I'm traveling to France with a group of students and faculty from Northern Kentucky University as well as several other "senior citizens" like myself including my friend Doug Faires from PA. The purpose is to visit WWI and WWII battlefields of France and to learn more about the impact of those wars on the US, Britain, and France. The group is led by two Professors of History, Jeffrey Williams and Francois LeRoy, and we are accompanied by another colleague from History, Terry Fleming. Along the way, we'll have a few good meals and see some other sights.
Friday, March 7: We left CVG at 3:30 pm in a snow storm and changed planes at JFK. Fortunately I got an emergency row seat next to an interesting guy who captained yachts for (evidently) very rich folk. He spent his time traveling between Cannes, Rome, and Miami to care for the ships, hire crew, and take the owner out for cruises. Not a bad gig!
Saturday, March 8: We arrived in Paris at about 8:30 local 
time. There were about 25 of us traveling together, 15 students and the rest just citizens who were interested in the visits to battlefields and other venues. Since I had carried on my baggage, I was able to pass quickly through customs and immigration and was able to go out into the lobby to meet Doug Faires who had arrived a little earlier from Pittsburgh. We enjoyed our first cup of French espresso with our tour guide Michel while we waited for the others to clear customs. The plan was to take a bus tour of Paris, visiting the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame, both to begin the acclimation process as well as to kill time before we could move into our hotel, les Provinces Opera , located in the 2e arrondisment.
After settling into our rooms, Doug and I took off for a brief tour of the area, concentrating on the food shops near La Madeleine. These were truly fantastic, in particular Fauchon’s, with prices to match. While walking around we saw truffles priced at 3800 Euros per kilo; that’s around $2700/lb. I know that a pound of truffles would be a lot, but so is $2700!
After returning to the hotel and getting a half hour power nap, I joined the group in a walk to a restaurant for a “welcome to Paris” dinner. The restaurant appeared to be a place that specialized in group meals and the dinner was just average – a salad, a somewhat tough steak with Béarnaise sauce, green beans, and pomme frites, followed by a decent dessert. I was tired and went back to my room and slept through the night. Luckily, this reset my “internal clock” so I was able to keep reasonable hours and sleep well through most nights.
Sunday, March 9: After the usual European breakfast of crusty bread, ham, cheese, small sweet rolls, and good coffee, we left for the Hotel National des Invalides home to the Musee de l’Armee as well as Napoleon’s Tomb. The Invalides had been built by Louis XIV to care for veterans of his wars. We first went into the Dome Church that now contains Napoleon’s tomb and others, such as that of General Foch. The lower level contains marble plaques that honor Napoleon’s accomplishments. Of course all this was put in 
after his death by the French people who had selective memories about these accomplishments. The Army Museum had good exhibits on WWI and WWII, but they were not outstandingly memorable. Probably the most impressive was a video projection of the battle lines and army movements at the beginning of WWI. This was projected onto a relief map and showed the sites of the major battles in 1914.
After our visit to the museum, Doug, Terry Fleming, and I headed off in search of Domaine Lintillac a small bistro in the neighborhood that had been recommended by a friend of Doug, John Martindale. Unfortunately the restaurant was closed, but we walked through the rain to a small brasserie where we enjoyed a glass of wine and a light repast. We returned to the hotel, stopping by some small shops in the “forbidden zone” (so called by us because Francois urged the students not to travel there amongst its unsavory inhabitants.) We saw several prostitutes and quite a few Turks and Africans, but nothing terribly scary. We also 
stopped by the Restaurant Julien another of John Martindale’s recommendations to make a reservation for that evening. On returning to the restaurant at 7:30, we were the only people there, but it filled up later. The décor was very much Art Nouveau and was especially enhanced as it filled up. The food was quite good if not spectacular. I had a fish that was called Rascasse in French, a firm-fleshed white fish in the “scorpionfish family”, not one of the prettiest denizens of the Mediterranean, but a very tasty dish.
Monday, March 10: We got on the bus at about 8:30 to travel north, first to Compiegne and then on to Amiens. It rained steadily all day, but we slogged through the schedule. The famous rail car at Compiegne where the Armistice for WWI was signed and where, later, Hitler accepted the surrender of the French forces is located inside a small museum. They did not allow the taking of photographs, but the museum was interesting. The rail car was divided into two compartments; half was taken up by a conference table for the allies who accepted the surrender
of the Germans after WWI and the rest was clerical and telegraph equipment. The most interesting part of the museum was the collection of stereoscopic pictures of the WWI scenes. Most showed trench life or the aftermath of battles. Outside the museum was a small tank, the French Renault – the first tank with a rotating turret. We stopped in Compiegne for lunch; Doug, Terry, and I went to a little bar for a sandwich and some beer, followed by a treat from a local patisserie. Joan of Arc was captured in a siege of the city during the Hundred Years was and is honored with a statue in the city center.
