We arrived last year just days after Christmas and were greeted by the holiday lights making the rather short days festive. And now, as we head towards Christmas, we are greeted by these lights once again... and we will have come full circle. Our amazing year living in the City of Light will end as we board the plane on January 12, 2009 to come home --just four weeks from today. And we are looking forward to coming home (we were not so sure until the election was over and we elected Obama!), although there is much that we will miss. But, we have been extraordinarily fortunate to have had this experience. And we still marvel that we are here as we walk by the Louvre or Notre Dame or cross the Seine while the Tour d'Eiffel is sparkling...
Since my last posting, we have had visitors and returned to Normandy. It has struck me as fascinating that young men in their 20's want to see the D-Day beaches and landing site --our sons included! (Okay, Timothy did, and Andrew is arriving Thursday --I hope he is content to stay in Paris!) I found those places interesting-- and sobering, but honestly it was not first on my list (but, I did not play with GI Joes when I was a kid --and all of these boys did! Those hours of looking for Storm Shadow, Snake Eyes, Shipwreck... we -the moms- did it!) But, as I have said before, being here for a year gives you the opportunity to see things more that once.
We added a trip to Chartres this time --we had not been there since 1981-- and I had forgotten the magnificent vitrines, stained glass windows. (And, during WW II (and WW I) since we were on the subject, the windows were removed by the towns people and hidden; the Germans used the Cathedral for a club.) It escaped the wrath of the Revolution as forward thinking citizens prevented it from being blown up with the argument that the mound of rubble would fill the streets of the town and take years to remove. Started in 1020, the Romanesque cathedral was mostly destroyed by fire in 1194. The existing Gothic cathedral was completed in 1250 and has not been substantially changed. The collection of 13th century medieval stained glass is one of the most complete in the world --and glorious. (I was so enraptured looking up, that I missed the labyrinth in the floor of the nave, which is a rare 13th century labyrinth!)
But we did get a chance to re-visit Bayeux and we stayed in the town this time at another chambres d'hote with our friends and their soon to be married son. As Bob and Gavin toured the beaches, we spent time with Norah at the marche, which I knew since we had been there in October, and in the cathedral of Bayeux, which is another example of a Romanesque cathedral becoming into a Gothic one (this one was destroyed by fighting --and burned on purpose). The Romanesque cathedral, dedicated to Notre Dame, was consecrated on July 14, 1077, by Odo, the brother of William the Conqueror, in the presence of William and Mathilde. You may recall that the Bayeux Tapestry was probably commissioned for hanging in the cathedral.
And as our visitors have British, well, Scottish, roots, we did visit Pegasus bridge where the British landed men in gliders to take the position just before D-Day... and they did it!
We are back in Paris and it's Christmas!
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