Mont-Saint-Michel

Friday, April 20-This morning, we woke up to a lovely day. We came into the main house at at Le Mas Normand for a delicious French country breakfast. It was the perfect send off for our trip to Mt-St-Michel!

We drove south from Ver sur Mer, through Caen, down through the Brittany countryside and out to the coast-about an hour and a half drive. Ever since I was a little girl reading the Babar stories, I have dreamed of one day seeing this famous French landmark. Happily, it lived up to those childhood expectations.

Mont Saint Michel dates back to 708. According to the books, St Aubert, Bishop of Avranches, had a dream in which Michael the Archangel told him to build a sanctuary here. The mount soon became a major focus of pilgrimage. In the 10th century, the Benedictines settled in the abbey while a village grew up below. The Abbey was constructed and added onto between the 11th and 16th century. Mt St Michel served as a prison before, during and after the French Revolution. In 1864 it reverted back to a monastery and the abbey and ramparts became 'listed buildings'.

After driving out on a narrow, unfloodable causeway to the island, we parked the car in a parking lot which had only recently been uncovered by an outgoing tide! The tidal range here is one of the highest in the world at 39feet! You really have to synchronize your visits here a bit with Mother Nature!

We entered the island through this large gate and wandered along the walkway on the outer wall of the village....

From up here it's a long way down...
Once we climbed up many, many steps, we were at the top of the island and the entrance to the Abbey. We took the self guided English tour which was really an amazing experience. We even got to attend a noontime church service, complete with bell ringer!



After the service, we went out into the Cloisters...

and then down into some of the lower rooms where the monks would study and eat. This one is called The Knights' Chamber or the 'calefactory'...

Here is a wonderful statue of the Archangel Michael. He is fighting the dragon from the Bible story in Revelation...

We came out of the Abbey and walked back down to the car on the other side of the island...

From M-S-M, we drove several hours south to Nantes, a large port city on the west coast of France. We stayed at the home of a very nice client of Nick's. We enjoyed meeting his wife and children, a superb dinner out in Nantes and a fabulous brunch at their home the next morning. Once on the road, we drove all the way back to Aix-9 hours!! Here ends our long distance driving for a while!

I'm just in the process of learning how to make Web Albums. If you are interested in seeing more photos from Mt-St-Michel, check out my first one!http://picasaweb.google.com/susiebates/MontStMichel

Le Mas Normand- By Sarah Bates

Thursday, April 19-After our tour of Normandy, we stopped at a little B&B called Le Mas Normand*, in Ver sur Mer, for the night before another long day of driving. When we arrived we were facing a large field of cows. My Gosh, the baby calves were so cute! We arrived a little earlier than expected so while the hostess made up our room we sat down in the grass and watched the cows!


















Once our room was ready, we retrieved our luggage and went up to our room! The room was very Provencal with the many colorful fabrics and the ambiance was just exquisite! There were two rooms: one for my parents and one for me. There was also a cute little tea table where I spent reading and preparing a cup of tea for others.



Around five o’clock the owner’s daughter returned home from school. Her name was Faustine and she was twelve years old. What a coincidence the same age as I. That afternoon, she asked if I would help her with her English homework and she helped me for my French homework. That evening, while my parents went out, I stayed with Faustine and her family and had dinner with them. They had a great dinner. We had a salad with rice, radishes and lettuce. And some mozzarella and tomato brochettes. It was a wonderful experience without my for me to be able to speak French and be without my parents.

Off to Normandy... with 2 more Bates!

Tuesday, April 17(cont.) Another moment we'd been looking forward to on our trip was meeting our dear friends, Charlie and Diane Bates at the Tours airport. They arrived from London, via San Francisco, on Ryan Air, right on time, at 1:30 pm. As Di is Sarah's godmother, she wanted to privately welcome them to France when they deplaned. Here she is escorting Charlie to the car...





A jolly reunion of the "Bates Boys"...

After many hugs, "french" bisous and scientific luggage repositioning, we were off to Normandy!

After several hours of driving through many, many more fields of yellow...







Charlie had the brilliant idea of stopping for a glass of something cold to drink! The "Head of the Wolf" had just the right ring to it...










Back in the car, we had a few more hours to catch up while we drove to our destination of Bayeux, about 20 km west of Caen. We arrived at the lovely old Hotel d’Argouges*(in the background of the photo below) in time to check in and have a little cat nap before dinner.