We then drove on to Amiens and settled into our hotel, Grand Hotel de l’Universe , perhaps an overstatement of its quality. This charming 19th century hotel was located on the main 
pedestrian street of the city, close to the city park. It had small rooms and an open atrium from the second through fifth floors. The Cathedral at Amiens is the largest in France (and according to some, in the world). The statuary and carvings in the front entrance is not as interesting (or humorous) as at Notre Dame, but it is a beautiful church. One of the high points of the visit was to meet the little old man who was a caretaker of the church. He took us into the choir where we found an amazing amount and quality of wood carving. He told us that the cathedral was built between 1220 and 1270 and that the wood was oak that had been soaked in salt water for 3 years, then in clear water for 5 years, and finally allowed to air-dry for 60 years. The high chair where our leader Jeffrey Williams was allowed to sit was generally reserved for the Bishop, kings, or queens. The carvings were interesting in that they 
depicted the common people of the time in their roles as teacher, washerwoman, baker, etc. The old man was also very grateful to the Americans who liberated the town in 1945; he still remembers that he was a young man who had been mistreated by the Germans and that the Americans were very kind to him.
After returning to the hotel to relax in the atrium with some good wine and cheese, we had a nice dinner that evening at a restaurant recommended by the desk clerk. At La Bouchan I had leek soup and chicken fricassee.
Tuesday, March 11: We left in the morning to travel north from Amiens to the Somme battlefield. The Roman road out of Amiens was straight as an arrow through very flat agricultural land. This road had been the major army route to the north since
Roman times, including transit by the Franks, Charlemagne, the British going to Agincourt, the Burgundians and Spanish, the Russian Cossacks, and even Wellington in pursuit of Napoleon to Paris. Jeffrey explained how the 25 miles between Amiens and the battlefield had become a permanent “Region of the Army” during WWI in the sense that much of it was taken up by military support camps as well as civilian support for the soldiers. Amiens had been the rest area from the officers and we imagine that many of them had stayed in the rooms we used during our time there. We passed through Albert, a small market town that was on the outskirts of the battlefield, with plans to return there for lunch and a tour of the WWI museum. 
Our first stop was the Lochnegar crater just outside of la Boiselle. This was a spot on the German line where British sappers had tunneled from beneath the British line and laid a huge amount of explosives (30 T of ammonal according to the website http://www.ww1battlefields.co.uk/somme/laboiselle.html) right underneath the German trench area. The trenches here were only forty yards apart. The hole left by the explosion was immense. I paced off the perimeter and estimated the hole to be about 120 yards across and about 40 yards deep (I’m less sure of the depth). This results in a volume on the order of about 150,000 cubic yards; imagine 150,000 bags of mulch!
We then drove past the Fricourt British cemetery (one of many that cover the battlefield) where 760 men attacked across the very narrow no man’s land; the greatest loss was to the officers of whom 24 were killed. By the end of the battle of the Somme, the British Army had suffered 420,000 casualties including nearly 60,000 on the first day alone. The French lost 200,000 men and the Germans nearly 500,000. One can see the scope of this carnage by observing the locations of the many cemeteries where the soldiers were buried by regiment very near to the point where the men died. We also stopped at the German cemetery at Fricourt, where more than 7,000 
German soldiers are buried. It was striking to find the name Ph. Schmidt, Landwhermann, killed September 25, 1914 (very close to the beginning of WWI during the German attack on Belgium and France). Another famous soldier who had been buried here before being reinterred in Germany was the “Red Baron” von Richthofen, who had been shot down in the area by an Australian pilot.
One of the more striking regimental cemeteries was that of the Devonshire regiment near Mametz. We stopped in a beautiful spot that overlooked rolling hills spotted by bits of chalk. Jeffrey described the situation that the Devonshire regiment had found, a brutal German machine gun nest in woods overlooking the British trench. He then read a poem by young Lieutenant Wm. Hodgson, “ Before Action”. You can go to the website http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/480.html to find this beautiful poem. Hodgson’s grave is located in this cemetery.
