France – 2019

I promised a while back to write something about our trip to France in August 2019. Well, a few things got in the way. #ShoppingBeauty was getting ready one September morning and turned to me and asked, “Is this a knot on my neck?” Well, our life spiraled out of all control quickly after that.

To make a long story short, she had a visit to our family doctor that day, an ultrasound, and a fine needle biopsy where they diagnosed thyroid cancer. Then followed a visit to the surgeon, a CT, a follow-up with the surgeon where he told us the first good news in several weeks – “cancer seems to be contained in the thyroid, but it has to come out.” The surgeon, who we’ve both known for years told us he would make a very neat, hardly noticeable scar. #ShoppingBeauty replied, “but I was looking forward to some new jewelry!” I guess the human mind tries to find the silver lining. Or, as Paul said in Romans 5, “… hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”

Anyway, the surgery was a success and the patient survived with only a small scar, so the jewelry budget is safe for now. We did, however, have a celebration dinner with a couple of friends that have walked through this with us (#RawButt’r & MrsButt’r). Oh! One day while #ShoppingBeauty was recovering and in a weakened state, I mentioned I would like to go to Oberammergau to see the Passion Play this year. In this state she was in no mood to disagree, so I guess you’ll have another story to look forward to (assuming you enjoy reading these as much as I do writing them).

Through all the trials, pain and discomfort, #ShoppingBeauty was always positive, pleasant and grateful for the support of her friends that prayed non-stop for us. And she still managed to take care of her mom – she’s a real Superwoman!

But, let’s get back to France. I retired in July 2018 but took a “short term” project to help one of my former employees with a data warehouse implementation for an Oklahoma hospital, starting the end of January 2019. In June, #ShoppingBeauty called me at the hospital (my math says the short term project is now five months long) to say we had received a notice about a “last minute” deal on a France river cruise, free air and air-upgrade. “Book it!! Get me out of here!” So on August 11th, we flew from Dallas to Nice, France to begin our journey.

The folks from Grand Circle are very accommodating about booking trips. We flew in a couple of days early and stayed in the tour hotel in Nice. We had time on our first day to get to know the city and even took the bus over to Monaco.

The trip to Monaco proved once again that the #OldManInTheWoods’ sense of direction doesn’t work well in the city – any city. There was a bus that stopped right near the train station and took us around Monaco. We rode it to see some of the sights, including the Palace and the very busy area near the “beach” (more about the beach later). When we decided to head back, the #OldManInTheWoods, thought he recognized the stop for the train station. Maybe just around the corner, just a little farther… remember we’re still somewhat jet-lagged. #ShoppingBeauty said, “we need to get directions”, but the only people we saw only spoke “Monacoese” or whatever. It certainly wasn’t English and they didn’t understand “train”. Finally, we saw another bus stop heading in the wrong direction. Well, turns out it wasn’t the wrong direction after all. That big building we had passed a while back before we got off the bus was the train station! File this away, “Gare” is French for train station.

We made it back to Nice in time for dinner and some much-needed rest. The next day we had planned to take the train to Tende, a small town in the French Alps. The 9:00 am train had an English speaking commentator that told about the towns and valleys we passed on our way. This turned out to be a very relaxing and enjoyable day with great scenery. The following day was the official start of our tour when most of the other travelers were arriving and fighting their jet lag. It’s always interesting to see how the tour director starts things off.  

For this trip, we had one tour director, Christophe, and two trainees. They started the tour by pairing us with another couple and giving us five minutes to learn what we could about them. At the end of the allotted five minutes, we had to introduce the other couple to the rest of the group and vice-versa. We followed this with a short walking tour of Nice and dinner. The next day we had a more complete bus tour that covered most of the sights and then free time in the afternoon. #ShoppingBeauty and I decided to hit the beach!  

The weather was beautiful and we were in the south of France where the beaches are topless, what!?! #TheOldManInTheWoods is out of his element. So you can see from the picture that topless is not required, in fact, it looked like everyone was dressed pretty normally. But look closer at the picture, do you notice anything else? This is not a white sand beach!!! It’s full of rocks, painful ones when you take off your shoes. Hey the #OldManInTheWoods is no dummy, I wore my flip-flops right to the water’s edge or the drop off where the beach got really steep within 6 feet of the water.  

I took off my flip-flops and headed into the water. After a couple of steps, the rocks rolled and the #OldManInTheWoods was on his butt scooting toward the water. Nobody is looking – right??? Oh, well the water was very pleasant and we enjoyed some time just chilling. The problem was I kept looking at that slope. How am I going to get back to my flip-flops? #ShoppingBeauty started the party. She walked as far as she could and the skunched up the rest of the way sitting down. My turn. I start up the same way. About halfway up the slope I realized that the waves move those rocks. They were banging against my shins like you wouldn’t believe. Hurry!!! I eventually got to the top of the slope, got my flip-flops on, and headed back to where we left our stuff. 

