Vitre Castleconstruction was started at the end of the 11th century.
We visited it while returning from Paris
Concarneau
Earlier this month, we jumped in the car with a couple of friends and did a day trip to the medieval town of Concarneau on another part of our coast. The walled section with its ramparts is on an island in the bay set to defend the city from marauders.
The surrounding towns are among the most traditional in France, one with a few older ladies who still sport their ‘coiffe’ in homage to the areas notoriety for their skills in the art of embroidery. When you come across these folks, you know you are not in Kansas anymore…
A tiny project
Last winter, I started phase two of our kitchen renovation by hand adzing 3 ceiling beams, including shaping them with a draw knife much as was done in the day. In fact all of the logs in our cabin at the island are hand adzed as electric power was not yet invented when it was built. I had to stop when Janice received her Cancer diagnosis and we were on the next plane out of here.
Hand Adzing
Shaping with a draw knife
Early this month, we got the New Year off to a productive start by smashing our kitchen ceiling. Gee, does that make me passive aggressive? [In my wife’s world, all play no work makes you not earn your keep]
John helping place the beams
The finished product
Forged beam supports
Carved trim
Removing all the hideous Styrofoam ceiling tiles, repairing huge holes in the ceiling and texturing between the new ceiling beams I hung, punching a small hole through the roof for a light well, hand forging the beam supports, hanging some carved hardwood trim pieces, a little paint and boom-ba-ra-boom, the transformation was done.
Next! Bring it on, baby.
Road trip!
Taking a much needed break from …eh …I dunno… -well anyway, we packed our bags and took a little road trip. After each of Janice’s treatments at the hospital, we have exactly 21 days to do as we please, go where we want until the bell rings and she needs to be back at the hospital on time with no ifs, and's, buts or coconuts.
This time we drove to the town of Jublains, visited the Roman ruins and went on to Paris where we spent the night. The following morning we flew to Athens Greece in an early celebration for Valentine’s Day. The first time Janice was diagnosed with breast cancer was on Valentine's Day 14 years ago, and it has been an ongoing effort to try to re-associate the day with some positive experiences as opposed to doom and gloom.
The Parthenon on the Acropolis in Athens
Delphi
Once landed, we rented a car and hit the deck running. This being our first trip to the country we covered all the mandatory ‘must see’ sites, you know the BTDTGTTS places (Been There, Done That, Got The T-Shirt), as well as a number of lesser known but very impressive archeological locations. We spent the first few days in the heart of Athens before touring the southern part of the country.
Olympia
First Olympics were held here in 800 BC
We visited 5 new [to us] World Heritage Sites (The Acropolis, the fortress and theatre of Epidaurus, Mycenae, Olympia and Delphi) Olympia was the location of the first Olympic games in 800 BC. As women were not allowed to view the games I hesitated taking Janice, fearing she might then be privy to all our secret ‘men stuff’ there. She said that I should not worry because she already knew all about the scratching and spitting.
Can you spot Janice?
She is the speck below the flag
Athens Olympic stadium
Capacity 68,000 and home of the ‘modern’ Olympics. I was sure I came in first but by the time I completed a full lap, everyone was gone!
Lesser known but of great importance to believers was Aerios Pagos. Located within yards of the Parthenon, it is a rocky hilltop where the apostle Paul preached and converted the masses.
Aerios Pagos.
Delphi, was said to be the earth’s navel (the center of the world) as was determined by the god Zeus. That was a welcome change from our visit to Morocco 2 years ago which was clearly where god inserted the world’s suppositories.
As far as lifestyle issues are concerned, we found that Athens like many European capitals appears to be about to cross a tipping point. Twice we entered or left the city and took an hour to travel 1 mile (2Km). The traffic gridlock is so pervasive that many common traffic laws are blatantly ignored with no pretense of trying to enforce them.
It is simply the law of the jungle, with people parking on all four corners of the crosswalks in the intersections, double parking and following an ‘everyman for himself’ approach to driving. I simply cannot imagine what these places will be like in 10 years when thousands of new cars are added to the mix.
