Respect and Gratitude at the Normandy Beaches

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 by Norma Hopcraft

While we stayed in Bayeux (see previous post for photos of the hostel / convent we stayed in), we visited the Normandy beaches.

I've wanted all my life to see this place where freedom vs. slavery of the world was contested. I've always wanted to pay my respects at the American cemetery. So many young men died on D-Day. There are 12,000 Americans buried in the American cemetery, and there are British and Canadian and Aussie and New Zealander graves in other burial grounds in Normandy. There's a huge German cemetery too.

So many stories of heroic leadership were written that day.

And so many young men died.

The day we visited was a somber day though the sun was shining relentlessly.

This is Pointe du Hoc, a 100-foot cliff and the highest point between Omaha and Utah Beaches. During World War II it was fortified by the Germans and believed to be impossible to breach. There are a number of German bunkers still embedded in the hillside. There are also huge craters where American bombs fell. The craters are now full of wildflowers.

The Pointe was full of people, all respectfully quiet and serious. Many young people were there with tour guides telling them about D-Day, and about all that was at stake that day. It was gratifying to see their serious interest in history. May we never have to repeat a day like that one.

The barbed wire has been there more than 80 years.

From Pointe du Hoc you can look east toward Omaha Beach.

Can you see the windsurfer in the center of the picture, just beyond the wall of the American Cemetery?

All these young men fought and died so we'd be free to do things like windsurf 

instead of slaving in Nazi mines. 

And free to vote.

The number of crosses is overwhelming.

A Dream Come True -- to Be in France

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 By Norma Hopcraft

At long last, some photos from France, as I promised! After 15 hours of travel, my sister Chris and I took one day to adjust to jet lag in Maisons-Laffitte, where my friend Carol's house is, the one I'm housesitting in. After a nap, we walked into town and enjoyed the shops.

    

"How can you govern a country with 400 kinds of cheese?" Charles de Gaulle once 

lamented. Here is a typical sampling.

Then we took a train to meet our French friend Martine and her little Himalayan Mountain Dog, Tibou (which means morsel in French argot) in Rouen. From there we went around Normandy and Brittany in Martine's car.

We had a very good time!

Let's start in Rouen today, and then head to Normandy.

First, meet Martine, my landlady when I lived in Paris for a year. She's an actress, and this is a photo of her that she gave me 10 years ago:

Next, here's Tibou -- or rather, here's a Shih-Tzu, a type of Himalayan mountain dog, also known as a cat-dog (because they're so independent by nature). You'll see a picture of the real Tibou later in this series.

Now, let's go to Rouen, which has an elaborate, ornate cathedral that Monet spent a year on, striving to capture an impression of its appearance in all kinds of weather, every season, all times of the day. He made more than 30 paintings of this cathedral.

When you look closely at the details, the ornateness of the entire cathedral becomes even more overwhelming.

Here's one decorative column on one side of one doorway, surrounded by stone 

cut so fine as to look like lace.

Here's the arch over the doorway. Sculptors carved the stone 

on nearly every inch of this cathedral.

The Cathedral at Rouen is so very elaborate, it's actually not to my taste, if I may be so bold to say. It's "over the top." You'll see more over-the-topness when we get to the opera house designed by Garnier.

That same evening we drove 90 minutes to Bayeux, where we wanted to see the 1,000-year-old Bayeux tapestry and the Normandy beaches the next day. We stayed in a hostel, to cut costs of course, but then the hostel magic I hoped for actually happened--I met a woman who lives in Rochester! She told me all kinds of fascinating things about my adopted city.  Here's the hostel where we met -- it's in a former convent.

The front gate to the building, from the 17th century, I believe.

The front door.

The wing where I slept, upstairs.

The accommodations were spare -- we made our own beds and the showers, sinks, and toilets were down the hall -- but the place had an abiding peace and grew on me over the two nights we stayed there.

Next post: Bayeux, the Normandy beaches, and the American Cemetery.

See my recent photos of Rochester immediately below this post.

For Fun, Try a Photo Walk!

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I'm in JFK, on my way to Paris -- photos from France up next!

But first:

I went on a photo walk last Saturday, led by a film company named Cinestill that refinishes Kodak film for movies. They lead photowalks all over the world. They took us -- us being at least 75 photographers, with cameras strapped all around them (I, however, had an iPhone and was fully adopted into the family) -- on a windy path through the annual Rochester International Jazz Festival to a secret neighborhood I didn't know existed until that day. Then to the Genesee River and back into town.

Here are my photos from that day.

You're getting a picture of a classic car simply because I love classic cars.

Isn't this a handsome building? It's across from Ugly Duck Coffee Shop, for those of you who live in Rochester.

Lots of patterns in this photo!

Here's the first house in the secret neighborhood.

I love the purple!

I'm a sucker for May Apples and shady gardens.

Another house in the secret neighborhood.

A shady garden

I call this photo "No Privacy" because I probably shouldn't have taken it.

More from the secret neighborhood (whose name I don't know)

Here's a fellow photo walker fiddling with his gear.

A bit impudent of him

A photowalker NOT in comfortable shoes

I love messy buns.

More tats

Another handsome downtown building

A fellow photographer

Looks like a church, right?

It has no roof

Inside it's going wild

Tree growing out the window. This is the old St. Joseph's. The roof and interior were destroyed in a fire in the 1980s.

A bridge over the Genesee, downtown, reflecting in the water.

Another bridge over the Genesee

Photo is even more successful as a black and white.

A man we're proud to claim as a Rochesterian

Reminds me of the Grace Building in NYC.

Three years in, I've come to call Rochester home.

A fantastic drummer at the jazz festival.

A tree in my Park Ave. neighborhood

Korean dogwood in black and white.

The fragrance garden behind the Science Center.

If you have any comments, feedback, insights to share, please use the comment box at the bottom of this post. I'd love to hear from you! 

 

New Adventure -- France All Summer!

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 Hi, fans!

I'm in the midst of a countdown: just two weeks until I fly to France for the summer!

I'll be staying with friends that I met in 2014-2015, my year of creative writing sabbatical in Paris.

Please come with me on this current trip! I'll be posting photos and commentary here on my blog. You can correspond by leaving a comment--each post will have a comment box at the bottom.

So I'm visiting friends in different parts of France and also house-sitting on the edge of Paris for a month. My friend Carol owns a house to the northwest of the city. She is a retired American major magazine reporter on French and EU economics, and after spending her working career in Paris she chose to retire in France. I can't wait to see her!

I too am retired, just six weeks ago. One part of this trip is a retirement gift to myself. For 9 days I'll tour Normandy and Brittany! It's quite extravagant of me, but I worked for 57 years and I feel that I earned this reward.

There is only one downside to being away for two months, and that's being away from my little grandsons  for so long. They will have grown and changed by the time I get back, without my witnessing it in person. Nothing in life is unalloyed--there's always both an upside and a downside. 

Stay tuned for more from France! Posts start in July!

It can be only the French who wear high heels while riding a scooter!