Dedicated Servants

So thankful to all the policemen and policewomen and firefighters and medics that gave up their holiday yesterday to keep us all safer.

Just thought I would add some photos of future dedicated dudes, you know, the preview of help to come. I was sitting on one of the tiny local beaches with grandson when a larger boat anchored at the side of the channel and these young men jumped in the water and swam towards us.

The shallow shore can have pockets of sea nettles (stinging jelly fish) this time of year, so these guys were pretty brave.

Maybe it was ignorance, because as I heard their conversations, they were not too smart about the waters because they were complaining about the jelly fish.

When they reached the beach we talked to them and realized they were taking the afternoon off after a day of training at the Sheriff's office...our future Deputies.

I feel safer already, and other stuff...;-)

Geography or Finding Your Way Home

On the restroom wall at the Newseum in Washington, DC.

My world grows even smaller in this little county of mine on a daily basis.  Some days I feel as if I have crawled back into a little cave and rolled back a large stone behind me as I settle in with the strange but nice cave people who are afraid of bright white lights because no one ever told them about electricity or perhaps even the sun.

What has brought on this perspective you might ask?  While I was talking to my doctor of less than one year (who did indeed give me a referral/transfer to another female doctor in the same practice and from whom I already have an appointment for follow-up blood work in a few months) we discussed the culture of this county that she was gleefully leaving---see prior post.

The doctor and I are both well educated and have opportunities that allow us to seek answers to our questions in this universe and to which we can sometimes add actual experiences. We also do not fear questioning our experiences.

I had mentioned to this Doctor that upon our return from France my husband had been talking to one of the landscapers at the museum, a young man of about 35 with a pleasant disposition and a happy personality.  The young man asked my husband where we had gone.  When my husband told him "France" the young many looked up and then asked, "France?  Where is that?"

Hubby had the good grace not to laugh or ridicule or disbelieve and said it was in Europe.  The young man said. "Oh..,"  and we will never know if any of this made any sense to him at all because the subject of the conversation changed.

After relating this tale to my Doctor she responded with another more disturbing tale.  She had been in line in the local hardware store, and while waiting, struck up a conversation with another customer.  The customer asked where she lived.  She responded with the name of a small town in this area (let us say for this story's sake it was called Colorado).  The person she was talking to responded, "Oh, that is across the bridge and by the military base."  She smiled and said, "Yes.  Some people think I mean the state Colorado when I say that."

The person said, "The state?"

She turned to them,"  Yes, you know, the STATE of Colorado, not the town."

The person responded in all seriousness with," Oh, is there a state named Colorado?"

In both of these cases the persons in these stories were well dressed, bright eyed, spoke English without an accent, and would give no indication they were tremendously sheltered or unsophisticated or part of a dysfunctional education system.  Anecdotal stories like these help me understand accept why some people can take seriously a Presidential candidate such as Donald Trump while people in Europe shake their heads in wonder at us and our backwardness and wasted prosperity.  (I do not live in Appalachia or the Deep South, I live in a place much like where you live.)

"Public education does not exist for the benefit of students or the for the benefit of their parents.  It exists for the benefit of the social order.  We have discovered as a species that it is useful to have an educated population.  You do not need to be a student or have a child who is a student to benefit from public education.  Every second of every day of your life, you benefit from public education.  So let me explain why I like to pay taxes for schools, even though I don't personally have a kid in school:  It's because I don't like living in a country with a bunch of stupid people. " John Green

Three Letter Word

Some people who read this blog may remember that last year I was looking for a new doctor. I had a good doctor but I felt he had social issues. He never asked me to take a single item of clothing off in the eight years that I saw him. He listened to my heart through my clothes and diagnosed me mainly by what I said my symptoms were.  He also spent more time looking at his laptop than me.  While I am an elder, I was in good enough health to ignore this. Then I decided it was time to change doctors. I live in a county where it is not easy to find a good doctor, a doctor who takes my insurance, a doctor who is still taking patients, and I also was hoping to find a woman doctor for a change.

