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Published: January 28th 2007
Chateau Ducal
Complete with drawbridge!Latest update from my adventures in France...slightly delayed, but oh well!
Robyn & Jess Reunited in Paris!
Best event of January: Jess' arrival! She's my best friend from high school, and we haven't seen each other in ages...until she came to spend 9 days with me here in Paris! She arrived on Friday Jan. 12 from Philadelphia, and after I picked her up at Charles de Gaulle we launched right into our week together by heading to the Eiffel Tower right after dropping her bags at my apartment. Good thing we went there first, because we had about 20 minutes of blue-sky background for picture-taking, and then the clouds rolled in and we saw no more sun in Paris during her visit. That was too bad, but we had a blast anyway. Can't expect much better from Paris in January.
Friday afternoon we went shopping and "did the soldes" - (french word for "sales") which are world-famous for their amazing discounts. As you can imagine, things don't come cheap in Paris (unless you go to the flea market or Montmartre!) and so when the soldes begin on January 10, "c'est la folie!" (It's craziness!) They are biannual and
On the bench in front of the chateau
Enjoying a hot lunch straight from the street market! controlled by the government, and last anywhere from 2-6 weeks. I let a couple days go by before trying to tackle the swarms of bargain-seeking women and girls, so Friday night with Jess was my first real excursion. (Yes, I said first...they are hard to avoid and I've been back 2 more times!) I was on the hunt for a pair of brown, flat-heeled boots and...surprise surprise...I found some! Yay. It's helps when you hit the rue de Rennes and every other shop is a shoestore. (Or a Burberry, Prada, or Zara). So that was a thoroughly enjoyable outing, shared with Yazi and Dorothy, and later that night Jess and I headed up to Montmartre. We saw the Sacre Coeur all illuminated; found a great little raclette restaurant and shared a bottle of wine while chatting to our super-nice server; and finished off the night by strolling the Boulevarde de Clichy. No better way to show off all of Paris' facets than to do the Eiffel Tower, go shopping, and peruse the seamy nightlife of Montmartre all in one day! Jess was amazing...I don't know how she stayed on her feet!
Saturday started out boring (school course registrations) but
View of Caen
Seen from the castle ramparts improved rapidly when we went to the marche aux puces at Clignancourt (flea market) in the afternoon. We definitely had fun there, and we each managed to find a great pair of boots- for 20 euro each! I love Clignancourt. Other acquisitions included matching sweaters, mittens and a purse for Robyn, and a thrilling umbrella. (Jk.) Suffice it to say that we found good bargains. That night we went bar-hopping in the Latin Quarter and even managed to find the Eagles game (LIVE!) on TV at an Irish pub. Alas, it was the playoff game we lost to the Saints, but it was still cool to watch live. There was this french couple that spent more time watching the two of US watch the game and cheer like crazy people than they did actually watching the game itself- we must have been quite an unusual sight. (Girls don't watch football here!)
Caen
Sunday morning we got up WAY too early and took the train from Saint-Lazare up to Caen, on the Normandy coast. It is the capital of Basse Normandie- Lower Normandy- and is very close to the D-Day beaches. Caen is an ancient city where William the
Conquerer built his castle, and he and his queen are buried in the Abbaye aux Hommes there. The Abbaye aux Femmes is also very well-known, and we visited both Sunday afternoon. Amusing anecdote: both abbeys were built by the King and Queen as a sign of penitence for having married each other against the will of the Pope (they were second cousins). They both established Benedictine orders in their abbeys and for hundreds of years they were very active. Today the Abbaye aux Hommes houses the Marie (town hall) and we were able to take a free guided tour, which I highly recommend for those who have the opportunity to go there. The abbey was used as a boys' school for about 130 years from around 1830-1960, and during WWII it sheltered 7000 refugees from Caen whose houses were bombed during the Allied assault preceding the invasion. It was probably due only to the presence of these refugees that the abbey itself (and the cathedrale St. Etienne next to it) were saved from destruction. Roughly 75% of the city was razed!!! That's why, despite its age, Caen has a much more modern, 1960s look (like Reims) than some other French
cities, such as Rouen, Bordeaux, or Strasbourg.
On Sunday afternoon we also visited the Chateau Ducal (William the Conquerer's castle) which perches on a hill right above the city (which is not very big, btw). Built 1000 years ago, the interior of the castle is in ruins, but you can still walk on the ramparts, which we did. We also visited the Musee de Normandie which is located inside the walls and that was pretty good. Local history, culture, agriculture, industry, etc. A fun day! Best of all, the sky was BRILLIANTLY blue all day- and Monday too! That's AMAZING for Normandy in the winter. (Even in the summer.) Normandy has a very English climate, which means you cannot BUY a day like that. So we really lucked out!
