France - JFK to Sarlat-la-Caneda

JFK in record time...

 and then it's midnight and we've been sitting on the runway for 5 hours when the captains says,

  "they don't have the part".

But we did make it to Paris and the grand hospitality of our friend Dian, 

and her 3-story library.

As Anthony Powell wrote

Books Do Furnish a Room

We spent a day walking in spitting rain and stopped by the erstwhile

Espace Pierre Cardin,

site of Pilobolus' first Paris performances

Found some public art in Paris that is more than just corroded statues...

but they do have them

A welcome port from hard cold rain

What $367,696 (after the exchange) will buy you on Rue St Honoré

We headed north to the Cathédrale Notre-Dame in Rouen.

For a few years in the 1870's it was the tallest building in the world

Monet painted it 30 times

Then to Bayeux and

the excellent L'Alcove:

Fig ball and some apple thing

6 feet of concrete couldn't protect the German battery at Arromanches

Omaha Beach

The cliffs at Pointe du Hoc where they climbed with grappling hooks 

We didn't visit the vast military graveyards here, 

but in a walled cemetery beside a tiny stone church,

among those who survived the war, we found the The Le Contes. 

 We know nothing of Julien's life, but Mme.Le C. (née Le Cocq) had an impressively long run.

The other reason to visit here is to see the Bayeux Tapestry. 

(Actually an embroidery)

230' long. 

Created soon after the invasion of England under William, Duke of Normandy

1066 and D-Day   

Boats with men-in-arms sweeping across the Channel in opposite directions 868 years apart.

There's lots of action...

with time out for roast chicken.

It is extraordinarily expressive

even with some sweet goofy horses.

Fancy stitches to represent the chain mail

Great control of big scenes

and complicated groups,

Yup.  Normans were circumcised.

Even the horses are anatomically correct

It captures the grace of foot soldiers

and the power of the archers

There's enough mayhem for anyone

And in the end...

plus ca change, plus c'est le meme chose.

 They just stripped the bodies.

Sign in the back window of a delivery van in Bayeux

Inexpensive oysters are a benefit of proximity to the sea

Also good beer.

Here's what I see... 

What she sees.

To Mont Saint-Michel.

It looks just as it should

The abby at the top of the rock has been a destination for pilgrims for 1000 years.

It has a spectacular light-filled apse,

and dark corridors.

It rest upon four sturdy crypts.

There's plenty of room for monks to eat

and 1000 year old virgins 

The tides that surround the island are the highest in Europe,

coming in and draining out as far as 15 km from the shores.

The whole place was as cool as it looks.

You cross into Brittany just south of Mont Saint-Michel

and the region sports more than a thousand megalithic sites.

Obelix delivered this one.

La Roche aux Fée

   

The long drive down to the Dordogne needs to be broken up.

 France has gargantuan SuperMarchés where it takes

1/2 hour to buy a carrrot.

We arrived in Sarlat-la-Caneda 

The town is aureate...

 

plus we have our own courtyard at the Villa des Consuls

The greatest draw to the area though is the fantastic amount of cave art

The Dordogne

more soon....