We traveled along the battlefront past a variety of sites while Jeffrey gave some background: Near High Wood, British troops coming toward Montauban front had made significant advances, but General Rawlinson held them up and did not reinforce the gain, although they could easily have taken more ground. Beyond Montauban we saw the ground where the first and only cavalry charge of the 20th century took place; many men and horses were killed by machine gun fire. The same site was the first use of the tank by the British. It was ineffective because the tanks moved so slowly and had only a cannon that could fire straight forward. We passed a great number of cemeteries and monuments to British, South Africans, New Zealanders, Canadians, and Australians. At Butte de Warlencourt (an ancient burial mound) we found the site of the farthest point of British advance during 1916. Although the British never captured the Butte, they made many attempts because of the strategic advantages that it gave the German defenders. This was the site where Adolf Hitler had been wounded by a shell.
We returned to Albert for a particularly bad lunch, my one experience with croque monsieur, a broiled sandwich with cheese on top of two slices of wonder-bread with ham in between. This was about the only place where the service was terrible and somewhat sulky in the way that most Americans characterize the French; otherwise the service and food were very good.
After lunch we wandered through the underground Musee de Somme, where there were some displays of trench life along with lots of battlefield souvenirs. We then drove west along the lines, sometimes only separated by 40 yards. We stopped at the Newfoundland Monument where we saw trenches that had been occupied by the Canadians. Unfortunately the more interesting and well-developed German trenches were closed due to weather damage. We next visited the monument to the British Missing in 
Action at Thiepval, a large brick structure with the names of thousands of missing soldiers. It was here that while walking back to the bus along a muddy, just-plowed filed that I found a piece of artillery shell. We also viewed a place where German machine-gunners had pretty well wiped out a regiment of Ulstermen from a distance of nearly 2000 yards. It’s hard to imagine that the guns were that accurate over such a distance. On our way back to Amiens, we passed a small gardener’s shed where the locals had hidden American fliers who had been shot down in the area, helping them to escape via Spain.
This had been a very long day and we were all quite tired, but fortunately we stumbled upon a wonderful family-run restaurant, Les Bistrot des Chefs near the cathedral in Amiens. I had what was probably the best meal I had in France, consisting of a seafood terrine, Noix St. Jacques, and crème brulee.
Wednesday, March 12: After the usual breakfast, we leave Amiens to travel southwest towards Caen and the Normandy region. This is a pretty area, quite similar to the rolling countryside of Kentucky and heavily agricultural. After traveling for several hours we reached Normandy, somewhat more rolling farmland with many cattle. Historically this region was 
settled by the Viking Norse in the 7th-10th century (hence Norman-dy). Charles the Simple elevated Rolland to duke in 911 and the Dukes of Normandy ruled independently although wioth allegiance to the Kings of France. William (the Bastard) was the duke who asserted authority in 1036. He was called by Edward of England to serve as King and defeated Harold in 1066 at the Battle of Hastings, a battle that is depicted in the Bayeux tapestry near Caen. Normandy became one of the main sites of the 100 years war. Joan of Arc was burned at the stake in Caen after her capture in Compiegne. Normandy was also important to the impressionist art movement because its rapidly changing Atlantic weather caused changes in light and color. We experienced this weather in a major storm that had come across Ireland and England and was just hitting the continent as we traveled across Normandy.
After being held up by an accident for an hour on the suspension bridge over the Seine at La Havre, we enter Caen in mid-afternoon and settle into the Mercure Hotel just across from the city marina and near the city center. 
Our first vist after settling in was to the Pegasus Bridge. This was a critical bridgehead over the Caen canal northeast of the city near the Orne river. This was the first landing of D-Day, with the bridge taken by three squads (28 each) of British troops who landed in gliders within 50 yards of the bridge itself. The troops took and held the bridge whle two more gliders carried troops to a nearby bridge where the troops succeeded in destroying 5 bridges across the canal and Orne. After we returned to Caen, I walked to the Castle that had been built by William in 1060.
It is a stronghold with high thick walls. The University is located behind the castle and the Cathedral is just in front. After returning from the castle, I joined Doug and Terry for dinner at Le William, where I had mussels, Beef Bourguignon, and apple tart, followed by a glass of Calvados, the local distilled apple product.
