Ok, not quite yet, that phrase will be applicable in a few hours but that was the title of one of the podcast French lessons I listened to this week and I briefly thought about trying to write a short entry in French. I realized the next two weeks will be full of bumbling French so perhaps I should stick to English and preserve the illusion that the "Coffee break French" podcast lessons have all stuck in my brain.
Once the trip starts, there will be a lot of century jumping (a la Dr Who) so I thought I would start with a chronological list of the key dates and centuries that will be visited over the next two weeks:
911: Normandy becomes Normandy-
The French King turns over northern France to the Viking leaders with the name of Rollo (like the candy) and Normandy named for the Norse men who now hold it starts it's history.
1066 - The Norman Invasion:
One of the dates ingrained in our minds during our school days is 1066, the year William the Conqueror invaded England. That pretty much starts the British history timeline we are taught. I remember knowing that fact far before I realized that William the Conqueror was William, Duke of Normandy and that this was essentially a French invasion of England. We are also taught this was a good thing - as I guess it needs to be a good thing since every bit of British history that comes later is predicated on the event. A few years back I read more about Harold Godwinson the defeated king and realized the history was much more complex that we are taught at school. I am looking forward to visiting William's base of operations and seeing the Bayeux tapestry with a more critical eye.
1198 - Richard The Lionheart's Reconquest of Normandy
Again as learned in history class, the kingdoms of England and Normandy were linked together in the decades after 1066. While technically the Dukes of Normandy owed homage to the French Kings for the dukedom, in actual fact, English history is filled with both men and women who were much better leaders than what France was producing during this time. Henry II and Richard the Lionhearted are the most well known of these leaders. Richard the Lionhearted went on Crusade in 1190 and was captured by the Germans upon his return. During this time, his brother John lost Normandy to the French King. By 1198 Richard has defeated both men and built Castle Gailliard to protect Normandy from the south. Richard had the castle completed in just one year - unheard of at a time when most castles took a decade to build and famously said that he could hold the ground if the walls "were made of butter."
1431 - The Death of Joan of Arc
Most of us don't really know this date - it's someplace in the middle of all the years of the Hundred Years War which I remember from school as the English and the French fighting for 100 years - someplace in the middle of that was Joan of Arc and Agincourt. Most of the French fighting took place further south in France but Joan was tried and burned in Rouen. I also remember that the French won this one.
1944 - D Day
Normandy doesn't have a big role in history again until WWII where as everyone knows it is the landing site of the Allied invasion to free Europe occupied by the Nazis.
Wonder how many more dates I will be able to add to this over the next few weeks.
Sunday, August 31, 2014
Monday, August 25, 2014
Two awesome quotes
There are a lot of reasons I want to see Normandy. My earliest knowledge of the region concerns the story of Joan of Arc. I learned about her when I was a child and briefly became obsessed by the teenage warrior burned by the English for heresy. While most of her life was in cities south of France, her trial and death took place in Rouen.
Most Americans know Normandy not as the launching pad for the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, or for the architectural feat of Richard the Lionhearted's castle, or for Joan of Arc's death or the region's importance in the 100 Years War. For most American's, when the think of Normandy, they think of Saving Private Ryan - not a terribly good movie, except of course for the first 27 minutes which I think should be required viewing in every high school. A college friend captured my thought process during the movie perfectly when he said, you watch the first 5 minutes and you say, "ok, I get it, time to move on", you watch the next 5 minutes and start thinking "ok I really get it, time to move on", you watch the next 5 minutes and you think "I've had enough" and sometime shortly after that moment it hits you "this was real and I know people who were here and fought through this not for minutes but for hours" and then you really get it. You'll never really know what they went through but you can be grateful they had the strength to get through and build you the world of today.
