Etretat and Rouen

Friday, May 3, 2013, Etretat and Rouen, France

We picked up our car this morning and drove to Etretat, a small seaside village north of Le Havre.  Fodor’s put us to it with “its spectacular stone formations famously immortalized in paint by the Impressionists” and by giving the whole town a “Fodor’s choice” star.  It was warranted!  Monet, Boudin and Corbet are among the artists who painted here.  Here are the cliffs looking first south and then north:

 

 

There are a couple of strategically placed Monet reproductions along the rocky beach:

 

As we drove on the back roads, avoiding the superhighways, we came across vast stretches of canola fields in bloom with yellow flowers:

 

Canola is used not only for cooking oil, but also is a major source of biofuel.  Our Renault is a diesel and is getting astonishing mileage while having plenty of pep.  Wonderful!  After lunch we drove to Rouen and checked into our hotel.  We began walking the town, and immediately came to one of the most famous sights here, the Gros-Horloge, a Renaissance clock with two faces, each of which looks down a pedestrian street from an arch built in 1527 specifically for it:

 

 

 

Perhaps the most famous sight in Rouen is the Notre Dame cathedral, a Gothic spectacle.  Construction began in the 12^th century and it wasn’t completed until the 17^th century, some 500 years later.  It is both quantitatively and qualitatively amazing:

 

Inside, we came across an ensemble preparing for a concert tomorrow with ancient instruments and song.  Here is the lute player and the “serpentine” player. 

 

I’d never seen a serpentine before, and asked the musician to play it for me.  Here’s what it sounds like:

 

Finally, this is the town where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake, and there is a church dedicated to her.  Here’s a statue of Joan with the flames climbing up from her feet:

 

And here’s her very unusual church.  The interior has some wonderful very old windows:

 

 

 

Neither of us cared much for it.  So that’s it for today, a very full day!

Honfleur

Thursday, May 2, 2013, Honfleur, France

This is a picture-perfect small harbor town in lower Normandy, built in the 17^th century, and was a favorite painting spot of a number of old masters.  There are loads of half-timber houses and narrow cobbled streets, along with art galleries and shops.

The ship docked here at 5 AM and the people who were leaving for Paris and early flights left at 5:30.  We were able to leave at 9:00, and took a cab to our lovely hotel just a few steps from the center of town.  We spent the day wandering the city, visiting the art galleries and shops, and taking in the ambience of this town.

As we left our hotel we passed a “lavoir”, a public clothes-washing place:

 

Joyce bought a beret, and now everyone first speaks to us in French.  Note the very tall narrow houses along the harbor front which date from the 1600’s:

 

The one specific attraction in town is the wooden Ste-Catherine church, built in 1453 to commemorate the end of the Hundred Years Was and the departure of the English:

 

 

The belfry is a separate building across a small square:

 

We had a spectacular dinner last night.  Finally!  The food aboard the ship was only good, not very good or great, but now we’re on our own and have decided to treat ourselves to some dinners in special restaurants, and Honfleur has a couple.  Paired with a lovely bottle of Alsacian Pinot Gris, it was just great.

Tomorrow we’ll pick up our car and wind our way to Rouen stopping along the way at the little town of Etretat on the coast north of Le Havre which is supposed to be lovely.

Normandy Beaches, Bayeux Tapestry

Wednesday, May 1, 2013, Caen, France

What a day!  Physically and emotionally trying.

We docked in Caen and left very early for the beaches of Normandy.  On arriving, we stopped first at the cliffs at Point du Hoc.  On the way we had an extensive explanation of the sites we’d be seeing, and this one is famous (or infamous) for being the landing place of the Rangers who were to scale the cliffs and take out the German artillery which could fire on Omaha Beach, immediately adjacent.  The amazing story is full of troubles and is complex; suffice it to say that the Rangers took the site, but with great loss of life.  Here are the 100+ foot cliffs:

 

We then went to Omaha Beach.  This was one of the major invasion points on D-day, and there are innumerable stories about the invasion and the loss of life here.  We were there at low tide (which is when the invasion took place) and the beach is very deep, which led to its choice as an invasion point but also led to many catastrophes as the landing craft couldn’t get very close and the men were forced to come ashore walking through water with heavy wet packs.  The Germans were on a bluff overlooking the beach and the Allied troops were sitting ducks.  The battle was won, but just barely, with great loss of life.  We heard many of the countless stories.

 

We then went to the St. Laurent cemetery where 9387 men and 4 women are buried.  In addition there is a memorial to 1557 troops missing in action.  The burials represent about 40% of the men who died in Normandy, as families were given the choice to have a burial there or to repatriate the remains and bury them at home.  The cemetery is very beautiful, on a bluff overlooking the ocean, and is meticulously kept:

 

 

We had a moving ceremony, with two members of our group who lost relatives there laying a floral wreath at the foot of a memorial statue. We then sang the Star Spangled Banner, stood silently for Taps, and identified and recognized all the veterans in our group (a surprisingly high percentage).  Joyce and I then found one of the 149 Stars of David, placed stones on it, and said Kaddish for Pvt. Efraim Loew of New Jersey.

