Two weeks flew by and before we knew it we were picking Neve up in Paris. She arrived on a Saturday, but staying in Paris over a weekend in the summer (the weekend before school is back in) is crazy expensive. So, we stuffed Neve and her luggage into our Reneaut Elf (she’s used to it, we’ve always had small, overstuffed vehicles, how do you think we were able to save for this trip!!) and headed back to the Normandy countryside until Monday. We found an awesome place near a tiny village named Saint-Genevieve en Bray through Airbnb. It was formerly a barn that had been converted in to a guest house. Jo, the owner, and her husband restored it many years ago. He has since passed away and she runs the small farm herself. The girls had fun taking care of the rabbits. There were also chickens and sheep wandering around too.

It was a great home base to see the area. A nearby town is famous for it’s cheese (Neufchatel-en-Bray) and Dieppe was only a 30 minute drive away. Once Neve was settled in Mark checked the “Traces of War” website and found out that there was a WW2 V1 launch site close by.  So guess what we did….we went and checked it out. I can’t believe that there are so many intact remnants of war in random places all over the country. I know what you’re thinking, it must be getting boring, but honestly it’s just so bizarre to come across these things wherever you go. I was surprised at how interesting Neve thought it was, but she couldn’t believe how close you can get to everything. We are used to seeing things in museums, it’s a whole different story when it’s in it’s original place. On our way out we ran into an elderly man who began talking to us; luckily Neve and the girls were there to help translate. When he found out we were Canadian he thanked us profusely. We were a little confused; many people in that area love Canadians but it seemed a little excessive. But, as it turns out, that day was the anniversary of the Canadians liberating that area. He was a teenager at the time and his farm was just down the road from where we were. He told us about what it was like and how happy the people were when the Canadians arrived. It was a touching moment for sure.

The next morning we headed to a local farmers market, but early rising farmers we are not. By the time we got arrived there was a cheese truck (we already had tons), a guy selling cheap Las Vegas and New York t-shirts, a little bit of fruit (I bought some peaches – they grow peaches in France!!), and a meat vendor with only rabbits left to buy. Early bird gets the worm, late risers get cool t-shirts (sarcasm) and rabbit meat. The village was cute though and we discovered some kind of Bocce type tournament happening across the street (I think it was called Boule Forgionne). It seemed to be mostly men, and pretty much all of them were smoking. The kids seem amazed to see people smoking so much. Grace asked “Don’t they have the warnings on cigarette packages here?”.

Dieppe was our next stop. On the way into the city we noticed strange objects in the sky. mark pulled over and we jumped out to see people parachuting down from the sky. There were at least 7 or 8. We were close enough to watch them land.

Dieppe was the site of one of the worst Canadian day of WW2. The Allies planned a raid on the town, and it was the Canadians that were sent to carry it out. So many things went wrong and it was a disaster. One of the things that was a contributing factor was the fact that the beach in Dieppe is all stones, so when the tanks landed they got stuck and were useless. The beach is still the same and it’s rough going to even walk on it. We did see people out enjoying the ocean, but they brought yoga mats and other thick pillow type things to sit on.

We walked down the beach to the end, under some large cliffs. We made our way up to the sea wall and into the town. We were looking for the Canadian Dieppe Museum but got a little lost. We ended up walking up to the top of the cliffs where there is a huge castle (we thought this was what we were looking for). Before we headed inside we decided to go to the very top of the cliffs to see the view (awesome btw). Mark wanted to see if we could get even higher so we walked to the end of a residential street and followed a trail into the bluffs on top of the cliff. There were artists sketching, people picnicking (one couple even had a portable BBQ). We noticed a concrete structure hidden by some grass and bushes and decided to check it out. It turned out to be an abandoned German bunker, they are everywhere, we had even passed a few in the residential area on our walk there. But usually they are bricked shut. This one wasn’t!! We climbed down inside, there was a lot of broken glass and graffiti (remnants of past parties probably). It was dark and damp and spooky. I used the light from my phone to light the way as we went in. There were still large steel doors inside and rooms and a tunnel. The kids stayed near the opening and we went in further. I was kind of expecting a homeless person to be taking a nap in there or something. After a quick scan of the rooms we could see that there were openings at ground level that were used for observation and shooting, but I was too much of a chicken to go any further. All I could think about was how Tom (my dad) would not be impressed that we did this. We made our way out and up for some fresh air (it was pretty stinky down there).

