Normandy and Picardy, France. September 10-12, 2014

Along the English Channel going north and east of Le Havre we reached our destination of Etretat. Unbeknownst to me, it was a vacation destination for most of the famous impressionist painters from Cezanne to Monet and others during the 19^th C. when the movement was starting and gaining ground.

We actually started the day south of Deauville and Honfleur which seems to be something like the birthplace of the movement.  Monet’s home, Giverny, is somewhere nearby.

I had the idea that at the mouth of the Seine, where there is a nature reserve along the coastal estuary, I would find some marshes and be able to see shorebirds and water birds migrating.  So we poked around beautiful towns along the coast finding no marshes and no beach access. At Honfleur, though, we found a nature center.  Yay! I thought.  Well, there is a formal garden with statues and box hedges, a promenade along the south bank of the Seine and a tiny marsh with a few mallards.  The actual reserve is out in the water on the southern side of the shipping channel but I could not find any marsh or shore area where wildlife might touch down or nest.  Turns out that the effort to create the reserve is controversial locally too.  So—lesser black-backed gulls, herring gulls, 10 cormorants and the mallards.  2 wrens in the garden, 4 pied wagtails. Oh well…

Winding back roads trending north and east with Etretat as our destination—it is lovely country.  Though I was ignorant of its glorious past, Nancy was aware and wanted to stand on the beach and paint the famous scene that all the famous and less-famous painters had painted.  What fun and what a great town.  The paintings are of a cliff which forms one arm of the beach.  It is of white rock and has an arch through which a pointy tower of white stone is visible.  All the painters painted it and current painters all want to do so too.  For good reason—what a beautiful scene.  Now, I will see that cliff and arch in every painting and art history book—doesn’t that always happen?

Etretat has been around for a long time—the restaurant where we had lunch is a building made of half-timber framing which is the main old style of building in Normandy as far as I can tell.  Stone ground floor then timber framing filled in with something else.  The something else can be plaster, bricks or stone.  This building has very old carvings on the ends of the timbers and under the eaves.  Although it is called “The Salamandre” I only saw human-type figures.  Carved in the rock on the ground floor—near our table—was the date 1645.  It is hard to imagine wood carvings lasting that long but the place definitely looked old.  Etretat was a fishing town and maybe a pirate town too.  There was not that much explanation about either the building or the history of the town other than about the impressionists. 

Never mind.  I just love this stuff and had a grand time walking around the town and along the beach.  Turns out that the beach and cliffs are actually made of flint.  The beach is pebbly—no sand.  It is about 1 mile from cliff to cliff with no jetty or dock.  They pull the boats up on to the shore with cables and drag them down or wheel them down on a little wagon type of thing.  Not a yachting destination but other areas along the coast have rivers and good pleasure boat harbors.  But flint—I have never seen that much flint at one time.  I thought it was limestone or chalk.  The Neolithic settlers must have been in stone-heaven, with the perfect stone for tools.  There is a bit of evidence for Neolithic use of the area but I could not discover much about it. There is no evidence that the very early Paleolithic or Neanderthal hunters used the area.  As part of Normandy, it was settled by the Vikings that the King of France invited in to protect the area from other Vikings.  No doubt it was farmed and fished during the Gallo-Roman era as well.

All the area we have been wandering around in has been Normandy.  Mont Saint Michel is the western edge and the Seine Maritime just north of Etretat is about the north east.  We have spent most of our time in Normandy—delightfully so.  We had plans to get to Brittany to see the standing stones at Carnac.  Much too ambitious for us—we travel at a much slower pace.  So, we have been wandering Normandy—happily.

Normandy is apple country—cider is the drink, not wine.  This being France, much good wine is available from other parts of the country but locals make cider.  Stopping at local country restaurants, they have a house cider from their own “presse.”  Fun to try.  The main food in the western area is gallettes—crepes made from buckwheat.  As we get further east gallettes and crepes are mixed.  Seafood and fish are featured on menus and good.  Dorrado is a fish I first tried in West Africa where locals could catch it not that far off shore.  They do that here too and it is good here too.  They are small—8-10 inches or so and served whole in both places.  If it is in the Atlantic, near shore, I guess it might be along the east coast of North America but I am not aware of it.