After a six month's search I found my female doctor (a geriatrician but that is OK) and have been seeing her for about a year. Prior to changing to her, I had heard a rumor she was leaving but I ignored that, and sure enough, last week was my last appointment with her.

I asked her where she was going and she said to a medical practice up north affiliated with one of our Universities that maintained a better budget. She then opened up to explain that this county, in which I live, (very conservative and never going to raise taxes) was just too backward for her. Her heart patients had to drive almost two hours to the north to get decent care. She said that the elderly could not get decent care, elderly that were used to good health care, not poor elderly.  County health support was nil and she felt she could no longer do her job.  She also added that at least five doctors she knew were also job hunting outside the county further reducing our limited selection of doctors and putting strain on our one hospital.

Our county once had a surplus budget years ago and continues to have a record number of wealthy residents with the highest of incomes, mostly retired, but some working. What happened?  Is it that we have a large population of very poor and uneducated people. Was it the recent recession from which it never recovered? Was it because the state moved education retirement funding responsibilities to the counties without warning? Is it because two of our seven elected county commissioners are owners of liquor stores rather than something reflective of a broader view of society?  Is it this conservative county's refusal to even consider raising taxes as we plunge in tighter budgets?

Salaries of teachers have been flat for two years. How long before the more mobile and smart ones also head to parts up north putting our children at risk?

The county is in the process of supporting the development of a liquid natural gas facility within walking distance of many homes.  No other facility of this kind exists so close to where people live in the United States.  There were months of protests, but like Texas, these were overridden.  Do they think/hope this will save the day?  Maybe by blowing a number of taxpayers sky high?  I wait to see how our conservative liquor store owners work this out.  I am afraid it will be like sports stadiums that never create the job markets they promise while forcing the move of lower middle class home owners elsewhere.

No, I would not want to be Commissioner.  Since I do not run, maybe I should not complain.  Since I do not have a clear cut solution, maybe I should just sit down.  But I would accept a ding in my taxes.

The Volunteer Snob

During the summer months I am involved in master gardener projects. One project could involve several hours 4 days a week, but I have decided that as much as I love sharing my love of growing things, I do not want to spend that much time in other gardens! I like doing nothing and running a house (which was always my secondary job) continues to take some time. Hubby, on the other hand, seems to be driven to find something to do every single day. I think it is much harder for men to retire and not have the responsibilities that they used to have.

I also was looking for a change in types of volunteering. I wanted to maybe work more one on one with people. I also wanted something more intellectual and less physical. I am still searching.

This past January I called our local office of Public Literacy to see if they needed teachers of English or reading or similar. They asked me to fill out a few forms, welcomed my skills, and set up an afternoon of training. I went and one other woman was there for the training at the same time. I learned that five of us had volunteered and they could only get two of us to come on this particular day and would train the other three the following week.

The training was easy and predictable. The structure of the process for each class and data input from the lessons with a student would be more challenging, but something I would learn to do with time.

I left them eager for a call to assist. It is now 6 months later and I have not received even a follow-up call from that office. It is not clear to me why no one needs assistance in my part of the county since I have been told they don't have any literacy volunteers down this way.

I realize that before the days of fall and less gardening start I am going to have to research once again for some volunteer work of an intellectual nature. Both Hospice and Meals on Wheels need help, but neither of these are something I want to do. Driving is something I hate and I do not think I am ready yet for hospice work emotionally. The museum wants someone for data entry...lonely and tedious work.

I think I just realized that I am a bit of a volunteer snob.

