Normandy, June 2000 We recommend this area of France to friends and family as a very pleasant and easy place to travel. Many British visitors come to Normandy because it is close and much cheaper than Great Britain (gas, food, lodging are half the prices). Also, many British, Americans, Canadians and Australians visit D-Day beaches and other World War II sites. As a result, more English is spoken in this area of France than elsewhere and many more brochures and menus are available in English. We crossed the Channel from Dover, England, to Calais, France. (Are you familiar with the French name for the English Channel? There is no reason, if one is French, to call this shared body of water the English Channel! Their name for it is La Manche.) No surprise that transportation companies choose to cross the narrowest sections of the channel. Migrating birds have gathered at these points for thousands of years. Julius Caesar launched his invasion of England near Calais, at Wissant, in 55 B.C. William the Conqueror chose a similar launching site in 1066. We had a considerably faster crossing than the birds, Caesar or William. Who would think passengers and whole lines of cars could whiz across the channel in a hovercraft in thirty minutes? It was an amazing sight to see the hovercraft approach amidst roar and spray, then climb right up onto the parking lot in front of us. No dock needed, no ramp. Air escaped from the bottom skirt, lowering it down about twenty feet so cars could drive in. Once loaded, it was pumped back up and we crawled, amidst more blasts of noise and spray, onto the water again. In Calais, the hovercraft proceeded right up a wide expanse of sand beach to the parking lot. The shore along the both coasts is spectacular, with high white chalk cliffs and shingle (fist sized rocks) beaches down below. Further southwest on the French side are vast stretches of sand beach (as at Omaha).) A major problem is how to provide a harbor for boats without any natural sheltered bays. Dieppe, Treport, Fecamp, Etretat, and other French coastal towns share that problem with Hastings, across the channel, as well as with ports such as Whitby and Scarborough further north on the English coast. With high cliffs, the best boat access is at river outlets. Boats either sink into the mud along the rivers at low tide, or some system of locks and canals are needed to keep water levels high. Fishers at Hastings drag their boats up the shingle beach to higher land using winches and push them back into the sea using tractors. Storms quickly erase efforts to construct permanent breakwaters or bays. Lack of good or even minimal harbors posed huge problems for the Allied forces, which had to invade either at the river outlets, or on the longer stretches of beach like Omaha, Juno, Gold and Sword. German artillery were aimed right at these spots, of course. We drove southwest down the coast, winding inland occasionally on the smallest roads we could find, until, west of Bayeax, we headed inland and north again to end up close to Paris, poised for airport departure. Reminders of World War II were everywhere. Across the road from our first B&B on the French side, but not yet in Normandy, just past Cap Gris-Nez (Point Grey Nose) in the Department of Nord France, was a war museum housed in the WWII German artillery emplacement of a 380 mm gun that could lob 800 kg shells all the way to England, 30 miles away. There were dunes along this coast and people gathering oysters. We drove through Dieppe, of special interest to Canadians because in 1942, 5,000 Canadian soldiers were killed or captured in a landing attempt. We stopped at a great B&B in a village near there, then walked part of the nearby Coast Trail going along the steep white cliffs. The B&B woman's husband was a safety inspector at the nearby nuclear power plant. Over 70% of France's power is generated by nuclear plants, the highest percentage I have ever heard of (by comparison, the U.S. has about 20%). In each little port, women sold fish at little stalls by the water. Mussels were plentiful. In Fecamp, we watched sellers fillet tiny "sand-dabs" (they look like baby flounders) skillfully. We often got these little fish on our crab traps in northern B.C. but threw them back, never imagining it was possible to get meat off those skinny flat fish. (Fecamp got famous in the 6th century when a few drops of Christ's blood miraculously arrived and the town was transformed into a pilgrimage site.) The impressive chalk cliff coastline in this area is called the Alabaster Coast. It is actually a chalk plateau covered by silex clay, which is excellent for agriculture. We drove down to visit each little port, then climbed back on top of the cliffs to farmland again. Normandy is a large and very productive agricultural region of France. Crops we recognized were wheat, flax (whole fields of blue flowers), rapeseed (fields of yellow flowers), corn, potatoes, sugar beets, hay, and peas. Normandy provides a very large percentage of the butter and cheese consumed in France (Camembert is one specialty we especially appreciated). The