Since we are camping, we are cooking for ourselves often.  One of the delights of most days is our stop at the first patisserie we come to.  They sell bread too so we get our bread, croissants and some kind of delight for lunch—pizza, quiche, whatever they have.  Today was salmon quiche.  It took us a while to figure it out but bread and croissants are delivered to the campgrounds also.  The little van from “George V” came tooting through our campground morning and evening.  Gifford Pinchot National Forest could learn something here.

There is much to say about camping but I will do a riff specifically on that subject in some other post.  We have had superb weather and this is a delightful way to see less populated areas of France.  Today though is the day we are actually wending our way back toward Mulheim, Germany to turn in our van next Monday.  So we are travelling for direction rather than going to a specific destination.  Thank heavens we have enough time to take the scenic roads along the coast.  After a beach morning while the light was just right for painting the cliff we have driven through one beautiful town after another with farm fields and small forests in between.  You know those post-card type pictures with little villages of pitched-roof brick farm houses—it really looks like that here.  Most villages have old churches—either Norman architecture with rounded arches or early gothic with pointed arches.  The churches mainly have quite massive square towers holding up the steeples.  You just would think there would be a few tacky buildings somewhere but there really do not seem to be any.  Some of the bigger towns like Dieppe and Abbeville have recently built houses but they fit the style of the older buildings.  I have no idea if there is some sort of law about such things or if the cultural norms are so strong that this is what people think to do.  There must be some sort of zoning since there is no sprawl—towns and villages do not leak out into the farms much.  There are areas along highways with businesses and grocery stores but the villages have small compact business areas near the center where the bus stops (and where camping cars can park.)

Since we are on our way back to Germany, we did not have a specific destination in mind nor any camp ground identified.  We have ended our day in Picardy saying good-bye to Normandy.  We found ourselves in the very small village of Cramont.  It has a church (brick, gothic) a community center (empty right now) and one business (bar, tabac and newsstand).  There is a school and quite a few houses with child’s play equipment in the yards but not that many people around.  No half-timbered buildings but some massive brick/stone farmhouses which look like the fortress-farms from after the barbarian invasions. The bar/tabac was able to sell us a package of coffee and we had a beer.  We are not in cider country anymore.  Our French is marginal but we managed a few friendly sentences. 

Our evening entertainment has been trying to read the local area newspaper: a garage mechanic from Abbeville is getting ready for a solo voyage across the Atlantic; a local woman is pleased to have been offered the headmistress job at College de Notre Dame. I have found out that the place to find birds is at the mouth of the Somme.  A whole page is devoted to the “spatules” and “heron cinder” who nest there.  Spoonbills and grey herons are more than I found at the mouth of the Seine.  Maybe next spring.

More Pictures from Bayeux

This is a second selection of photos from Bayeux, not of the Tapestry, but of things in the town that struck my attention. The first selection actually follows this one, since I posted it first. Cheers!

It's an old town, not entirely touristed-up. There are also new areas, either because it has grown, or because parts were destroyed in the war. These are pictures of older parts.

This statue outside the plaza leading to the museum with the Tapestry.

Going toward the Tapestry, former princely buildings now state administrative offices. Same function, different government.

This tree was planted after the Revolution, as a marker of hope and renewal. We figured it survived all these years because it's in a protected place, within a horseshoe of former royal buildings, and the cathedral on the fourth side.

Spire of the Cathedral in Bayeux. Below, a carving inside the Cathedral.

There is an art-and-history museum next to the Cathedral. The art is OK. They have a Caillebotte painting, but it's not his best. The Bayeux area was inhabited by the Romans and before them by Celts, and the museum has a good selection of ancient artifacts. They have a lot of crockery, as Bayeux was a big center of porcelain production in the past, and a large display of lace and lace-making that was very interesting. The lace is a lot more intricate in its technique than the Bayeux Tapestry.

 Ceiling in an court room from the ?17th? century. Below, a pate-de-verre vase by Rene Lalique, really the best thing in the technology section. It's a good 14" tall.