I have a two favorite D Day quotes - one short and one longer. I'll add them both here. One is from the architect of D Day - General Eisenhower and was spoken during his only post war trip to the area:
these men came here - British and our allies, and Americans - to storm these beaches for one purpose only, not to gain anything for ourselves, not to fulfill any ambitions that America had for conquest, but just to preserve freedom. . . . Many thousands of men have died for such ideals as these. . . but these young boys. . . were cut off in their prime. . . I devoutly hope that we will never again have to see such scenes as these. I think and hope, and pray, that humanity will have learned. . . we must find some way . . . to gain an eternal peace for this world. ("Eisenhower: A Soldier's Life," by Carlo D'Este, p. 705.)
The second quote is from Reagan's Boys of Point du Hoc speech. I remember watching that event live and being very proud to be an American. The 2nd half of the speech doesn't measure up to history as well as the first section because he speaks of the Russian threat - something that seems almost ridiculous now as the Russian President attended the 70th anniversary this past spring. The rest of the speech, where he talks of the men who were there speaks for itself:
We're here to mark that day in history when the Allied armies joined in battle to reclaim this continent to liberty. For 4 long years, much of Europe had been under a terrible shadow. Free nations had fallen, Jews cried out in the camps, millions cried out for liberation. Europe was enslaved, and the world prayed for its rescue. Here in Normandy the rescue began. Here the Allies stood and fought against tyranny in a giant undertaking unparalleled in human history.
We stand on a lonely, windswept point on the northern shore of France. The air is soft, but 40 years ago at this moment, the air was dense with smoke and the cries of men, and the air was filled with the crack of rifle fire and the roar of cannon. At dawn, on the morning of the 6th of June, 1944, 225 Rangers jumped off the British landing craft and ran to the bottom of these cliffs. Their mission was one of the most difficult and daring of the invasion: to climb these sheer and desolate cliffs and take out the enemy guns. The Allies had been told that some of the mightiest of these guns were here and they would be trained on the beaches to stop the Allied advance.
The Rangers looked up and saw the enemy soldiers -- the edge of the cliffs shooting down at them with machineguns and throwing grenades. And the American Rangers began to climb. They shot rope ladders over the face of these cliffs and began to pull themselves up. When one Ranger fell, another would take his place. When one rope was cut, a Ranger would grab another and begin his climb again. They climbed, shot back, and held their footing. Soon, one by one, the Rangers pulled themselves over the top, and in seizing the firm land at the top of these cliffs, they began to seize back the continent of Europe. Two hundred and twenty-five came here. After 2 days of fighting, only 90 could still bear arms.
Behind me is a memorial that symbolizes the Ranger daggers that were thrust into the top of these cliffs. And before me are the men who put them there.
These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc. These are the men who took the cliffs. These are the champions who helped free a continent. These are the heroes who helped end a war.
Gentlemen, I look at you and I think of the words of Stephen Spender's poem. You are men who in your ``lives fought for life . . . and left the vivid air signed with your honor.''
I cannot wait to see it all in person!
Most Americans know Normandy not as the launching pad for the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, or for the architectural feat of Richard the Lionhearted's castle, or for Joan of Arc's death or the region's importance in the 100 Years War. For most American's, when the think of Normandy, they think of Saving Private Ryan - not a terribly good movie, except of course for the first 27 minutes which I think should be required viewing in every high school. A college friend captured my thought process during the movie perfectly when he said, you watch the first 5 minutes and you say, "ok, I get it, time to move on", you watch the next 5 minutes and start thinking "ok I really get it, time to move on", you watch the next 5 minutes and you think "I've had enough" and sometime shortly after that moment it hits you "this was real and I know people who were here and fought through this not for minutes but for hours" and then you really get it. You'll never really know what they went through but you can be grateful they had the strength to get through and build you the world of today.
