Invitation to France 2 of 5
grocery carts with specially designed wheels that permitted a continuous line of departing customers to easily maneuver the moving sidewalk, that slopes from the second story down to street level.
One of the newest shopping spots is the luxury Galleries du Carrousel beneath the Louvre. Huddled among the La Défense apartments and office towers, the La Défense shopping center is a covered mall with maybe 200 stores. But the design is more like a showy warehouse, not at all like a fancy shopping mall in the US.
There are more than 300 very distinctive shopping arcades in Paris, many built in the 1700s and 1800s. These are shopping streets with a roof, very different from a shopping mall in the US. For example, the Passage Choiseul, built in 1825 between the Opéra and the Bibliothéque National, is a long tunnel of commerce, enclosed and glass-roofed. The Galleria in Milan, Burlington Arcade in London, others in Brussels, Rome, and even the Bazaar in Istanbul all predate shopping malls in the US. While these shopping arcades are not as elaborate, and not as large as a mall in the US (except for the 4,000 stall Bazaar in Istanbul), they add color to an interesting city.
More and more shopping centers in France are built along the lines of a mall in the US, and while most older grocery stores in France are small, huge new stores are appearing more and more. Several years ago we visited a grocery store on the south side of Paris that had 52 check stands, each and every one manned and busy on a Saturday morning. Thirty to forty check-stands in a new grocery store are more the norm than the exception; a store with a dozen cash registers in the US is considered large.
An Englishman who once lived in Paris said, “I fervently hope that Paris will remain basically a city of small, individual shops run by evil-tempered old ladies, however inefficient they may be and whatever price gouging goes on within their cluttered walls.”
UP - SCALE ANTIQUES
In contrast to the Marché Aux Puces, elegant and exclusive shops throughout Paris are bursting with fine antique objects. The Louvre Métro Station platform is decorated with museum objects from the nearby Musée du Louvre, and at the Louvre Métro Station entrance, three floors of the Louvre des Antiquaires house 250 antique dealers who offer all categories of collectibles in attractive glass front shops. The dealers specialize according to type of object, and furniture, jewelry, paintings, archeological artifacts, rare books and more are found in this treasure house. The management sets high standards, so this building is well worth the time, even for those who aren’t buyers of expensive antiques.
Exclusive shops, filled with beautiful antiques, are located at Le Village Suisse, near the Ecole Militaire, a few blocks from the Eiffel Tower. Other establishments, with similar groupings of dealers, can be found on both sides of the Seine, and antique auctions are held at dealer locations throughout Paris. One thing, antiques that are 100 years or older can be brought into the US, duty free.
GOOD - BYE TO PARIS
Only a small number of the tourist attractions in Paris have been mentioned here. With very few exceptions we don’t discus anything we haven’t seen, and not a lot of our time is spent in the parks and gardens, the uncounted museums, and we haven’t seen all the principal monuments. A library, a book store and the French Tourist Office, can supply the needed detailed information. A tour of the gardens of the Luxembourg Palace (now the home of the French Senate), a visit to St. Germain des Prés Church (oldest in Paris), and visits to dozens of museums, other churches and palaces, the cemeteries, sewers and the catacombs of Paris, can keep the tourist busy for weeks.
No matter how often we have walked along the bank of the Seine, sauntered the Champs Elysées, climbed the steep stairways of Montmartre, there is always some fine detail, some small grace note, we never noticed before. But we must leave Paris for other places we want to tell about in the beautiful country of France. We have covered some of the places in Paris that interest us the most, but Paris is a city of endless fascinations. Here the traveler always finds special places to call their very own.
Chapter 4
Near Paris
NEAR PARIS
The suburbs of Paris crowd the city from all directions. Many were separate cities way out in the countryside at one time, but the whole area just “growed and growed,” and the streets and towns don’t always fit together. We had to do a lot of twisting and turning as we ventured from place to place, but it was well worth our effort.
%VERSAILLES
The Palace at Versailles, fourteen miles southwest of Paris, is the greatest Châteaux of them all. The kings of France were extravagant and spent so much money that this palace was a key target during the French Revolution. Versailles became world famous, and in Munich, Vienna, in Tokyo, in Saint Petersburg, and in other cities, monarchs created their own scaled-down version of the Palace at Versailles.
In the early 1600s Louis XIII bought a manor farm and constructed a hunting lodge. The resulting brick and stone Châteaux is still seen on three sides of the Marble Court, near the entrance to the palace. Louis XIV, France’s Sun King, became king at the age of four, and had the longest reign of any king in European history (1643-1715). Starting after 1661, as a result of terrible childhood memories of Paris, he moved to Versailles and proceeded to far outstrip the previous builders.
By 1678, he had 36,000 workmen and 6,000 horses busy building his palace. They diverted a river to supply water for the Grand and the Petit Canals and the 1,400 fountains, to water the 150,000 bedding plants and the thousands of orange, pomegranate, and other trees and plants in the gardens.
In the mid-1700s Versailles was the biggest and busiest palace in Europe. At one time 20,000 people lived in what they called the “Court.” In addition to 9,000 soldiers and 5,000 servants, a thousand nobles and their 4,000 servants made Versailles their home, along with another thousand nobles who hung around hoping the king would notice them. The King could keep an eye on them if they were at Versailles. If they were in Paris, perhaps they would conspire against him.
After King Louis XVI was executed by the guillotine at Place de la Concorde in January 1793, Versailles fell into disrepair, and was almost abandoned. Restoration took many years and was helped by a munificent gift by John D. Rockefeller soon after WW I.
The Chapel in Versailles (completed in 1710), the fifth chapel built on the castle grounds, is a truly beautiful church. Its elegant proportions, its rich gold and white decorations and multi-colored marble paving, make it a perfect jewel. The Royal Chapel is two stories high; the galleries on the upper level were used by the king and the royal family; the ground floor level was where the rest of the court and the general public were admitted. In an earlier chapel, Louis XIV attended mass almost daily, and while he was in the chapel, any citizen had the right to present their problem, and ask his help.
The Galerie des Glaces (Hall of Mirrors), one of the most famous chambers in the world, is 246 feet long by 33 feet wide with mirrors on one wall, and windows overlooking the beautiful gardens on the other. At one time thirty–two silver chandeliers hung in this hall, each with dozens of candles, but most of the chandeliers were destroyed when the peasants took over the palace at the start of the Revolution. This was the site for the signing of the Versailles Treaty, the end of WW I.
The Palace at Versailles is enormous (1900 feet long) and the gardens cover so many acres, that it’s impossible to see it in detail during one visit — unless that one visit comprises a long vacation. The miles and miles of rooms and corridors lined with art, statues, marble pillars, and marble paneled walls, defy description. Emmy once put her hand on what looked like a cold marble slab and found it was actually warm, realistically painted wood — but most of what she “felt” was genuine cold marble.
