Winding Down

One week from today we will be on a plane back to Florida. The two weeks since we returned from Normandy has seen us focused on getting the barge ready for its long winter sleep. It's not the kind of stuff that makes for scintillating reading in a blog post--kind of like watching paint dry. Oh, wait, it's exactly like watching paint dry, since painting is a large part of what we've been doing.

As we've known since we bought C.A.R.I.B. III, the roof above the salon

was in dire need of painting. For whatever reason--either bad or no

preparation before its last paint job--the paint was peeling horribly

The roof after sanding, priming, and painting. It looks 

good now; let's hope it still looks good when we get

back in the spring. In addition to the roof we also

repainted all the railings and spot painted the hull.

This past weekend (Sept. 21-22) was the 36th Annual European Heritage Days. Cities and towns throughout Europe host events and open their doors to monuments and sites--some not normally open to the public--as way for attendees to learn about their cultural heritage. The heritage events in Auxonne this year were developed to recognize and celebrate the 250th anniversary of the birth of Napoléon Bonaparte. Auxonne is very proud of the fact that, as a young artillery officer, Napoléon was stationed in Auxonne intermittently during the 1788-1791 period and attended the Artillery School that existed here at that time.

Lon and I attended two of the weekend's events. The first, on Saturday night, was a free concert-lecture in Auxonne's event room. The theme was "In the Music Salon of the Empress Josephine."

A pianist, a tenor, a soprano, and a narrator: the evening consisted of

readings from archival documents and letters of the Napoleonic period,

 interspersed with vocal and/or instrumental pieces (also of the time period). 

The music was wonderful, and despite not being able to understand much

of what the narrator was saying, we very much enjoyed his part simply

 because of the lively way in which he "got into" the readings. 

Dinner after the concert gave us an opportunity to socialize with fellow Floridians Barb and Mike Etsell (from the city of Englewood on the west coast, a little to the south of Venice). We met Barb and Mike very briefly during our last visit to the marina in Pont-de-Vaux in August. They have a cruiser in a slip in Pont-de-Vaux, but we didn't meet them in the spring because they had already started cruising by the time we arrived in late April. They contacted us when they stopped in Auxonne during an end-of-season cruise on the Saone and Petite Saone.

Mike and Barb and "pizza  night" in Auxonne. They had
some interesting boating stories from their pre-France
cruising days. 

On Sunday we attended our second event of the weekend.  The local Auxonne army base--where the 511th transport regiment (Régiment du Train) is stationed--opened its doors for guided tours of the rooms that Napoleon lived in while stationed in Auxonne as well as the regiment's present-day "Hall of Honor."  

The open window shows the location of

Napoleon's room. 

Napoleon was born as "Napolionne de Buonaparte" on the

island of Corsica in 1769, one year after the island passed 

from Genoese to French hands. The child of minor Italian

nobility, his name was "Frenchified" sometime after the

family's move to France. 

The anteroom to Napoleon's bedroom was 

a mini-museum. The tour guide was a soldier
from the regiment--a very engaging, funny fellow.
We didn't understand much, so we just "made it
up" in our minds until we could get back to the
computer and do a little research. I'm sure we
missed some amusing anecdotes.

The main "salle de Napoleon" 

Making our way to the Hall of Honor

The Hall of Honor was a meeting/conference room (note
the table) with two floors of memorabilia from
French military campaigns dating back to the Napoleonic
era. Much of the memorabilia of the last 70 years is
specific to the regiment. It might  be time to stop fighting--there
was only enough remaining space for one "future" campaign.

We leave Friday for a weekend in Paris, so we have a two more days to complete our specific "winterizing" tasks: Lon's doing oil changes, water system prep, and below-decks organization; and I'm doing most of the above-decks inside cleaning and sorting. We've had plenty of time, so it's a much more relaxed process for us this year than it was last year.

This could be a variation on the "ugly duckling" story, but I really don't
believe the muskrat thinks it's a duck.

Normandy 3: Coastal Beauties

The last three nights of our Normandy trip were spent in Honfleur, a picturesque port town situated on the estuary where the Seine River meets the English Channel. A worthy destination in its own right, its location put us in a good position for exploring sights further to the east as well as giving us a relatively short drive to Caen when it came time to catch the first of our trains back to Auxonne.

