Blogs from Upper Normandy, France, Europe - page 8

Photos from Day 4, Rouen Ah, Rouen, my favorite place. Loved the feel of this place, and the way the French pronounce the name. Some would say "Wahn," while others rolled an R at the beginning, and only rarely would you hear two syllables. We arrived here mid morning giving me a chance to ride on deck to watch our ship sailing under the Gustave Flaubert Bridge where we made a U-turn to dock facing back down the Seine. Of course, I wasn't able to get any great shots of it –the gallery has photo 4, but if the reader would like a few more, just ask or look it up online. The tide clock in photo 5 was right outside our stateroom and there was a brasserie right next to it. Our group met our ... read more

Well Suzy is not quite in Forges les Eaux but that's the nearest place I can find to Neufchatel en Bray . So it will have to do. We set out fairly lateish in the morning from Amboise. We were not travelling far today. Some days you feel like eating the miles up but today heading for the Channel Tunnel there didn't seem that much urgency about our travel. It feels very different setting out knowing you have a whole holiday ahead of you. Coming back there is a sense of sadness knowing it's all over. All that's left are the last few miles to the tunnel and the long drive home. The pile of mail on the doorstep, the dust all over the house, Suzy to be cleaned and scrubbed up, the same old view ... read more

Geo: 49.4424, 1.09849Up with breakfast at the hotel and out the door by 7:30am. Metro to St. Lazare station, got our ticket activated and went on the train, first class. We're big shots so few people were in our carriage. We had another mishap in Rouen. We got to our first station. I was in the bathroom and Al only had one gentleman to ask if we were in the right station. Unfortunately, he only spoke French and I was not there. Al thought he said next station. Haha. WRONG. That was the train station..so now we are on the training heading away from Rouen but with the luck of God stepping in, the train in front of us had engine problems and stopping our train at a "off the wall" stop. We found out there ... read more

Okay- its history test time! How many of you know why the French city of Dieppe is so important to Canadians (I will give you a hint - it has to do with World War II)? Okay, times up! It was the site of the first Allied invasion of France almost 2 years before the Normandy invasion. Never heard of it? Well, neither had we before we arrived here after a very quiet passage from Fecamp. Dieppe was the site of what was called the Dieppe Raid. On August 19, 1942, 6,000 soldiers embarked from southern England made up of 5,000 Canadians, 50 American Rangers, 20 Free French soldiers and almost 1,000 British. The objective was to test the ability of allied forces to seize a harbor intact. Some considered this a critical step in the ... read more

Let the Vacations Begin! It’s been awhile since I’ve written something, so I thought I’d go ahead and word-vomit forth a series of words, hoping they land in a way than can be interpreted as intelligent thought. Last time I wrote something we were on the ferry returning from England (wow that seems like such a long time ago!) The two weeks after that went by relatively smoothly. I cut my haircut for the first time in another country/language and that was a bit interesting. I walked in, told them I wanted a haircut and the first thing they do is send me back to wash/condition my hair (uncommon for males), which was quickly followed by a head massage. Now I was kind of nervous walking into this situation, I had no idea about the kind ... read more