We do like some of the furniture designed for this palace. A few years ago Emmy bought a desk that an antique appraiser says is a “Rococo Revival Desk with Chair,” a reproduction of an 18th century Louis XV desk. A piece of extraneous trivia: We have video pictures of Amelia Earhart sitting at this exact same desk, or at least an exact copy.
On our first visit to Versailles we hired “Albert” to show us around; we highly recommend a private guide. Many times a tour group will be in a long hallway, and with a large crowd there is a good chance the group won’t be able to see their guide, and probably won’t even be able to hear him. Jim’s brother Paul had a chance to visit the grounds of the Palace at Versailles and walk through the Great Hall of Mirrors on August 28, 1944, just 10 weeks after the Normandy invasion. Later that day his Army Division marched through the Arc–de–Triomphe in the Liberation Day Parade.
Beyond the Châteaux the gardens and Petit Parc at Versailles display trees, shrubs and plants among picturesque lakes, fountains, statuary and buildings. The number of bedding plants has been reduced from the 150,000 per year in Louis XIV’s time, but the precision plantings in the flower beds, and the sculptured trimming of the multitude of shrubs and hedges, is exceptional. While the display of hedges and flower beds were precise, Emmy would like more color in the flower beds at Versailles. Jim suggested that if she walked through the garden, they would be much more colorful.
Trees that require a milder climate are planted in containers, then moved inside the Orangerie greenhouse during the cold part of the year. Forty-two feet high, 126 feet wide and over 500 feet long, this gigantic building is left unheated, but the temperature never drops below 43 degrees.
Since the fountains at Versailles are in operation only on the first and third Sundays of the month in the summer, reservations are a good idea for the daytime show, and are almost imperative for night performances. Fireworks displays, exhibited on special occasions, are still created by the same firm that has been producing them since the 1600s.
Two long narrow lakes, the north/south Petit Canal (two-thirds of a mile long), and the east/west Grand Canal (over one mile long), forms a cross in the park to the west of the Châteaux. Row boats can be rented for a romantic ride where, over the years, the various Kings Louis, Marie-Antoinette, Madam Pompadour, the Empress Eugénie, and Napoléon’s wife Marie-Louise and his sister Pauline, enjoyed themselves.
On one visit we discovered bicycles for rent near the Grand Canal. Now that’s the way to see the Versailles park, to visit the Grand and the Petit Trianons (the smaller Châteaux located at the north end of the Petit Canal), and the village Hamlet, beyond. The original Trianon (the Porcelain Trianon), was faced with Delft blue and white tiles, and was a favorite of Mme de Montespan. After she fell from Louis XIV’s favor, that Trianon fell into disrepair and was replaced by the present pink marble and stone Grand Trianon. It then became a favorite of Louis XIV’s new favorite, Mme de Maintenon. After she left, the Grand Trianon suffered years of disuse until it was restored by Marie-Louise, the wife of Napoléon.
The Petit Trianon was built for Louis XV, and given to Marie–Antoinette (the daughter of Maria Theresa of Austria) by his successor, Louis XVI. She was here on October 5, 1789, when a page approached and said the Revolutionaries were marching from Paris. She left immediately, never to return before her execution by guillotine in the Place de la Concorde in 1793.
We had better luck than Marie–Antoinette. After taking refuge from a rainstorm in the guard house in front of the Petit Trianon, we were “permitted” to continue our tour to “Hameau” (Hamlet), designed to imitate the countryside of Marie–Antoinette’s native Austria.
This toy village is a masterpiece of ostentatious simplicity, with marble walls and floors in the dairy barn, and carefully created cracked plaster and worm-ridden beams in a vine-covered cottage. The rooms were embellished with carpets and porcelain flower pots, and were as lavish as the rooms in the grand palace. The peasants who took care of this part of the estate lived in this small farm village of thatched roof houses. While the peasants were at work, Marie–Antoinette and her friends came to play, doing chores that they would not have done in their own homes at any price.
CONSECRATION OF NAPOLEON
One year while visiting Versailles, Jim spotted a very large (twenty by thirty feet) painting that looked familiar. The next time we were in Paris he looked again in the Louvre, and sure enough, there was the “first” original of “The Consecration of Napoléon” (also known as “The Coronation of … ”) by Jacques Louis David.
The guide at the Louvre said both are originals, both were painted by David, and they are identical, except for the color of the dresses worn by some of the ladies. This portrayal of the coronation contains 150 portraits (each image and each figure is historically recognizable), painted by David and his pupil Rouget in about two years’ time. This huge painting is more or less a “news photo” of Napoleon crowning himself emperor in Notre Dame Cathedral, at a ceremony presided over by Pope Pius VII. A nearby plaque identifies some of the participants at the coronation, on December 2, 1804.
The first original (commissioned by Napoléon) was exhibited in the Louvre in 1808. Later it was installed at Versailles, then transferred back to the Louvre in 1889. The replica, or second original, begun by David in 1808, was finally finished in 1822 while the artist was living in exile in Brussels (where he died in 1825). David was not only a famous painter, he was very much involved with the French Revolution and was an elected deputy of the government in 1792.
LAUNDROMAT
One time when we arrived in the town of Versailles, we needed to find a Laundromat. We often have a problem finding an automatic laundry in Europe, and our best pantomime just doesn’t seem to work too well, even when we display our laundry in a pillow case. We have been directed to stores that sell washers and dryers, to dry cleaners, and once to a car wash, but we did finally find the self-service laundry in Versailles.
A few years later, as we neared Versailles we remembered the Laundromat and thought it would be easy to find this time. After still not seeing it, despite driving on what we knew was the right street, we gave up and parked, intending just to shop and get a bite to eat. A few doors away we found the laundry building — under renovation and so covered with scaffolding we couldn’t see the sign as we drove down the street.
%CHARTRES
Of all the thousands of Gothic cathedrals, churches, abbeys and other structures, the Cathedral of Notre–Dame in Chartres, about fifty miles southwest of Paris, is considered by many to be the greatest of them all. If we made a list of all the words that are, at times, used to describe cathedrals, Chartres may not be the winner in every category, but merely combine a few of those words and Chartres has little competition. No other building dominates its city, as this cathedral dominates Chartres.
It is a most unusual edifice. The famous stained glass windows are made of mostly dark colors, and even though there are 25,000 square feet of glass, the inside of the church is rather dark. The more than half an acre of impressive windows, in which blue glass predominates, depict 5,000 figures. The floor, constructed of huge rough stones, slopes noticeably down toward the entrance. Pilgrims, who came in great numbers from all over France, were permitted to “camp” inside the church near the front door; the slope made it possible to clean the floor by flushing it with water.
