

I have always enjoyed the opportunity to make new friends, and I have had that in the last few years with meeting Lyle's family and friends, new ones from a new church, and now beginning to meet more here in Paris. But, there are a number of friends I have kept in contact with from even childhood. One of them is Jan.

We met in seventh grade, sitting in the same homeroom and discoved that our parents grew up near each other north of the "cities". We shared so many fun times during those crazy junior high days and became very close. Years passed, and miles between us tugged at the bonds we had created, but they have never broken. Even though we only see each other once in awhile, we seem to pick up where we left off.

Jan and her family have lived the adventurous life.....missionaries to Eastern Europe and lived in Germany and the Czech Republic. She met my boys and me in 1992 in London and showed me all around that city, plus Germany, Austria, and Prague. It ignited a travel bug in me and my sons that hasn't left. Now she works for the airlines, which affords her the opportunity to still travel, and for her husband to continue doing mission work in faraway places (like China and Russia).

Well, Jan came to Paris from the states last Sunday to pick up her daughter Bethany, who is a teacher in a mission school in Germany. Although they had been to Paris before, they probably weren't prepared for my walking tours.....

On Monday, we stopped at the neighborhood boulangerie and picked up some croissants and headed for our first stop.....the Eiffel tower......

....continued our walk across the Seine and up to the Champ-Elysses where we saw the Arc de Triomphe at the top of the hill. Passing all of the tourists up on that famous promenade, we reached the bottom of the hill at the Concorde Plaza (I told them that is where the famous guillotine was)....

.....took the Metro up to Montmarte, high on the hill overlooking Paris (reminds me of San Francisco). We enjoyed a quick lunch at a small outdoor cafe and then visited the beautiful church, Sacre Coeur, and took in a breathtaking view.......




.......and after walking up and down some winding, hilly streets and steps, we finally came to the little square full of artists asking willing to sell us their landscapes, portraits, and even serenade us with an accordian.

And that was just Monday. With tired feet and sunburned necks (yes, it was a gorgeous SUNNY day in the 80's!), we laid out our plans for Tuesday.

There are many "professional" walking tours around Paris and we began with one on Tuesday to tour the Marais district, a neighborhood that I had not seen yet. This is on the right bank of the Seine (north side), a little further east from where he had been the day before. It is where Paris in the Middle Ages came to be, spilling out from the center islands in the Seine. Naturally, it is full of history, some of it very colorful, as our guide related story after story on the two-hour tour. We saw some of the oldest "half-timbered" houses in Paris, most of them now covered in plaster. One of the kings, can't remember which, ordered these homes to be covered with plaster to prevent a fire hazard. Remember "Plaster of Paris"???? A few still stand.........


.....and part of the old wall around Paris also still stands, with a school built right around it!




We ended the tour on Paris' oldest square, Place des Vosges, where we discovered Victor Hugo's apartment, and we HAD to take a look inside. After a baguette lunch to rest our weary legs, we headed along the river for a view of Notre Dame, and then walked to my favorite park, Luxembourg Gardens. By then, we gave up the idea of walking home. We found a bus!

We were blessed with two gloriously-rare, warm, sunny days and we took advantage of them. My dear friends left the next morning for a well-needed sit-down journey back to the states. When we get more visitors, I think I need to taper the walking down a little?

Switzerland - Part 3

I have this thing about sunsets. I take pictures of them everywhere and have an album full of various places around the state, country, and even the world. The evening in Montreux looked promising......and it was over water, my favorite! We decided to take the "maiden voyage" of the sunset cruise on the Vervey, a 1907 steamer that would cruise the end of the lake on the "crois du soir". Deciding against having dinner on the boat, we stopped for a quick pizza and then got on board. We soon discovered that we would be accompanied by only a few others....we had the boat nearly to ourselves!

The ride took us around the eastern end of the lake and we were able to get a close look at the Chateau du Crillon, an impressive castle from the 11th century as a fortress and now used as a residence (but open to the public).

We talked about how we will miss boat rides in Minnesota this summer, but this would certainly be a memorable evening. Not quite like partying on a pontoon or a boat filled with people on Lake Minnetonka, but this was certainly peaceful and romantic!

......and I was able to see a Lake Geneva sunset!!

What a magical day....seeing the mountains and a magical lake. We headed back to our hotel, Lyle singing "Smoke on the Water"......a song by Deep Purple in the '70's about the burning down of the Montreux casino, now rebuilt.

We left the next morning on the train to Geneva to explore for the day before heading home on a plane back to airport. The day was rainy (visions of Madrid?).......and we weren't very impressed with this busy city after Montreux. Somehow I think it was partly because of the weather and partly because the travel agent ("moi") wasn't prepared with things to do. We walked around with umbrella in hand, found an Irish pub for a hamburger....and arrived at the airport early. Lyle kept wishing we were taking a train instead, but a 45 minute flight got us back to Paris before 10 Monday night. It was a good get-away, I think, just what Lyle needed.

Here are a couple of pictures of Geneva......we didn't take many because of the rain.