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.

Paris, France in July

What a summer so far! We've had my aunts and parents come and go with K's parents staying for another week to explore France. We started in Paris (for a few days), moving onto Versailles, then driving through the countryside to the north towards the end of the week. Our first stop in Paris was Sainte-Chapelle and Notre Dame Cathedral (they're in close proximity to each other). Both of these buildings are among my favorites we've seen so far.

Sainte-Chapelle was built between 1242 and 1248 for Louis IX and the stained glass here surrounding everyone is breathtaking. Each panel is based on a different book of the Bible. One is based on Esther, which I just completed with a group of women studying from Beth Moore this spring. I absolutely loved the study, and this chapel just as much! I just wish I could have had binoculars to see more of the story line told in the glass since each panel was so small. I couldn't pick out hardly any of the storyline from the glass pictures. Maybe it's just my bad memory of the story from growing older?
The 700 year old Notre Dame Cathedral is just plain beautiful.

K wanted pictures of the flying buttresses.

Are we in New York? No, sillies, this is the matching miniature Statue of Liberty here in Paris.
Right outside our hotel, K snapped this nighttime picture of the Eiffel Tower.

Sauntering to the next stop, the Orsay Museum, housing nineteenth-century Impressionist art of Claude Money, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Vincent van Gogh, Edgar Degas, and more, K and I decided this was more enjoyable than the Louvre. Orsay Museum utilizes the space better than the Louvre, which takes a mile to get from one must see display (Mona Lisa) to another (Venus de Milo) and yet another mile to The Dying Slave by Michelangelo.

The picture above is by Monet and you'll actually see photos of the real place, Etratat, later.

Another photo of Monet's work.

Just down the street from the Louvre is the Orangerie Museum housing Monet's water lilies.

Inside the Louvre, we found the Winged Victory of Samothrace of the Greek goddess Nike (Victory).

It actually is a hunt to find the Mona Lisa. There are signs up all over until you actually come to the room, then there aren't any signs that she's around, but we still found her. She's not quite as impressive as I was hoping, and you can't get a good picture because she's enclosed in glass.

Hint to Parents: You know you've been to too many museums when your daughter starts running and giggling, making her skirt fly up from the air conditioners, turning her into a ballerina.

We're at the Louvre, for crying out loud, arguably the most famous museum in the world, and this is what she's doing? What about art appreciation?

I guess there's only so much art a 5 year old can take before they become giddy.

Call me a creature of habit, but I just had to have the Greek salad at the Cafe di Roma for lunch until our wait for the much anticipated Tour de France cyclists to ride by. Supposedly the Arc de Triomphe was to be near the end of the race. We withstood the July heat after seeing some cool cars down the Champs-Elysees during our wait, not really knowing for sure where to stand for the best view.

Conflicted about staying to see this once-in-a-lifetime experience after all, we hung in there and stood in the crowd for about 1 1/2 hours for only 15 seconds of glancing the guys speed by. Does that even make sense as something normal people would do or are we crazy tourists?

The seasoned Parisian next to me had a stepladder which he so sweetly loaned to me so I could get some quick snapshots. I only took this favor for a few seconds, not to tick him off. After his kind gesture I realized I only saw the cars carrying bicycles and the cyclists were way down the road. I do have a long range camera lens, but not long enough.

Surprised by his offer once again to sneak a 2 second view, we ended up getting some cool shots. It also helped that I have a 6'7" tall husband who can hold the camera way above his head for a few good photos. Every once in a while the results are angled way off into the clouds or the tops of people's heads, but this time between the two of us, we did pretty well!
Making the turn has to be Alberto Contador from Spain, the winner. K rattles off random facts every once in a while to keep me half way interested in sports, and he claims that the last day of The Tour, they stay in the exact formation they were the previous day as a gentleman's agreement. So, the third guy in the turquoise should have been Lance Armstrong then.

Look at all these bikes on the cars!!! I wonder how many they go through in one Tour de France race? Or tires even?