The spires of most cathedrals are a matched (or a nearly matched) pair, but these two are each of a noticeably different design. Originally the towers were built to stand free and the entrance to the church was about forty feet beyond. When Chartres Cathedral was rebuilt after the great fire in 1194, the interior was enlarged and the entrance moved to be flush with the towers. A rose window was “fitted” between the towers, where no window had been planned.
Enormous columns holding up the ceiling of the nave are also of two specific designs, with alternating round and square detail. As at Notre Dame in Paris, this Notre Dame has three rose windows — one each on the west, the north, and the south sides.
We have a book that tells us more than we probably want to know about “Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres.” It’s an excellent book, written by Henry Adams the grandson and great–grandson of the two Presidents Adams. First published in 1913, the book was republished by Bison Books Limited in 1980. One quote from page 65: “…(I)n the single century from 1170 to 1270, the French built eighty cathedrals, and nearly 500 churches of the cathedral class, which would have cost, according to an estimate made in 1840, more than a thousand million dollars to replace.” That same scale of expenditure ($1,000,000,000 per century) went on for several centuries. What would a billion 1840 dollars be worth today?
During the second of our five visits to Chartres we joined the English language tour conducted by Professor Malcolm Miller. (His tour and talk about the Chartres Cathedral has been shown on PBS Television.) He’s been presenting this tour for over thirty years and knows every stone and each piece of the stained glass windows, and is a personal friend of every statue. He asks the audience not to laugh because that gets him in trouble with the powers that be. The officials tell him, “The Germans and the French don’t laugh, why do English-speaking people laugh in a church?” But we couldn’t help but laugh at the informative and humorous manner he uses to describe the stories told by the windows and statues, and the interesting way he illustrates how the cathedral was built.
Professor Miller gets help from several members of the group to illustrate the main difference between a Romanesque and a Gothic cathedral. First, to show that a Romanesque ceiling arch requires thick, strong walls, four people stand shoulder to shoulder facing four others, a couple of feet away. They join hands high above their head to create a round arched ceiling. To show what the weight of a roof will do, the Professor pulls down on the clasped hands, which pushes the people back on both sides. A thicker, stronger wall is needed to support the weight, and small windows are all that a wall in a Romanesque structure can accommodate.
Next, rather than clasp hands with people just across from them, he has the people stand with a foot or two of space between them, reach high to their right and left so that four hands are clasped, forming a pointed arch at the peak of the “ceiling.” Now eight other volunteers are given the task of standing two feet behind each of the first actors, instructed to place their hands firmly on the shoulders in front of them, forming a “flying buttress.” Now when the “pointed arch” is forced down to demonstrate the weight of a roof, the “flying buttresses” hold the wall in place.
A gothic structure, with buttresses extending from the support wall to the main wall, permits the walls to be thinner, and there is more space for windows. Sometimes there is a second wall of flying buttresses supporting the inner wall of flying buttresses, that are supporting the main wall with massive stained-glass windows. The Gothic design can produce a beautiful cathedral with large windows, but the color of the glass determines how much light will enter the room.
Since Chartres is a rather small town surrounded by farmland rather than factories, the building stones have not suffered from the blackening, characteristic of buildings in major industrial areas. As we drove towards Paris we stopped at the little park on the side of the hill overlooking the town, with the cathedral in the distance. We have several very good pictures from this spot in other years, but we must bring the tree trimmers next time. The trees in the park are growing, and our favorite view will soon be hidden from the camera lens.
SCRAGGLY TREES
As we have seen in many photographs and paintings, and as we drive through France, there are hundreds of miles of roads with shade trees planted on both sides. Usually these trees are kept trim and neat, and add to the scenic enjoyment of the trip. One year as we drove north from Orleans to Chartres we passed a few miles of the most scraggly, unkempt, messy looking trees we have seen in France, or in any other country. Someone wasn’t doing his job.
UNUSUAL CAMPERS
One year there was an unusual group of people camped just outside the campsite in Chartres. Most had huge trailers, much larger than generally seen in Europe, and they had large expensive cars and trucks to pull them. A couple of people even had automatic washing machines sitting on the ground outside their trailer, and almost looked like permanent residents. The group appeared more wealthy than we expect to see in these circumstances, they were unfriendly to outsiders, and made sure no one camped near them.
%FONTAINEBLEAU
Fontainebleau, Versailles, and the Louvre are the three great palaces of France. Situated about forty miles south of Paris in a large forest, Fontainebleau is surrounded by splendid, carefully patterned gardens, and many ponds and small lakes. Its roof line is different from most other Châteaux, with a variety of pointy–sloped–roof sections that tend to look like a group of row-houses.
As we toured the apartments of the palace, we felt they were very ornate, if not gaudy — gold highlights, muraled ceilings, etc. Most of the rooms were furnished in very straight, uncomfortable looking velvet-covered furniture. The flamboyant François I brought many Italian artists and artisans to work at Fontainebleau, and the “Mona Lisa” was first brought to France to grace one of its rooms.
%MORET SUR LOING
A few miles east from Fontainebleau is the noteworthy village of Moret. Situated on the Loing River, it is one of many little villages with the cathedral, old walls, gates, bridges, the river and all the quiet charm that goes with it. Numerous floodlights directed toward the cathedral, and the walls and gates, light the town at night in the summer.
Several swans and a dozen taupe-colored cygnets loved the stale bread Emmy supplied, and we loved the fruit and vegetable that were supplied by the market that filled the streets of this ancient town.
%PROVINS
Provins, about fifty miles southeast of Paris, is partly surrounded by city walls, but walls that are not as complete as those that encompass other French towns and villages. The remains of an old castle is perched high on the peak of a large rock, and the cathedral is smaller than most. While visiting the cathedral, we met a family of Americans traveling to Italy for their vacation. They were originally from Texas, and the father was at that time, the minister at the Baptist Church on the outskirts of Paris.
%ST. DENIS
Legend has it that Saint Denis was beheaded at Montmartre in about 250 AD. He then picked up his head and walked to what is now the city of St. Denis, and was buried by a pious woman. As it says, that’s a legend. The first church was built over his tomb in 475 AD, and as in so many places, churches were built and destroyed several times over the centuries. The present St. Denis Basilica, just north of Paris, was built in the early 1100s and was the prototype for portions of other Gothic churches such as Senlis and Chartres. While other Gothic cathedrals were started before this one, St.-Denis is considered very important in the evolution of Gothic cathedral architecture. Many specific features of a Gothic cathedral were first developed here. Two architects mostly responsible for this building are Abbot Suger in the 1100s, and Pierre de Montreuil in the 1200s.