Just One More Step

10:00 PM on Tuesday evening the 23rd and I am off to bed!
11:00 PM and for a half hour after thunder and lightning that raises the bed!
2:00 AM my 4-year-old grandson awakens with a nightmare, so I crawl in bed with him.
3:00 AM he is leaning on me looking at my face.
4:00 AM I have a knee in my back.
5:00 AM hubby is up and packing for his Scout trip and while he is being quiet I am a very light sleeper.  I walk back down to my bed and throw the covers over my head.
7:00 AM the 4-year-old who usually sleeps until 8:00 awakens me with his call.
7:30 AM breakfast
8:00 AM dressed and check email
8:30 AM head out to bike with grandson--he covers a little less than 2 miles!
8:50 AM we bat some tennis balls back and forth
9:00 AM we head off to the art museum to walk and search for fairy houses on their grounds.
11:00 AM we tour the museum itself
11:30 AM we play in the children's playground
12:00 AM we eat at FAST FOOD for lunch
1:00 PM we get home
1:30 PM I set up the paint and brushes and his very own fairy castle and supervise
2:30 PM we let it dry and he plays with his new car while I sort, wash, and freeze several pints of newly picked raspberries
3:00 PM he gets a snack of raspberries
3:30 PM he watches a movie and I blog.
I have a small backache, am pretty tired, and he really seems to want a nap, but is on the edge where he will probably remain awake until this evening.
Is it only 3:30???

Nests

 Living in "good-old-boy" country means that things get done on a time warp.  It is not like the living in the city or suburbs where you call for repairs, they give a window of time, they show up, they get the job done and they charge you a small fortune.  Here in the country the square dance goes a little differently.  First, their motivation is not to become millionaires so they charge a 'little' less.  They give you a day and vague time and usually show up hours later or even the next day.  They never call.  They usually (not always) do excellent work, but it takes them three times longer than you would reasonably expect.  If you also have a scheduled life then it can take five times longer to get done!  I have been living with the mess below for a month!

The tape on the ceilings was buckling and had to be re-mudded, sanded and re-painted.  There was also other similar work in two bedrooms ceilings although in smaller, less difficult areas.  Furniture gets moved, drop clothes get placed and I sigh as they move equipment from room to room.

The older I am, the more I like things in their place where I can find them.  I tend to get up in the middle of the night once a week or so and do some wandering and do not want to be surprised by chaos that I might have forgotten.

This house is not as large as these pictures may convey.  It is the high ceilings that give it a feeling of spaciousness and also require paying professionals when work needs to be done or light bulbs changed!

Our good-old-boy was an interesting charmer.  He had 7 kids - all home schooled - he has a HUGE range of talents as he was able to fix a bunch of stuff.  He loves nature as we do, raises bees, among many other animals and while a bit laissez faire about projects he gets it done quite nicely 99% of the time.  He also was very mellow about my asking him to re-do a few small things or add a few new small things to be done.  So while I am not a priority in his life, I can live with it.

I am learning to bend and not break as I live in another culture!

Remembrance

The five-year-old is coming to visit all week, next week.  My husband will  be here the first two days of that week, and then he is off to a camping trip with the 10-year-old.  Yes, we are used if not abused in this world.  I am somewhat jealous of the free babysitting my children have access to.  I never had parents who could or would step forward so that I  had a day off  here or there.  When my first was small I  lived on an island in the South Pacific and had a young girl to help.  But if we were traveling, the baby always came along.  When we got stateside, both sets of parents lived far away.  When we visited them, Hubby's mother was busy taking care of hubby's father and could not take care of a grandchild, until that child was of school age.  My mother was resentful of any babysitting I might request.  She had raised five of her own and had no desire to go back to that time.  I did  "dump" the children (7 and 11)  on her for three weeks one summer as we had a business trip to Egypt.  Let us just say it was a character building experience for both of my children. and a miserable time for my mother.

So now this grandma camp has to kick into gear soon and I am happy!  I over-think this stuff and am trying to be better and more relaxed about it.  Wanting  to make sure there is laughter and amazement, and of course, memories to last a life time, but accepting the days will not be perfection.  I also try to throw in a lesson or two about mother nature, since their lives are limited in that area.

I secretly want my immortality to be encased in conversations that begin "When I used to visit Grandma, I remember...it was so much fun."  Now that death (hopefully decades away) is clearly my final big act, I want to be remembered for the good stuff in the hearts and minds of these little ones. We all do want remembrance, don't we?  Whether it is by our accomplishments in our community, our accomplishments in our career, or our activities with those we love we must leave a mark, however small, to justify our existence.

Just Once More!