In the 12th and 13th centuries Honfleur was an important port for trade between France and England. In the following centuries it continued to be an important trading and fishing port, and was one of the ports from which French navigators set out to explore the New World; notably Champlain, whose 1608 expedition to North America resulted in the settlement that became Quebec City. Honfleur faded in importance as a port in the 19th Century, as it proved unable to compete with port facilities then developing in the neighboring town of Le Havre. The silver lining to the tale is that, whereas Le Havre was heavily bombed in WWII, Honfleur played no particular role in the Normandy campaign and largely escaped damage. Starting in the mid-1800's Honfleur became a center for the development of the Impressionist style of painting, and attracted artists such as native son Eugene Boudin and Claude Monet. Today it is firmly a tourist town, with many art galleries, restaurants, museums, and the usual tourist shops; but that didn't detract from the town's attractiveness.

The Vieux-Bassin (Old Dock) of Honfleur, lined with 16th - 18th century townhouses

Like the Alsace Region, Normandy has lots

of half-timbered houses. Half-timbering

was a hallmark of Norman architecture.

Saint Catherine's church dates to the mid-15th C. Stone being

in short supply, local shipwrights built the structure out of

wood. It is the largest surviving wooden church in France.

Interior of Saint Catherine's. The side-by-side naves have

the appearance of overturned boat hulls.

The bell tower of Saint Catherine's is a

 structure completely separate from the church,

 as the  wooden church could not support

the weight of the bells 

Modern art in Honfleur--"disappearing men"

Vineyards and wine-making are important in most regions of France, but the climate of Normandy does not lend itself to that particular endeavor. Normandy does, however, have apples--lots and lots of apples--and the region has developed a large cider industry. A 40 kilometer long "Cider Trail" is part of the tourism landscape. The brewing of cider also leads to the production of Calvados--an apple brandy with an AOC designation, which means that it can only be produced in Normandy; and Pommeau, an aperitif comprised of unfermented apple cider and Calvados. (AOC stands for appellation d'origine controlee, a certification given to certain agricultural products that have historical and regional significance.) We may not have attended any wine tastings during our time in France this year, but in a small effort toward gaining some knowledge of French gastronomy we spent two hours or so on the afternoon of September 9 learning about the history and production of Calvados in Normandy, and getting a taste of a few varieties of Calvados and Pommeau.

Our "Calvados Experience" was a rather

Disneyesque homage to the humble apple,

but it was entertaining, and the "gift shop"--

with it's hanging apple art--was elegant.

My gastronomic "bravery" continued when I finally decided to see what all the fuss was about and ordered mussels for dinner one evening ("moules and frites" seem to be on nearly every menu). My verdict? Big shrug--not bad, but nothing special either. I should probably give them another chance just in case it was the result of the way the restaurant prepared them and not an issue with mussels generally. (I'm not quite ready to make the leap to escargot.)

If England has the White Cliffs of Dover, France has the stunning cliffs at Etretat, a tourist and farming town located about 20 miles to the northeast of Honfleur. Nature carved three natural arches out of the limestone cliffs that tower over the English Channel. The cliffs, and the natural light in the area, were a huge draw for Impressionist painters like Claude Monet. These days the town welcomes summer vacationers to its beach of smooth silica pebbles and to walks along the cliff tops to enjoy the scenery from numerous vantage points. The day we visited--September 10--was a gloriously sunny day with light breezes. Yes, there were tourists there, but it certainly wasn't "summer crowded", and we had a great time hiking the paths at both ends of the town. We took way too many photos, but the views just seemed so glorious it was hard not to try to capture them.

Looking at Falaise (cliff) Aval from the east. The groomed
area on the "left" side of the cliff top is a golf course,
first designed in 1908. The town of Etretat is behind the
pebble beach.

A different perspective on Falaise Aval, taken from the

vantage point of cliffs to the west.

The top of Falaise Amont is the site of the Notre Dame

de la Garde chapel, i.e., the "Sailors' Chapel". The current 

structure is a 1950's recreation of a 19th century building

that was destroyed by the Germans in 1942.

Looking down at the small arch on Falaise Amont

Falaise Amont was a lovely spot to stop for a snack

A slice of aviation history is present on Falaise Amont. A monument on the cliff memorializes two French aviators, Charles Nungesser and Francois Coli, who attempted to claim the $25,000 Orteig Prize by making the first non-stop flight between Paris and New York. On May 8, 1927, they departed from Paris in their plane "L'Oiseau Blanc" (the White Bird). They were seen early that morning flying low over Etretat and were later spotted over Ireland. Crowds were present in New York on May 9 to greet Nungesser and Coli, but they never arrived. There were reports of a plane being heard over Newfoundland and then a crash, but this has never been substantiated. In our age of conspiracy theories, it is probably fitting that the mystery of their disappearance has given rise to a spate of such theories. As late as 2013, Bernard Decre, the founder of an annual yachting race around France, funded an investigation into the disappearance of the aircraft. He believed that the White Bird did make it to North America, and that its disappearance was covered up by U.S. and French authorities so as not to detract from the achievement of Charles Lindbergh (who successfully made the non-stop crossing from New York to Paris less than 2 weeks after the Frenchmen's attempt). 

