Counting My Blessings

 As we close the Paris portion of this adventure, I can’t help but count my blessings, and I know that as time goes by and I look back on this experience there are two blessings that will sit at the top. 

Blessing number one will be the Juliennes, my host family.

I feel so grateful to have lived in the suburbs and for the opportunity to see more then just the crush of the big city. But more then that, I have lived with a family that I truly enjoyed and loved.  They were funny, kind, loving, and peaceful, and when you only understand about 20% of what’s going on around you, body language and tone of voice is everything!  It was wonderfully fun to watch parents and kids who interacted with love, respect, and good humor.  As we listened to the other kids in the program talk about their host families, the three of us understood that we had hit the jackpot! 

Kelli, Char, Patrick, Veronique, Tiphaine, Ludwin, Brittany AND Tristan, the big brother that charmed the socks off Kelli and Brittany.  I confess, he was as nice as he was cute, and it was fun to watch him and the girls.

Here is a little snapshot of our daily life…..

The view from our front yard: the Seine River

Our house from the street, the little gate is the entrance we would use to go in and out, the driveway is to the left.

My French home, a great little chateau that's 160+ years old

And the cutest shed I've ever seen!

Hanging out in the back yard

This beautiful spiral staircase goes from the top to the bottom of the house and are deadly in the dark!! The treads are so well worn I learned not to wear socks when traveling from floor to floor.  And since energy is apparently very expensive here, the Julienne's practically lived in the dark, we accused them of having cat eyes.  I eventually tried to carry my iPhone with me around the house so I could use my flashlight she necessary.  

Every night we ate with the family Veronique would set the table so nicely and we always used cloth napkins; you knew where to sit according to the napkin holder and this was always mine.  I knew where to sit by where the green apple was set.

As soon as the weather turned nice this is where we ate.  This was one of the most pleasant experience in France.

The family room from my bedroom door.  When they watched TV or partied it was like I was right out there with them.  It's pretty funny to listen to a strange language with all the background music and try and guess what was happening; and even funnier was listening to a movie like that and then opening my door to go do laundry or something and see that the movie was an american movie with american movie stars, just dubbed over.  Weird!!

The root cellar/aka wine cellar right off Kelli's room

Our fridge 

Kelli's room which was right next to mine.  I've spent many an hour in here pretending I was 20.

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The other blessing of this trip is my two roommates Kelli and Brittany.

These girls rescued me from having to live by myself, and have become true friends.  When we’re together I generally forget that I’m actually a grandma and not a college coed!  But then occasionally, they let me mother them, and I like that just as much.  I will never be able to thank them enough for taking such good care of me and for constantly reminding me of how fun life is.  I am a better person for our time together.

Outside church

Thank you!!

Honoring Mothers: Memorial Day 2012

Normandy was such a profound experience for me I have to give it it's own moment in this blog. D-Day was the beginning of the end for WWII in Europe, and for many years I have wanted to come to this corner of France. D-day commenced on June 6 1944, and in June 1984, when the fortieth anniversary of this enormous battle was celebrated, my Dad and I were picking up some groceries at Albertsons in Provo.  Every magazine cover at the check out stand was headlining the anniversary and as we stood there I just made a comment about the fact that media was paying so much attention to this event.  I’ve always been quite patriotic and I certainly was not trying to minimize this historic moment, but Dad looked at me with mild surprise and simply told me that I simply would never be able to understand how important that battle was, or how it affected the lives of the whole country.  He told me that he was a young teenage boy at the time and that the horror of war was so real to them, and that the collective relief of D-Day and the following events was more then I could comprehend. For some reason that short exchange impressed itself on my mind and forced me to contemplate what it must have been like for him to be a teenage boy in those years and to wonder if war was in his future, and I’ve also asked myself more questions about what it must have been like to have actually participated in that horrific battle.  Coming to this place in France is one of the things I have most looked forward to in this trip, and I came with thoughts and memories of my Dad. 

I didn’t really know what to expect, so I came into the experience a bit cautiously.  The first thing I learned as we drove into the park is that the French government has actually given this little piece of France over to the United States in appreciation for what was done in their behalf, we were instructed as we entered the visitors center that we were to speak softly and be respectful.  The Visitors Center was a collection of film clips, pictures and personal stories presented in the dignified manner that you would expect and began with stories of three young men who had been there on that day.  One soldier was a young doctor with a wife and a couple of children at home; another was 21 year old young man just beginning his life; and then there was a third that looked to be in his mid 20’s. I was quickly overwhelmed with the reality that these were real people, with real lives, and, most profoundly for me, these were people with mothers. Many had wives, girlfriends, or children, but every one of them had a mother, and suddenly that was all I could think about.  What would it have been to be one of the  mothers waiting at home wondering if your son was participating; what was it like to be one of the 9000 mothers who later received a telegram informing them of the death of their child and then had to wrestle with the realities of that ghastly battle.  And as I moved through the Visitors Center displays there were literally moments when I had to walk away in the middle of a narrative because it simply was too difficult to finish.