After I dried off and was putting on my shirt #ShoppingBeauty said, “did you see the one topless girl on the beach?” Of course not! I was too busy trying to keep from falling on those stupid rocks!! I think I’d rather go to Destin, and forget the topless beach – I’m officially old!

From Nice, we took a bus over to Arles. On the way, we stopped at the Rhône American Cemetery. We knew from the itinerary that we would be making this stop but didn’t know that our visit coincided with the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Allied Operation Dragoon. It was awe-inspiring to hear local leaders, American and French dignitaries, and even an Admiral speak about the heroism and sacrifice of the Allied soldiers.  

After the ceremony, everyone was invited to wander the grounds and attend a reception. We were in line behind a couple of the sailors that were part of the color guard. #ShoppingBeauty struck up a conversation and asked where they were stationed and where they were from. One young man was from New Jersey and the lady said she was from “a small town in East Texas.” “Oh really, we’re from East Texas, too. Where?” Longview”!!! We had traveled to France and found a home-town girl. She is currently stationed in Italy and is pursuing a degree in cyber-security. From the cemetery, we took the bus on at Arles, where we boarded the ship for the river portion of the tour.  

Arles is most famous as the scene of some of Vincent Van Gogh’s paintings including our daughter’s favorite “Starry Night”. It is also part of Provence. I didn’t know much about the various regions of France, but Provence reminds me a lot of the Tuscany region of Italy or even the hill country of Texas. There is a more laid back feel compared to the hustle of Paris or the (I struggled for a while for a better illustration here, but I’ll just say it) meat parade of the Riveria.  The towns were smaller and the people just seemed to stroll.

We brought home several packets of herbs de Provence as souvenirs. One of the education sessions aboard ship was about how herbs de Provence are made. It’s a process that involves collecting, drying, grinding and mixing some combination of thyme, rosemary, savory, marjoram, and oregano. Unfortunately, most of the world’s supply is now made in China, so it was nice to have some of the real stuff made the traditional way. It also made a difference in how the food tasted.

The next stop was Avignon, a walled city that served as the home of several Popes of the Roman Catholic Church during the 14th century, A.D. We did a walking tour of the city and the Palace of the Popes in the morning then boarded a bus in the afternoon for one of my favorite stops – Les Baux de Provence. Les Baux is a small village in the hills that features an old limestone quarry that has been turned into a visual art experience. For 2019, they displayed Van Gogh art on the walls of the cavern that had been carved into the hill. It was one of the most stunning sights on our trip. Yes, we did see the Eiffel Tower, but to each his own and by now you know the #OldManInTheWoods is going to choose the country setting when he can.

As we were leaving Avignon, we were treated to a neat sight. The captain pulled the ship up to the Point d’Avignon and stopped the ship. This is a stone bridge that was built on the site of an older wooden bridge.  It was abandoned in the 1700’s and has collapsed to the point that in spans about half-way across the Rhône. We stayed there for several minutes and no one could figure out why. We were on the observation deck enjoying a drink so it was not a problem. Eventually, one of the crew members brought his girlfriend up and proposed. Apparently, the Pont d’Avignon is also a romantic location. It was fun for us!

The next two days saw us in Viviers, Vienne, and Lyon. The first two are relatively small towns, and it was nice to wander the streets and see a little bit of how “normal” French people live. In Vienne, we took part in one of the staples of a Grand Circle trip, the home-hosted visit. A group of 5-7 is taken to a home where the hosts cook lunch. The hosts don’t usually speak much English, so it’s a good time to figure out how to communicate in a foreign country. It’s never the same, so it’s fun to compare notes when you get back aboard ship. For our visit, two couples hosted; next-door neighbors. It was fun to see their home – not every Frenchman lives in a palace.

In Lyon, we had the opportunity to hear from a lady about World War II and the French Resistance. #ShoppingBeauty and I also got our first experience on an e-bike, AKA lazy bike ride. It was perfect for a vacation! We cruised to Macon that evening and dis-embarked the next morning for the trip to Paris. We rode the high-speed train, and man, that ride was smooth considering we were going about 200 m.p.h. (or whatever that is in keel-o-meters).

Paris was overwhelming!! Too many things to see, but we did our best. We spent some time in the Louvre. #ShoppingBeauty had read the Rick Steves’ guidebook and knew we needed to get there when it opened if we wanted any chance of seeing the Mona Lisa. We got our chance, but the way they herded us through there, I kept looking around to see where the head-stall was and the guy waiting to vaccinate us (If you have trouble with that reference ask a cowboy). It was worth the trip to know that we had seen it in person though.