The monument to Nungesser and Coli on 

Etretat. The monument was built in 1962,

replacing the original 1928 monument that-

like the Sailors' Chapel-was destroyed by the

Germans in 1942.

La Manneporte arch

Getting photobombed by the Manneporte arch

View to the east of Falaise Amont

Etretat was not in the Allied landing zones for the Normandy invasion, but it nevertheless suffered war damage. German Field Marshall Erwin Rommel--of "Desert Fox" fame--was in charge of the Normandy defenses. In Etretat he ordered many of the waterfront buildings destroyed so that a newly installed gun emplacement could have an unimpeded view toward the beach. The base of the walking path from the town up to Falaise Aval still contains some of the concrete fortifications that were part of the "Atlantic Wall." 

Etretat German beach defenses in WWII.

In the First World War Etretat was the location of an Allied hospital. Approximately 550 soldiers from the British Commonwealth countries who died at the hospital are buried in the Commonwealth War Graves cemetery that is located on the grounds of the Eglise Notre Dame de l'Assomption (construction begun 11th century). 

Notre Dame church and a portion of the 

WWI war graves

I never learn. Yes, I read some tombstones,

 and yes, it made me sad

It's been like summer in Auxonne since we got back. That's good for our outdoor boat projects, not so good for the water levels. But we won't look the proverbial gift horse in the mouth--we've about 10 days left here to get our tasks finished before we lock up the boat and head to Paris.

It may have been in the upper 80's today,

but hints of autumn are starting to appear.

Normandy 2: Blasts from the Recent Past

Notwithstanding all of the significant historical events that have occurred in Normandy over the past centuries, the Allied military campaign that began with D-Day on June 6, 1944 is still hugely present in the French consciousness. Anniversaries of D-Day and the Normandy campaign that end in "5" or "0" are commemorated more than usual, but even more so those anniversaries that are multiples of "25", such as this year's 75th anniversary.

Many of the larger towns we drove through were

flying this D-Day 75th anniversary flag. 

We kicked off the WWII portion of our trip with an afternoon at the Memorial Museum of the Battle of Normandy in Bayeux. There are dozens of museums in the region devoted to World War II topics, from the general to the very specific. We chose this particular museum because it was specific to the Normandy campaign and we were already in Bayeux for the day. We hoped to get a good understanding of events before actually going to the landing beaches and other pertinent sites. I wish I could say that it was overwhelmingly good, but it was so "text heavy" that we only lasted about an hour before calling it quits.  On our way back to the parking lot we stopped at the Bayeux War Cemetery. With over 4,000 war graves, Bayeux is the largest Commonwealth military cemetery from the Second World War in France.

I need to stop going to British war cemeteries--they always make me cry. Families are allowed to have a message

inscribed on their loved ones' tombstone, and some of the inscriptions are enough to break your heart

Saturday and Sunday, September 7 & 8, were our days for visiting various Normandy battle sites. With an Airbnb centrally located with respect to the landing beaches, we went west on Saturday to focus on America's involvement in Normandy, and as we headed east on Sunday to a different Airbnb we were able to visit sites not in the American zone.

Our first stop on Saturday was the Normandy American Cemetery located just above Omaha Beach at Colleville-sur-Mer. A new Visitor's Center was opened on June 7 of this year, and had a marvelous--NOT text heavy--overview of the campaign and included individual stories of some of the soldiers who fought in Normandy. The cemetery contains the graves of over 9300 soldiers who fell in combat, as well as a "Garden of the Missing" where the names of over 1500 soldiers are engraved.

A quote from General Omar Bradley: "The

battle belonged that morning to the thin, wet line

of khaki that dragged itself ashore on the 

channel coast of France."

English Channel in the background, American flag flying high, gratitude

for the sacrifice, sorrow for the sheer numbers. 

The markers seemed to go on forever.

American grave markers don't contain family statements.

Royd Keys left this flag and message "IN HONOR OF THE

FATHER I NEVER MET." His father (also Royd)

died on  6/6/1944.

After the cemetery we went to Omaha Beach, one of two American landing beaches on D-Day. (Utah Beach, further west, being the second.) The U.S. 1st and 29th Infantry Divisions had a terrible time of it on Omaha Beach. The beach was filled with obstacles, and they had to cross an open area of up to 200 yards and attack up steep bluffs in order to reach the plateau where the Normandy American Cemetery now stands.