For twelve centuries, since Good King Dagobert in 639 AD, the kings and queens of France were buried at St. Denis. But in 1793 during the Revolution, the mausoleums were destroyed and the bodies were scattered into unmarked graves. Even the cathedral’s lead roof was stolen by the revolutionaries. The architect, Viollet–le–Duc (the same man who renovated Notre Dame in Paris a few years earlier), spent the 1860s and ‘70s restoring the church to its original design after it had been so poorly renovated a half century earlier.
A drawing, dated early in the 1800s, show the north tower extending high above the building, topped with a high pointy spire above the steeple. The south tower was much shorter, with a sloped top extending a little above the roof, but without a tall, sharp pointy spire. A hundred years old picture in Paris-Atlas and our video from 1995, shows the flat-top north tower lower than the south tower, about the same height as the roof, with the south tower the same as the 1800s drawing. We have no idea if the north tower was built and destroyed, or if the drawing was a plan that was never implemented.
In 1995 the outside of the structure was in the process of being cleaned, and centuries of dirt and grime were disappearing as if by magic. As a combination of the old and the new, during our visit they were experiencing a problem with the security alarm system. Basilica organs produce a beautiful sound, malfunctioning basilica security systems produce a frightening, raucous din.
%SENLIS
Senlis is a beautiful surprise, with stone streets, stores, houses, and its own Notre Dame Cathedral. Thirty miles north of Paris, it appears to be a town out of place — its stone architecture doesn’t look like the other towns in this part of France. The center of the old city is encircled by a 350 yard wall of row-houses, a wall that is somewhat similar to the half-timbered row-house walls in the Alsace area of France. Even part of the original Gallo-Roman wall and gates still exist. The brochure says: “Cité Romaine, Ville Royale.” Our dictionary says: “Roman Town, City fit for a king.”
Here again, the Notre Dame Cathedral of Senlis has recently been cleaned, and a recently cleaned cathedral is beautiful beyond description. Since they often took hundreds of years to build one of these fascinating structures, even the successive builders never saw the building both complete and beautifully clean.
%CHANTILLY
Aerial photographs show the beautiful Châteaux in Chantilly located in the midst of exquisite man-made lakes. The town itself is known for horses, its race track, and the fine art collection in the Musee Condé. At the Syndicat d’Initiative (Tourist Office), we asked for information about the town and about Chantilly lace. They gladly supplied the former, and said they had never heard of the latter. Wonder what that means?
We parked across from the Chantilly Châteaux for lunch, and noticed some large boulders blocking a parking area at the side of road nearby. Just as we were leaving, a family came by in their van, parked back of the boulders, unfurled the doors, then opened their flower store, waiting for visitors to stop and shop.
%PIERREFONDS
Considering the huge Châteaux or mansions we have seen in France, the Châteaux at Pierrefonds has the most interesting exterior design. It is perched on a small hill and as we approached, the trees tended to block our view. We would hate to seem in favor of cutting down beautiful old trees, but the outstanding architectural character of this Châteaux is best displayed in a picture we have in an old book, taken before the trees grew large enough to hide the view. At the base of the hill next to a lovely lake, restaurants and hotels provide facilities for tourists.
This is one of the many lakes where Emmy fed bread to the ducks and swans. Usually the bread in France is excellent when fresh and warm, but the bread we buy for breakfast may well be stale by lunch, and can be absolutely inedible by dinner. It almost seems we accumulate two loaves of stale bread for each new loaf we buy, so Emmy is known to ducks and swans all over France as the “Stale Bread Lady.” If it wasn’t for all those consumers, our RV would soon be overburdened with bags of fusty, musty, moldy baguettes.
%SOISSONS
Victor Hugo said about Soissons: “I stopped for an instant to revel in the spectacle of this delightful valley, and with my mind’s eye I observed the plain that witnessed Caesar conquer, Clovis rule, and Napoléon falter.” After Clovis’ victory over the Romans in 486 AD, this town became the first capitol of France. He later moved the capitol sixty-five miles southwest, to Paris.
The façade of the west front and two spires of the former abbey of Saint–Jean–des–Vignes (St. John of the Vine), built in the 1300s, are about all that remains after the “revolutionary demolition men” paid a visit to Soissons. The center rose window and the tall windows in the spires are glassless gapping holes. But on the right, the refectory is still standing and is considered one of the grand secular rooms of the 1400s. One of the city streets nearby is lined on both sides with stone mansions that were built in the old style. Another cathedral downtown is not a ruin, but the door was locked and we were unable to go inside.
On one trip we found a group of college students from the US doing an archaeological dig behind the abbey church, finding both small items of interest, and items of small interest. A few years later we stopped again and found that particular “dig” filled in, but nearby another was underway. Every summer similar excavations are held in many parts of France in collaboration with the Universities in Paris. Given a pick and a shovel, they could keep busy for a lifetime.
Chapter 5
Northern France
%COMPIEGNE
German Army Headquarters was in Compiègne during their invasion of France in 1870-1871, and one of the French Headquarters was located there in 1918, during WW I. We went to the clearing in the nearby forest to see the railroad car where the Armistice of WW I was signed at 5:00 AM on Nov. 11, 1918. A museum building has been constructed to cover and protect the car, and photographs and early 1900s hand-cranked peep-show stereopticon machines, present pictorial information about France and WW I. Inside the railway car, mannequins are placed around a table, representing the arrangement of the people present at the signing.
As the ultimate humiliation Hitler stipulated that the Armistice that took France out of WW II be signed in this same place on June 22, 1940. Surprisingly we found no sign or acknowledgment of that meeting. Hitler had this railroad car moved into Germany, but the French were able to return it to this museum at the end of the war.
In 1983 we arrived in Compiègne during their lunch hour and found the regular stores closed as expected, but the street market was supposedly still open. The clerks in the market booths were taking naps or just sitting, waiting for customers to return after the lunch hour. The people in this part of the world just don’t know how to shop in the middle of the day.
%AMIENS
Amiens is rightfully famous for its beautiful Gothic Notre Dame Cathedral, constructed from 1220 to 1280. It is 470 feet long, covers 89,875 square feet, and the beauty of the nave rises 140 feet above the floor. It’s the highest Gothic nave in France, and is surpassed in height only by the cathedral in Köln (Cologne), Germany (150 feet high) that was modeled after this one. The nave of the cathedral in Beauvais, France (completed in 1272), was originally seventeen and one-half feet higher than Amiens, but it surpassed even the ability of the Gothic builders and collapsed in 1284.
The front of Notre Dame at Amiens has some lacy decoration, but its towers do not match, and it is not balanced in design. While the three portals are majestic, the entrance is not so perfectly proportioned as in Paris, or perhaps as delicate and lacy as Reims.