Thursday, March 13: As we drove from Caen toward the Normandy D-Day Beaches, Francois gave us an abbreviated background on the invasion. The British had vowed to return to France
after the Battle of Britain. The Americans had pushed for earlier invasions in 1943 and ’44, but the British remembered the disaster of the Somme and were reluctant to invade until overwhelming forces had been assembled. The Germans had built the Atlantic Wall, a serieds of fortifications along the 200 km beach between Calais and Cherbourg and on into Belgium. The defenses were stronger near Calais since this was the nearest point across the channel to England as well as the shortest access to Germany. While offering a ruse landing site at Calais, the Allies prepared to land at what they believed was the less-defended Normandy beaches.
Our first stop was at Omaha Beach where the American landing forces had the greatest 
difficulty. We were fortunate to be on the beach during low tide and could see the amazingly flat 300 yards or so that the troops had to cross under incredible machine gun and artillery fire. Near the edge of the beach was the shingle, made up of smooth stones, 
then were the bluffs that rose steeply above the beach to heights of 40 yards of so. There were only a couple of entrances to the beach and the troops had to get to these entrances to establish the beachhead. Of course these entrances were heavily guarded, even more so than the beach in general. We moved on down to the Vierville draw, which was the entrance that had been depicted in 
the movie “Saving Private Ryan.” We climbed up to some of the machine gun emplacements that overlooked the beach and got a deep appreciation of the difficulty that the American troops had to overcome. While there, we also got to see some of the obstacles that the Germans had put up on the beach and we also saw one of the caissons that the Allies had used to create the “Mulberry Harbor” at this beach. Unfortunately this harbor was destroyed in a storm, but we saw the other harbor later in the day.
Our second stop was to Ste. Mere Eglise to see the Airborne Museum with the tanks, jeeps , gliders, and a B-17 like the ones that dropped so many of the paratroopers in the earliest hours of 
D-Day. This is the town with the church at the center whose steeple snagged a paratrooper who hung there during the night pretending to be dead. Unfortunately the paratroopers landed in the middle of the night when a house had caught fire and when the local German garrison was 
out, leading to many American losses. The church had two windows honoring the paratroopers. Since it was market day in the town I was able to get a very good sausage on crusty bread, some pomme frites and a delicious apple tart. Obviously, apples are a big thing in Normandy along with good cheese and tripe– I didn’t have any of the latter. Francois described the many monuments to the Allied paratroops in the area, but also noted that the 50 citizens who died in the battle of Normandy were memorialized by only a small plaque at the city hall. This seems to be a recurring theme.
After lunch, we drove out to the area near the Merderet River where the 82nd Airborne had 
been dropped in an attempt to secure the bridges on the road to Cherbourg. The particular bridge that we stopped at allowed us to see the marshy area where the troops had to land, made worse at the time by the flooding of the fields by the Germans. Many of the paratroopers drowned on landing, dragged down by their wet chutes and equipment. The bridge was also near the site of a famous battle over a small farm and chateau that was held by only a few Germans, but was overcome at high American loss.
We then drove on to Pont du Hoc an artillery position located between 
Omaha and Utah beaches. This was a site where the Germans had positioned six 155 mm guns in large interconnected bunkers. It had been heavily bombed by both airborne bombs as well as by naval artillery but the Allies still saw it as a major threat to the invasion since its guns had an effective range of nearly 14 miles. The nearly vertical bluffs above the ocean had been attacked by the 2nd Rangers battalion with very high casualties. When they reached the top, they discovered that the guns had already been removed – in fact the Germans had done so only a few days earlier to preserve them from the bombardment. We saw massive destruction to the gun emplacements and bunkers.
We next stopped at the American Cemetery at Colleville-sur Mer. This 
cemetery contains the remains of more than 9,000 American soldiers many of whom were killed at Normandy. This was the first American cemetery established on foreign soil and is American ground, guarded by embassy guards. The visitor center there has an excellent series of films on the planning, execution, and follow-up of the invasion of Normandy. The most striking view though was the cemetery itself with row upon row of crosses and some stars of David marking the graves of the soldiers. I think that this site had the greatest impact on me since I realized that these soldiers were from my father’s generation.
We visited another set of artillery batteries at Longues-sur-Mer. These had been built by the 
German Navy and were equipped with naval artillery. They were not put out of action until late on D-Day and caused a lot of damage to both Americans landing at Omaha beach as well as Brits landing on Gold Beach. It was still quite impressive to see these huge guns up close and inside their artillery casements. The last stop we made was to the Mulberry Harbor at Arromanches. This was a man-made harbor consisting of concrete caissons that were floated into place and connected to the land by roadways and piers. It was the solution to the huge logistics problem of moving the men and material into France without having captured an existing port city.