I cannot in all good conscience leave France without some broader more traditional less contextual examples of what wonderful things can be seen in this country.  Only seven photos were selected from 2,250 that I took.  I deleted away another 600 or so before I even started!  As a photographer I really want to share some of the diversity of this place and I hope you have patience with my interest.  I also hope you enjoyed visiting France vicariously or returning vicariously, whatever the case may be.  I have no immediate plan to return, but who knows... (As always, click on the photos for a closer view.)

All About the People -- Part III

(First, Hattie asked a while back if all the photos from my French trip were mine and they are!   I am a little flattered.  As a copyright freak, I always clearly provide a link to photos that are taken from elsewhere or by someone else.)  ( As another prescript you will note that the demographics of these cruises is elderly, upper-middle class, white (except for two Asian women) and therefore, not as interesting as it could have been in other ways.)

I did not get many pictures of the passengers on the ship because I am not one to store these away and try to remember who was who (or is that who was whom)?  There were close to 190 passengers on each of the two ships that I took.  I must have met about 40 on each due to guided tours we took together or eating at the same table.  (Photos included below are street shots of the French and tourists and no one I met.  You can tell the French, as they are in great shape!)

We never talked politics or religion at meals, but with our country as politically divided as it is and with some groups making subjects more politically argumentative than they need to be, we found ourselves tiptoeing around subjects such as the environment, the weather, education, French protests, French labor, French socialism, French economy and even the global economy and  ship labor.  Yet we seemed to find that most of the passengers regardless of the state from which they hailed or the career they chose were in philosophical agreement with us, and thus we were able to be more honest in sharing and learning about others ideas for solutions to problems. 

It was easy to be in agreement with the University of Wisconsin young (50s) professor who was devastated by his governor's cuts to education and then seeing the gov applying the same amount of money as in the cut to a new (unneeded) sports venue and as we later learned selling the public land valued at 9 million to the billionaire sports owners for one dollar.  At the next dinner it was even more interesting to find that the retired geologist, who had worked for decades for most of the big oil companies in the U.S., was very much in agreement with our ideas toward the environment and also our hope to move toward more sustainable energy.  He also had a hobby working archeological digs in the U.S. and encouraged us to contact the Forestry Service to volunteer on one of their expeditions!

No one seems happy in this photo, neither the tourists in the background nor the Frenchman in the foreground.  I can see where this could lend itself to a story.

We were energized by the 80-something British couple who had many grandchildren.  We loved that the male part of this duo was able to walk on all the tours after a double knee replacement surgery a few years ago.  There were at least two other gentlemen with canes that did not let some of the more challenging walking tours up the hills on cobbled streets slow them down.

We enjoyed the couple from California.  The wife was originally from Georgia and we both loved the gentility of the south and the southern authors that we read and mutually enjoyed.  She was the gracious lady that made sure one of the passengers got a birthday card signed by many of us and was also a help with her command of the French language.

It is the same everywhere.  Wouldn't it be funny if they were talking to each other?

We enjoyed the Arizona couple who were not deep conservatives as we expected and fully on board with funding more science research and supporting socialized medicine.  Their son has been working on both an Ebola vaccine and a bird flu vaccine and now so close to success trying to get funding for both projects.  It was fun listening to how much work raising the boy was as a rebellious teenager and then evolving into such a success.  The other son, more conservative and less difficult to raise, was a success on Wall Street.  Proud parents they were.

Must be a new mother model.

We did find one gentleman our age that seemed to be on the verge of a heart attack in the middle of each walking tour.  His face was flushed and he sometimes seemed disoriented.  On the way back from a castle walk up a reasonable hill he actually collapsed just as he was going to go onto the gangplank of our ship.  They put him in a wheelchair and rolled him on in. Later on the second cruise he got lost and was left behind on one of the tours, missed the departure of our ship, and stayed two nights in a hotel in the French town before he contacted the Viking company and finally was reunited for the last two days.  We (the whole group) worried about him until we noticed he did a lot of drinking as well as taking pain pills on this trip.  He was wealthy, traveling alone, and we just shook our heads and felt sorry for the crew who were responsible.