A tour of the city makes one wonder how it is possible (taxes? contributions?) to maintain all the beautiful old buildings, monuments, churches, and all the museums that are found in Amiens. It’s expensive, but the money spent by tourists helps keeps the whole thing working.
In 1991 the main street of Amiens was torn up, and we think the sign that said “Piétonnisation du Centre Ville” meant they were in the process of creating a very nice pedestrian shopping street in downtown Amiens. About the most imposing building we saw, besides the cathedral, was the Hôtel de Ville (City Hall).
One day we shopped for our daily groceries, just outside Amiens. Emmy forgot they speak “kilo” rather than “ounce and pound,” so her one finger signal resulted in a full kilo (a little over two pounds) of butter, rather than the one pound she was “pointing” for. But it was excellent butter.
%ARRAS
Despite the terrible destruction during the French Revolution and during the World Wars, Arras’ architectural features are of great interest. The former Bénédictine Abbey, rebuilt a couple of times, is an example of religious classical architecture. The Palais has two wings, each 569 feet long, monumental staircases, museums, paintings, and the Great Cloister, 162 feet of matchless beauty. Plans for the cathedral in Arras were drawn up in the mid-1700s, the building was completed by 1833.
Arras’ beauty can be seen in two very large market-squares, The Grand–Place, and The Place of Heros. There are 155 buildings supported by 345 columns surrounding the Grand–Place. Most are constructed with building stones, several are decorated with brick. Number 47 dates from 1460, and was the model for the remainder of the buildings in the square. The basements of the houses are caves hewn in the chalk, many of them are three levels deep. The buildings around the Place of Heros, and the Hôtel-de-Ville (City Hall) itself, are all in Gothic style with interesting proportions. In both squares, some of the three story houses are only one window wide, some two and some three. The façade of each building extends up to a “peak” providing a continuous up and down pattern around the square, modified only by the width of the building.
Workmen were carefully cleaning the buildings the first time we were in Arras, replacing damaged stone carvings, and reopening stores around these marketplaces. By the second time we arrived at Arras, we had expected our two favorite squares would be clean and neat, but it took two World Wars and five hundred years to get damaged and dirty, and it will take many years to get them clean. The third and forth visits confirmed this is a very worthwhile place to visit — and there will be another visit to this delightful town.
%LILLE
What we remember most about Lille, is the difficulty in finding a parking place, legal or illegal. We have driven around here and there, up this street and down that one, but only one time did we find parking close enough to downtown Lille to park, walk and shopsee. (If it’s possible to sightsee, it must be possible to shopsee.) But it is a very nice, very interesting city. A little distance from Center Ville, the massive Citadelle (built about 1670) that protected the city in years past, is now a grassy green park.
In the center of town, Place de Général-de-Gaulle, unofficially known as the Grand’ Place, is crowded with shops of all kinds, restaurants, theaters, and beautiful old buildings. Lille claims 50,000 students in several universities, and one of the busiest spots is the Furet de Nord, the largest bookstore in Europe. The old Stock Exchange building was built during the Spanish occupation in the 1600s, and is an example of Flemish architecture. In Old Lille there are antique dealers, art galleries, boutiques, and old houses and buildings that have been lovingly restored. Every Sunday morning in the Wazemmes district, the street market is open for food shopping, the purchase of second hand goods, and strolling.
Over the centuries Lille has been occupied by the Spanish, bombarded by the Austrians, occupied by, and liberated from the Germans during both WW I and WW II, and has been involved in goodness knows how many others. Lille changed hands numerous times before 1713, when it became part of France.
RECONSTRUCTION
It would be repetitious to mention the destruction of each city in France, and in all of Europe, wrought by the many wars over the ages, but it’s interesting to see what has survived and what has been restored and rebuilt. Perhaps in some cases what was constructed after these wars is better than what existed before, but the architects and builders of a thousand years ago were outstanding. It is remarkable to see the fine condition of buildings built so many years ago.
In recent years new buildings have been constructed throughout Europe, some are modern, some are ultra-modern, and many are ultra-nothing. We would imagine the cost would be prohibitive to build an office building or home, using the style and workmanship of a few hundred years ago. The cost to build a place to live and work is one thing, but the cost to build a place tourists will want to see, that is another project altogether.
When we see lovely old towns with beautiful homes, cathedrals, castles, bridges, and shopping streets, we often wonder if the builders specifically designed the elegance, or if they just built in the style of that day, and the beauty “… is in the eye of the beholder.”
Right after the end of WW II it was important that offices, ports and factories be put back into working order rapidly. Thousands and thousands of homes were needed immediately, but money, raw material, and able-bodied workers were all in short supply. With the help of our Marshall Plan, the Europeans truly did a remarkable job of rebuilding their part of the world. Over the last several centuries they have surely done a remarkable job of destroying their country time and again — let’s hope they have had enough of that to last for eternity.
%DUNKERQUE
On June 4, 1940 Dunkerque’s harbor and beaches overflowed with retreating Allied troops. In nine heroic days the British Navy and hundreds of small private boats rescued 335,000 men and took them home to England. We drove around the town and found the beach, “Mer du Nord” and the “Monument du Rembarquement.” We had expected to find a rather large monument to such an important historic event, but we found only the small marker at the end of the beach.
The lady in the Syndicat d’Initiative (Tourist Office) was very obliging and supplied us with brochures, maps and information about this part of France, and about the towns and countryside to the west.
%CALAIS
The road heading west from Dunkerque is inland, so we couldn’t see la Manche (the English Channel), but in another twenty-five miles or so we reached Calais. Depending on the amount of time we wish to spend, and our interest in the coastline, there are roads near the beach. Other, usually better roads are a little distance inland.
After centuries of talking about it, in 1994 they finally completed a tunnel under la Manche, or English Channel. In earlier years, each time it was started or seriously talked about, people in both England and France were afraid of an invasion from the opposite side. In 1803 Napoléon started a tunnel, but he was out of office before it got more than a little start. High speed passenger trains now cross under the channel in about 35 minutes, and we could park our RV on a special train, then sit there for the 31 mile ride.
The main industry in this area has been cross-channel ships for passengers and freight, and the fishing fleet. Before the tunnel was completed, competition was fierce and huge billboards along the roads leading to the town advertised the number of minutes it would take to reach England, using the various companies with their different types of ships. A couple of years after the double tunnel (one each way) was opened there was a fire in one tunnel, train traffic was stopped while repairs were made. Channel ships were needed to keep traffic moving until repairs were complete.
One year we crossed the Channel to England in a hovercraft. This unusual vessel, with its cargo of thirty or so vehicles (including small trucks and our small VW van) and about one hundred passengers, has huge fans directed downward to lift it onto a pillow of air, and then other propellers above the craft drive it forward. It’s a funny feeling to be riding a few feet above the sandy beach, then approach the rolling sea and continue on our way, now riding a few feet above the waves.