In a courtyard, this pump which sadly didn't work (Julianne tried).

 On the outskirts of Bayeux, the museum dedicated to the Normandy Invasion. There's a lot to say about WWII in Bayeux, which is very close to the Normandy beaches, especially Omaha Beach. This wasn't the trip for that, but Julianne went to the museum. I had gone in 2004, with Rob Keyes-Bach. It's very worthwhile, as are the beaches themselves - what those guys were up against!

So, that's it for Bayeux, folks. 
-- by Nancy

Pictures from Bayeux

Mainly by Nancy, and some from Julianne

Our problems with posting anything in France meant that we just couldn't get pictures from Bayeux up on the blog (mainly, our connections were so puny that everything just took forever, or just wouldn't). So here are pictures of the town, and a couple of the Tapestry. 

The museum people don't want you taking pictures, so I just took a couple, but really, for Tapestry pictures, Google on "Bayeux Tapestry" and then click on "Images." You will have more pictures than you can swallow at one sitting.

Blogger is defeating my efforts to upload lots of pictures; consider this a first post, and another will come right along with more pictures.

 We arrived Saturday evening, and walked from our campground on the north edge of town down into the heart of town for supper. The sun was just setting.

 The next morning we walked along the river again in daylight. The last time I was here, in 2004, this walking path didn't exist, I think. Or maybe it was just that Rob Keyes-Back and I had rooms in a hotel on the south side of town, and we never found this beautiful walk? Anyway, you can pick it up from the tourist information center and walk about a mile north on it. 

The carvings outside the Bayeux Cathedral.

These are through glass in low light. Better to Google "Bayeux Tapestry" and check out "Images." But anyway, the important thing to notice, from an artistic standpoint, is how the sense of 3-dimensions was achieved using very few colors and no depth of field. See how the far legs of the horses are a different color from the near legs? There's also a lot to say about the techniques of embroidery, but I'll let that go. Each scene is described in Latin, which helps understand it. There are edgings of decorative scenes (usually unrelated to the story) from local life, fantasy animals, tools, etc. 

This is a story told by the winners, yet the enemy, Harald, is not described as weak or evil. He's presented as a worthy opponent who lost mainly because his troops were tired, and, oh by the way, from the Norman point of view his cause was not just. One British commenter, however, described the Norman Conquest as the biggest catastrophe ever to strike the British. Everything depends on where you're standing.

-- by Nancy

Mont Saint Michel, France September 8-9, 2014

Mont Saint Michel—from Julianne

 The Middle Ages fascinate me almost as much as the Roman Empire.  I am drawn to the artistic style of the era by contrast with the much more refined style of the later Renaissance.  Now, I am getting interested in the period between the Roman withdrawal in Europe and the rise of the Middle Ages.  How did we get from the largest, slickest government the world had known to date to the early Middle Ages in which communities and societies were beginning to recreate social order out of isolation and disorder?  Mont Saint Michel represents a symbol for me of the beginning of the order that emerged in Western Europe and the systems of thought which have become so widespread now.

I have spent a fair amount of time in the Middle East for the last several years and have had a chance to see how this period of time played itself out in that sphere.  While there was a significant decline in social order in the Eastern Roman Empire during the period between 400-1000, a central government held for the most part in Constantinople.  Not in what is now Europe.  Everywhere, population declined—east and west.  Some creative scholars note that the number of shipwrecks in the Mediterranean declined by 40% between 150-400, foreshadowing the crash of worldwide trade during the era that followed.  A terrible period of cooling in 535-6 prevented the crops from growing and massive starvation decimated the population everywhere but most seriously in northern Europe.  A series of terrible earthquakes in the Levant diminished cities, population and social order—my favorite Roman ruin is Jerash in Jordan, buried then and only uncovered recently.  In Europe, the previously thriving Gallo-Roman societies pulled back into self-sufficient farmsteads with serious defensive structures.  Towns declined or disappeared.  Population tanked.  Under Charlemagne, widespread order re-emerged for awhile but was not fully maintained.