On the wall as you entered

This little hall finished the Visitors Center experience.  As you walked down this spare corridor towards the cemeteries, a woman’s voice was quietly reading the long list of names of those who were killed in this battle, which continued for weeks after June 6^th.  There were over 9000 casualties.  

I’ve seen pictures of these fields, but I was unprepared for how moving they would be.  And all I could think about was that for every cross, one soldier was laying in the ground, and that there had been a mother across the ocean huddled in her room trying to keep her life and heart from irreparably falling to pieces.  The weight of those combined horrors was physically crushing.

I just walked quietly

It was sobering to see that the entire country was so wounded by this event.

A cemetery chapel

It was sobering to see that the entire country was wounded on this day.

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Following Omaha Beach we again got in the buses and moved south to Utah Beach and Omaha Beach.

Here, 250 soldiers specially trained for this mission, landed at the foot of these cliffs and began climbing ropes that they had shot into the rocks.  Systematically the Germans cut the ropes and fired at the soldiers, but in some extraordinary feet, the American’s prevailed and took this strategic point of ground that the Germans had considered unassailable. In the end, only 90 of the 250 survived.  

And as we entered this section of Normandy our group was asked to help retire the American Flag for the day.

Truly, may God bless America and all the mothers who continue to protect her. 

What I Did On My Days Off!

We've had a couple of days with no assigned afternoon activities and wow! That was nice!  I actually got to choose what I wanted to do, and I got to do it  my way.

To begin with, Chloe and I went to a part of town I hadn't been to before and visited a park I hadn't been to.  Our hope was to take a ride in this hot air balloon, since balloons are such a part of Parisian history, but alas, there was too much wind and they were closed, so we had to eat lunch and people watch. 

This park, called **** might be one of my new favorites.  It was a obviously a newer park, and the landscaping was dramatic and big, and seemed to be an artistic effort to compliment the surrounding architecture. I love it that in Paris they are still trying to make everything just a bit more artistic.

Some very fun people watching....

....especially at this fountain.  This picture shows just a small corner of it, but what was fun for me was how most of those playing in it were older, not just the 6 year olds I'm used to seeing in Utah fountains.

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Then after the park--JAZZ

Mark gave me a little lesson on Paris Jazz before I came, and it was a goal of mine to attend a concert while I was here.  As luck would have it, one of the guys in our group, Aaron, is a Jazz bass player like Mark and was totally in to the jazz world here, attending every concert he could. He promised to help hook me up with some music, and this was one of his favorite concert opportunities.  Robert Glasper and his traveling group were participating in a Jazz Piano Festival in the village one metro stop away from mine, and what a treat!  Not only was the piano phenomenal, but the saxophonist was amazing too. This was modern jazz at it's best, and I just sat alone in the concert trying to soak up enough of it for Mark, Carli, and Jeff Fischer, my favorite Jazz lovers. 

One of the things I love about Jazz is how casual and friendly it is.  After the concert the musicians were just hanging out with people in the audience, and you can see Aaron up on stage talking to the saxophonist who is supposed to be very well known in the modern jazz world.  That's Glasper sitting on the stage just two rows from where we were waiting for Aaron. 

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The next day we visited the "Worlds Largest Flea Market," which was pretty much like the other flea markets I've visited in the world.  It was booth after booth of shoes, jackets, jewelry, and purses, and fear of pick pockets!

....except for it's antiques, for which it is famous.  I wish the girls I were with would have been more interested in this part, but maybe that was for the best, because it doesn't matter how good a deal an antique chair is, it isn't going to fit in my suitcase!

This picture of Brittany is really a picture of the guys behind her peddling watches and sunglasses.  There were literally dozens of these guys on the sidewalk between the metro and the market.  They were some of the most aggressive vendors I have ever encountered and I got really good at not making eye contact and plowing my way down the block.

And Sarah, did we go to this market??  Because I had another one of those strange déja vu moments walking down this street!

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The next activity was for my roommate Kelli and for Jeff F.

You follow these stickers on the sidewalk....

....and if you're lucky you get to follow a couple of very cute french girls....

.......

...and then you are at the Roland Garros Tennis stadium, the home of the French Open, which starts Sunday, so even on Saturday you had to have a ticket to get in....

...so we had to take pictures over the fence while standing on bus stop benches!

At the gate we met a very nice ticket taker!

And Jeff, when you come here, be sure and hit the street fair that goes with it, but remember that you have to have a ticket to attend that also!

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Then dinner!

 Good Senegalese food.

DELICIOUS!

Chloe and Ashley

Chloe and me.  Chloe went to Senegal last year and taught us how to eat.  Thank you Chloe!

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Preparing to say good bye to Paris

No trip to Paris is complete with out an evening at Place de la Concord watching the lights go on on the ...

Arc de Triomphe....

....and the Eiffel Tower!

I love having days off!