Highway driving is a good example. Slower vehicles drive with half the width of the car in the emergency lane and half in the driving lane proper. The rest of the lane is for cars to pass you. This in effect turns the emergency and regular lanes into two lanes going the same direction. Ditto for oncoming traffic.
How to turn 2 lanes into 4.
This is all unofficial mind you but is the accepted practice for all including cement trucks and 18 wheelers. It took me about 48 hours to become a Greek driver, flying along at up to 2 ½ times the posted speed limit (ridiculously low) and passing like a maniac, once in full view of a policeman. It was as if someone had said “forget all the laws, just go have fun!” I drew the line at passing on blind curves on hills.
Trying to fit in with the locals is one thing but I still have things I want to do and for that I need to live. By the way, I have whined before at the price of gas in Europe. Well, here we go again with Greece now holding the record for our travels. 1.92 Euro a liter ($11.00 a gallon)
Finally, the other item that caught our attention was the number of buildings, either homes or businesses that are abandoned. We have all seen buildings that for whatever reason were started and never completed. Here, we guessed that 10 % of all buildings we saw were derelict empty shells. Some, as in the photo, are occupied on one of the floors while the remainder is but a raw concrete frame. 10% may not sound like much but look down your street and imagine how many of these you would see in your neighborhood.
At least a third of all buildings, even if they are completely finished, have steel rebar sticking out of all the rooftop corners (also seen in the photo) as though another floor is intended to be added —but it is not. While not entirely sure why, the explanations we heard ran from ‘the economic crisis’ (many appear to have been in this condition for decades) to a tax policy that said that until your building was ‘finished’ you didn’t have to pay taxes on it.
To be honest, it gives the entire country a general run down, dilapidated, derelict look that does not indicate pride of ownership. It might also explain the pervasive graffiti seen everywhere.
La Tour Prend Garde
Returning to Paris we settled into ‘La Tour Prend Garde’, a 5 bedroom villa on the outskirts of Paris we had exchanged our home in Brittany for. The dining room which sat 16 was in a glass enclosed sunroom overlooking 3100 sq ft (350 sq meters) of tiled terraces including a swimming pool and a hilltop view of the city below. An interesting place with lots of history, it was used by the French underground in WWII to sheltered British officers caught behind the lines.
Plaque on villa wall.
“Here, during the German occupation, English officers and parachutists were hidden, including Sergeant Serge Boldrini who was shot on July 19th, 1944”
We were there to meet up with daughter Mandy who was also in Paris for the week to compete in a university legal mediation event. She was representing her university in Stockholm Sweden, one of 60 schools from 35 countries that were attending. While this was not open to the public, Mandy was persistent and persuasive enough to get us cleared. It was a real treat watching her in a pseudo legal setting, negotiating a complex business dispute. She was born to do this!
In her free time we visited the medieval city of Provins outside of Paris and finally got to check out the Catacombs we have been wanting to do as a father / daughter thing for years. Ok, so it may not be at the top of your list of Parisian sights to visit but you can only climb the Eiffel Tower so many times and this is a one of a kind sight.
There are six million skeletal remains of Parisians in 1 mile (2 Km) of limestone caverns below the streets of the city that were interred over a period of 100 years starting in the late 1700’s. The skulls and individual bones are artistically stacked along the sides of the corridors. The catacombs were also used as the headquarters for the Paris underground (no pun intended) resistance group in WWII.
Mandy and her guy Markus at Notre Dame
Mandy’s intended Markus joined us for several days and we enjoyed our time together. Meanwhile, when we were not with the kids, Janice and I would waste away the hours by having lunch in some downtown café after taking romantic walks along the Seine or l'Arc de Triomphe and re-visiting old favorites like Notre Dame, Montmartre, Sacre Coeur or hanging out in the Latin Quarter. Sure beats working…
Lafayette department store in Paris
It reminded me of GUM in Moscow or Harrod’s in London.
Thousands of padlocks line the handrail of this entire bridge along the Seine near Notre Dame. Parisians do this to symbolize their devotion to their love interest.
Returning home, we visited the cathedral in Chartre (large enough to fit 2 Notre Dames in it) and the medieval castle in the city of Vitre as seen in the pic at the opening of this newsletter. Gosh, I sure hope we didn't use up all the fun and there is some leftover for next month.
