Honfleur, France (July)

Honfleur, a quaint town that escaped the bombings of WWII, provided a relaxing setting after our Normandy beach excursion.

We enjoyed a relaxing evening eating pizza, ice cream, and taking a ride on the carousel.

I should have gotten a picture of the bathroom in the restaurant, because as we turned on the light, preparing J to go potty, we noticed the light was changing colors...red, blue, green, making our clothes an array of colors. After completing her business she couldn't find Daddy fast enough to tell him all about the different changing colors.

With the light, she's a little harder to find than R was.

Harbor of Honfleur

Booted Out of Blogging

Our internet was acting up this past week, so I promise now that we have fixed the situation I'll start posting more pictures soon! I have the first days of school and a few others to share...thanks for being patient! :)

A Little Pay-Off

As a parent, you always wonder how much your children are really learning from the efforts you make in disciplining and teaching. I read to the kids out of a children's Bible handed down from our old neighbors back home (thanks Penny, Christopher, and Paul) every school morning (summer ones are too relaxed). I read about 2-3 stories each day while they are eating breakfast. Usually one or both will say, "Read one more, please." How can you say, "No," to reading the Bible to your children? (Photo courtesy of my 5 year old with the fairy bookmark she made.)

Before bedtime we hit the devotional and a plethora of other types of books off our shelves or brought home from the library, but no matter how much you read and teach, you're never sure how much they're actually retaining.

After being in Europe for about 8 months now, we have decided we'd like to travel out east a little more to see Egypt, Greece, and a few other destinations. It ended up that a cruise fitting our Egypt needs was called the Holy Land Cruise. Perfect. I'd love to see places from the Bible. So, we booked it today and sat down at dinner to discuss our fall break plans with the kids.

"Do you ever remember hearing about Egypt from the Bible?" K asked the kids. "Sure," J replied. "I remember the brothers that had to go ask their other brother for food." My mouth dropped open. I'm serious. K saw it happen. She was talking about Joseph (you know, the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat!) from the Old Testament. She never remembers things like this! R is always the insightful one that has a steel trap mind! THEN she adds, "I also remember the frogs, blood, and flies." Now she was talking about the plagues God put on Egypt when Pharaoh wouldn't let the Israelites go. She admitted she remembered them because of Sunday School and reading the Bible each morning. Oh, thank you Lord for the tiny pats on the back for our perseverance in teaching your Word and Truth! I have been reading that Bible for 2-3 years, over and over again to the kids.

Etretat, France

We stopped by Etretat, France while driving through the area. This cliff was the inspiration for a Claude Monet painting.

Normandy, France: D-Day Beaches

Why didn't I pay more attention during History class?? Now that we're here and able to plan field trips of history events, bringing them to life, I'm much more interested in the past. After visiting the Normandy Beaches, I had to call my grandpa to see if he had been involved on D-Day when he fought in WWII.

To my huge surprise, he indeed was! How did I never know this? I remember him telling crazy stories about birds hitting the windshield when flying planes in the army, but not that he actually fought on D-Day! He's a Screaming Eagle...a 101st Airborne Division engineer whose job consisted of aiding the paratroopers in their jumps from the plane, obviously fixing the plane if technical difficulties arose, and co-piloting in the case of a pilot being unable to fly. Which presents a humorous story I learned when I called him after our visit to Normandy. He relayed that the co-pilot was starting to go "mad" in the trial of war (understandably so), so the pilot yelled back for Grandpa to "get a monkey wrench." Grandpa proceeded to smack the guy on the head, temporarily knocking him out, drug his loose body out of the co-pilot seat, and took over flying with the pilot.

June 5, 1944, at around 11:00 p.m., Grandpa climbed in the airplane to take 16 of the 82nd Division Paratroopers on C47s into enemy territory. D-Day was here, and my grandpa said he'd be lying if he told me he wasn't scared (at the age of 20).

After visiting these sites, I definitely have a new found respect for not only those men who fought in WWII on the Normandy Beaches, but for all men who have fought in the armed forces for the name of freedom. Pointe du Hoc beach (above)
You can't see from this picture how steep the cliff is.

Rick Steves paints a picture of the event to take over German forces, "For this task, 300 US Army Rangers were hand-picked to attempt a castle-style assault of the German-occupied cliffs, using grappling hooks and ladders borrowed from London fire departments. Try to imagine a fire-engine ladder extending from a bobbing boat in the water far below, and men climbing it to reach the top of the cliff in the heat of the battle."

