Our Summer Vacation in France

As I look down at the small bald spot on my arm, I am reminded of the fun times we had in France, more specifically, when Brody thought he was being funny and put his gum on my arm. OK, I put Ariana's gum on Brody's hand first. But, as was noted on a t-shirt a guy was wearing in France, "He hit me back first!"

Our trip began smoothly as we headed by rental car from Paris to Normandy and the D-Day beaches. Luckily, we never got stuck in the roundabout at the Arc de Triomphe like Chevy Chase did in one of those Vacation movies. The roads in France are very well kept...no potholes in sight. But you never know if you are going east or west, north or south. You just have to know the next big town in your path. Fortunately, we had a map, Chris as the navigator, and Corey driving the 5 speed, manual transmission, diesel Peugeot.

In Normandy, we were all very excited to meet our friends, the Ferris family (Dessa, Peter and Duncan). Duncan and Brody had spent countless hours in Dallas playing war games, and here, at the site of the beginning of the end of WWII, the two of them could not be happier. For Ariana, there were beautiful sandy beaches that stretched a quarter of mile deep at low tide. And for the adults, there was the quiet French countryside, straight out of a Monet painting.

I shouldn't bore you with all the details, but I can certainly try. We visited several WWII museums, numerous German bunkers off of Omaha beach, Gold beach and others, the Pegasus bridge and cafe (where gliders landed at midnight to capture the bridge from the Germans), and we saw more tanks and military paraphernalia than I can even describe. Brody and Duncan know the name of every vehicle.

At Pointe du Hoc, the kids discovered hundreds of craters (from Allied bombs!) amidst the German bunkers and decided it was fun to run down and back up each crater as fast as they could. Unfortunately, Duncan didn't quite make it and crashed in one of the bunkers, leaving him scratched and bruised.

For me, as Peter noted, I was seeing GREEN by the time we left Normandy. Peter, who has GREEN running through his veins, is an ex-Marine who served as a fantastic tour guide during our 3 days in Normandy. Between him and the kids, we never had a shortage of statistics and facts about WWII. Luckily Dessa knew French, so we also had our own personal translator. Too bad she disappeared before Paris.

In spite of all the fun we had, we also all recognized the enormity of the significance of the events that took place on these beaches. Seeing the sea of crosses and Stars of David at the memorial site really made me appreciate how fortunate we are in America and how hard we sometimes have to fight as a country for freedom.

When leaving Normandy, we first had the pleasure of RE-visiting the Pegasus Cafe. That is the historic site where the infamous Brody Ladd left his coat for the 20 millionth time! Unfortunately, this time we didn't figure it out until later that evening.

Now we headed back to the medieval times (1400's). Mont St. Michel is a small island off the western coast of France, connected to the mainland by a man-made dirt pile with a road. It started with a small abbey on top, and over a couple hundred years grew into a small community. It has a kind of a Disneyland feel to it because everything looks like the set of an old medieval movie. The only difference is that it actually IS real. We got to stay in a hotel on the island. The highlights there were a tour of the Abbey as well as some adjacent museums of armor, furniture and torture devices of the time. The really interesting thing about this place is that depending on the tide and the time of the month, the island can be surrounded by water or can be completely dry. We happened to be there during a low tide period, so we had lots of fun playing nearby on the extensive sandy beaches.

We were warned by signs as we entered to beware of quicksand. So, being the quick studies that we are, we immediately started to search for quicksand. After building sand castles behind the island, we found the dreaded quicksand in a muddy area nearby. OK, so maybe it was not the thing to do, letting your kids dance around on top of quicksand pits, but it was really interesting to watch the kids making waves in the dirt as they danced and sang. I have the video if anyone is interested in more detail. Luckily no one sank deeper than about half way up their calf. And, of course, we had an ex-marine ready to save the day if necessary. Quote from Brody..."It was cool."

Finally after sadly leaving the Ferris family, we were off to Paris via the Loire Valley. Along the highway, we stopped for a picnic where the kids also picked apples from a nearby apple tree. They were a little too small to eat, but it was fun anyway. As a diversion for the day, we decided to stop at the Chateau Chambord in the Loire Valley. What a beautiful place it was...wow I wish I had that much money. All my friends and family would stay for free!

Paris was full of excitement and climbing (well over 1,000 steps). We climbed 700 steps to the second level (about 2/5 of the way to the top) of the Eiffel Tower. We also climbed almost 300 steps to the top of the Arc de Triomph. At the Louvre, we saw famous stuff like the Mona Lisa (still not really smiling) and the Venus de Milo who Brody said is in a funny Bud Light commercial. Who says ads don't work. We also had the pleasure of meeting our friends, the Ortiz family, in Paris one night for dinner.

At Versailles, we spent the entire day wandering through the grounds, having a picnic lunch and even rented bikes. The bikes helped us visit the outskirts of the grounds where we saw Marie Antoinette's "play" area called the Queen's Hamlet, a beautiful little community of cottages.

We concluded our trip the night before departure with a one hour sunset (which occurs at about 10:30 this time of year) cruise on the Seine River where the Eiffel Tower was alternately sparkling and lit blue.

Overall, it was a fantastic journey that carried us through the old French country side, into the heart of Paris, one of the most famed cities in the world, and through a vast array of military and regal sites. But most of all, it was a great time with friends and family.