Blissful Adventures

Climbing the 350 stone steps to the abbey church perched atop Mont St. Michel in Normandy is not for the faint-hearted or weak-kneed. However, more than 3 million people a year visit this venerated site and have already struggled up some 300 steep stairs before climbing the Grand Degre staircase…

Reaching the top is equivalent to scaling a thirty-story building and there are no shortcuts or elevators. It’s a one-way street and once you have started there’s no turning back. (although there are defibrillators stationed at intervals). The uninterrupted views across the sandy bay and surrounding salt marshes gave monks of the cult of Saint Michel protection against more traditional evangelists…

Monks, invaders and visitors previously had to cross a causeway at low tide and risked being swept away, but a bridge now links the island to the mainland. We stayed in the nearby town of Pontorson and arrived ahead of the crowd, but the masses were not far behind. However, the site is so vast that we were able to dodge the guided tours and appreciate the ambience of this ancient place. This is the Guest Hall…

Construction of the Abbey began exactly one thousand and one years ago in 1023AD and various buildings were added over the years. Saint Michel was credited with defeating the Devil and weighing the souls of the dead on Judgement Day. However, he wasn’t so good at protecting buildings. In 1421 the central choir collapsed and during the French Revolution in 1789 the abbey was plundered and stripped of everything of value. It is no longer a religious building and now belongs to the French Government. However, the ghosts of the monks still walk these cloisters…

Walking was the last thing on the mind of thousands of runners taking part in today’s 5km, 10km, and half-marathons through the streets of Rennes, the capital of Brittany, today…

We had no idea that we would be in the city for one of the biggest events of the year. The runners' numbers surpassed 26,000.
Festive bands played along the route and massive crowds cheered them on at every popular spot, but we couldn’t outrun them as we tried to view the sights. They got into our path as they raced pass the numerous half-timbered medieval buildings…

…And then again at the cathedral…

Luckily, we were able to scurry across the road and slip into the cathedral during a short break between some tired runners and we marvelled at its ornate, decorated, nave and altar which noticeably contrasted with the austere interiors of the cathedrals in Caen and Bayeux…

And then we headed back out on the street to join the throngs at the start of the 5km run that included many disabled people…

Rennes is a delightful small city – the smallest city in the world to have a Metro – which, despite bombardments from both sides during WWII, has retained many of its ancient structures including its fortress-like entrance gate…

Fortresses will loom large in our next few days when we visit some of Normandy’s best preserved medieval towns.

We are standing in the town square of the sleepy village of Sainte-Mère-Eglise in Normandy, France, at midnight on June 5th 1944 and a few German soldiers are sauntering back to their barracks from the bars. One of them spots a white sheet fluttering in the wind. Maybe it’s his imagination? Maybe it’s the beer? He pauses to gather his thoughts, and seconds later the skies over Normandy are filled with the parachutes of nearly twenty thousand American and British paratroops. D-Day has begun. Machine-guns and rifles open up and there is mayhem in the village square as the Germans and paratroopers exchange fire. A lone American witnesses it all…

The parachute of Private John Steele of the 82nd American Airborne Division is caught on the church’s steeple and he will feign death for several hours until he is cut down and captured. But the fateful day is just dawning. It is 6am on June 6th and a thousand allied battleships, along with four thousand ships carrying troops and equipment, appear out of the morning mist along the coast of Normandy. Many here at Omaha Beach…

And many more at Juno, Gold and Sword, and here at Utah…

It’s peaceful now, but earlier the sea ran red with the blood of dead and dying Americans, British and Canadians. The German bunkers, pillboxes and gun emplacements are abandoned and silent now…

Hitler’s ‘impenetrable’ Atlantic Wall, built by war slaves with 11 million tons of concrete, has been breached. The fighting has moved inland through the picturesque farmlands and villages of Normandy…

The bodies of more than four-thousand-five-hundred allied servicemen, interspersed with a similar number of Germans, lie scattered on the beaches and dunes. Thousands more never made it ashore and will be lost forever to the Atlantic Ocean. And several thousand French civilians are dead in their beds in Caen and Bayeux– caught in the crossfire as a thousand allied aircraft and the mightiest of warships bombed and shelled their cities to stop the enemy’s reinforcements from reaching the frontlines. The Normandy cities lie in ruins today, but their magnificent cathedrals and medieval buildings will rise from the ashes…

The streets will be filled with gaily decorated stores…

And the windows of the pâtissiers will once again be filled with the finest French pastries…

The history of D-Day, a.k.a. ‘The Longest Day’, is a sombre lesson that will never be forgotten here in Normandy and should be remembered throughout the world.

While we believe that the Nazis were ruthless fanatics led by a fascist dictator, it is a sad fact that there are despots and their acolytes around the world today who think Hitler was a hero and who would happily massacre anyone who doesn’t agree with them. Maybe they would change their mind here in Normandy where the scars of war caused by Hitler’s murderous regime are still evident in the gravestones of soldiers, sailors and airmen. More than four thousand allied servicemen are buried here at Bayeux – many without known names…

It was a suitably sombre day when we visited the beaches where, exactly 80 years ago, British, Canadian and American troops launched the greatest seaborn armada in history to free Europe from the Nazi yoke. This is Juno Beach at Courseulles-sur-Mer where the Canadians landed on June 6th. 1944 - D-Day …

Five thousand ships landed 156,000 troops on the Normandy beaches on the first day and a total of 326,000 troops and 50,000 vehicles were ashore within a few days. We will be visiting many of the beaches and museums, but first, we visited the city of Caen, the home of another infamous ruler. This was his castle…