One of our last dinners was with an 80 something woman traveling with her unmarried 40 something daughter.  The daughter was beautiful and wore expensive clothes and jewelry to dinner each evening, good taste stuff, not the turn your head stuff.  She was in real estate in Seattle and seemed to be very successful.  She was strong and opinionated and plotting about her future and search for a marriage partner.  She was trying to date online, but the questions she posed to possible candidates were pretty incisive and like a scalpel cut to the heart of things.  I am sure she was way over the head of most candidates that approached her.  She also seemed concerned about some woman in Seattle who had been on welfare her whole life who wanted her wedding paid for by the government.  I had no real comment for this, as I felt very strongly no one was going to pay for this welfare wedding!

I will let you add your own caption here.

Her mother was also very strong and outspoken and with some quiet "under her breath" comments, made it clear that she did not like the service in the dining room.  (In all honesty they did get my order mixed up twice!)  I later learned from another Seattle resident that this elderly woman lived in an area of multimillion dollar apartments.  Clearly they both were used to much higher standards.  Yet, even though both were strong headed, they seemed ever so supportive and polite and loving to each other and disagreements were quickly brushed aside.

In one of the conversations, the mother ever-so-lightly mentioned she had won a number of medals in the Olympics for Alpine skiing many years ago.  She did not brag, did not elaborate, but it fit into some part of the conversation, some yacht racing story, so she dropped it like a little diamond.  When I got home I researched Olympic medal winners and I am pretty sure that one of the biographies I came upon was her!  The photo was a dead ringer, although taken decades ago.  I now understood her so much better as she has always set high standards for herself and for others.

This post is too lengthy so I have to leave out the details of the Nigerian brother, a business man, and the Nigerian sister, a nun, who were leaving our airport going back to Nigeria with the body of their father who had been honored with an Army military funeral in Washington, DC.  He had been a chaplain. There was the robust engineer with the terrific laugh and his quiet wife who used to teach school that told the story of how they met in the elevator of their apartment building.  There was also the funny lawyer who let his wife do all the arrangements on the cruise, the Jewish history teacher who was so soft and inspiring and such a fount of knowledge for us along with his Catholic wife who had been a high level administrator for some state education office, and I will even leave out the fun wine tastings/map readings with my sister and brother-in-law or my sister's too much wine conversation scolding the Brits (gently) for their support of the "expensive"' monarchy and the Brits explaining to her how the Queen pretty much gave more than she got.  Oh well, just shows I had a great "people" time.  But I do love people and their stories.

It Is All About the Stories--People Part II

Before I travel I tend to collect a few books of fiction and non-fiction on the place I am going to visit.  I involve myself in the idiomatic expressions, the geography that molded the history of the country, the foods that are most traditional and I try to see what makes the people laugh.  I read one Gertrude Stein book on the people of Paris, but did not find it enlightening.  She refuses to use commas, which can be a distraction for someone, like me, that uses commas like salt.  I also read the novel "The Paris Architect" which I mentioned in a prior post.  It is a fictional account of two very different French sisters that found themselves fighting the Nazis from within their own limited world of that time.

Stop for a minute and think back to when you were 18 years old.  Imagine waking up to a war in your country.  Imagine your father leaving to fight that war and not seeing him for 9 years.  Imagine blackouts, bombings and ration cards.  This prologue leads me to writing about the people one meets on a cruise.

One of the best experiences on these cruises is the open table where you eat breakfast, lunch and dinner with other passengers.  You can avoid people to some extent, but the true pleasure is meeting and talking to people who have lived very interesting, long lives and are strong survivors of those lives and are in a great mood because they are on a travel vacation!  (Even an introvert like me gets sucked into the small talk.)

This lady wearing the red scarf above was on the cruise.  She was always dressed to the nines.  Earrings, several bracelets, finely knit sweaters, etc.  She stood about five feet tall and was full of energy and enthusiasm.  She was 80-something and traveling alone. She was also very religious as I saw the time she almost missed the bus because she forgot her audio guide machine she crossed herself while rushing back to her cabin. One evening as we sat at one of the round tables she asked to join us for dinner.  Oddly I had not noticed her on this trip until this time.  Her accent was unusual and while she spoke clearly I had to lean in carefully to understand her.  Asking enough questions I slowly got her life story.

