The continuing adventures of the Phillips in France

Monday, April 14 - Thursday, April 17
We apologize for taking so long to post a blog. The last few days have been extremely hectic and very tiring. It turns out that we arrived in Paris during the Spring Holiday. Monday started with a visit to the Notre Dame Cathedral. We realize that we have talked about the major cathedrals of Europe to the point that you are probably bored to death. To be brief, the inside of Notre Dame is every bit as impressive as the other major cathedrals we have visited. The outside, however, is architecturally more beautiful than all the others. It has a lightness to it that the others don't. After seeing the inside, Tim and the Phillips went outside and got in line to take the steps up to the top of one of the tours. Lynda remained inside the cathedral, renting an audio guide. After an hour in line and very little movement, we gave up on the tower tour, found Lynda and set off for lunch. There are two small islands in the River Seine; Isle de Citi where Notre Dame is located and Isle de St. Louis, a smaller island upstream from Isle de Citi and connected to Isle de Citi by bridge. After passing up many over priced cafes on Isle de St. Louis we found a bar that served sandwiches. While the owner of the bar was very friendly and extremely entertaining, his cooking skills were lacking. Tim's 93 year old father could have made better sandwiches. All was not lost. We found excellent ice cream.
The next stop was the Louvre, the home of many kings of France and now the home of one of the greatest art galleries in the world. Arguably, one of the world's most well-known paintings, Michelangelo's Mona Lisa, is located in the Louvre. As usual, we think, every one in the Louvre was trying to see this painting at the same time. The Mona Lisa is a mesmerizing painting and, despite the throngs of people jostling to see her, she managed to maintain her enigmatic smile. After viewing the Mona Lisa, JIl and Rob took Madi and we took Jocey to further explore the Louvre. Jocey has been studying ancient Egypt in school so she was anxious to see the ancient Egyptian art. We hadn't explored this part of the gallery before so found it of interest, but especially were amazed at the knowledge that Jocey demonstrated of the art we were viewing. Just ask her about the Hamurabi Code when you see her next! Because of the throngs of people in the gallery we were not able to enjoy the Louvre as much as we had on previous visits. This was to become a common theme for the week.
Rob, Madi, Jocey and Lynda were very interested in visiting the Paris catacombs where the remains of the dead were placed before the use of cemeteries. So Tuesday morning they set off to visit the catacombs. Tim and Jil stayed in the apartment for an hour reading and then set off to Montparnasse where the catacombs are located to meet up with our merry band of ghouls when they exited the catacombs. Unfortunately we found them still in line and nowhere near the front. The next hour was spent trading off holding our place in line while others found lunch. Eventually Jil decided to visit the catacombs. Tim had no interest in them and instead went back to the St.Germain area near our apartment to visit the many art galleries located there. Once we met back up at the apartment we discovered that the Phillips and Lynda had seen a bunch of neat bones and Tim had seen a bunch of neat art.
You may recall from a previous post that we went up to Montmarte to eat at a Raclette restaurant that we had enjoyed several times on previous trips. Unfortunately it was closed, but we found a similar restaurant near our apartment and enjoyed an excellent and fun meal there on Tuesday night. After dinner we went back to the Eiffel Tower for our third attempt to go to the top. We only had a 45 minute wait in line before getting on the elevator for the trip up. Trust us; This was a short wait. We thought it would be very cool to see Paris after dark at the top of the tower. Unfortunately, the only cool thing about it was the temperature. The lights were not as spectacular as we thought they would be and the huge press of people made it less then enjoyable. This was sad because we had enjoyed a trip up the tower with Lynda's brother and sister in law several years ago that was both breathtaking and enjoyable.
Wednesday was a lost day. The plan was for Tim to go to the airport and pick up a rental van, pick up the rest of the family and head for Mont St. Michel, arriving there in mid afternoon, Problems began when the minivan Tim had reserved was not big enough. He was able to get a larger van but an hour was lost in the meantime. This would not have been a catastrophe had we not run into a major traffic backup on the expressway caused by either an accident or roadwork. We finally exited the expressway after two hours of stop and go driving. We scraped the plans for Mont St. Michel and went directly to our reserved rooms at a hotel in St.Lo. Food and wine at a brasserie in St. Lo restored our spirits.
We chose St. Lo as our base for exploring both Mont St. Michel and the Normandy beaches. Tim's father has talked for years of going through St. Lo after landing at Normandy during World War II. Five years ago, Tim toured the Normandy beaches with the Holland American Legion Band on the occasion of the 65th anniversary of the D-Day landings. The band had been based in St. Lo. Thursday's agenda was a history lesson on D-Day. The first stop was Ste. Mere Eglise. The first wave of the invasion were paratroopers dropping into Normandy to try to cut lines of communication. One of the paratrooper's parachutes entangled itself on the steeple of the church in Ste. Mere Eglise. This paratrooper hung from the steeple for hours watching the fighting below him before finally being rescued. To this day there is a replica paratrooper hanging from the church steeple in Ste. Mere Eglise. Incidentally, Ste. Mere Eglise was the first city liberated by the Allies after the landing in Normandy. Our next stop was Utah Beach where Tim's father landed during the war. Our drive to Utah Beach and further on to the other beaches took us through beautiful little villages and lovely country side. As lovely as the countryside was, we could see that it was difficult terrain for the Allies to advance through. From Utah Beach we traveled on to Point du Hoc. This was where the American ranger units had to climb up very steep cliffs in order to neutralize Nazi gun emplacements in this highly strategic location. The sight at Point du Hoc still contains many Nazi bunkers and there are many craters from the shelling the Allies made on this location. From Point du Hoc it was on to the American Cemetery at Omaha Beach. It is difficult to describe what a meaningful experience this was. The cemetery sits atop a bluff overlooking Utah Beach. We have visited many American military cemeteries, all of them beautiful and beautifully maintained. This may be the finest of them all. The American Cemetery in Normandy contains the remains of over 9000 soldiers who died in battle, 1500 being "known only to God". Today was cloudless with little wind, adding to the incredible atmosphere. Our last stop was Arromanches. Arromanches is where the Allies established a temporary harbor and docks once the beachhead was secured to bring in the necessary supplies to support the further invasion of France. Many of the these "temporary structures" still remain. While Tim and Jil were strolling on the walk overlooking the beach in Arromanches, they discussed what a meaningful day it had been. They both wondered it Madi and Jocey understood the import of what they had seen and agreed someday they would