We returned to Caen for a group dinner at Le Carlotta just across the marina from our hotel. We were served a nice terrine of scallops (coquille St. Jacques), chicken in cream sauce, and chocolate volcano with glace.
Friday, March 14: We left Caen at about 9 am for Versailles and it was raining as usual. Francois shared his reflections on the Battle of Normandy and its impact on Americans as well as the French. He noted that as many French citizens were killed as were Allied soldiers on both D-Day as well as during the entire battle; 3,000 and 20,000 respectively for each group. He stated that Americans view the D-Day invasion with a great deal of national pride, especially as it relates to the valor of the soldiers who fought and died there. Neither the French nor the British view the Battle of Normandy in the same way. For the British, the Battle of Britain holds a much higher place of honor and, for them the invasion of Normandy was only a step in the eventual defeat of the Germans. This explains why they were such strong advocates for the bombing of cities like Caen and St. Lo that resulted in such high civilian death. The French memorialize their dead, but don’t celebrate the battle in the same way we do, nor do they celebrate their liberation and feel they have an eternal debt to the Allies who fought in the battle. This may have been due to the difficulties which they put up with during the German occupation as well as the number of civilian casualties they endured and the feeling that they had already paid a dear price. 
We visited the Palace of Louis XIV at Versailles and, especially in the case of the Hall of Mirrors, it was just another “over the top” palace. It helps you to see why the French Revolution had occurred when you consider the opulence that the monarchy and the state administration enjoyed while the ordinary folks were in deep poverty. I imagine
that the extensive gardens are spectacular during the summer, but there wasn’t much to see on our trip. We returned to our rooms at les Provinces Opera and then Terry, Doug and I took off for the left bank in search of dinner. We ended up at a mediocre Japanese place where they served assorted satays and I had a beer (my only deviation from French wine on the trip).
Saturday, March 15: Today we were on our own, so I decided to visit the Louvre while Doug and Terry took in the d’Orsay. I followed Rick Steve’s tour through the Renaissance and Romantic eras then went up to the Northern European collection, where the Dutch and German artists are not very well represented. I enjoyed visiting the Mesopotamian exhibit and then it was time to go off to meet Doug and Terry at Domaine Lintillac for our much anticipated lunch at this quaint restaurant. It was closed again, but fortunately the owner was there and he directed us to La Cherche Midi, a street that contained a number of good bistros. We chose one of these and went in for a very nice lunch; I had a smoked salmon appetizer and a good steak with a Roquefort sauce. Doug and I then went to Dehillerin in Les Halles and we both bought some kitchen ware in this amazing store; I got Sue some cookie cutters with sea creature shapes to make cookies for the little girls. She tried them out shortly after I returned and they made really cute cookies.
We then took the Metro to the Musee des Arts et Metiers, which displayed Foulcault's pendulum, Pascal's calculator, Lavoisier’s balances for measuring atomic mass, and a wonderful variety of scientific and engineering displays. They also had the first steam truck, and a wonderful collection of old cars and airplanes. And the museum was free!! Since we had already had a major meal for lunch, we stopped by some shops in the “Forbidden zone” and bought bread, cheese, meat, and wine for a light dinner in front of the TV in the hotel’s lounge. We hung out with the students there and watched a rugby match – I even caught on to the scoring and discovered that it’s an interesting sport.
Sunday, May 16: We left at 6:30 am for the airport and arrived there in plenty of time for our flight. The trip home was highly uneventful; with a two hour or so delay at Kennedy including a frustrating hour or so sitting in the plane at the gate because the pilot couldn’t get clearance to back out into the taxi-way. Is this any way to run an air transport system? We arrived home at about 7:30 pm and as I was heading out of security at CVG to pick up my luggage and meet Sue I ran into NKU’s president, Jim Votruba, who asked me how the trip had gone and told me that this was all a part of NKU’s “up close and personal” treatment. He was actually returning from a spring break ski trip in Utah, but it was nice of him to greet the students and faculty in the baggage area. It was good to get home and stop with Sue for a burger at Ruby Tuesdays.
eak.
e, but the final view was worth the trouble.
e, but the final view was worth the trouble.
