We are now (Thursday, May 20) docked in Caudebec, a nice little town which has been rebuilt since World War II. The buildings are very 1950ish and there is virtually nothing that survived from before the war. This is a bit closer to the coast and a very pretty bus ride to Honfleur, a picturesque artsy/touristy harbor town. We took a beautiful route through the Normandy countryside for the hour trip to Honfleur on a road that our guide called the “way of the thatched roofs.” We went through several little settlements that were almost entirely the little homes with thatched roofs and lots of fields of cows and sheep and poultry… definitely seemed to be a trip back in time to a very idyllic pastoral time. Flowers overflowed from window boxes and every town had the requisite butcher shop, pastry shop, and small grocery. Very, very quaint… but I guess I didn’t take any pictures out the bus window.
Honfleur has a harbor basin which reflects the cafes that border it and the masted vessels that are docked there. Since it is so picturesque, it is a common subject for artists, both in the past and presently, and apparently also for photographers!

Our tour included an unusual wooden church with twin sanctuaries and a plaque and monument noting the fact that it was the site where Samuel de Champlain left for his voyage of discovery to present Quebec.

We could have stayed to have lunch at one of those harbor

side cafes, but opted instead to return to Caudebec to do a little exploring. We needed to be back at the boat later in the afternoon, as we were starting our rather long journey back toward Paris. It was pleasant to sit on the sun deck and watch the scenery go by.

Joan of Arc and Monet

Okay, I'm writing this on June 24th, but I'm going to be talking about our day in Rouen, which was Wednesday, May 19th. Apparently Rouen is a large industrial city, but our boat was docked on the north shore of the Seine near the restored historic area of the city and it was easy to walk to a variety of sites. We started with a guided tour that took us to the Rouen Notre Dame Cathedral, which Monet painted repeatedly in different light.

We had seen a half dozen of these paintings when we visited the D'Orsay Museum in Paris.

Surrounding the cathedral were many medieval structures including a secluded courtyard where the bodies of plague victims were gathered for burial. Skulls and crossbones were carved into the beams of these buildings as a kind of macabre reminder.

The cathedral was an important resting place for Richard Lionheart's heart and also was the site where Joan of Arc was declared a heretic and ordered to be burned at the stake in 1431. It is also a good example of Gothic Flamboyant architecture, and the nearby Palace of Justice is an even prettier display of this architectural style, as it has been recently cleaned. Many historic sites in France are covered with

hundreds of years of grime, and it is a treat to see one that has been restored so nicely.

An easy walk brought us to this medieval great clock and the historic market place which has a treasure of fine half-timbered buildings housing stores and quaint restaurants.

This area is also the site of a more modern church built in honor of Joan of Arc on the site where she died.

We had a very relaxed day, with plenty of time to wander and explore on our own. One charming thing that we saw was this dog who was babysitting this bunny who was leashed to his paw.

The longest day...

Tuesday, May 18th, was our only full day "field trip" to the Normandy coast and the sites of the D-Day invasion of WW II. Our ship was docked at Rouen and we were transported on the 1 1/2 hour trip to the Normandy coast. It was a pretty trip through lots of rolling farmland... many golden fields of canola, green wheat fields, and lots of grazing Normandy cows. I guess I didn't really take any pictures of the countryside...

Our first stop was Golden Beach (Arromanches), one of the allied landing sites, then on to Bayeux where we viewed the 11th century tapestries which graphically portrayed the history surrounding the Battle of Hastings (1066... William the Conqueror). Since I am a fan of fabric and needlework, I was really captivated by this huge embroidery which is in amazingly great condition. It is 230 feet long and contains 58 panels and tells a dramatic story with interesting detail and even some humor. We had an audio device which helped us to pick up on some of the details and follow the story, which is presented in manner similar to a comic strip with each panel adding to the what has come before. Bayeux itself is a pretty little medieval town and of course it has an impressive looking cathedral and it also has lots of cute little restaurants and creperies, so we were able to take some time to wander and eat lunch there.