The proprietor of the Hotel D'Argouges recommended a local restaurant called La Fringale which was an easy walk through the town from the hotel. The atmosphere and service was friendly, the food, traditional for the area, was tasty and we were having a great evening. During the meal, a group of about 8 men entered the restaurant and immediately Nick's whiskers stood on end as he realized some of the men, wearing flight jackets with eagles on them, could possibly have been in WWII!! He and Charlie excused themselves from the table to go on a reconnaissance mission to investigate the situation...indeed there was a very distinguished WWII soldier, Jake McNiece, who was thrilled to talk with Nick and Charlie about his experiences.

They returned to say we'd all been invited to join their table. With this exciting turn of events, we paid our dinner tab and moved to the back of the restaurant to join them. At this point, Nick will give his take on the evening....

Nick wrote:

" When we arrived in Bayeau on the afternoon of April 17th, we were absolutely unprepared for the extraordinary event which would occur-the Bates clan unknowingly were about to meet a living legend. Essentially six miles due south of Gold Beach, we went to dinner just a few hundred yards from our Hotel. Sitting at our table at the front of the restaurant, having just opened a bottle of wine, the door opens and in walk about 8-10 men, all in the mid to late sixties and older. The two lead men had to be in their 80's and both wore jackets with the very distinctive American eagle, signifying the 101st Airborne Division, on their left shoulders. The goose bumps shot all over my body and Charlie totally tuned in and was awe struck. We both looked at one another and thought, those guys are the real thing. The group of men were ushered to the rear of the restaurant and Charlie leaned forward and said we have to "go pay our respects!" I thought, "No, give them a chance to get settled and let my goose bumps go away." Charlie said "Come on, Nicholas, we have to go back and meet these guys" and so we did. We went to their table and Charlie said, "Gentlemen, gentlemen, my name is Charlie Bates, this is Nick Bates, we are both from San Francisco and we wanted to come back and say "thank you" as I see some of you are wearing the 101st Airborne Insignia on your shoulders!" With that one of the "young" sixty-five-year olds stood up and said, "Mr's. Bates, I'm not sure you know whose presence you are in, but let me introduce you, to Mr. John "Jake " McNiece of Ponca City, Oklahoma."

Here's what we learned: During the war, there were 50,000 men who were paratroopers of the 101st Airborne. Of the 50,000 paratroopers only two men in history jumped behind enemy lines 4 times and we were with one of them, Jake McNiece. Jake jumped on DDay night with 20 others and only 3 survived, his landing spot 500 meters to the south of St. Mere Eglise. If you have ever seen the brilliant 1960 film "The Longest Day", Jake's group of men were the unfortunate ones that landed in the town square and most were killed by the Nazis prior to even reaching the ground. He not only survived that day, but went on to jump during Market Garden in Belgium and then at the Battle of the Bulge in Bastogne. He was dropped at night into the trees during the winter siege with the task of being a Pathfinder. I asked what that meant. Jake, a very spry 87 year old man, stated that he was dropped with 8 others and their mission was to get to the ground and switch on some elaborate radio equipment which would transmit a beacon signal. By doing so, the Air Force could zero in on where to drop supplies to the soldiers below, during one of the bloodiest battles in the dead of winter. Of the eight that dropped that night only three survived. By now, Susie, Di and Sarah were with us and after dinner drinks were being poured. I never found out where his last jump took place, as I was already a believer and another jump didn't make a difference.........Jake McNiece is an American hero and we were fortunate enough to be in his company. Well as you can see, we were in Seventh Heaven before our "official" tour of Normandy had even begun.

PS. Jake shared with me that his return from the War was very difficult but that he was a proud mail carrier in his hometown of Ponca City Oklahoma with the US Postal Service for 28 years, has a very successful second marriage and is a proud grandparent. He gave me his address in the States and I wrote to him recently telling him what an honor it had been to meet him that evening. He sent me a copy of his book "The Filthy Thirteen-From the Dustbowl to Hitler's Eagle's Nest: The 101st Airborne's Most Legendary Squad of Combat Paratroopers" also written with Richard Killblane. I'll probably be reading most of the rest of the day and night!"

Nick

*Hotel d’Argouges, 21 rue st. Patrice, 14400 Bayeux, France-02.31.92.88.86

*La Fringale, 43, Rue St Jean, 14400 Bayeux, France - 02 31 21 34 40

Loire Valley-Azey-le-Rideau

Tuesday, April, 17
This morning we headed off to the west of Tours to visit another chateau on our "must see" list- Chateau d'Azey-le-Rideau. This elegant 16th century, Renaissance chateau was built on the foundation of a medieval fortress and is the creation of Gilles Berthelot, a wealthy financier of Francis I. Azey is well preserved and nicely furnished. While most of it was built between 1518 and 1527, Francis I accused Gilles of fiddling with the nation's books and confiscated the chateau before it was finished. With a number of different owners after that, the chateau was not completed until the 19th century!

