Cooking the NYTimes and Other Assorted Retirement Activities

Au Revoir!  La vacances est finis I'm completing the Ah, Bonjour blog from Charles de Gaulle airport, where the wi-fi connection is decidedly much improved from the cruise ship, and that's a wonder in itself that free, albeit spotty, wi-fi is available as you tool down the Seine River. Yesterday the ship docked in LePecq, a suburb of Paris, where we shuffled off to Napoleon and Josephine's home...wait, correction, ONE of their homes, called Malmaison.  The tour guide indicated that the house was sacked when the Prussians came through, so restoration of the property has required going to other Napoleon and Josephine homes to attempt to recreate as closely as possible to what Malmaison might have looked like when they lived there.  It was opulent, nowhere on the scale of Versailles, naturally, but it reminds one of the huge wealth gap between the ruling classes and those whose lifestyle was worker bee.  And also a reminder of why there was a French revolution. A portra...

Trop Amusant The ship/boat sailed from its dock in Rouen overnight to the very small (pop. 500) village of Les Andelys, not to be confused with Grand Andelys up the road a piece.  It's a very charming little place, not spared Allied bombing during the post D-Day assault.  That's a common theme throughout Normandy, how the carpet bombings (remember pinpoint bombing/GPS was not available) decimated so many of the little towns from the coast on the way inland.  Very prevalent in the minds of the French, not even a blip on our radar screens, eh? Seen on the Seine as we sailed This morning as we sailed, the chef, the quite remarkable Ali, demonstrated how to make Tarte de Citron aka lemon tarte with a meringue topping.  Delicioux. If we're in France, in any city, there must be a church (eglise) or cathedral (cathedral) or two or more in any town.  Today's was the Church of Saint Saveur, one of the few churches built during the 14th century not named after Our Lady, a...

Je suis devaste   Today there was but one shore excursion--to the beaches of Normandy. The day began with a bus ride through the Norman countryside, a nice opportunity to view life beyond city limits.  The weather was predicted to be cold and rainy, yet once again it erred on the side of warmer and sunnier. We began the day at the Caen Normandy Museum .  As we discussed it later, the general consensus was this museum provided an outstanding perspective on what lead to WWII and also why the Germans succumbed to Hitler's propaganda.  We also agreed that parallels to what is going on in America today are bone chilling. If these numbers don't keep you up at night or give you nightmares, I'm not sure what would. A film presents an unflinching look at war itself in some of what I found to be the most graphic footage of especially the aftermath of battle, and its effects on the French towns impacted by the D-Day invasion.  No Hollywood set dresser can come close to wha...

Et, alors, voila!   (a pretty consistent refrain from our guides) As I'm writing, our longboat is docked in Rouen and across the Seine, music is playing--singers serenading in English, which will immediately switch to French when the song is over.  How wonderful is that!                                              photo of our Viking longship docked in Vernon taken by my sister in law, Lori.  We're sailed at 5 am from Vernon to Rouen, arriving around noon time. The weather has cooled considerably, down to the upper 60's and partly cloudy.  For many, this switch makes touring the cities by foot decidedly easier.  Moi?  J'taime le weather chaud. Today's shore tour was strolling through Rouen, historically noted as where Joan of Arc was burned not once, not twice, but three times at the stake.  She had a rough life, Joan ...