Month: October 2021

As I said in my last post, we were to meet up with family in France. After a brief three day stay in Normandy, we picked up our co-grandparents at the airport outside of Paris in our rental car and headed for the Loire Valley. We were to meet up with the rest of the family at Le Château Saint-Cyr-Du-Gault after the grandchildren finished school.  The Château is the residence of a French family who purchased it a few years ago and offer for rent the grounds and a large secondary residence to tourists and as a wedding venue. Erin (my son-in-law’s mother), after considerable research, decided it would be the place to hang out as we spent a few days exploring larger châteaus (now mostly state owned) and tasting the wine of the region. Erin and her husband had a great experience traveling in the Loire valley on another trip with friends; where they made a connection with a man named Mario, who owns Val de Loire Travel. We felt quite fortunate to meet him on this trip, as he was the perfect person to take us to several places in the valley. In the few days we had, we were able to see four public or foundation owned castles: Château Royal d’Amboise, Château du Clos Lucé, Château de Chenonceau, and Châteaude Chaumont-sur-Loire, and  visited five vineyards and talked to four winemakers (https://bredif.deladoucette.fr [known for Vouvray and provided an excellent tour of the ancient cellars], https://www.chateaudeminiere.com  [good sparkling Rosé and lovely tour of the grounds], lame-delisle-boucard [could not find a secure website, but we enjoyed the wines with lunch in the vineyard of Mario’s uncle], Château du Petit Thouars Winery [could not find a secure website, but we purchased bottles and thoroughly enjoyed talking to the owner of the vineyard; a direct descendant of the French nobility who started the estate and who knew the history and spoke perfect English], https://montdomaine.fr/?lang=en [Good and affordable wines with a lot of variety and we much appreciated the passion of the winemaker and his ability to communicate with us though he would have preferred speaking in French. We bought the most bottles from him from this region.] Loire is not as famous outside of France as Burgundy or Bordeaux as a wine region. We hope to visit them also, but don’t know if we will get it done on this trip. I have included some photos of the bottles and the cellars if you are inclined to look at the photos.) We learned a lot of French history along with the grandchildren and tasted a fair amount of wine from the region with the adults. I found it most interesting to talk to a winemaker whose family has grown grapes on the ancestral lands for hundreds of years–since the time Columbus crossed the Atlantic.  We learned in one cellar tour how the high quality wine was hidden from the Germans during the occupation of WW2. We bought the most wine from an estate whose winemaker was a member of the French National Rugby team. It was a great experience for all. To see photos that chronicle the trip click here. To see family photos (private to those who have been granted a password) click here. (The photos are mostly in the order they were taken.)

It was certainly beyond any dream I had as a child, but if you grew up in France, it might be something that you thought about. The owner of the place where we stayed in Saint-Cyr-Du-Gault said (while he was giving us a tour of the estate) when he was a boy, he dreamed of owning a castle. He said, matter-of-factly, now he has three; the one we visited, one in the French Alps, and one in the south of France, plus a flat in Paris. We were happy he (and his wife) allowed us to experience a piece of his dream. It was a great place to gather as a family.  Thank you to him for sharing his boyhood dream with us, and thank you Erin for finding it, and making all the arrangements.

I have to admit to being a bit of a Francophile. When given another opportunity to visit France, I jumped at it. A few months ago, when the country first opened to tourists after the Covid-19 travel ban, we went to visit our daughter’s family in Paris. In the US, we used to live very close to them and we would see the grandchildren almost every day. When my son-in-law took a temporary post in Paris we envisioned visiting them regularly. It didn’t happen quite like we thought, but thankfully things are improving because of the worldwide effort to stop the spread of the virus. 

The grandchildren have a school break called the Toussaint break, so we used the break as a good excuse to cross the Atlantic and start our visit. We have loosely planned a six week trip; part of the time traveling with the other grandparents, who have more extensive travel experience in Europe and are a blast to be around. The other grandparents are not able to take as much time for an extended trip, but we hope to stay through what would be Thanksgiving in the US.

We booked tickets starting our travel a few days before the grandchildren’s school break to see parts of Normandy we had not previously visited. It happened to coincide roughly with the first anniversary of our youngest son, Jonathan’s, death, so it seemed fitting to visit the site where many young men lost their lives in the D-day Invasion. We rented a car at the airport and drove roughly three hours directly to Omaha Beach. The photo above is of the American Cemetery not far from the beach. It was a moving experience. As an American, I am very appreciative of the care given by the local people to the memory of all who gave their lives in the liberation of France in World War II. It was one of those things I had to try to see for myself. Later that day we were told moving stories by a woman named Marie-Christine, who owns the Bed and Breakfast, Chambres d’Hôtes Côté Campagne, where we stayed for the first two nights. Her mother and uncle had lived through the occupation and the stories she told were very personal. One story was about her uncle as a child who was riding a bicycle in an area adults were not allowed to travel in because of the German military presence along the coast. He is said to have been the first to bring the news back to the village that the Allied invasion force was nearing the shore. Making connections like this helps bring perspective to life.  Additionally, Marie-Christine and my wife were able to share the experience of grief for the recent loss of a son to illness. Shared experiences like this, though extremely difficult, can help to bring healing. Thank you to Marie-Christine for your kindness.

It was not all sadness on the first few days in France. We also got to see some beautiful places and eat delicious food. To see some photos from this part of the trip click here.  As well as the Normandy beaches, we went to Mont Saint-Michel (a UNESCO World Heritage Site), Bayeux, and Étretat.

Hopefully, I will be able to post soon about the next part of the trip with the other grandparents and the rest of the family.