Normandy countryside is a pleasing combination of hills and valleys, extremely green fields, many trees along the edges of fields and roads (many more than in Great Britain), even an occasional forest, and many rivers. In World War II, frequent hedgerows divided these fields, and deep one lane roads ran between the hedgerows. This vastly complicated the Allied advance. The hedgerows provided natural hiding spots and the roads were long ditches, making tank progress difficult. These features are mostly gone now. The brilliant red poppies made famous in John McCrae's poem, "In Flanders Fields," still cluster along the roadsides. We are impressed by the fact that almost every inch of France is habitable and useful for agriculture (compared, for example, to all those miles of mountains in B.C. and huge stretches of dry, flat Utah). It is often said that the French don't travel out of their own country very often because France itself offers everything. It is true that the hexagonal shape of France includes mountains, ocean, rivers, and much pleasing countryside. With about the same population as Great Britain, France enjoys twice the area. Thus, the countryside is less crowded, there are many fewer villages compared to Great Britain, open fields and woods often begin right outside the large city boundaries. French villages look much the same (though the population shift to the cities is dramatic). New supermarkets, with their huge parking lots and lowest price gas, are built outside of village boundaries, so traditional bakery and butcher shops still survive on the main streets of every little town. It was great to hear, once again, the musical welcoming call of women working in these shops. They said "Bonjour, Monsieur-Dame!" in a very high singsong, welcoming voice whenever we came in the door. We were happy to be back to French Chambres d'Hotes (B&B's), too. Usually, we found a unique spot with good walking nearby, with informative, talkative hosts. B&Bs are more comfortable, interesting and cheaper than choosing a hotel, especially one called "Hotel Mister Bed". South of Boulogne, we stayed on an old Abbey farm, with the Abbey looming behind. The B&B woman teaches part time, keeps thirty dairy cows, and rents rooms created in a former barn. (The French government, as does the British, gives grants to fix up new B&B rooms.) We had breakfast with the whole family on that occasion. The usual French B&B breakfast includes a huge pitcher of strong coffee, a pitcher of hot milk, and a very large cup (or even bowl, in this case) and each person pours her own delicious cafe au lait. Homemade preserves are always served (often terrific and usually three kinds), croissants, baguettes, orange juice and often yogurt. Several places made us cakes or brioche. Norm can speak French very well (I can understand quite a bit) and we usually got a good idea of how they lived and learned many things from them. About half the time, we were the only guests. When we ate breakfast with others, it was always pleasant and interesting, too, though sometimes harder work communicating. The most social occasion of the entire trip, at Fourges (between Rouen and Paris), included our most delicious breakfast (even fresh squeezed orange juice), a very enthusiastic host and hostess and a couple from Belgium who spoke good French and were equally outgoing. I wish I could have videotaped the animated two hour conversations because I felt like we were in a play! The host displayed many antiques (wind-up victrola, spinning wheel, bellows from a blacksmith shop) from the area, the hostess passed out her recipe for green tomato jam (very good but made in 10 kg batches and of course, written in French!). We heard about two British men who helped liberate their village and return each year for anniversary visits, saw photos of the baby conceived in the B&B last year. The Seine River is huge where it enters the ocean. It is crossed by the Pont de Brotonne, a bridge tall enough for large ships to pass under and navigate upriver. We found a B&B above the Seine and the bridge with a spectacular view (hang gliders take off from the same spot). There were a large number of distinctive Normandy half-timbered homes with thatched roofs in this region. The beautifully sculpted roofs have flowers planted along the top of the roof, particularly iris. The idea is that the roots help secure the thatch and keep it moist. (I need to find a whole book on thatching and learn how they do this.) We were told that reeds are used now, straw in the olden days. These roofs look extremely solid and impervious to wind, the edges shaped around the windows look as if they had been cut with a chainsaw. The thatched roofs in we saw in Great Britain were mainly on places of business such as inns or tearooms, but in this area of Normandy, the roofs were not just for show or to attract customers. We saw many private homes off the beaten track with thatched roofs. I am very keen on half-timbered buildings. These are prevalent in Normandy, rarely with thatched roofs, more often slate, and sometimes tile. They are constructed