The castle was a museum, but not the one we were looking for, so we didn’t go in. We did find the Canadian Museum and we did go in. It had an informative video about the Dieppe raid and lots of other neat displays.

On the way out of town we stopped at the Canadian war cemetery to pay our respects to the young men who died on the very beach we walked on for the afternoon. Molly and Grace walked down every row reading the names on the stones. Very touching.

We were heading to Paris the next day, so we headed back to pack up. In terms of packing/organization things have been working out pretty good so far. Packing cubes have been a god send. We were able to do laundry at our rental in Holt so we’ve been doing fine for clothes so far. I haven’t had time to look over the budget, but we’ve used our “no foreign transaction fee” VISA everywhere we can. When we’ve had to withdraw cash (twice so far) we’ve been dinged at least $5-$8 each time. I’m hoping to take stock mid-month to see where we’re at. Some days I feel like we’re doing ok budget-wise, other days not so much.

We returned the rental when we arrived in Paris. Our apartment was in a great location so we walked everywhere or used public transit (Metro). The apartment was a 5th floor walk up in an old building. There were 9 foot ceilings and huge windows. In terms of the location, it was a good price. The kitchen was decently equipped and there was a washing machine (I now get very excited when a rental comes with one). I booked this place over 10 months ago, before we knew when Neve would be joining us. So, technically there were only supposed to be 4 of us in the apartment. Neve had a drink in a cafe while we met the building manager to let us in and then came up after he left.

Our plan was to walk along the river (we were one block away from the river and 500m from the Louvre) toward the Eiffel Tower through the Tuileries Gardens, just exploring as we went. But, we ended up going up the Eiffel Tower, it wasn’t the plan but the weather was good and it was looking like rain for a few days after, so we decided to go for it.

Up the tower was everything I hoped it would be. But, I have to say, I was disappointed with the area around the bottom of the tower. There is a dirt patch (it looked like it used to be grassy) where you can stand a take pictures. There’s litter everywhere and people are constantly bugging you to buy crappy souvenirs. The souvenir hawkers I was totally expecting, but the ugly conditions of the “park” was a surprise.

Over the next 3 days we kicked Paris ass. We climbed the Arc de Triomphe, visited the Army Museum (Napoleon’s tomb, and excellent of WW1 & WW2 exhibits), browsed for books in the Shakespeare and Company bookstore, ate in the Latin Quarter, toured Notre Dame Cathedral, walked the Seine, hit all the “must sees” at the Louvre and toured the gardens and inside the Palace of Versailles. None of these were disappointments.

We left Paris by car to begin our 50 day road trip. We still got to keep Neve for another 2 days so we rented a place to the east of Paris, about 45 minutes from the airport. The house was built in the 1800’s and had been fully restored. The grounds had apple, peach and pear trees, a pond and a beautiful courtyard. It was really nice to spend the day visiting with Neve, playing Catan and listening to the kids giggle as they explored the huge property.

At 6pm, Mario, they man we rented from (and who renovated the place we were in) stopped by to see if the 3 girls wanted to feed his chickens and see his farm. They jumped on the back of his 4 wheeler and took off (Mark and I walked up the road). He had chickens, geese, goats and quail and they were all really friendly. Most of them are like pets, they followed him around and came to him when he called. He chatted to us about the history of the area and his family (thank goodness Neve, Molly and Grace were there to translate!!). As we were leaving he gave us directions to the  place where the local townspeople hid from air raids during the war, he said sometimes they were in there for days at a time. It was just behind the property where we were staying.

About 5 minutes into our walk there, Mario came flying down the path on his 4 wheeler and made a sharp left into a wall of bush, he plowed down the tangle of blackberry bushes and small trees making a path for us to the spot we were looking for. We would have NEVER found it on our own. But once the bushes were out of the way, there stood the opening to a large cave. You could have driven a transport into it, and it went back really far (too far to go all the way in without lights). As it turns out it wasn’t a natural cave. All the houses in the area are made of stone, the caves were the quarries where they got the stone from back in the day. Mario said there were 4 more at least as big as the one we saw.

We dropped Neve off at the airport the next morning. She’s gone home to start her next chapter; which we are all very excited about. Saying goodbye is always hard and being away from my kid (even when she is an adult) is the hardest thing about being on this trip. I’m thankful for rentals with WiFi (or as the French pronounce it WeeFee), so I can see her face and hear her voice.