 

In the afternoon we went to Bayeux, a small village nearby, which houses the incredible Bayeux Tapestry (which isn’t a tapestry but is an embroidery).  This is an enormously long piece of linen, embroidered in the late 11^th century, which tells the story of 1066 when the Duke of Normandy invaded England and won the Battle of Hastings.  It’s amazing to realize that it’s almost 1000 years old!  The embroidery is not very fine, but the story is easily recognized (especially because of the help of headphones which tell the story as you walk along it).  Photos are not allowed; this is from a brochure:

 

The town is very old with a gorgeous gothic cathedral:

 

Some houses date back to the middle ages:

 

Upon return to the ship we had a long (90 minute) lecture followed by a Q and A with David Eisenhower, DDE’s grandson.  He was introduced by Julie Nixon Eisenhower, who helps with writing and editing his books.  He spoke in great detail about Operation Overlord, the code name for the Normandy invasion, and gave many anecdotes and insights into his grandfather.  Interestingly, he said that DDE felt the responsibility for the Normandy invasion was the greatest privilege and responsibility he had in his lifetime; greater than anything which happened in two presidential terms.

So we’re exhausted and packing up, as we leave the ship and the Smithsonian tour tomorrow morning and will then be traveling on our own.  More to come!

Guernsey

Tuesday, April 30, 2013, Guernsey, Channel Islands

We had a disappointing announcement this morning.  David Eisenhower had been hospitalized but is now released.  He’s not able to join us for the lecture tonight and will not be on the beaches of Normandy tomorrow with us.  He and Julie will join us for dinner tomorrow and he will lecture to us tomorrow night.  Oh well….

This morning we had a lecture introducing us to the phenomenal story of Juan Pujol Garcia, a self-made double agent during WW II.  To make a long story short, he created an entire squad of German sympathizing Spaniards, French, and English who didn’t exist, and fed surprising amounts of false information to the Germans.  They so believed in him that they awarded him (quietly) the Iron Cross, and he is the only person to have an Iron Cross and to have been knighted by the Queen of England!  Meanwhile, British intelligence took him in, and helped him feed substantial false information to the Germans.  He was instrumental in directing German military assets away from the Normandy invasion and may, single-handedly, have been responsible for the failure of the Germans to repel the invasion!  It’s an amazing story and one of which I knew nothing.

Following lunch we went on a visit to Guernsey in the Channel Islands which had two purposes.  One was to introduce us to this wonderful and beautiful island, semi-autonomous (but very English).  The political history is fascinating; suffice it to say that each of the Channel Islands is an autonomous republic, sort of part of the EU, but only as an affiliate, and Guernsey has its own currency and stamps (although it also uses British pounds).  Anyway, the small port town of St. Peter is lovely:

 

And the island’s coast is beautiful:

 

The primary focus of our time on Guernsey was the German occupation, from 1941-1945.  It’s a strange story.  It is the only part of Great Britain (although it really isn’t) which Hitler conquered and occupied, and as such, he set out to defend it against attack.  The island is only 25 square miles, is not strategically important, but Hitler spent enormous sums of money and stationed (depending on which story you hear) 17,000 or 40,000 troops here.  It was referred to as Hitler’s folly, as the cost in men, in materiel to build all of the bunkers around the periphery of the island, and in the support of such a large contingent was stupendous.  It was so large that the allies thought it better to just let Hitler alone, spending so much of his assets here that it detracted from his ability to wage war elsewhere.  The explanation for such a folly is political and propagandistic: Hitler didn’t want to risk loss of his occupation of part of Britain, and would spend anything to avoid it.

Here is an 18^th century fort which the Germans added bunkers to:

 

And here are other German instillations:

 

There is a wonderful occupation museum here, with treasures including an Enigma machine:

 

And here is a motorcycle with side car:

 

Tomorrow we arrive in Normandy and will visit the beaches, the American cemetery, and the Bayeux tapestry.

Belle Ile en-Mer

Monday, April 29, 2013, Belle Ile en-Mer, France

This morning we had two lectures, one pretty detailed and focused on the French discovery of Spanish painting and the removal of Spanish art to France by somewhat nefarious means.  The second was a preview of the Bayeux Tapestry which we will see on Wednesday afternoon.

After lunch we visited Belle Ile en-Mar.  Belle Ile is a small island about 12 miles off the coast of Brittany, on the North Atlantic coast of France.  It has much history dating back to Roman days, but is most famous because of its beauty, and because two people found it special—Claude Monet as a place to paint, and Sarah Bernhardt who spent many summers here.

The total population of the island is about 5000, half of whom live in the major town, Le Palais.  Today the island is supported by tourism (summer vacationers, mostly) and fishing.  Here is La Palais:

 

There is a huge citadel above the town, built in the mid-1800’s to defend the island and the coast of France.  It is massive:

 

And it has a massive moat:

 

After touring the citadel we visited a couple of special places on the island, one being the most picturesque of the many estuaries, which was a favorite of Monet’s to paint:

 

And here is the old small fort which Sarah Bernhardt had repurposed into a summer home on another small estuary.  Note the lighthouse in the background.  There’s nothing else nearby.  I guess if you live as busy a life as she did, isolation for your summer holiday makes sense.