with upright wooden posts (similar to the way we use studs only the posts are never covered over and are much larger, maybe five or six inches wide) sitting on a horizontal beam to distribute the weight. The spaces in between the uprights are filled in with a variety of materials. Some are filled with bricks, often in a particular pattern. Most are filled with "cob" which is a mixture of clay, chopped barley or rye straw, gravel, even sometimes include animal hair. The cob part is painted over but the wood remains exposed. We stayed in many old stone buildings and many half-timbered. The 18th century traditional half-timbered home B&B near Honfleur had previously been a school, then a horse barn. The owners left the fireplace intact, blackened from ages of fires, with a cooking pot hanging inside. "1727" was scratched into the mantel. Both ends of this building were entirely stone, while the two longer sides half timbered. Honfleur, at the outlet of the Seine, is a popular destination for weekending Parisians. It is within two hours of Paris, is on the coast and is extremely picturesque, with winding old narrow streets, a neat little square harbor with sidewalk cafes around it (a canal and locks create the small harbor). It is very popular to be married in Normandy and our B&B woman said she had been busy since January with wedding participants. Composer Erik Satie is one of the famous Honfleur natives. The big Canadian connection is that Champlain set sail from Honfleur to found Quebec City. French Canadians originally came mostly from Normandy and often return there to search for their roots. As we approached the main areas of D-Day beach landings, there were many memorials to Allied soldiers and special events. One was Pegasus Bridge where British gliders landed in the dark at 3 a.m. to secure the bridge for the allied advance. Near Arromanches, the Allies established two prefabricated harbors prior to the invasion. 500,000 tons of pre-fab concrete structures were towed from England. The setup at Omaha Beach was wrecked by a storm two weeks after the invasion, but the huge caissons in a semicircle at Arromanches, called "Port Winston" are still there. They formed a breakwater and floating bridge spans were moored to them before and after D-Day. Omaha Beach looks like any nice sandy long beach now, with kids making sand castles and people wading. We visited the German battery at Longues-sur-Mer where four huge 152 mm guns are still in place that pounded Gold and Omaha Beaches twelve miles away. It was interesting to see the places we have heard and read about for all these years. We stayed at a farm in a village outside of Bayeux for two days. From there, we went to the D-Day beaches one day and the other day drove in to see the city of Bayeux, in particular the famous tapestry. The Bayeux Tapestry Museum was absolutely terrific. An excellent commentary on individual tape players are essential as one walks slowly along this 230 foot continuous linen strip. It is embroidered with red, black, green and brown woolen thread and shows 58 numbered panels. Each scene is full of action and detail. Commissioned by William the Conqueror's half brother (a Bishop) after 1066 and before 1082, it tells the story of what occurred before the invasion as well as scenes from the invasion of 1066 itself. The village of Bayeux was nice but not as distinctive as Honfleur with its medieval winding streets lined with traditional half-timbered and stone buildings. Almost all the buildings along Bayeux streets were the same gray stucco. Bayeux does have a spectacular cathedral. One of the eighteen Commonwealth cemeteries is there and we walked over to see it. The tradition in Commonwealth countries is to bury their dead near where they fall, so the cemeteries containing British, Canadian, Australian soldiers follow the path of the advancing army. Americans dead were mostly shipped home, so there is just one major U.S. cemetery, in Colleville. The B&B farm near Bayeux had 70 milk cows and 270 beef cattle. Most of the farm buildings in the surrounding towns are arranged similar to theirs in an enclosed compound of perhaps an acre or two with 20-25 foot high stone buildings forming most of the walls. Inside is the farmhouse, buildings for animals and hay storage, and stone wall to complete the enclosure. A large gate (wide enough for wagons to enter in the old days) has very tall wooden doors that close everything in at night. Several farm compounds have a small bell at the top of the door with a cord to pull for entry. All buildings are the same pleasing honey color, both the stones and the mortar. Our B&B rooms were in the loft of a refurbished barn. The original beams and wood floors were kept and the great French bathroom (always better than ours at home) installed. The courtyard, used in the past for wagons and horses, now provides plenty of room for visitors cars. We appreciated French cooking after forty days in Great Britain, especially the wonderful seafood, wines, cheeses and desserts. We also appreciated driving on the right side of the road again. Janis Ringuette