It is Sunday morning and we are really still at the Bromages in Maisons. We had a great night's sleep. We were thankful we had spent three days in the Netherlands getting adjusted to European time.
We woke up, but waited to go next door until we heard the kids awake. When we went into the kitchen, we saw this welcome message to us. We had missed it in all the excitement the night before.Gigi has an expresso machine which John had bought for her. She made latte to go with my yogurt for breakfast. Janet helped with breakfast for the kids and had cereal and yogurt with them. I sat down to copy some more files to the new computer.
On Sunday mornings, the town of Bayeux has a fabulous market. It is quite the family adventure. We pile into the Bromage's car and drive to Bayeux. We meet several of their friends. We look at all the food. There are fruit and vegetable stands. Sausages of every kind are piled high.I spot a vendor selling andouillette. This sausage is notorious. Once we heard what it was made of last fall, we avoided it like the plague. Andouille is good. Andouillette, we thought, was not. But at Thanksgiving at my daughter's, we talked with their friend Carolyn from Paris who was studying French Holocaust Literature at Harvard. What was the thing she missed the most about being away from France? The food. Which food? Andouillette. Hmmmmm. Perhaps I had been wrong.
I asked John about buying some. He was worried because he has seen the raw sausage at one of the stands. It smells horrible when it cooks. But no, I found some cooked andouillette and we buy a link to take home. Next I see a vendor with blood sausage. John raved about this last fall. Every March, Mortagne au Perche, in south Normandy hosts the Foire au Boudin - the black pudding (Boudin noir) festival. More than three miles of sausage is consumed during the event. We buy some of that too.
John is looking for fish. The scallops are gone for the season. There is a nice sole. John has it filleted and wrapped.We see beautiful white asparagus and buy some.
Then we come to the cheese stand. Apparently John and the vendor have a rapport. John is a fan of the great cheese. The vendor always tries to sell him more than he asks. John buys Roquefort and a Beaufort from Savoie.
We drive back home. John and Gigi unwrap the purchases. They set out the sausages and cheeses to taste. The andouillette is ok. Quite good with mustard. (My daughter can't believe I tried this and liked it - her boyfriend Felipe, with a cast iron stomach got sick on it when visiting Carolyn last year.) The blood sausage was GOOD! No kidding. Janet agrees. We even bought some more for a picnic later on.
Gigi brought out a plate of buffalo mozzarella, tomatoes and basil drizzled with the best olive oil in the world from the Alpilles area of Provence (see http://www.francecustomtours.com/tour-ideas/provence for a tour to get some of your own.) It was fabulous - oh my gosh, the best I have ever eaten.
Next came a platter of steamed shrimp.
Now comes the sole and the fresh asparagus. We could just stop the trip right now and be happy. We ate and ate. Everything was so good. The company was great - John and Gigi are so much fun together.
After Sunday dinner, John calls Benjamin's parents, Rosemary and the Colonel. We have heard of them before. John loves to read the Colonel's military history books. They have a farm and are keeping the sheep that John bought last year. During the winter John's sheep had lambs and Rosemary bottle fed one to keep it alive when John and Gigi were visiting her parents in Maryland. They are "almost parents" to the Bromage family. This time, we need internet. They tell us to bring the computers over and hook into their network.
John drives me to the Colonel's farm armed with the new computer and the old one too. We go in. Benjamin and his brother Martin are both there interviewing their dad with a video camera to document family history. Rosemary welcomes us and offers coffee.John leads me to the office and helps me hook up the computers. He leaves me work and goes to visit the Colonel. My bag of wires comes in handy as I plug into their modem. Nothing works at first - the new computer asks for a user id and password to log into the network. This is strange for a wired home network. I try various things. John comes back and looks through their instructions. I fuss some more and probably push the cords in better because all at once I am connected. John is able to log into AOL. He can find all his new messages and saved ones. He checks Gigi's mail which works as well. The software appears to be working - the virus scanner updates for new threats. We are done. The computer should be good as soon as the Bromage house is reconnected to internet. We say our goodbyes and return home.
John has promised us a visit to the Mulberry Harbor at Arrowmanches. I had read about it when putting together the web pages on Normandy. It was an artificial harbor built off the coast of Normandy to supply the Allied forces during the Battle of Normandy. Winston Churchill had encouraged the development. He knew the Germans would not surrender working natural ports along French northern coast. Artificial harbors would be required to supply the troops. This is what remains today of the Mulberry Harbor.There were two harbors - Mulberry 'A' at Omaha Beach and Mulberry 'B' at Arrowmanches. They were started on June 9th, three days after D Day.
- They consisted of :
- floating outer breakwaters called "Bombardons" - fabricated in steel and anchored outside the static breakwaters ,
- static breakwaters called "Gooseberries" (Block ships "Corn Cobs" which crossed the channel either under their own steam or were towed and then scuttled to create sheltered waters),
- reinforced concrete caissons called "Phoenixes" - constructed and then sunk to avoid detection by the Germans. They were refloated and towed across the channel to Normandy where they were again sunk in their permanent location,
- floating piers code named "Whale" - the floating roadways that connected the 'Spud' pier heads to the land. The roadways were made from flexible bridging units that had a span of 80 ft. and were mounted on pontoon units of either steel or concrete called 'Beetles', and
- the pier heads or landing wharves code named "Spuds" at which ships were unloaded. Each of these consisted of a pontoon with four legs that rested on the sea bed to anchor the pontoon, yet allowed it to float up and down freely with the tide.
Sadly Mulberry 'A' at Omaha Beach was not securely anchored to the sea bed and it was destroyed in severe storms at the end of June, 1944. Salvageable parts were taken to Arrowmanches and used to repair Mulberry 'B'. Although designed for only 3 months' service, during the 10 months after D-Day, it was used to land over 2.5 million men, 500,000 vehicles, and 4 million tons of supplies for Allied operations in France.The museum has great tour guides which explain the construction of the amazing harbor. There is a touching film. It is awe inspiring to once again stand at the site of such pivotal importance in the liberation of Europe during World War II. I am more touched even than by our visit to the American Cemetary and Memorial at Omaha Beach last fall. Perhaps because I have done much more research since that trip and understand the importance.
We find John and his son on the beach and we drive home to Maisons. At my request, we stop for photographs along the way. Their home is situated in a beautiful area and I need to add photographs to the webpage about their gites.
An old church and cemetary.
The castle which originally owned the land on which John's house is built.
The tree lined road near John's house.We return and the children are tired and ready for bed. John had wanted to take us out for dinner. We know that Gigi will need to stay home with the children. We will be leaving her in the morning, so ask if we can stay home and have leftovers instead.
We are expecting eggs. Instead Gigi makes a large quiche using some of the cheeses we brought home and a few leftovers chopped and added. It was fabulous. We had some greens to go with the quiche and finally wine and cheese at the end. Gigi is wonderful at drawing people into conversation and listening. We talk late around the table - but tomorrow we leave, and John must get packed. John brings out a library of travel books for the trip. Gigi donates the family cooler and picnic set to our journey - we will be in the country where there are wonderful markets - we will picnic when we can.
Sadly we say goodnight. Janet and I will stay in our room in the morning so we do not interrupt John's goodbyes to his wife and children as he drives them to school. We will leave when he comes back.
We know that these two days with John and his family will be the best of our trip. The warmth and love in their family spills out everywhere. We have been very blessed to be a part of it.
There is nothing better than love. Sometimes you need to go away and then come home to see the love you overlook every day. It was that way with us.
Good night.
May you too be richly blessed.
Love from
Janet and Rozanne
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