She had owned and helped run a cattle ranch in Ohio.  She even raised meat for the Cincinnati Zoo.  She talked about the price of beef on the hoof and the hard work ranching entailed.  When I asked where she was from originally she said France!  (I thought about it and realized that her accent was a version of French, but after decades in the U.S., not easily identifiable.)

She smiled and said that she had fallen in love with a U.S. soldier when just a teenager in France during WWII.  She and her mother and sister were trying to survive while her father had gone to fight the war and they feared he had become a POW.  She married the U.S. soldier while in France and lived in France with her mother and the soldier where he was stationed for several years.  Late one evening there was a knock at her door.  Although the Germans had fled and the war was almost over, she and her mother were afraid to open the door.  Then they recognized the voice.  It was her father!  They had not seen or heard from him for nine years.  She said she almost did not recognize him when she opened the door as he had lost so much weight and was so bruised and weak.  I cannot imagine the emotional reunion, repeated many times across Europe.

Later when her husband was called back she moved with him to the U.S. only to find he was not the man she thought.  He was cruel and demanding and she eventually divorced.  Perhaps the war had changed him more than they both knew until he was back home.  (I did not know at the time she told this story that she was Catholic, but I should have expected as she was French.)  She tells of meeting  another soldier whom she marries and they went on to Ohio to ranching and that is where she spent the rest of the decades of her life. (A lot of the best story of her life is unquestionably during these times.)  She was most certainly a survivor, one for whom the twists and turns of life were just a dance move to be mastered.   She is now a widow and said that, at the end of the cruise, she was going to visit her married sister who still lived in France. 

On these two cruises we met many people of interest and perhaps in the next post I will touch on a few more.

People---Part 1

The next few posts are about the people.  Without that ingredient, travel becomes solid food without wine or dessert.  The first group of people we dealt with on a daily basis were the Viking crew members.  These people are endlessly polite, happy, caring, and even understand English on a basic level.  Their wages are unknown to me, but since staff attitude is one of the primary ingredients that allows Viking to charge so much for their cruises, I am guessing that is why passengers are encouraged to add a generous tip.  Staff treat you as if they depend upon you, and perhaps, they do!   In 2015 Viking (which is Swiss) announced it was going to change all pay to Euros which resulted in a 13% pay cut.  They are blaming this on the minimum wage law in Germany which includes staff on vessels.  Odd since most of the income comes in pounds or U.S. dollars!  I did not know about this until I returned and did some research.  I would not have changed my purchase, though, I am considering writing a letter.

This sweet lady worked behind the desk and we later found she was married to the Chef, who himself was a handful!

 

 

Here is her husband guiding us through an oyster tasting.

Viking is based in Basil and handles 40 river vessels and 2,000 staff.  They are now adding ocean vessels to the mix (I will most likely never take one of those as I hate big cruise ships). I do know that the upper level staff work about 3 months on and then 2 or 3 weeks off.  They are on 24 hour call, so eventually need such a break.  I am guessing it is unpaid leave?  But I do not know.  Higher level staff are paid decent wages, it is those that work in the bowels of the ship, which are of concern to us all.

Think about having a job where you must be polite to stupid elderly Americans that forget what you told them, do not read their brochure and booklets carefully, assume they can walk cobbled streets and in some cases (a future post) are privileged enough to feel that staff should behave as personal servants expecting perfection and in other cases (perhaps a future post) drink too much and miss the boat.  These staff earn it!

During one of our mooring experiences I saw the woman crew member rushing off and decided to follow and get pictures.  These are for Mage who loves the operations on ships.  This gal (no spring chicken) tried twice to throw the bow line over the dock pipe without a using any pole.  Photos taken from inside the terrace room windows!