Then on to the landing site at Omaha Beach. There was a guide on each bus who recalled the relevant history. The woman who was our guide was a French woman from the region who was born in 1944, just after the Allied landing, and she had lots of family stories about incidents just before and after her birth. As always, the guides were an excellent source of information and added so much to our experience.

Our final stop was at the American Cemetery at Colleville sur Mer. We had time to wander the gravesites... nearly 10,000 crosses and stars of David... marking the soldiers who were buried there. There was also an excellent interpretive center with very moving films and displays.

Our cruise line, Uniworld, participates in a charity to place flowers of remembrance on graves, so we were each given a rose to place by a grave of our choice. It was numbing to walk among the markers, read names, dates and home states. I ended up chosing to place my rose on a marker signifying an "unknown." The marker reads: Here rests in honored glory a comrade in arms known but to God.

It was a long day, but followed by a wonderful dinner on board and a second night docked at Rouen, which was our city to explore tomorrow.

Back to the 12th Century...

We left Paris as we ate our first dinner on board and cruised along the Seine, going through several locks. It was pleasant to sit on the sun deck for a while in the evening and when we awoke, we could see the white cliffs of Normandy as we docked in Les Andelys on Monday morning. I believe we were about 50 miles from Paris. I had not realized it, but the Seine is not a straight river, it snakes back and forth a lot between Paris and the Normandy coast.

Les Andelys is a quaint medieval town with the remains of Richard Lionheart's castle, Chateau Gaillard, looming on a promontory above. There is also a church in the village that dates to 1199, the year that Gaillard was completed.

Our outing for the morning was a walk up to the castle remains with a wonderful guide who was able to recreate the era of Richard Lionheart and the knights of the crusades and help us imagine what the castle looked like back then. He was also very knowledgeable about the geology, architecture, and just about any other topic that people had questions about. He also took us through the historic church in the village.

This is a view looking down toward the river from the castle. Notice our boat docked on the bank to the right. You can also see the white chalk cliffs that are characteristic of this region.

We had a fair amount of free time to explore and we even took the bikes out for a little ride before it was time to set sail again.

This is another nice view of the castle ruins.

Another day in Paris...

Okay, back to the trip to France. This is day three, Sunday, May 16th. I have to admit, after our whirlwind day of sight-seeing the day before, we sort of overslept! In fact, we may still be sleeping, except for the fact that someone accidentally called our hotel room and woke us up!

Never fear. We had plenty of time to enjoy the wonderful breakfast buffet and then do a little local sight seeing before the noontime bus that took us to our boat.

In Montparnasse, just a short walk from our hotel, there is a 58 story building with a roof top observation deck. Since we were discouraged by the reports of long waits to go up the Eiffel Tower and we were blessed with a nice clear morning, we decided to go to the top of the Montparnasse Tower to check out the views.

We could see in all directions, but I'm including some scenes that show the skyline of Paris and the Eiffel Tower, since that's the most recognized symbol of the city.

Up on the roof, we had some fun with the tower!

Then we were transported by bus to our boat, the River Baroness, which was docked just down (or is it up?)river from the Eiffel Tower.

From the bridge over the Seine that was right near where our boat was docked, I took this picture which juxtaposes the Eiffel Tower with the Statue of Liberty. That was a pretty sight!

Segway adventure!

I'm going to interrupt my story about our trip to France in order to share a couple of photos from today's segway adventure at the Biltmore Estate.

My friend and I have been talking about using the segways for a

l-o-n-g time and today was finally "the day." After signing our lives away, our group of 6 got some patient instruction. Here's my friend getting oriented. There are two practice areas where maneuvers are learned and practiced at a conservative speed of 6 MPH. Note that our segways have wide "off road" tires. We learned that there are segways with narrower tires that are used on city sidewalk conditions... kind of like mountain bikes vs. road bikes.

Once we got comfortable with the vehicles, our leader reset them to go 12.5 MPH for our exploration of some of the trails on the estate. Here we are near the lagoon with the Biltmore House in the distance.

It was tons of fun!