We spent the day "piddling around" as my Grams would say, and working on bicycles. We were going to go on a two day ride, but the hotels were all full where we were thinking of riding and we didn't have the right parts for the tandem rack, so...we went on this fabulous 60km ride around the L'Oise River valley. It was glorius. Open fields, strong headwinds, rolling country roads, strong headwinds, quaint little towns, strong headwinds, and after lunch a 13th century church (see photo), some cool cows and a marvelous TAIL wind!
We ended our trip in the town where Vincent Van Gogh is buried and poked around in the building where he once lived(see earlier blog.)
Then on Saturday, we put on our walking shoes and headed into Paris for a Paris Walks tour of the WWII German Occupied Paris. We heard stories of German Generals who were unwilling to blow up the beautiful bridges, building and monuments, and of a nurse who was killed helping someone in the street (see photo).
Most of the walk was in the Tuilleries Garden, and recently a placque has been put up there for a woman who carefully and secretively documented the owners and locations of many of the works of arts that were plundered during the German occupation, so that a lot of those items were returned after the war. Some called her a collaborator, others said she was a hero. We saw the American Embassy, where you aren't allowed to take any pictures, even outside, so I won't show you those, and we saw some bullet holes still in the walls of many of the beautiful old hotels around the Place de la Concorde, where the German officers took over and made their homes.
On Sat. night, we went to see the DaVinci Code with our french speaking next door neighbors.
It was in english (version originale) but there was a lot of french and a lot of latin, and the subtitles were in french or not at all! I loved the movie, but give me a good story, a happy ending, and add that I had just that day walked around at the Louvre, and Place de Vendome and what was not to enjoy. What's not to like from a good beach read made into an adventure flick? It wasn't a classic, but it was certainly entertaining.
On Sunday, we put on our red, white and blue and drove to the largest American Military Cemetary in France, Meuse Argonne Cemetary.
The streets were lined with American and French flags, and the townspeople were streaming to the cemetary for a wonderful ceremony. It was very moving. The three hour drive each way was worth it, as it was really nice to see a foreign country embrace the Americans and their sacrifices for a change.
Because we went to a military cemetary ceremony, the one thing I really missed was the lack of recognition for the living. That wasn't the purpose of the Meuse-Argonne event, and I don't want to take away from the sacrifice that those who died made, not at all, but I also felt a strong desire to applaud the living that also made amazing sacrifices, and followed through on their committments. Maybe that is why I love the parades that we do in the states with the veterans all piled into convertibles and trucks and trailers,waving and wearing their medals. And us applauding them, I missed that this year.
Monday was back to work for Pat and me, but we hung our American flag out in honor of all of our family and friends - my father, Pat's father, uncle and grandfather, Bob, Jimmy & Bryan, Michael and Ronnie and all the rest of our family and friends who have served their country through the military, whether they chose to, or not, whether you believed that cause was right or not, they served in the name of our freedom. Make sure you tell them thanks.