One thing we did that was special was ride up to the observation deck of the Eiffel Tower. Again, Rick Steves’ guidebook was helpful because we had tickets well in advance and skipped the line. We had been shopping earlier in the day and both had backpacks. This presented a little problem when we started to go through the security screener. The guy asked if I had a knife (of course) or anything sharp (the corkscrew I had bought early in the day). When I told the guard I had something sharp he said I could throw it away in the trash can or go outside to see if I could get someone to hold it. He also asked why I was carrying a corkscrew. “To open the bottle of wine in my backpack”. Guard – “Well you’ll have to throw that away too”. The bottle of wine, Ok, and the corkscrew was the cheapest one I could find anyway, but this was a Buck knife that a good friend had given me. To top it all off, #ShoppingBeauty was already through the scanner and tapping her foot.

Decision time, so the #OldManInTheWoods got out of line, went quickly around the corner into the park around the tower and buried all three items under some leaves at the base of a tree. We made it to the observation deck, saw the sights, took the pictures and made our way back down. Now, when you leave the Eiffel Tower, the exit gate is on the opposite corner of the park, so I had a problem. It was warm, we’d been walking a while, and #ShoppingBeauty said: “I’m not going back over there to get that stuff, but I’ll wait here for you.” Did I mention this was a nice Buck knife? When I got there, everything was as I left it.  

When I got back #ShoppingBeauty had a good story. While she was waiting, the police showed up because someone had reported smelling marijuana. When they came around the corner, all of the street vendors scooped up the sheets they had spread their junk on and ran. By the time I got back, everybody was back in operation. Those guys really define being an agile business!! Sorry old consultant joke.

One last Paris story. We were walking down the street one day and the police started barricading the street. We had heard that there was to be a parade marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Paris, so we were somewhat prepared, but not really. Literally, every entry in the parade was World War II era. There were jeeps, tanks, trucks, and all of the people were dressed in period clothing as well. Ladies in Red Cross uniforms, soldiers and officers in uniform. There were even a few of the people who participated in the actual liberation, Allies, Resistance, heroes!  

This was kind of a turning point for me. I began to really think about what this war meant to me. My dad graduated high school in 1942 and served as a medical corpsman in the South Pacific. He never really talked about it, so I didn’t know much beyond what we saw in movies. I began to think about what it must have been like for an 18-year-old guy who lived almost his whole life in White Oak to pick up and go to boot camp, then training in North Dakota, then spend the next few years seeing things I can’t even imagine. But my revelation was not complete…

From Paris, we took the train to Bayeux, a town on the Normandy coast. The first day there we went to Mont-Saint-Michel. This is a tidal island – a what you say? At high tide, the castle/monastery is surrounded by water from the Atlantic, and at low tide, by sand. You can walk several hundred yards away from the island at low tide but signs are warning you to be careful of incoming tides. There are no vehicles allowed on the island, the bus drops you off at the end of the bridge and you walk. It’s a beautiful setting and we walked to the top to tour the monastery.

The next day we did a small group tour of the Normandy beaches and the American Cemetery. Well, we signed up for a small group tour, but it wound up being just the two of us and the guide. It was quite the day! We drove through small towns, and the guide told us stories about battles in each of the villages and how people resisted in small ways. One story involved funerals the villagers performed for allied airmen shot down near their town. Everyone would turn out and celebrate each time they buried an allied soldier. He said the Germans caught on and decided to quickly bury any soldiers they found without any ceremony. The villagers found a new grave and organized a graveside funeral anyway. We learned that not all resistance involves guns or bombs.

When we got to Omaha Beach I found it hard to listen to the guide. We started on the cliffs and walked through German gun placements. The ground was covered with huge craters where the Allied artillery worked to soften the German fortress before the landing. Then we went to the beach itself and the guide told us how the Germans had spent months building gun sites that would catch any invaders in a crossfire. I kept picturing young men like my dad swimming, walking, running when they could, into Hell. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve never been more proud to be an American, but I was also incredibly sad about the sacrifice of so many parents.

Our next stop was the American Cemetery. The grounds were beautiful, but there were “rank on rank” of white that reminded me of the sacrifice required to win the war. I really had a hard time talking or even thinking while I was there. Sometimes when I write, I think and try to convey a message intentionally, but other times words come out almost without thought. As I tried to talk about what I saw at the Cemetery “rank on rank” came to mind in this way. I thought I would give you the full lyrics of verse 3 of the hymn Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence.  

I thank God for heroes, and I thank Him that I was raised by one and now live with another!

After the drama of the battlefield and cemetery, it was nice to end our trip on a healing note. We took the train back to Giverny, a town about an hour out of Paris and the site of Monet’s famous gardens. It was peaceful to stroll around the water garden and see the sights that inspired so many of his great works.

What a way to celebrate retirement!