This will be the fourth trip to Paris for us. Why, you ask?
Our friends Carol and Jacques have a very nice apartment close to the Eifel Tower. They also have two wonderful dogs and a cat. Carol has family in the US and they like to travel, but what to do with the Paris home?
We met Carol & Jacques through a mutual friend, and thus began our new career.
An added bonus, a HUGE bonus this time is that Don will be traveling up to Normandy to take part in some of the 75th Anniversary D-Day celebrations, including a premier showing of a new film “The Girl Who Wore Freedom” – see also here. More on this to follow below.
Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton
EDIT: As I have been finishing this article, I am heartbroken by the disaster that has befallen Notre Dame. We have visited this magnificent cathedral on several occasions, and are due to return May 7. A great loss. _______________________________
I will be returning to Normandy May 24-26 and will witness some of the celebrations commemorating the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landing and the liberation of Normandy and the subsequent liberation of France and the rest of Europe, and the defeat of the evil German Nazi regime.
In particular I’m looking forward to being among the first to view the film The Girl Who Wore Freedom being shown in Sainte-Marie-du-Mont very close to the Utah Beach landing zone. I’ve been in contact with the producer of this film, and also the daughter of The Girl Who Wore Freedom and am looking forward to meeting them and other French citizens. I have also been invited to be a guest blogger on this site, although I’ve not as yet been given the go ahead.
The sculture at the top of this post is seen as we enter the small village of Sainte-Mere-Eglise. Upon first seeing it, and in the days and weeks following, I’ve come to see it as if I were one of those it represents – a captive in that small French village, and in a larger sense — the condition of humanity.
We see the gnarled and tortured hands reaching out to the
falling parachute – chains are falling off the reaching hands – we see the
cliffs and a ladder where US Army Rangers scaled from the rocky beach below –
the rusty defunct machine gun – we see a church and the hanging paratrooper, a
warrior for liberty.
And we see the flame of liberty flowing from the base of the falling parachute.
The US Army 82nd & 101st Airborne Divisions dropped into this area, and into the small village of Sainte-Mere-Eglise which became the first of many villages and cities liberated by the Allied landings. If you recall seeing the movie The Longest Day (1962) you may recall the scene where a paratrooper is hanging from the church bell tower. Well, he’s still there after 75 years (in effigy of course). When I first visited Sainte-Mere-Eglise in 2017, I was struck by the very many and prominent displays of remembrance and gratitude I saw there. The sculpture shown above is my most memorable.
Such were the conditions on 6 June 1944 and the days to follow.
_________________________
A great evil had
captured the land.
* Evil came in columns of trucks and tanks across the roads
of France. It came as columns of soldiers marching through the farms and
villages. It came as bombers in the skies above.
* Evil killed. It captured. It put men, women and children
into rail cars and deported them to death camps to be gassed by the hundreds of
thousands.
* Evil moved into homes that weren’t theirs. It took food
that wasn’t theirs. It destroyed what it couldn’t use or have.
* Evil came, and evil stayed.
* Evil sought to destroy culture, sovereignty and history – to
destroy a sense of who they were, and it intended to replace it with something
quite foreign.
* Evil had a name – National Socialism: Nazism
* Evil had a flesh and blood leader – Adolf Hitler.
This is Madeline & Taylor. Madeline is Diana’s sister’s granddaughter and Taylor is her husband. They have a business and lifestyle that takes them to places around the world; most recently Belfast. Their next stop is Bangkok where they will buy some goods for their return later home to the US.
Today we had lunch in Paris with Diana’s cousin Jim Sweeney and his lovely wife Sam. They have been touring France for the past several weeks with stops in Provence, Normandy and now Paris.
May 8 2019. Once again we were warmly greeted to OUR home in Paris. Gaya and Margaux were impatiently waiting for Jacques (he’s the two footed one) to open the door so they could lavish their French love on us with tails wagging and big eyes radiating love towards Diana and me. We think Birdie the cat was happy, but she of course shows her love and affection in much more dignified French ways.
France 2019 