my travels in pixels

Rouen's Notre Dame There are a couple of places in France that do a illumination show - where they project a light show onto a building and synchronise it with music. They do this at the Notre Dame in Rouen. We timed dinner so that we would be at the church in time for the 9:30pm start. It was a real highlight. There were two stories - the first was of the Vikings and the second was for Jean d'Arc. Rouen is where Jeanne d'Arc was burned at the stake in the 15C. She was the teenager who received political visions and instruction from other saints. Not a good thing to admit to. She supported Charles VII and wanted to free France from England's domination. Twenty five years after her execution, they decided she was innocent.  Oops, too late. Napoleon made her a national symbol and in 1920 she was canonised. There are some who say she escaped, but I doubt it. Amazingly they still have her trial records. Bullet holes from WWII Many of the beautiful buildings su...

the beaches offered no cover at all The area we have been travelling is called Normandy. When most people think of Normandy, they think of D-Day in 1944. When the Allied troops (US, Canadian and British - some Australian air force personnel served under the British) invaded Normandy to drive the Germans out of France. The D-Day beaches where it all happened are just north of Bayeux. We went to a number of beaches – Juno, Omaha and Pointe du Hoc. Pont du Hoc We watched a documentary on You Tube about the ‘real story’. At the museum we were told that they used amphibious tanks, but they forgot to mention that all but two of them sank as they had been tested in still water, not with waves. Many of the soldiers had been given a large breakfast and got seasick, so were in no condition to fight. When they opened the front of the boats to go on land, they were sitting targets, and many got shot. So those left had to do what they had been warned specifically not to do and that ...

Mont St Michel While I felt I was getting better in Epernay, I suffered a relapse the following day. Our B&B was in a perfect location, only a short walk into the town with a view of Mont St Michel from the carpark. The town of Mont St Michel is not much, just a few restaurants and hotels. There is a free shuttle bus that takes you out onto the causeway and we went after dinner to get some pictures of it lit up at night. Unfortunately it wasn’t high tide which would have been nice for the photos, but you can't always get all of your ducks in a row. The mud flats where too wet and sticky to go walking on, and since I read that it can be like quicksand, I decided to stay on the bridge. Looking up Pontorson is the nearest town of a decent size, it's a lovely old town with many shops, restaurants etc. We were getting worried about our colds; we had antibiotics but things didn’t seem to be improving, so we went to the pharmacy and added to our growing medicine cabi...

Grape vines in the Abbey at Hautvillers Our first stop outside Paris was the town of Epernay where they make Dom Perignon Champagne.  We had been invited on a special tour of the Abbey at Hautvillers – the birth place of Dom Perignon champagne and the resting place of the monk Dom Perignon. The monks at Hautvillers’ motto was work and prayer, and their work was making wine. Dom’s object in life was to make the best wine in the world and he did. Dom Perignon's Tomb Only sparkling wine made from the champagne area can be called champagne and all Dom Perignon champagne is vintage, it takes years to produce. All fermentation is done in the bottle and the bubbles are very small. It is wonderful! At first champagne was made pale and still and they were trying to stop the bubbles being created by a second fermentation that happened in the spring. When it became fashionable to drink wine with bubbles in England, the likes of Dom Perignon tried to control the bubble process...

The River Seine Getting off the train we were hit by 35° heat which was a bit of a shock after London. I had booked an Airbnb room in a 17C apartment on the 6th floor that gave us a stunning view over Paris; the lift had only been installed 18 months ago. We could just see the tip of the Eiffel Tower to one side of our window and Sacre Coeur to the other. Our host Etienne was a delight. On the first day he gave us a French breakfast and explained places to go and how to get there. Notre Dame from the side The easiest way to get around Paris from our base was by train, everywhere we wanted to go was about half an hour using one or two trains. I cannot believe the amount of people they move, every four minutes a new train arrives – most of them are nearly full. The trains don’t have air-conditioning and with the amount of people, they become very hot regardless of how cold it is outside; a breeding ground for germs. And we both got incredibly sick. To be in Paris and not have...