She threw twice and failed to capture both side hooks on the mooring bollard.  Immediately the big "guy" shows up to assist.  They seemed to be speaking in German.  He took the rope from her with an air of confidence.

I am sure he thought he was going to do it better than she, but after four failed attempts he looked up and smiled at me and I politely quit taking photos and went back to my wine.  We must have eventually gotten docked correctly as we soon disembarked for our afternoon tour.

Next a post on other people.

Friday June 6

Enough about Paris!  After all, I did cruise on not only one but three rivers during this two week trip.  The weather cooperated nicely.  A little rain, a bit too cool for my tastes, but lots of interesting skies for photos.  We did "do" Versailles and the Louvre, both so overwhelming in their size and exotic nature and huge crowds!!  So, I won't bore you with photos.  These are places to return to on colder days when the crowds are smaller---if that ever happens in my life.

How about a sad and thought-provoking experience to share and one of the primary reasons we chose this particular cruise?  The beaches of Normandy.  Our cruise company took us to the American cemetery early one day before the crowds, and held a small ceremony playing both the U.S. national anthem (Brits and Canadians had a separate tour) and Taps and gave us each a rose to place on any grave we wished among the 9,387 crosses that stood starkly against the green.  Absolutely no one was dry eyed that time and very few could sing the anthem!  So many brave young men who gave their lives to save our lives from a wave of horror that spread across Europe.  My father was in North Africa a few weeks after this invasion and was one of those moving up through Italy sweeping the Nazis back.  It was only the luck of the draw that he lived to come home and share in the freedom that he and others had fought for.

The veterans were called to come to the front so that we could honor their service.  Yes, we were all the old folks.  Our French guide thanked us for fighting to free his country and hubby later went up to thank him for his countrymen and their role in ensuring our revolution's success.

liberty equality fraternity

Just a few yards away were the bodies of so many souls and a debt we can only repay by continuing to make sure our freedoms are safe.  The names of 1,557 Americans who lost their lives in the Normandy campaign but could not be located and/or identified are inscribed on the walls of a semicircular garden at the east side of the memorial.

We also stopped at the German bunkers where Naziis had watched the landing and even delayed their response waiting for orders from a higher command.

Above is the Statue Les Braves.  "The Wings of Hope ---So that the spirit which carried these men on 6th June 1944, continues to inspire us, reminding us that together it is always possible to change the future.  Rise of Freedom ---So that the example of those who rose up against barbarity, helps us remain standing strong against all forms on inhumanity.  The Wings of Fraternity---So that the surge of brotherhood always reminds of our responsibility towards others as well as ourselves."

And that event in history was today June 6 back in 1944.

Once a Limit of 122 Feet

Prior to my trip to France I read The Paris Architect which was a novel more about WWII and the Nazis in Paris and how an architect handled that time and less about architecture in itself.  It was a good read, if not a great read.  But it helped me realize how important architecture was to the Parisians.

According to one article that I read, French architecture is a gradual movement touching on all eras:  Roman, Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Rocco, Neo-Classical, Empire, Art Nouveau, Art Deco, Modern, Post-Modern, and Contemporary Architecture.  From my quick view of Paris and the rest of the country, this was certainly true. 

Paris began as a Roman city called Lutetia.  But this architecture, while found in other places in France, was pretty much destroyed in Paris as the Roman empire fell.  The medieval period was chaos with no plan for design in the city.  Then came the revival of Paris in the Renaissance period with the introduction of Italian architecture.  Much was done under Henry IV who some say was the earliest town planner.  It was not until the 1600s that Paris began to devise its own classical style with a hint of romanticism.  If I had time and more money I would spend months in Paris just studying the architecture.

One of my readers asked about high rise structures in the capital.  The high rise shown in one of my prior photos is the Tour Montparnasse,  built over 40 years ago, and most agree that it is the most hated building in Paris.  It is ugly, bold, and out of place.  A 2008 international poll named it the world's second ugliest building.  "planned developments are pushing up to levels where they will be visible across large sections of the city. The Norman Foster and Partners-designed Hermitage Plaza, expected to be completed in 2019, will consist of twin towers taller than London’s Shard, currently Europe’s tallest building, but just shorter than the Eiffel Tower. A mixed development combining offices and shops with apartments, its Russian developer says it will resolve what he sees as Paris's lack of luxury property compared to New York and Miami."  Times are changing and Paris is beginning to allow high rises into the city, especially in places where the structures are becoming ugly in age.  It is a slippery slope in my opinion, but money drives everything.