I have a two favorite D Day quotes - one short and one longer. I'll add them both here. One is from the architect of D Day - General Eisenhower and was spoken during his only post war trip to the area:
these men came here - British and our allies, and Americans - to storm these beaches for one purpose only, not to gain anything for ourselves, not to fulfill any ambitions that America had for conquest, but just to preserve freedom. . . . Many thousands of men have died for such ideals as these. . . but these young boys. . . were cut off in their prime. . . I devoutly hope that we will never again have to see such scenes as these. I think and hope, and pray, that humanity will have learned. . . we must find some way . . . to gain an eternal peace for this world. ("Eisenhower: A Soldier's Life," by Carlo D'Este, p. 705.)
The second quote is from Reagan's Boys of Point du Hoc speech. I remember watching that event live and being very proud to be an American. The 2nd half of the speech doesn't measure up to history as well as the first section because he speaks of the Russian threat - something that seems almost ridiculous now as the Russian President attended the 70th anniversary this past spring. The rest of the speech, where he talks of the men who were there speaks for itself:
We're here to mark that day in history when the Allied armies joined in battle to reclaim this continent to liberty. For 4 long years, much of Europe had been under a terrible shadow. Free nations had fallen, Jews cried out in the camps, millions cried out for liberation. Europe was enslaved, and the world prayed for its rescue. Here in Normandy the rescue began. Here the Allies stood and fought against tyranny in a giant undertaking unparalleled in human history.
We stand on a lonely, windswept point on the northern shore of France. The air is soft, but 40 years ago at this moment, the air was dense with smoke and the cries of men, and the air was filled with the crack of rifle fire and the roar of cannon. At dawn, on the morning of the 6th of June, 1944, 225 Rangers jumped off the British landing craft and ran to the bottom of these cliffs. Their mission was one of the most difficult and daring of the invasion: to climb these sheer and desolate cliffs and take out the enemy guns. The Allies had been told that some of the mightiest of these guns were here and they would be trained on the beaches to stop the Allied advance.
The Rangers looked up and saw the enemy soldiers -- the edge of the cliffs shooting down at them with machineguns and throwing grenades. And the American Rangers began to climb. They shot rope ladders over the face of these cliffs and began to pull themselves up. When one Ranger fell, another would take his place. When one rope was cut, a Ranger would grab another and begin his climb again. They climbed, shot back, and held their footing. Soon, one by one, the Rangers pulled themselves over the top, and in seizing the firm land at the top of these cliffs, they began to seize back the continent of Europe. Two hundred and twenty-five came here. After 2 days of fighting, only 90 could still bear arms.
Behind me is a memorial that symbolizes the Ranger daggers that were thrust into the top of these cliffs. And before me are the men who put them there.
These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc. These are the men who took the cliffs. These are the champions who helped free a continent. These are the heroes who helped end a war.
Gentlemen, I look at you and I think of the words of Stephen Spender's poem. You are men who in your ``lives fought for life . . . and left the vivid air signed with your honor.''
I cannot wait to see it all in person!
Sunday, August 24, 2014
I'm Back and Going to.........
I'm back! As regular readers will know, last year's blog was taken down shortly after I returned. While I was superexcited to travel the Via Francigena and to visit Assisi and Viterbo, the writing just didn't come together and as I looked at what was involved to fix it, I realized planning a blog largely around one part of the trip (the church of San Sebastian in Viterbo) just wasn't something I could do well. I debated not blogging this year but realized that the trip itinerary lends itself to a blog because everyone I've told about this (yes you only have yourselves to blame!) has told me that they want to see pictures and that it sounds like a great trip so here we go again. This year's trip is to a part of Europe that has been important for the last thousand years. Invasions that have changed history started here twice-once as the launching point and the 2nd time almost a millennium later and the landing site. I first became enamored of this region as an eight year old learning about a teenage girl and her great military contribution some 500 years ago. The region has been important for all of the countries in Europe at some point in it's history. I, like so many Americans, Canadians and Brits, have a family member who saw service here as part of the Greatest Generation. So, where am I going? Have you figured it out? This year the trip is to Normandy!
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