As you approach on this path, It is practically hidden by an allee of trees so you have no idea of what a treat you are in for at the end....





...but you are NOT disappointed!!!

Here is the facade of the chateau...

We had read about the chateau in advance and knew we wanted to take the full tour. The guide books extol it's fine furnishings, tapestries and art work from the 16th-18th centuries. Sadly, but completely understandable, no indoor photography was allowed so we can't show you all the gorgeous things we saw. But it was exquisite! The only photo we took, of the underside of this lovely staircase(looking like a snail!), was just a step before we exited the building...


The grounds surrounding the chateau were also 'magnifique!

Happy tourists enjoying the view...

side view, with reflection in the lake...

rear view...
the lake which surrounds the chateau...

The River Indre upon whose banks the chateau was built...


hey, what do you know....more wisteria... here on an out building now used as the visitors' center!!

One final view of one of this magnificent chateaux, framed by these lovely wispy trees...

We spent a little while in the tiny town of Azey-le-Rideau, looking at more wisteria...

...and then we were off to the airport to pick up Di and Charlie!

Loire Valley-Amboise, Blois and Chambord

Today's travels took us northeast along the Loire River to visit several towns and their respective chateaux. Our first stop was Le Clos Luce, where Leonardo da Vinci spent the final years of his life at the invitation of Francis I. Both the home and the grounds were lovely.

Next stop was the town of Amboise and the chateau of the same name. Amboise has a colorful history. It was originally a Gallo-Roman camp, became a feudal fortress and then was home to many, many kings of France including Louis XI, Charles VIII, Louis XII, Francis I to name a few! There were numerous grand balls, masquerades, festivals and tournaments held here, but it was also here in 1560, in the Amboise Conspiracy, that a group of Protestant reformers were mercilessly tortured, murdered and hung out on the castle's battlements for all to see. This event cast a dark shadow over Amboise and pretty much marked the end of the era for the Loire Castles. Soon after this, when Louis XIV came to power, Versailles became the chic place to be and Amboise was a mere place of exile for noteworthy prisoners.

En route to Blois, we stopped along the river to view Chaumont, of which we'd heard so much about yesterday while at Chenonceau. Even though Diane de Poitiers didn't feel it was up to the quality of Chenonceau, we thought it looked like a pretty nice place to hang your hat!

When we arrived in Blois our stomachs were growling so we got some sandwiches to eat in the nearby park. We also went into Eglise St. Nicholas which was just behind our park bench.

This gorgeous garden in full bloom and statue were the center piece of the park...

After lunch, we wandered up to look at the chateau. Walking around it, you can see the combination of many architectural styles. It was added to time and time again during its colorful past beginning in the 9th to the 16th centuries It has had many inhabitants; Charles of Orleans, Louis XII, Francis I and Queen Claude, Catherine de Medici, Henry III and Gaston of Orleans to name a few.


This chateau has a colorful past filled with storied of love, intrigue and politicking.
Joan of Arc came here with her in 1429. They celebrated communion together at the church of Saint-Saveur before leaving for Orleans.





Blois is probably most famous for being the scene of the murder of the Duke of Guise. The shortest version of this juicy tale is in 1588, the Duke called an important meeting here with the intention of deposing Henry III and making himself king but Henry found out about the plot and killed the Duke instead.

Inherited from his grandfather, the porcupine(symbolizing invincibility) was Louis XII's emblem...

Statue of Louis XII on horseback...

With the warm sun still high in the sky, we drove on to Chambord, Francis I's Renaissance castle. Situated on a grassy expanse in the midst of acres of forest, this enormous palace was built between 1518-1543. It is really a 440 room, 80 staircase hunting lodge. Despite his love for the sport, Francis spent only 40 days at his huge home. Now owned by the State, it didn't appear to be in very good condition and was under repair outside and as we had heard there is not much furniture left inside, we just took it in from the grounds. Truly amazing! Nick would have liked to have come to a hunting party here!

Exhausted, we headed back to Blere and passed more yellow fields on the way...

As you can see, up close this stuff is pretty tall!

We had a relaxing evening and ate dinner outside at the little neighborhood bar/cafe, Le Chalet, right next to the hotel.