But by 800, on this rocky island in the English Channel, people were beginning a giant building project which went on for centuries.  St Michael the Archangel was better known in the East before that.  I enjoyed his images in Ethiopia where he had a big presence.  But his fame spread and he appeared in a vision to the local bishop and required a shrine on the rocky island.   The bishop sent emissaries to Rome to get relics (they got a piece of Michel’s red cloak) and found some monks to manage the shrine.  It started small but they worked on it for centuries.  Now it is massive.

Not a simple task.  Quicksand.  High tides.  “Like a galloping horse, comes the tide to Mont Saint Michel.”  (A nursery rhyme—but that is the only part I know.)  If you are going to build a massive building on a pointy, rocky island, you have to get rock from elsewhere, get it there.  Hard work.  However, it became a place of pilgrimage for many and remains so today.

The early middle ages—the base of the current buildings are all Norman or Romanesque architecture.  Rounded arches, massive pillars.  The buttresses are massive and snake down the rock like jungle vines.  We do not have to get there by being guided across quicksand but some people do this still.  For some, it is an aspect of their religious pilgrimage, others a challenge.  We take navettes and walk on a causeway.  But the vision of the abbey on the rock is no less striking.  The land is flat as one approaches—it is visible from miles away.  Its immensity awes now as in 900.

The base of the rock is a town—we and the pilgrims and the school groups can sustain ourselves on the long climb up to the abbey by getting ice cream, galettes, cider and wine.  I am here to tell you that all those things are needed in order to climb to the top of the complex where you thin climb some more as you tour the abbey.  Well worth the effort in the 21^st C. as in the 9^th or 12^th.

I was not so aware of Mont Saint Michel as a French national symbol until visiting now.  When the French king invited a group of Norsemen to settle down in what is now Normandy, part of their deal was to protect Mont Saint Michel from other Vikings.  They did it well and improved upon the shrine with skilled building.  Eventually serious defensive structures ringed the island adding to the massive presence we now find there.  The defensive positions were breached by the French when they eventually subdued Normandy but their first act was to restore the shrine, worship there and incorporate it as a national icon.  The English tried to conquer France during the Hundred Years War, but Mont Saint Michel withstood their efforts and eventually the English were repulsed.  And on and on.  Victor Hugo extolled it as the essence of French identity as the pyramids are to Egypt.  Well.

From the strong Romanesque Norman base, subsequent builders added modern touches—the abbey is gothic. Part of the cloister is a superb use of gothic openings to create a sense of light and space in rooms constructed of 5 foot thick stone walls.  High Middle Ages—lots of trade and movement of peoples.  The abbey was a center of learning and had a scriptorium.  Benedictines maintained the religious edifices and townspeople supplied the needs of the visitors—as they still do.  (The religious order is not Benedictine now, it is an order which specialized in maintaining the religious nature of places like this, based in Jerusalem.)  One façade of the abbey church burned and was rebuilt in French classical style—touches of the renaissance.  Came the revolution, the whole thing was used as a prison—a symbol too.  Finally now--the French nation maintains it, sends school children and is managing some massive efforts to return the ecology of the island and tides to its original state by removing the causeway and managing the river flow.  It is one of the most visited tourist sites in France.

Jumièges, A Small French Town on a Bend of the Seine River

“The past is never dead – it isn’t even past.” A good quote for our current wanderings in Normandy, through the Early and High Middle Ages. What’s left of those times has been acted upon by time and struggle, revolution, and wars. It’s reinterpreted and only partly preserved. So yes, the past is all around… but…the past is gone enough to be a source of wonder.

For instance, our first stop in Normandy, Jumièges. There’s a ruined cathedral. Here we are about 800 AD. Vikings just settling down and Charlemagne’s family on the rise. Almost no one could read. All the orderliness and skill of the Roman Empire had been forgotten. Those were days when you could really think that the Church was a force for good, for excellence, a way forward out of violence and anarchy. Hope and belief are encoded here. 

In these remains, no roof, no beautiful mosaic floor, no stained glass, no wooden benches or choir stalls, and some buildings that once existed are now completely gone. 