D-Day Beaches
On Monday we took a private tour of the D-Day beaches (Plages de debarquement) guided by a nice older guy named D.J. (??? He's french- must stand for something). He works for a company called Gold Beach Evasion, which I recommend if you're looking for activities in the area! In addition to tours, they do ultralight flights, paintball, 4-wheelers, and a host of cool stuff- but
better done in the summer! It was freezing but beautiful that morning, and we saw the sun rise over Juno Beach at the new Canadian memorial museum; visited the artillery long-range guns above Gold Beach (aka the batterie at Longues sur Mer, a French conquest); stopped in the little picturesque town of Arromanches and saw its artificial port; continued on to the American Cemetary at Colleville; saw the Pointe du Hoc which overlooks Omaha and Utah beaches; and ended our tour in the town of Bayeux just inland from the coast.
The countryside itself was absolutely beautiful, and in the clear, cold light of dawn, it was hard to reconcile the serene terrain with the terrible carnage that consumed the territory during the D-Day invasions. However, when you stand on a hill and look down onto the flat, wide, exposed beaches that the Allied forces had to debark on, you can imagine how terribly vulnerable the soldiers were. We owe those men so much for having had the courage to persevere in the face of such daunting odds, and I really appreciated the opportunity to visit the American cemetary and pay my respects to the 20,000 American soldiers who
are buried there. Just as when I went to the WWI cemeteries in Ypres, Belgium so many years ago, I was profoundly moved by the profound dignity, the serenity, and the echo of selfless bravery that seems to resonate from the silent rows of crosses. I'll take this opportunity to thank, once again, all the men and women who fought in WWII to protect America and the European people, and all those who have fought in successive wars in the name of democracy, freedom, and American patriotism. Regardless of the political context of a war, putting your life on the line for your country is an enormous sacrifice, and we are fortunate to have such a professional fighting force to protect us, whatever the threat. I'm no fan of the war in Iraq, but I am nonetheless deeply respectful of the soldiers serving over there, and I hope that a resolution will be found soon so that they no longer have to die in a country far from their homes and families. Let's hope that our new Congress can achieve what Bush has not been able to do- stabilize a democratic Iraq and bring our troops home.
In conclusion,
Abbaye aux Hommes
Erstwhile Benedictine monastary, monarch's tomb, boy's school, refugee shelter, and current town hall. Quite a history! both Jess and I were really moved by our visit to the Normandy coasts, and I recommend it for all Americans spending an extended period of time in France. We returned to Paris Monday night (just in time for my Monde arabe lecture) exhausted but happy- and newly reflective, maybe.
Back in Paris
The rest of Jess' stay here was a flurry of activity that flew by WAY to fast. On Tuesday and Wednesday she did a whirlwind tour of all the major tourist destinations in Paris, and on Thursday we went out to visit the Chateau de Versailles. (Always impressive). Wednesday night we went to see the opera "Don Giovanni" (Don Juan) at the Opera Bastille with my classmates from my "Discovery of the Opera" class. Gerard Mortier, the Director of the National Opera, had previously come to speak to our class and promised us free tickets to a show, so...low and behold, there we were in the 2nd row watching an open recital of the opera! Granted, it was a recital, but we both enjoyed it. (Thanks to subtitles!) The music was good and the staging innovative (a modern skyscraper office-building), and Don Giovanni came across
Inside the abbey cathedral
We got to watch a concert choir and organ concert here! I've been pretty lucky with watching free cathedral concerts so far in France... as a timeless personality- someone you could recognize on the streets today, not simply a classical character relegated to mythology. This version was a lot more sexually and physically violent than the play that I saw in Washington, DC last year, but I thought that gave it an extra dynamism that really made it hard-hitting. One thing I really liked was the relationship between Don Giovanni and his servant Leporello, who is frequently portrayed as a subsequient baffoon, but in this version served as a foil and counterbalance to Don Giovanni, a sort of confidant and critic.
OK, sorry for the little artistic detour. Bref, Friday (our last day together) arrived before we knew it, and we spent it the best way possible...5 hours of shopping in the amazing Galleries Lafayettes! (Think Macy's New York, or maybe Saks Fifth Ave). The soldes were irrestible, and everything we got was 30%, 40%, or 50% off...can't argue with that! I, typically, could not resist anything, and my favorite purchase of the day was a gorgeous new charcoal-gray double-brested wool/cashmere winter coat and a matching scarf. Bad, bad, bad Robyn...but it is SO nice! I'm including a picture so you can all
In front of the new Canadian Memorial
Stop #1 on our 5-hour tour of the Norman coasts. Juno Beach. see. (As if you care, lol).
Friday night we went out and hit my favorite new hole-in-the-wall bar, Objectif Lune (discovered in the Bastille quarter after our opera visit!), and then went to Favela Chic and spent the night dancing with about 8 friends of mine. It was, effectively, my 21st birthday celebration, a month or so late. It was great! Needless to say, we were both exhausted the next morning, which was fine for Jess (took her to the airport and she slept all the way home!) and for me (sat on the couch all weekend and researched my global warming expose). Now I'm home free and have nothing more to turn in...hooray! I forsee an awesome end to a great January. I never thought I'd call January great...but this one was about the best it gets!
Until the next blog...
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Jess
non-member comment
You didn't put on a picture of your jacket!