Flags to the left, memorial (metal artwork) to the right as Lon walks to

the beach. It was hard to imagine the mayhem of 75 years ago on this

peaceful and sunny day. The beach is used for swimming and other

water activities in the summer months.

The tide was out, which made the beach big and broad and allowed

us to stroll at will. This photo shows a better perspective of some of 

the cliffs that the soldiers landing on the beach had to contend with.

A few kilometers to the west of Omaha Beach stood Pointe du Hoc, a strategic point in the German defenses on the Normandy coast. On D-Day the 2nd Ranger battalion was given the assignment to scale the cliffs and seize the artillery battery located there.

Perspective of the coast looking toward the "point" of

Pointe du Hoc

Former artillery gun emplacement

The land still bears the scars/craters from the Allied naval and air bombardment of the site.

When the Rangers scaled the cliff they discovered that the guns had been moved elsewhere. Fighting was nevertheless intense, and Ranger casualties approached 70 percent. The guns were found and destroyed as the Americans pushed inland.

Our one "non-American" stop of the day was in the town of Port-en-Bessin, on the coast very close to our Airbnb. Royal Marine Commandos captured this small fishing port, which then became an important depot for supplying petroleum to the Allied forces.

Port-en-Bessin: The port--and a several-hundred-years-old Vauban

fortification tower.

Shop fronts in Port-en-Bessin and elsewhere were

decorated with thanks and welcomes

These "WWII Heroes" signs were posted

in most towns to recognize soldiers 

significant to the battle in a particular town.

Peter Ford was with the British commandos
 who captured Port-en-Bessin. He survived
 the war.

Port-en-Bessin's maritime past and present are reflected

in the parish church, filled with ship models. The church

also has a memorial plaque to commemorate those who have

died at sea from 1810 to present day.

On Sunday we checked out of our Airbnb in Commes and started working our way to our new "base" in the town of Honfleur, on the coast about 60 miles east. The driving route allowed us to easily visit two WWII sites of interest to us on that part of the coast.

A mere two miles from Commes stands the site of the German gun battery at Longues-sur-Mer. The only battery to be listed as a Historic Monument, it includes a firing command post and four reinforced concrete pillboxes, each housing a 150 mm piece of long range artillery. It is the only gun battery today to still be equipped with guns from the period. The site also includes a number of individual pillboxes that were formerly equipped with smaller anti-aircraft guns. Some of these smaller pillboxes are part of the "groomed" site and accessible to visit; some are present in the surrounding farm fields, their presence indicated by tufts of vegetation amidst the crops, and are not open to the public--an example of trying to achieve a balance between historical preservation and the needs of present day citizens.

Standing on one pillbox and looking at three blending into the 

landscape. English Channel on the horizon.

The guns were deactivated after capture by British troops 

on June 7, but not completely destroyed.

Lon at Longues-sur-Mer.

The fortifications at Longues-sur-Mer, like those at Pointe du Hoc and numerous other locations, were part of the "Atlantic Wall". Constructed by the Germans between 1942 and 1944, the Atlantic Wall was an extensive system of coastal defenses and fortifications stretching along the coast of continental Europe from Norway to the French border with Spain as a defense against an Allied invasion from the United Kingdom. Historical hindsight shows that as a defensive measure it worked about as well as the post-WWI Maginot Line did to keep Germany from invading France in 1940.

A few miles further to the east stands the town of Arromanches and the British landing site of Gold Beach. Arromanches was liberated on June 6, and two days later the British began installation of an artificial port--a Mulberry Harbor they called "Port Winston"--to facilitate the landing of the soldiers, supplies, and vehicles necessary to continue the push into Normandy. The Mulberry Harbor was actually two artificial harbors that were constructed in England and towed across the Channel. Mulberry A was installed at Omaha Beach and Mulberry B at Arromanches. Each harbor consisted of about 6 miles of flexible steel roadways that floated on steel or concrete pontoons. These "docks" were protected from the force of the sea by line of scuttled ships, sunken caissons, and a line of floating breakwater. A severe storm about two weeks after D-Day destroyed the harbor at Omaha Beach, but the harbor at Arromanches continued to function throughout the Normandy campaign.

Arromanches and "Gold Beach". Traces of the Mulberry Harbor can still be seen offshore. 

A building block of the harbor now deposited on shore.

And yet more remnants of the harbor

There were many more sites we could have visited, but after two emotionally intense days we were ready for a change of focus for the last two days of our time in Normandy.