Fortunate

Well, it’s over- for now at least. What wonderful adventure I’ve had. I have learned so much, met such wonderful people, practiced and improved my French, experienced a new and exciting culture in North Africa, visited a couple of fascinating regions of France and shared good times with family & friends, both new and old.
Even though I spent 6 weeks in the south of France, with four weeks of it in a relatively small area, I really feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface of all there is to see, do, learn, experience. France is such a varied country, historically, culturally, geologically (on & on) which makes it seem so much larger than it is. Peter didn’t believe me (he googled it!!) when I told him that France is only 4/5 the size of Texas.
My time in Morocco also felt like a brief introduction to a historically dense and beautiful place. I am so glad I did the ESL certification course in Marrakech. Not just for course itself (which far exceeded my expections), but also for the opportunity if provided me to spend a month in one place, live with a (wonderful) Moroccan family and have the time to spend time with them, explore, debate issues, share celebrations with them and have them so graciously share their home and lives with me (not to mention the fact that Amine got me hooked on ’24’!)
I feel particularly fortunate to live in this community and work in this school district; both of which are so supportive of the schools and staff, and so encouraging of personal and professional development. So very many people helped make this sabbatical possible: my family & friends, Scott and the school and the Mt Desert community at large,. Thank you all for the support you’ve given me, both moral & financial. And a big thanks to Monsieur Curtis for stepping in both as ‘the French teacher’ and housesitter during my absence. My mind was at ease leaving my students (and kitty!) in such capable hands.

le musée du Louvre

It’s really impossible for me to ‘do’ the Louvre. It is so big with so many exhibits, that it’s a bit overwhelming. You need to take several visits and divide it up by section to really do it justice. I enjoy seeing old favorites. The Mona Lisa of course (La Joconde in French, by Leonardo DaVinci). This picture is to show how small it is, just a regular portrait size and its location behind glass. The display has been redone since my last visit, it used to be in what looked like its own room. Now it’s in a wall display which is free standing in the room. Interesting. Again, it paid off getting to the Louvre early, there were no lines and the galleries were pretty empty, which made it nice to take pictures and to admire the Venus de Milo, the Winged Victory and some of my favorite french paintings, such as this one of Empress Josephine and Napoleon in Notre Dame, with Napoleon crowning himself (which did not make the Pope very happy.)

Notre Dame de Paris

Notre Dame de Paris was started in 1163 and is such an imposing yet beautiful place. It underwent a lot of damage and destruction, being at the epicenter of the French Revolution of 1789. As I mentioned earlier, much of its statuary and stained glass has been replaced over the centuries (approx 25% of glass & statues are original). The acoustics are fabulous and we again were fortunate in arriving when there was a service being held. It was a glorious, sunny day, so the stained glass windows were spectacular as was the cool statue outside of Charlemagne.
The next day, Hannah and I climbed the bell tower. You get a great view of the the roof & architecture, the city & river and a bird’s eye view of the gargoyles and the interior of the bell tower. The last set of stairs, up to the very top of tower is so skinny and there’s only one set, so it’s one way and you’re only allowed 5-10 minutes at the very top. It was great. My students have heard me say many times how amazing I find it that such a massive and beautiful structure was built (and endures) hundreds of years before Columbus came to the ‘New World’. For me, it really puts the long history of Europe and the ‘newness’ of this country in perspective.

La Tour Eiffel

A trip to the Eiffel Tower was a must, and yes, we took the stairs. Hannah counted but I don’t remember the number she got (I think about 795 to the second level). It was really interesting climbing the stairs and really getting a good look at the true structure of the tower. They had some displays showing men working on the tower. We were so surprised to then come across a real group of men, in climbing gear, painting the tower. What a job!
“The painting of the tower's tangled latticework is no small undertaking, requiring an estimated 60 metric tons (66 tons) of patented, signature "Eiffel Tower brown," 50 kilometers (31 miles) of climbing rope, and 18 months of work by painters willing to scale the lofty beams.
The painters still work with small, circular brushes, as they did in 1889, instead of sprayers or paint-rollers.
The tower has in the past been painted red, orange and yellow. It's maintained a signature brown color, which overseers say best accents the Paris skyline, since 1968. In the seven years between paintings, about 55 tons of paint erodes, they say.” (USA Today)

Paree!