We don’t remember the crossing schedule, but the hovercraft ride was perhaps one-third or one-half the time of the regular ship. The ride was a little rough that day, not as comfortable or as interesting as the ships we have used on other crossings. Seats and beverage service are similar to what is found on an airplane, and unlike the regular ships, there are no shops, restaurants, or deck space for our enjoyment.
%BOULOGNE
For us, Boulogne was the surprise city along this part of the French coast. This was the first French fishing port in the area, and it is still surrounded by walls built in the 1200s on Roman foundations. A castle with a moat and above all, the Notre Dame Basilica with its Italian Dome, make Boulogne an interesting place to visit.
The Basilica was built between 1827 and 1866 and dominates Boulogne as the Sacré Coeur of Montmartre dominates Paris. As we approached and drove through the town the beautiful dome was visible, but when we finally parked right in front of what we thought was the cathedral, the streets were so narrow we could no longer see a dome anywhere.
After entering the cathedral and enjoying the nave and the accompanying art work, we finally decided the dome must be on some other building. But before we left the sanctuary, we went around in back of the altar and looked up — there at last, the cupola of the dome. Not nearly so large as St. Peter’s in Rome of course, and in need of paint and renovation, but beautiful nonetheless.
Here’s an interesting story about this cathedral and how it was built: A priest named Benoit-Agathon Haffreinque decided to rebuild on the site of the earlier cathedral that had been destroyed during the French Revolution. Without plans, without drawings, and without making calculations of stress, weights, and pressures, he just had the masons pile one stone on top of another and build his church. The cathedral and its dome have survived bombing and shelling from two wars, and although the nave fell one evening in November 1921, it was quickly restored.
%ABBEVILLE
Right in the heart of the small town of Abbeville is a very small cathedral that had some scaffolding on one side, when we passed through in 1985. It was closed to the public, so we couldn’t tell if renovation had just started, had been going on for several years, or if the church was still awaiting its turn. As in so many towns, there was a second Gothic church nearby. Why so many of these usually very ornate buildings are within a few blocks of each other is a constant mystery to us. It’s not at all unusual to find two or three rather large cathedrals or churches in a town of even moderate size.
Chapter 6
Normandy East
%ROUEN
Of all the cities in Normandy, Rouen is one that must be seen. Historical and architectural treasures make it a tourist destination. The town, originally named Rotumgus, was developed, first by the Celts, then by the Romans who built a bridge across the River Seine. The city was held by the English from 1066 to 1204 and from 1419 to 1449. Rouen was burned in 1940 and bombed in 1944, but has since been rebuilt, monuments restored, and attractive modern additions built.
When the main marketplace was relocated outside the city, the medieval Place du Vieux-Marché (The Old Market Place) was excavated, uncovering the foundations of the Church of St. Saviour, and the spot where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake. In 1979, the Church of Sainte-Jeanne d’Arc and a new small marketplace were constructed. This new church is extremely modern, but does contain a dozen stained glass windows dating from 1520 to 1530. These were salvaged from the Saint Vincent’s church that stood on the edge of the marketplace until it was destroyed in 1944.
Jeanne d’Arc was born in Domrémy, France in 1412, and led the French army to victory over the English at Orléans in 1429. She was captured by the Burgundians (French friends of the English) at Compiègne in May 1430, and the English tried her as a witch and a heretic. She was burned at the stake in Rouen in May 1431. Twenty-four years after her death she was pronounced innocent by the pope, and was formally declared a saint in 1920. Books, plays and novels have been written about her by writers as diverse as Mark Twain and George Bernard Shaw. This French national heroine is honored by statues and monuments to her memory throughout France.
On the side of the Church of Sainte–Jeanne d’Arc, where the “stake” and the St. Saviour foundation are located, the marketplace is surrounded by several large restaurants with ample outside eating areas. The new market area is on the other side of the church under an extension of the sweeping roof, which also continues for about a block in yet another direction as a low covered walkway.
Rouen’s Rue du Gros–Horloge, a bustling pedestrian street, connects the Place du Vieux–Marché (with its Ste–Jeanne d’Arc Church) and the Place de la Cathédrale (with the Notre Dame Cathedral) a few blocks away. The street passes through an arch below the Gros–Horloge, or Great Clock. This old single–hand clock was moved here in 1537, and is the most popular monument in town. It tells time, gives the phases of the moon, and has several dials, signs, and other displays. A spiral staircase to the top of the nearby belfry permits a view of the lovely city, its port, and the surrounding countryside.
The Notre Dame Cathedral in Rouen is one of the more beautiful examples of French Gothic architecture. Construction was started in the 1100s; a devastating fire destroyed a portion of the cathedral in the early 1200s; reconstruction occurred later in the 1200s; it took on its final appearance in the 1400s; was further built in the 1500s; the cast iron spire was added in the 1800s; and the repair of the extensive damage from WW II continued for several decades. In the United States we talk about dates such as 1492 and 1776 and see “old” buildings dating from a hundred years ago, so it’s difficult to imagine the effort, the ability, and the drive that resulted in these almost indescribably beautiful structures.
The renowned impressionist Claude Monet painted many pictures of this cathedral. Monet was committed to recording transient effects of color, light and atmosphere, and often painted a single subject from various viewpoints. He was famous for painting a series of pictures of a specific scene; “Hay-ricks,” “Poplars,” the “Cliffs of Etretat,” and “The Cathedrals,” paintings of the church in Rouen. This later series is 17 studies of the facade of Rouen Cathedral, each painted at a different time of the day, as it altered from dawn to dusk. These works show the gray stones, worn by time and blackened by centuries, pale and rosy at sunrise, purple at noon, glowing at sunset, and ethereal under the moonlight. One reference states he painted over 50 pictures of this scene.
A few blocks away, St.–Ouen, a former abbey church, was started in 1318 and houses’ one of the largest organs in France. An announcement on the bulletin board told about a concert featuring “Orgue et Cornet” scheduled in a few days. St.–Ouen is especially interesting as it is another of the few old cathedrals that have recently been cleaned on the inside. We can see and enjoy a hundred “aged” buildings, but one gorgeously cleaned cathedral will outshine them all.
In Rouen, and in the surrounding countryside, the museums, cathedrals, churches, towers, gardens, houses, forests, and river views are ours to enjoy. In short, it is an area that could satisfy a complete vacation.
SEINE RIVER VALLEY
Hundreds of years ago rivers were even more important to commerce than they are today — they were the super-highways and railroads of that day. Cities, towns, and industry flourished near their banks, resulting in areas that are a bonus for today’s tourist. One of the best is the Seine River Valley from Rouen to Le Havre on the north side of the river, and from Rouen to Honfleur on the south, a distance of about seventy miles, Normandy’s greatest inland tourist feature.