 

Tomorrow we tour Guernsey Island as we begin the study of WWII and the German occupation.  The last lecturer (of three tomorrow) will be David Eisenhower who will talk on “Operation Overlord”.

Bilbao, Spain

Sunday April 28, 2013 Bilbao, Spain

We sailed overnight last night with only a gentle rocking motion, and we slept well.  This morning we had a lecture on Spanish Wars in Art with an emphasis on Goya and Picasso which was just wonderful, and was a great prelude to the temporary exhibit at the Bilbao Guggenhiem.  At lunchtime we docked in Santander, a town we had visited many years ago when we were able to see the cave paintings at Altamira, something which is no longer open to the public.  We went by bus to Bilbao, about an hour’s ride.

We are now in Basque country, along the northeast coast of Spain, which incorporates three Spanish provinces as well as some part of France.  The Spaniards have recognized the Basque language as a valid (and legal) part of Spain, and have granted the three Basque provinces substantial autonomy.  We were told that 94% of the taxes collected here stay here and only 6% go to Madrid.  The aggressive (and sometimes murderous) Basque separatist movement is now somewhat mollified by the actions of the central government and have become somewhat quiescent.  As a result of some pretty competent planning, the old grimy town of Bilbao has been rebuilt over the last 20 years, and a centerpiece of that rebuilding was the partnership with the Guggenheim Museum which led to the creation of the Frank Gehry masterpiece building which houses it.  Currently Bilbao and the Basques are doing quite well with an unemployment rate of “only” 15%, while all of Spain is at 25%!

Bilbao is now a lovely city!  The streets of the old city have been turned into pedestrian only walkways:

And valuable old buildings have been reconstructed or rehabbed.  Here is the train station:

The centerpiece for a tourist is, of course, the museum, built on a river.  Here’s a photo from across the river:

The skin is titanium which has a silvery color of its own and reflects colors around it:

There was a competition to incorporate the bridge over the river into the view of the building, and it has been done very successfully with a sort of sculpture over the bridge truss:

Some of the art is outdoor sculpture:

The interior is spectacular.  No words or photos can do it justice; it has to be experienced:

Photos are not allowed in the galleries, but they are wonderful.  The temporary exhibit is on war, as depicted in painting, and on painting as influenced by being done in wartime.  It is wonderful, but we had limited time to see it after gawking at the building on our tour.

We’re well, finally pretty well rested, overfed, and looking forward to the visit tomorrow to Belle Ile, France.

Santiago de Compostela

Saturday, April 27, 2013 Santiago de Compostela, Spain

We had a very rough night last night.  There was a huge wind blowing as we set out from Porto, and immediately the ship began to rock and roll pretty dramatically.  Swells were about 20 feet, whitecaps were crashing, and the water was washing up over the windows of the dining room which is on the second level.  Barf bags were hung on all the railings, and only about half of the passengers showed up for dinner.  Of those who did, many left before finishing, as did we when Joyce couldn’t take it any more.  She looked bad enough that on the way out of the dining room the staff handed her a barf bag and a green apple, saying the apple might help.  She took a bite or two and was somewhat better.  We tried to go to sleep, and the crashing, the falling of things off shelves, the opening of drawers and the intense pitching and rocking made it very hard.  It was a long night.

We made it to breakfast and to a wonderful morning lecture by the Smithsonian lecturer on pilgrimage in the medieval world, as today we went to a major pilgrimage site, the Cathedral of St. James (Santiago) in Santiago de Compostela, about an hour’s ride from the dock in La Corona.  This part of Spain, the northwest corner, is called Galicia.  It has a fair degree of autonomy from the rest of Spain, and it wealthy and proudly different from the rest of Spain.  Its origins are Celtic, bagpipes are among the native instruments, and there is a Galician language closer to Portuguese than to Spanish.  There are close ties to Scotland, Ireland and Wales, but not to England.

The cities of La Corona and Santiago are beautiful, with lush gardens, clean broad streets, flowers, and well-kept public buildings and parks.  There is a minimum of graffiti.  Clearly the economic problems of most of Spain don’t reach here.

The stories and legends about St. James (Santiago) are many; suffice it to say that there is a cathedral here which is one of the major pilgrimage sites for all of Catholicism.  To this day people walk, ride animals, and even bicycles to make a pilgrimage here.  There are rules as to how far you must come in each of these ways to get certified as a pilgrim.

Here is a small square in Santiago:

And here is part of the University:

Here is the front of the Cathedral, originally Romanesque from the 11^th c. but with a Baroque façade added later:

The gates are amazing:

The altar was added later:

The adjacent monastery is enormous:

There are groups of pilgrims on foot and on bicycle, but we saw none on horseback.  To be certified you need to have come 100 km. (62 miles) by foot, or 200 km. by bicycle or animal.  The town has beautiful side streets with lovely cafes, restaurants and shops.  Very enjoyable.

Off tonight for Bilbao and the Gehry museum tomorrow.