I am always happy returning to Paris. We had fine weather, stayed in a nice area and wandered extensively around the city. It brought back many good memories of the year I spent studying & exploring there and the many good friends I made. It is one of the easiest cities to get around in, the metro and bus system is fantastic, clean, safe, & inexpensive. We were quite tired after many weeks on the go and got a two day pass on an open air, double decker bus. It was a very good way to get around the city, have good views of many monuments and learn more about Paris’ history through the audio program. It was nice to sit and be driven around, particularly on the warm, sunny days.

Chartres Cathedral

On our journey from the southwest up to Paris, there were a couple things we wanted to do. Visiting Chartres, a nice small city with probably the best preserved gothic cathedral in France (perhaps all of Europe) was high on our list. Chartres is about 50 miles southwest of Paris, and this distance helped it avoid the damage and destruction incurred by Notre Dame de Paris during the French Revolution (1789). Construction of both Chartres and Notre Dame was begun in the second half of the 12th century, both on sites that had already housed churches and chapels for hundreds of years. Chartres is very unusual in that it still has more than 80+% of the original statuary and stained glass windows from 800 years ago. Think about it, 800 year old stained glass windows! Amazing. There are over 200 stained glass windows and each one was removed, piece by piece, and stored during both world wars. Another feature of Chartres that differs from Notre Dame, is that it has spires on its west façade, and they don’t match! (one is from the 12th century, the more ‘flamboyant’ one from the 16th century). We arrived late afternoon and went to the cathedral after checking into our hotel. We were very fortunate to arrive just as two services were about to begin, Vespers and then the evening mass. We were able to admire the rose windows and architecture while enjoying the fine organ music and singing amid the smell of incense and the priest & people praying in French. One certainly doesn’t need to be religious or ‘church going’ to appreciate the majesty, history and incredible beauty & acoustics of Chartres.

more Giverny pix

Giverny

Visiting Monet’s House & Gardens was a real thrill. I’m so glad after all these years of adoring Impressionist paintings and of teaching a unit on Impressionism to have finally visited Giverny. We arrived early, which was a good thing, because as we left, this was the most crowded site we’d been to yet. The gardens were fabulous, spring was in full bloom, the flowers magnificent. The wisteria, so emblematic to me of Monet, was not yet in bloom here, although we’d seen lots of it in the Dordogne and southern France. The visitor center is in his studio and full of black & white pictures of Monet: at work and at ease. The house was lovely, with many of the japanese prints that so inspired him. We even got to stand on the Japanese bridge and had the area pretty much to ourselves. It was very peaceful and I could fully appreciate how it inspired Monet, and the many other impressionists who came here to paint.

Oradour-sur-Glane

Oradour-sur-Glane, a village just west of Limoges, was beseiged, burnt out, 642 of its inhabitants slaughtered, a mere four days after the Normandy Beaches, DDay invasions by the allies in June 1944. Also known as ‘le village des martyrs’, it was decided to leave the village in ruins, as a reminder of those who died and of the atrocities of war and intolerance. It was very powerful walking around the ruins, visiting the burnt out church where the women and children were slaughtered & burned and the other buildings where the men were herded and killed. History is a funny thing, it’s amazing to think that this happened a mere 60+ years ago. It’s also amazing that Germany rose so quickly after World War I, to devastate Europe again in WWII.
There was also a fabulous exhibit memorializing 9/11, many details of which I had already forgotten. Many famous quotes were scattered around the exhibit, including the profound quote by George Santayana which I may not get entirely right here: “Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it”.

Skinny streets and animal life

It’s really odd, but our friend Rich from Duluth pointed out some weeks ago that he hadn’t seen a single squirrel in our travels around southern France. I have still to report that after nearly 6 weeks, we have yet to spot one! We have seen all sorts of bird life, hawks, eagles, swifts, swallows, seagulls, heron, egret, doves, pigeons, swans and lots of ducks! Along the river we also saw otter (muskrat?) and turtles. Of course in the fields we have seen goats, sheep, cows and lots of geese (we’ve been in the land of foie gras!) There have been plenty of cute green lizards around, but remarkably no squirrels or chipmunks, or mice, rats or rabbits for that matter!

The roads we’ve been travelling for the most part have been very good, but never very wide. Luckily Peter has practice with this from the English lanes he’s driven over the years. I have a few photos of roads, mostly in medieval towns, where two cars really shouldn’t have to meet and pass each other. Makes for exciting driving!

And putting the two together, driving & animals, there has been virtually NO roadkill anywhere we’ve been. We’ve been driving in ver unpopulated areas, way out in the boonies. There have been signs occasionally for deer or other animals crossing, but we have yet to see much of anything!