As we write this book it is so difficult to select the few features there is space to describe, and the few words we can use to describe them. As tourists, accustomed to the sights and architecture of the US, when we travel through this river valley, jaws drop! eyes glaze! and words fail!
On the sightseeing road, the abbey road on the north side of the river from Rouen to Le Havre, we can visit the ruins of several interesting churches and abbeys. On the south side of the Seine from Rouen to Honfleur, there aren’t as many special buildings, but there are many attractive woodland and river views. Two bridges and two ferry boats on this part of the river will permit us to cross when the scenery looks “greener” on the other side of the river.
RESTAURANT BAC
One day Cousins Monika and Henri invited us for lunch at a restaurant on the north side of the river, right at a ferry dock. This lovely dining room was in an old, old, half-timbered building whose ceiling beams all ran in approximately the same direction; its walls went here and there; and the view of the river and the outdoor cafe looked impressionistic through quaint little panes of wavy window glass. It was certainly a popular place, filled both inside and out at lunch time. We were told they were sold out in advance for Sunday dinner for the next month or so. The name of the restaurant was “Bac,” the French word for ferry, but our problem at the moment is that we don’t remember which ferry.
%ABBEY AT JUMIEGES
Perhaps the largest of the many ruins in this area, and among the most interesting, is the Notre Dame Abbey at Jumièges. An abbey had first been founded on this spot in the 600s, and at its most prosperous moment, 900 monks and 1,500 servants lived here. That abbey was destroyed by the Vikings, who plundered the area at various times between the 9th and the 11th Centuries. Their eighty feet long ships, each with some sixty warriors, ranged up and down the river wreaking havoc on the countryside.
This “new” Bénédictine Abbey was built in the 900s by Duke William Longsword. It became known as the Jumièges Almshouse, and was widely recognized as a center of scholarship and wisdom. The numerous buildings include the Gatehouse, the Guesthouse, The Abbey Church of Notre–Dame, The Great Cellar, The Underground Vaults, the Abbots’ Dwelling, and others. Unlike the darker colored, or dirty buildings in most cities, the Abbey at Jumièges was built with nearly white stones that have not suffered from the blackening, characteristic of buildings in major industrial areas.
The last monks left by the time of the French Revolution, so the abbey was sold to a timber merchant from Canteleu. He made use of it as a stone quarry, and when more stones were needed, explosives were used to destroy another wall or tower. This was common practice when the old buildings became surplus and were no longer needed. In days past, they didn’t have the tourist market to justify, nor the preservationists to insist on continued maintenance.
Many buildings in this part of France were built with stones from Jumièges, just as hundreds of buildings in Rome (including St. Peter’s) were built with stones from the Coliseum Quarry. We also recognized “dressed” stones from Hadrian’s Wall in buildings, walls, and stone fences in the middle portion of England.
Starting in 1852, the new owner of the Jumièges Abbey, the Lepel-Cointel family, preserved the ruins until 1947 when it was purchased by the French Government. The ruin of the abbey church includes two 150-foot-high towers (square at the bottom, octagon at the top) and a massive porch at the west front. The wooden belfries that had once surmounted each tower have collapsed — one in 1830, and the other in 1856. The nave, at eighty-two feet, is the highest Romanesque nave in Normandy, but it no longer has a roof. Enough of the abbey church remains so we can explore at length and see details of the original construction.
What remains may, in some ways, appear more impressive to a tourist than seeing the completed buildings. To see, touch, and walk around in and near a ruin gives a different and at times more exciting perspective than visits to undamaged buildings that are still in use.
This, of course, is not a recommendation for destruction, but when we read or hear of a ruin (and there are hundreds), if we have the chance to visit, we don’t miss it. All kinds of ruins will be found, including cathedrals, abbeys, castles, and monuments. Of course some complete towns exist only as a ruin.
%FECAMP
Fécamp is located on the beach, at a place where the land dips down to the sea. There are sculptured chalky cliffs and arches, with high ground both north and south of the town. We stayed at the municipal camping site, high on the cliffs just south of the town center. Campsites with a marvelous view were terraced up the side of the hill and were reached by narrow, steep little streets. In the summertime in this part of the world, the sun does not set until at least 10:00 PM. Plenty of extra time to enjoy the beauty.
In 1510 a monk thought of distilling the aromatic plants in the area and made the famous “Bénédictine Liqueur.” The Bénédictine Museum and distillery, located in a very unusual 1700s mansion, is open to the public.
In the heart of town the small St. Etienne Church was filled with worshipers on the Sunday morning we were in town. As in Senlis and Rouen, Fécamp has a freshly cleaned cathedral, Eglise de la Trinité, or the Trinity Church. Can’t say enough about a newly scrubbed Gothic building seen in its fresh splendor — what grandeur. Only a few of the hundreds of churches and cathedrals we have seen were sparkling clean.
%LES LOGES
Not too far from Fécamp we stopped at the butcher shop in the little town of Les Loges, to buy ham and eggs. The lady was just thrilled to meet someone from California, and when Jim returned the egg carton, after putting the eggs in the RV refrigerator, she was even more thrilled.
%ETRETAT
Near Etretat the waves have carved archways and needle rocks in the white cliffs that extend for miles along the coast. The curious rock formations of L’Aigulle and Les Trois Portes are worth seeing. Its beautiful beach and old buildings includes a church with the name of Notre Dame, and a covered marketplace. A plaque over a market doorway, giving thanks to the American and British soldiers who liberated this town, impressed us very much.
The arches and needle rocks along this coast have caught the attention of famous artists, including Courbet and Isabey, and especially the multiple studies favored by Claude Monet.
%MONTIVILLIERS
Several different years while we were in this part of France, we visited with Emmy’s cousins Henri and Monika, in Montivilliers, just north of Le Havre. Here again there is a mix of old and new. In the middle of town, the old church and the little shops stand on narrow streets, but a few blocks away we found modern new housing, both single-family homes and apartments. The rolling hills, shopping centers, and wide streets do not remind us of the “quaintness” tourists usually look for.
Monika’s father (from Mettlach, Germany) was killed in famous battle at Stalingrad before she was born — the only one of Emmy’s cousins killed during WW II. Monika was raised in Kehl, Germany, across the Rhein River from Strasbourg, and married Henri, a Frenchman. For many years they have lived in France, and speak French, German and English. Isn’t it amazing that love can ignore (conquer?) international borders, but governments can’t.
Henri and Monika were our hosts for several days of sightseeing along the coast and in the Seine River Valley. Monika mentioned that the French people have been planting more and more flowers, and taking better care of their yards and gardens than they did in the years right after the war. It took years to repair and rebuild both their lives and their homes, and now they can be more concerned with the beauty around them.