Below is the Pointe du Hoc Ranger Monument.

Land awaiting the men who climbed the cliff and were still alive is below.

Craters were created by Allied Forces bombing the German territory days before D-Day.
While visiting Pointe du Hoc, I was bothered at first by my children's desires to run where actual bombs had fallen on the German forces during the war, but this allowed them to inspect the bunkers and pillboxes (huge rotating guns). The rusted spot in the middle housed the swiveling guns.
As other children played, it was obvious this place remained tolerant of noise and exploration while the WWII Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial was a place for respect and silence, which R and J honored well! I was so proud. They questioned the crosses and we discussed men's names, home states, and dates of death.

What a moving site.

Dinan, Brittany in France

After leaving the chateau in Versailles, we headed west to Dinan in the region of Brittany (west of Normandy), France.
Hydrangeas here are magnificent - and everyone has them!

St. Sauveur Church in Dinan

Small medieval town of Dinan in Brittany

This guy takes his job seriously...was he thinking he was a London guard?

The town mascot, "Nobody's Tombstone," is below. And we thought a peeing little boy (Manneken Pis) was strange!

Following the check-in to our Bed and Breakfast in Dinan, the owner recommended Le Cantorbery where we had steaks for dinner grilled in a wood burning fireplace and the kids enjoyed fish and steak (not the usual kid menu items here).

J gave her fish a 10.

R has created his own rating scale. This happens to represent "good". Two thumbs up of course means great and one thumb up with the other down means okay.

We have learned not to climb bell towers anymore. After about 3 or 4 climbs in various ones, we've learned the top steps are always quite small, with tight quarters, people breathing on you, and just plain uncomfortable. So now we just enjoy them from afar. Much better!

Rance River Valley below

St. Sauveur from another angle (above)

Rick Steves says this is the place to stay in Brittany if you have a car (and we did) and 2 days (and we did). Hotel Manoir de Rigourdaine used to be a farmhouse, overlooking a lake below with lush grasslands surrounding the area.

After a good night's sleep we headed to Mont St. Michel, an extremely interesting site surrounded by water sometimes, and other times by sand, depending on the tide. We thought we arrived around the time for high tide, but must have been off by a few hours. After waiting around for about an hour, we decided to head off to the beach. Three hours later is when we saw the tide change...right in front of our eyes while the kids were playing. I wish we could have seen it change at Mont St. Michel since it comes in quickly (they say like a galloping horse!).

Apparently in 708 A.D. the bishop of Avranches heard the voice of Archangel Michael telling him to build here. This abbey surrounded by a small town inside is the result.

After waiting an hour to see this amazing tide, we left shortchanged and headed to the beach with a few stops along the way. Pointe du Grouin was the first with J leading the way from the car to L'Ile des Landes.

I love pictures when the kids snuggle with me and I don't even have to ask!

The picture below makes me laugh every time I see it. You can tell it was extremely windy. What you can't see are the tiny grains of dirt hitting our faces and eyeballs. K doesn't know because he's behind the camera, so he's telling the kids (in a little bit of a raised voice) to open their eyes and be ready. J is conflicted, obviously thinking..."my daddy is telling me to open my eyes, but this dirt is about to get into them...what to do??? I want to obey my daddy." Then there's R thinking, "Maybe if I squint really hard he won't notice that my eyes are actually shut."

We also headed to I'le Besnard and Dunes de Chevets where we found a beach site for the kids that we just fell in love with. Right off the shore there was a small rock island the kids could climb. When the tide was high, swimming to get there was the only option. We were there long enough to experience low tide when the kids could just walk to the rocks.

Versailles, France (July)

After kicking off our own version of Tour de France, but by way of car, we left Paris to tour the chateau in Versailles, France.

In 1837 King Louis Philippe opened this palace as a museum after the royal family had been evicted.
The Hall of Mirrors is impressive with mirrors along the left (a luxury at the time) and chandeliers hung throughout the room. Putting an end to WWI, here is where the Treaty of Versailles was signed.

Chapel in the chateau

Outside, my children produced masterpieces in the sandy, rocky walkway overlooking the gardens. Are these two bored or what?



These two paupers are displaying the royal gardens.

Overall, I was a little disappointed in the chateau. I had heard great things about Versailles and this place, but it just didn't seem outstanding to me. I enjoyed the tours of Windsor Castle (England) and the castles in Germany much better. Maybe it was because the family sold most furniture pieces decorating the chateau, making it seem empty, I'm not quite sure.