Much of what remains is broken, like the carved stone window frames just arabesques ending in air.

How did those people, with no cranes, gas engines, or electrical power tools, manage this stone building soaring 500’ high? Carved faces, birds, flowers…and all that stained glass that we can only imagine now? 

Think of the funding process, the political maneuverings, the power relations required for building this monastic complex; think of the cost of maintenance.

Well. Give them ten centuries of wealth and influence, of taking on the values of the richest and most powerful. These are human beings, not angels. Reality got farther and farther from the needs and expectations of most people. The Church disestablished, run out of town along with the nobles, by the French Revolution…which wasn’t angelic either, and couldn’t maintain its hope and sense of future.

So, use the cathedral for storage, and then for a quarry. Bring down the walls until parts of the complex are utterly gone and turn up later as building stone for places in town.

At last this decay was stopped, and eventually the cathedral remains came into the hands of the French government. An aesthetic choice was made:  keep it a ruin, an evocative glimpse of the past for the wondering visitor. Light flows through the outlines of walls, flowers and small trees take hold, and birds fly up like beautiful ideas. -- posted by Nancy

Bayeux--not corrected by Google into French grammar

I have been hearing about the Bayeux tapestry since childhood, it seems. Why it Seemed to crop up in all my history and art history classes at least through college, I am not sure but there it was. It caught my imagination too-a record of a Crucial historical event in pictures, not written.

Such things or at turn out to be less than we hope in the real but not this time. This is a grand thing, well displayed and well Explained. Further More, it is a lovely French city that has great walking paths, many flowers on buildings, gothic cathedral and really good food. 

Turns out that I '"have forgotten much of whatever I knew and some of that was wrong anyway. Oh well ...

The tapestry is actually an embroidery, not a tapestry made with only 10 colors of wool thread. I think it holds together artistically through all of its 230 feet and this May Be why-unity of color and unity of style throughout. It is stunning. The blues are a bit greenish and the reds are a bit toward the orange-my favorite color mix. The colors have not faded, we are told.

This is a war story with great scenes of getting ready for war-building ships, rounding up the horses, fixing the armor. William Believes he is the rightful king of England and since he won the war, that turns out to be true. The victors write history. The tapestry is about the war but Significantly usefull Justifies the war. We see Harold pledging fealty to William but turning back on his promise-who would not be forced to invade and put things to right in the face of Such perfidy.

There are pictures of Harold and William as friends fighting against the wily Bretons and feasting after victory. Harold goes home and takes up kingship after the last Anglo-Saxon king, Edward, died with no children. Harold, it turns out, is a Dane. William too, is a Dane as a descendant of the Norsemen (Normans) who moved into France a few hundred years before. The museum shows each of Their lines of descent with another Dane who made a brief try usefull for kingship but was defeated by Harold earlier. To me it is ambiguous as to who has the greater claim. The actual historical evidence for Edward's wishes is ambiguous too. The tapestry is much more clear and simple-appointed Edward William, Harold Swore fealty to William. No confusion there-William needs to get over the channel and take on his Responsibilities. So he Gathered his boats, his horses, his allies (French and Breton) and sailed off. He got to the wrong port but managed to consolidate his hold before Harold Reached him to fight at Hastings. 

I love the horses and boats. They are stunning. The boats are Viking style boats with dragon heads and square sails. The horses are big chargers beautifully drawn-you really see the movement as they '' step out of the boats on to land in what is now England.

The embroiderers used only four different stitches-further adding to the clarity and coherence of the composition. A flat stitch All All which filled in large areas the horses colors all horsy colors-herds or dark to red to brown to pale horses on boats or going into battle. The boats are of similar colors but with much red, yellow and green. The boats are striped and there were a lot of them-to my delight. The museum has a boat for comparison whichthey ​​commissioned from a boat-yard in Norway showing a style of boat used until recently in That Country in the islands. That boat did not have a dragon head but otherwise looked like the ones in the tapestry is a beautiful and sleek craft.