In war, as in life, there are two sides to every story. So, while we believed that the owner of this castle, William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy, led an armada of Normans across the English Channel and seized the English crown from King Harold following the Battle of Hastings in 1066, the French don’t see it that way. While there is no photographic evidence of William’s invasion, there is a 200-foot-long embroidered tapestry, (the Bayeux Tapestry) celebrating William’s victory. Was he an invader? Or was he invited to accede to the English crown on the death of his cousin, King Edward I, as the Tapestry suggests?
No photos of this precious artifact which was made for the consecration of Caen Cathedral in 1077 are allowed, but this is a part of the tapestry showing his ships preparing to set sail in 1066…

And here he is charging into battle against King Harold…

William the Conqueror is buried here in the Abbaye des Hommes in Caen…

And this is his tombstone…

Now the sun is shining so we are headed back to the D-Day beaches and the many museums celebrating this historic event. This is the memorial to the more than five thousand allied servicemen who died on the beaches on that fateful day in June 1944…

As is often said, “If we don’t remember history, we are in danger of repeating it.”

As we stand on the ramparts of the walled city of St. Malo in Brittany, we look beyond the fortified islands to the Atlantic Ocean…

If we had been standing here exactly 490 years ago, we could have waved ‘Bon voyage’ to Jacques Cartier as he set sail in search of the St. Lawrence River and the land of New France – a land he called Canada…

Cartier was born in St. Malo and was the first known European to navigate the St. Lawrence as far as Quebec in 1534. It is believed that he named Canada after mis-interpreting the Iroquois word meaning ‘village’. The name stuck, but despite two more expeditions intent on setting up a French colony in Quebec, Cartier was defeated by the extreme Canadian winters and scurvy amongst his crews. It was another 50 years before Canada was finally established as Nouveau Galle, (New France). Cartier is buried here in the cathedral of St. Malo…

This is his tombstone…

St. Malo is an ancient walled city filled with interesting shops, restaurants and hotels, whose wide cobblestone streets and elegant architecture make it a most attractive enclave. But St. Malo has a tragic history. Eighty years ago St. Malo was a stronghold of the Germans during WWII. Following D-Day, just along the coast in Normandy, the Germans put up a tremendous fight in St. Malo and were eventually bombed into submission. More than 80% of the old city was destroyed in the blitz, but a few buildings were spared…

The many ancient fortresses and historic walls have all been restored…

And the many splendid houses have been returned to their pre-war glory…

Earlier this year we were in Taiwan when we saw a BBC article about special Bretagne sweet pastries called “Kouign Amann” and we were amazed to find them on sale in a bakery in Taipei. We then found the same delicious pastries in Kamakura, Japan. We had never previously heard of these delicious, buttery, croissant-like pastries, but Kouign Amman bakeries are everywhere in St. Malo…

If Christine, our generous Jersey host, had not stuffed us full of the freshest lobsters, crabs and scallops, we could certainly have had a seafood feast here in St. Malo. Almost every restaurant specialises in ‘fruits of the sea’ and we watched the many trawlers unloading coquille St. Jacques, (scallops) onto the quayside…

We will be returning to St. Malo in a couple weeks, but our next stop will take us to the heart of Normandy to visit the D-Day beaches and the home of a Norman warrior who defeated Britain a thousand years ago – William the Conqueror. There is so much history in this corner of France!

Although we titled this trip “Tour de France”, we began with a few sightseeing days in our favourite city, London. But beware if you are planning ‘seeing’ London in a few days. At one-a-day, Monday to Friday, it takes an entire year to visit the more than 250 museums and art galleries. Add a few weeks for attractions like the Tower of London, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Buckingham Palace, the Monument etc. etc. etc., and then another year for the 241 theatres. You can then spend the rest of your life eating at each of London’s 25,383 restaurants – together with your dog…

Yes – dogs are generally welcomed in British restaurants. With so many choices you might think it would be easy to get reservations – but you would be very wrong. London is bustling and we couldn’t get a table at any of the popular eateries. The restaurants and theatres may be packed, but there are a lot of free and accessible sites in London like the eight Royal parks. This is the Serpentine in Hyde Park that was created in 1727 for Queen Caroline…

Boat hire is extra, but the abundant wildlife is free to view…

From London we hopped over the English Channel to Jersey, where the steep cliffs, wide sandy beaches, and the blue seas and skies, reminded us of French Polynesia, (without the heat)…

However, our closeness to France is evident in the street names and the local Jèrriais language: a remnant of the time when this island belonged to the Normans. This sign is for the Island’s famous “Black butter”…

Jersey is renowned for its butter and dairy produce derived from the breed of cattle unique to the Island. This is the prize-winning Jersey cow at the annual show of the Jersey Royal Agricultural Society…

We were lucky enough to visit the Island on the day of the show and got to see the colourful displays of garden produce. This entrant won "Best in Show"...

There were also prizes for some truly enormous vegetables…

Rabbits, chickens and all manner of livestock were exhibited along with the cattle. However, black butter doesn’t come from a cow. Before dairy produce, potatoes, and international banking, were the mainstays of the Jersey economy, cider apples were the predominant crop. The apples still grow, but today they are made into a preserve called ‘black butter’. So, after visiting the Agricultural Show, we went to the annual Black Butter Festival where, on one day of the year, tons of apples are slowly cooked over an open fire and mixed with liquorice and spices to create a sticky sweet spread…

With a jar of black butter in hand we then witnessed the Island’s other major event: the annual Jersey Marathon…

After a hectic weekend in Jersey, we will now take a leisurely ferry ride to St. Malo in Brittany - the first stop on our Tour de France.