Normandy
Carlyn and Cari's Web Page
Carlyn and Cari's Guest book
Venice in November
Spain with Lin and Monica
The Louvre and Monet's House and Garden, September 2009
Disneyland Paris- The end to my month long 50th birthday celebration
London Skyride- September 20, 2009
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Switzerland- July 2009
Carlyn's Birthweek 2009- Fun, Food and Henry VIII
Sailing Trip on the Solent of the English Channel, June 2009
Istanbul, Turkey- May 2009
Aberdeen with Jacky and Steve
The Loire Valley with Mom and Sheri
Budapest, April 2009
The German Christmas Markets with Joyce, December 2008
The Lord Mayor Show, November 8, 2008
Madrid and Andalucia, October 2008
Krakow, Poland- September 2008
Cari's Birthweek- Germany
Dinner at Muspatts Farm celebrating Carlyn's
Italy, June 2008
The Lake District- May 2008
York- May Day Holiday Weekend 2008
Cornwall and Wales- Page 1
Cornwall and Wales- Page 2
Hever Castle
Blemhein Palace
Hastings and Battle- 1066 Country
Brighton
German Christmas Market
Fall in Provence
Paris in a Day
Visitors at Parliament Square
Amsterdam and Kuekenhof
The South West "Jurassic" Coast
Cambridge
Christmas and Canterbury
Normandy
Austria
Prague, Czech Republic
Belgium break
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Blog
Normandy March 2008
We spent Easter weekend with our friends Rhonda and Georgia for the second year in a row, but this time in
Cathédral Notre-Dame- The cathedral was consecrated on July 14, 1077 in the presence of William, the King of England and Duke of Normandy. The original building was Romanesque in style and held the tapestry hanging in the nave.
With a Norman in the Bayeux Tapestry Museum. The ancient Bayeux Tapestry (Tapisserie de Bayeux). A few years after the Battle of Hastings, Bishop Odo of Bayeux commissioned a work of embroidery to hang in the town's cathedral. It was made in ten years time, from 1070-1080, by English nuns. It is 230 feet long and about 3 feet high and is made of wool embroidered onto linen. The story of the battle and the events that led up to it is told in a series of 58 individual scenes. much like a comic book story.
Where the Tapestry is housed
American Cemetery of Colleville extends over 172.5 acres, and is one of fourteen permanent American World War II cemeteries constructed on foreign soil. It contains the remains of 9387 servicemen and women.
Cider and Calvadoes tasting. Throughout history the apple has been a pillar in the economic and cultural welfare of Normandy. Cider and calvados have traditionally been produced on the farm in Normandy since the Middle-Ages. Many ancient cider presses with circular millstones made of granite can still be seen throughout the Normandy countryside.
The main feature of the Memorial is a 22 foot bronze statue "The Sprit of American Youth Rising From The Waves". Either side of this are huge wall maps showing the campaign in the European Theatre of Operations (ETO).
Looking from the bunker at WN 73- (wiederstandnest- meaning German weapons strong point emplacements) the German’s final defensive position on Omaha Beach. It's 75mm field gun that pointed eastward could cover entire length of beach.
Me being dwarfed by a crater on Utah beach caused by allied bombings the day before the D-Day invasion. The bombings eliminated many WN’s making it safer for landing by paratroopers and by sea on the Beach.
A view of The Pointe du Hoc-the 2nd Rangers Battalion under the command of LTC James E. RUDDER scaled the 100-foot cliff. Admiral Hall’s Intelligence officer remarked: “ It can’t be done. Three old women with brooms could stop the Rangers scaling that cliff!”
The liberation of Carentan…Our guide shows us a photo from July 9, 1949, the first town to be liberated in France after the D-Day invasion. Little has changed in the village since then. Carentan was one of the principal objectives of the 101st Airborne. Carentan was the meeting juncture for two American Corps.
Sainte Mere Eglise is one of the most memorable places depicted in the famous movie- The Longest Day. Pictured is the famous church tower upon which the American paratrooper John Steele landed and became entangled as he parachuted into Normandy on June 6th. Click on the picture so you can see the mannequin of Steele hanging with a parachute on the church tower to commemorate his courageous jump.
Approching Mont St.Michel. What makes this monument striking, and the destination of so many visitors in the past twelve centuries, is its magnificent, almost arrogant location. Mont St. Michel is a small quasi-island, separated by approximately one kilometer of waves from the mainland at high tide. It is about one kilometer in diameter and about 80 meters high, jutting defiantly above the ocean.
Carlyn and I pause for a picture on the pedestrian path that leads to the Abby at Mont St.Michel. The path is lined with shops and food stalls as well as the Parish Church of St.Michel.
In the early eighth century, the Archangel Michael appeared to Bishop Aubert of Avranges, who started an oratory. In 966, a Benedictine monastery was established. In 1020, Richard II began the Abbey Church, and supported Abbot Hildebert's construction efforts. Over time, the spiritual foundations of the abbey waned, and in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries it was used as a prison. In 1874, the French government assumed responsibility for the abbey's upkeep and restoration
Rhonda, Georgia and I enjoying Breakfast and Easter Eggs from the Easter Lapin on Easter morning
A view from the cloisters in the Abby
Our surprise Easter snow shower. Click on picture for better viewing!
Our most humble accommodations at the Hotel Tardif in Bayeux
The surviving bit of the original tower where Joan of Arc was imprisoned fromDecember 25, 1403- May 30, 1431
“Le Gros Horloge”, or The Big Clock The Big Clock divides Rouen’s most famous street in two. It is a pleasure to stroll down this quaint street with so much old world charm.
Carlyn at the sight of her name sakes (Carlyn JOAN Klemm) execution. On this sight May 30, 1431, Joan of Arc was burned at the stake, like any other “witch” would be. It was a horrified crowd that assembled on the Place du Vieux-Marché and bore witness to the ignominy of such an execution. France changed after that day. The English were booted out of the country, and for the first time in French history a true feeling of patriotic unity developed.
Chocolate shop featuring chocolate Lapin as only the French patisserie can do.
Rouen Cathederal on a dreary Easter afternoon
Gargoyles looming over the side of the Palace of Justice in Rouen
Half-timbered houses in Rouen
During the 1890’s Claude Monet worked on a series of painting of the façade of Rouen Cathedral. Click on this web site to see the series http://www.mcah.columbia.edu/monet/swf/
Painter at the Musee des Beaux-Arts where the collection, one of the largest in France, includes 17th works from Caravaggio, Velázquez, Poussin. The 19th century is particularly well-represented where one room is devoted to Géricault the most important Impressionist collection outside Paris, with famous works by Monet and Sisley.
the famous Escalier de la Librairie (Booksellers' Stairway), attributed to Guillaume Pontifs, rises from a tiny balcony is adorned with a stained-glass rose window that dates in part from the 1500s
Bayeux Cathedral at dusk
Aître St. Maclou, a collection of buildings from the 15th century arranged around a courtyard which had formerly been used as a burial ground during the Black Death of 1348, when two-thirds of the neighborhood's population died. The carvings on the wooden timbers reflected this with macabre skulls, bones and tools of the grave digger – shovels, picks and axes.