Another lovely thing about the tapestry That is its museum is steps away from the Place du Quebec with a fine restaurant serving Breton gallettes-crepes made of buckwheat. Here and at Mont Saint Michel, just a bit Further west, is evidence of the origins of many of the French who moved to Canada. Apparently many were from here and Further west in Brittany. I do not recall gallettes from Montreal but they '' should add them into the dining-they are great.

I spent some of my other time at the museum about the WWII Normandy invasion All All which usefull firing place in That area. I have long fascinated leg at the massive organizational feat of That invasion. Ships and horses-many this time too. One story is of the German reinforcements having trouble Because Their train-load of horses were let out by the French resistance. They spent hours or days rounding them up giving the allies more time to consolidate Their hold on the landing sites. Seeing WWII side-by-side with the Bayeux tapestry description or another complex war effort was too much war for me. It was a relief to decompress in the high-gothic cathedral listening to beautifully-sung plainsong.

Bayeux, Normandy, France September 7-8, 2014

Bayeux:  Beautiful city / beautiful drive getting here September 7, 2014

I have-been hearing about the Bayeux tapestry since childhood, It Seems.   Why it Seemed to crop up in all my history and art history classes at least through college, I am not sure there purpose it WAS.   It caught my imagination too-a record of a crucial historical event in pictures, not written.

Such things turn out Often To Be less than we hope in the real but not this time.   This is a great thing, well and well Displayed Explained.   Furthermore, it is in a lovely French City That HAS great walking paths, Many flowers on buildings gothic cathedral and really good food. 

Turns out That I-have forgotten much of whatever I Knew and Some of That was wrong anyway.   Oh well ...

The tapestry is Actually embroidery year, not a tapestry made ​​with only 10 colors of wool thread.   I think it holds together artistically through all of ict 230 feet and this May Be why-unity of color and unity of style THROUGHOUT.   It is stunning.   The blues are a bit greenish and the reds are a bit Toward the orange-my favorite color mix.     faded The colors have-nots, we are Told.

This is a war story with great scenes of getting ready for war, building ships, rounding up the horses, fixing the armor.   Believes William he is the rightful king of England and since he won the war, That turns out to Be True.   The victors write history.   tapestry The war is about the goal aussi Significantly justified the war.   pledging fealty We see Harold to William goal turning back on His promise-Who Would not Be forced to invade and put things to right in the face of Such perfidy.

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I love the horses and boats.   They are stunning.   Viking style The boats are boats with dragon heads and square sails.   The horses are big chargers beautifully drawn-you really see the movement As They step out of the boats on to land in what is England now.

The embroiderers Farming only 4 different stitches further Top-Adding to the clarity and consistency of the composition.   A flat stitch All which filled in broad Areas colors all the horses horsy herds of dark colors-red to brown to pale to golden horses on boats going Into Battle .   The boats are of similar colors goal with much red, yellow and green.   The boats are striped and There Were a lot of them-to my delight.   HAS The museum boat for comparison All which They commissioned from a boat-yard in Norway showing a style of boat Farming Until Recently'm his country in the islands.   boat That About did not-have a dragon head goal Otherwise Looked like the ones in the tapestry is a beautiful and sleek craft.

Another lovely thing about the tapestry Is That ict museum is steps away from the Place du Quebec with a fine restaurant serving gallettes Breton pancakes made ​​of buckwheat-.   Here and at Mont Saint Michel, just a bit further Top west, is evidence of the origins of ; many of the French Who Moved to Canada.   Apparently Many Were from here and further Top west in Brittany.   gallettes I do not recall from Montreal goal shoulds They add 'em Into the kitchen they are great.

I Spent Reviews some of my other time at the museum about the WWII Normandy invasion aussi All which Took Place'm his area.   beens I have long fascinated at the Organizational massive feat of That invasion.   Ships and horses-many this time too.   One story is of the German reinforcements having trouble Because Their train load of horses Were let out by the French resistance.   They Spent hours or days rounding them up Giving the allies more time to Consolidate Their hold on the landing sites.   Seeing WWII side-by-side with Bayeux tapestry of the description Reviews another complex war efforts WAS too much war for me.   It was a terrain to decompress in the high-gothic cathedral listening to beautifully-sung plainsong.