The foreground of this historic area in the photo above does leave something to be desired in terms of architecture.

" Paris currently has office vacancy rates of over 7 percent, as companies reject high rent levels in the city core to relocate farther out in the Paris region. What Paris needs more of may not be taller, shinier spaces to rent out but customers for vacant spaces that already exist, plus improved transport links to get to them (La Défense’s metro and train links aren’t the best)."

And, below, where our boat was docked, right next to a new shopping center and yet just a few blocks from the Eiffel Tower...how convenient.

Icons

I find my reaction to iconic landmarks/art varies over the years as I get my chance to see them.  I was overwhelmed when I first saw the pyramids in Egypt and my knees trembled, but I was also still in my 30s and a newbie to the world.  Seeing the temple of Borobudur in Indonesia was impressive and sad understanding how religious zealotry never wins in its path of destruction over something so ancient.  Seeing the paintings in Uffizi in Florence brought tears to my eyes in inspiration as these were the first really classic works of art I had seen up close.  Yet, the older I become, the more jaded I guess I get, but if you are at a place for the first time with no certainty of returning, you have to see the icons.  I was certainly excited to see the Eiffel Tower, but I also realized I may not be as impressed as I had hoped.  It was crowded, very crowded, with long lines buying tickets to go to the first level or buying more expensive tickets to go to the very top---and yes, you can walk it for free!  With the global terrorism permeating all that we touch, there were lots of guards and security gates and bag checks.  This is one reason I went to the top.  Who can imagine what idiot religious zealot would damage this structure in such a way that it would be closed for some time to come!  We were in line most of an hour, but the wait was worth it. (Click on photos for a closer experience.)

I used to think 1950's culture and Audrey Hepburn romances, etc. when I saw photos of this structure.

The reality is tired and bored guards waiting to go through our stuff, but a very festive mood among the crowd including one rather portly teenage French boy dressed in black slacks, white shirt, beret and fake mustache with artistic easel in hand---but I failed to get a photo. "After Gustave Eiffel experiments in the field of meteorology, he began to look at the effects of wind and air resistance, the science that would later be termed aerodynamics, which has become a large part of both military and commercial aviation as well as rocket technology. Gustave Eiffel imagined an automatic device sliding along a cable that was stretched between the ground and the second floor of the Eiffel Tower."

This is a rather handsome bust of the famous architect.  "The architect, Gustave Eiffel, an innovator in iron design, had worked previously on bridges, the west train station in Budapest and the framework for the Statue of Liberty. He watched his biggest project to date go up like a gigantic work of Lego: 18,038 pieces of iron were fitted together with 2.5 million rivets by more than 100 workmen who functioned almost like acrobats and stuntmen. Not one man lost his life during the construction."

Long lines waited ahead to ride the last elevator to the top if you purchased the more expensive ticket which we did.

...But what a view!!   And it reminds me, as it should, of Washington D.C.

Above you can see the Left and Right banks of the Seine.  Do not ask me which was which.  The river is not very clean in appearance, but there were no smells.  We were high enough to see the curve of the earth.

With binoculars you could watch a soccer game, although why so many are on the field I do not know!

The boat in the photo below moving in the center was the size of our cruise vessel and you can see how sometimes the height of the river closes the cruises that cannot pass under bridges and you must go by bus.

And, as in any good tourist place, there are many wanting to take your money in exchange for souvenirs.  These folks appeared to be from North Africa...Algerians?

This was one of my favorite views as I love that butt!!  Yes, I am getting weird in my old age.

And, of course one must have a romantic photo.  A quick and data filled video on the construction of this tower can be found at this link that follows next.  (http://www.history.com/topics/eiffel-tower)