During one of our drives through the countryside, we passed dozens of old stone and half-timbered Normandy farm buildings with thatched roofs. Henri told us he knew of no requirement to re-thatch when roof repairs are needed, and the owner is not required to maintain the original exterior style as is required in some other parts of Europe.
Architectural control can be viewed in two ways. Tourists, and many local people of course, are all in favor of maintaining the look of yore, but it must sometimes be a hardship for the owners. The renovation of a building that is already several hundred years old may not only be expensive, but the need to “upgrade” the living area to current standards could be very difficult.
We visited in one thatched roof home in an area of The Netherlands where maintenance of the old country style was required by law, despite the cost. The thatched roof and the home’s exterior were beautifully kept, and the country atmosphere was continued inside with lovely country furniture and decor. But this certainly was not the home of a “country” farm family.
%CAP D’ ANTIFER
At one time Henri was a Harbor Master at Cap d’Antifer, just north of Le Havre, a port built to handle the largest of oil tankers. The day we were there, the largest tanker of them all was in port. It was a 500,001 ton oil tanker, and when loaded it extended ninety feet below the water’s surface. The Queen Mary, now permanently docked at Long Beach, California, weighs 80,000 tons — it would take more than six Queens to equal the size of that one tanker. On the open deck, paths, complete with stop signs, permit crew members to ride their bicycles from one place to another. They were unloading the cargo onto “smaller” ships (100,000 tons) that would take the oil to ports, such as Rotterdam and Hamburg, which could not accommodate the larger ship. Few ports in the world can.
%LE HAVRE
The city of Le Havre was badly damaged during WW II; its port suffered the most damage of any in Europe. Nearly 10,000 homes were destroyed and 4,000 people killed as a result of 146 air raids in eight days, as the old town and the harbor area almost disappeared. Le Havre was not liberated from the Germans until September 1944, three months after the Normandy landing, and a month after Paris had been recaptured by the Allies.
It was necessary to rebuild this city quickly so it could function as a port in support of the invasion, and to help rebuild the rest of France. There was neither the time nor money to build a “Dallas” or “Denver,” and the result can be viewed with mixed emotions. In the US we look for modern buildings, wide smooth streets and freeways, and the modern uncluttered look of what we think makes a modern up-to-date city. In Europe, we look for the charming old buildings, narrow cobblestone streets, half-timbered two or three story buildings, and other reminders of the charm of years gone by.
Le Havre falls somewhere in between. While it must be easier for the people to get to their jobs in the downtown area, and it might be nicer for them to work in the more modern buildings, we would imagine that most people would prefer the Le Havre of François I in 1517 — the Le Havre that was planned like the squares on a chessboard, by an Italian architect.
PONT DE TANCARVILLE
Before we head west, we would like to tell a story that will confirm a “mistaken” view of the French people: In all of our travels, we have been treated very nicely, 99.98% of the time. Forget the idea that people in Europe hate Americans. Remember, even at the corner grocery store the clerk may have an off day, and we have a sneaking suspicion tourists aren’t perfect all the time either.
One day we were driving to Le Havre from Honfleur and crossed the Seine on the Pont (bridge) de Tancarville. The road makes a wide curve and is bordered by trees, one of the most impressive of the thousands of tree-lined country roads throughout France. The Bridge at Tancarville is a high-arch toll bridge, and when we arrived at the toll booth the large rear view mirror of our RV completely covered the meter that would show how much money we owed.
Now French toll–booth operators are infamous for their behavior, but this man almost went into hysterics rather than tell us the amount of the toll, or at least somehow let us know the meter was just out of sight. There must be at least one like him in every country. (This is also just one of several reasons we are happier if we don’t use the Autoroute in France.)
When leaving a French toll road we usually see no information signs, and almost surely we will receive no help from the man in the booth. In contrast, in the same situation in Italy there are signs in four languages, and a helpful man at the booth doing all he can to answer questions. We love to wander from place to place on the country roads, but we study the map and plan our exit before we get on the Autoroute — first we make sure we really must use the Autoroute to get to our destination. Of course, since we wanted to cross the Seine River, we had no choice but to use the toll-bridge.
%HONFLEUR
Often we are asked, “What is your favorite town?” We always have an immediate answer, but rarely is it ever the same. Our favorite town is the last one we visited, the last one we talked about, or maybe the first name that comes to mind. However, after a little thought, if we make a list, Honfleur, France is always near the top.
Honfleur is located on the south side of the Seine Estuary, across from Le Havre. There are many different areas in France where the architecture is unique and recognizable as belonging to that specific region. Honfleur, like Senlis, is an exception in its area, as its tall narrow slate and timber buildings do not look like the old stone buildings in the rest of this part of the country.
Since the English Channel tide goes in and out a great depth each day, Honfleur’s harbor has a canal-lock to keep the larger boats afloat while the tide is out. Small boats, docked outside the harbor, are build with “legs” and “feet” so they will rest on the mud and remain upright during low tide.
Honfleur’s Ste–Catherine Quay, with its seven-story houses, remains almost the same as it was when Samuel de Champlain sailed from here to explore Canada, hundreds of years ago. These old narrow houses are in splendid contrast to the two-story stone dwellings on the St.-Etienne Quay, just across the Old Dock. Perhaps of even more contrast is the Baskin-Robbins ice cream store in an ancient building on the St.-Etienne Quay.
A generation of impressionists set their easels on this quay, and there are always artists with easel and palette, and photographers with a neck full of camera straps, attempting to capture the charm of this venerable city.
On each visit the photo opportunities are different. In the harbor there is always a differing arrangement of colorful boats, and the street market embellishes the scene. A TV antenna or a satellite dish on the roof of an old house certainly looks out of place, but then if we lived there we would want an up-to-date TV picture, even if we didn’t live in an up-to-date house.
Ste–Catherine’s church is a rare example of a wooden church in a part of the world mostly populated with huge stone and mortar edifices. At the end of the Hundred Years War, in the mid-1400s, the masons and architects were all busy repairing and rebuilding war damaged cities. The people of Honfleur, mostly fishermen and builders of fishing boats, decided they did not want to wait their turn, so they used their own skills and built this wooden church.
The boat builders knew how to build a waterproof boat, so they built a large fishing boat, turned it upside down and constructed a church underneath. One roof section was built in 1468, the other when the church was enlarged in 1496. Now that may be a romanticized version of the story, but the church is made of wood, the roof does resemble two boats turned upside down, and it is supported by wooden pillars and walls. It also has pane
Tidbit by Jim and Emmy HumberdSimilar tidbits in: Book = Invitation to France, Travel Tidbits
Email this Travel Tidbit to a friend
Email this page to a friend
