Joy Riding

We decided for our next adventure outside of Paris, we would rent a car!  So we left last Thursday morning at 7:30 a.m. we took the metro, to pick up our rental car at the Gare de Nord train station, before heading out of town.

I promise, they really were excited.

With this new found freedom, we decided to do a loop North of Paris.  We started with Monet's home and gardens, for the last 43 years of his life, in Giverny.  It did not disappoint.  You can see where he got the inspiration for his work.

  

 

We then headed north to Amiens.  We had heard it was a fun little town to explore, and it had a Jules Vern museum!  Jules Vern wrote "Around the World in 80 Days".  To get ourselves excited about our year abroad, we had watched Micheal Palin's BBCs attempt to complete his own version of the Jules Vern book.  

We also found a river and a park that had miniature golf.  (This was one thing Will said he really wanted to do this year.)  It was Will's kind of miniature golf too.  There was no rhyme or reason as to how you approached the course.  You just found an open hole and hit.  There was no keeping score, no lining up your putt, and definitely no form of any kind.  It was perfect!  The park also had some water features that were fun.  Will partook, like every other French kid, and went in his underwear.  Edy did not.  We had so much fun exploring the park that we never got to the cathedral. This was good news to Will since he feels we have seen one too many as it is.  So we ended the day with a dinner treat before heading to our B&B.

Checking out all there is to do at St. Pierre Park.

"Look how hard can I hit it, Mom!"

Our kids could spend hours just looking in the water.  Here we are in Amiens.  

Unfortunately, Notre-Dame d'Amiens closed at 6:00 p.m.

This was his dinner!

Jeff surprised the kids by booking a unique place to stay, in a small town called Sourdon, just outside of Amiens.  The kids were thrilled to be staying in a recently renovated silo! The best part, the owners even had a trampoline!  

The next morning, Friday, the kids experienced their first breakfast at a B&B, eating at a communal table with other guests.  Then we headed out to explore some World War I sites.  

We had not really planned on this being a focus of the trip, but the day before we had stumbled across a German military cemetery.  Upon doing a little research, we realized we were in an area that several key battles from World War I took place.  Will, being a military historian, immediately became interested in exploring this further.  So we headed to a World War I museum in Peronne, before going to our first of two American Military Cemeteries from World War I.  

What was so staggering about the cemeteries was how many Americans died in such a short amount of time.  Both cemeteries that we saw had fallen soldiers from a period of fighting that lasted about six weeks.  The headstones just went on and on.  Over and over again we reached out to touch the stones, those with names on them so familiar to us, Williams and Johns, and those unknown, Here rests in honored glory and American soldier known but to God.  And this didn't even represent the other countries - Germany, Australia, France, Britain, etc - that had their own cemeteries nearby.  We also explored on Saturday, an area that has preserved the trenches, fox holes, craters from the Battle of Belleau Wood.

World War I Museum in Peronne

Somme American Cemetery and Memorial - 1,844 burials, 333 MIA.

Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery - 14,246 burials, 954 MIA.

This is ether a fox hole or crater from a bomb in Belleau Woods.  

The fun part about having a car, is when your husband says, "Look at that fort in the distance.  Let's go explore it," you immediately pull off the A26 and go exploring.  We had never heard of the town of Laon before but the fort on the top of the hill was enough to divert us for a few hours.  And yes, much to Will's chagrin, there was another church, yet again named Cathedral Notre-Dame.

The fort is very well protected when you are up on a hill!

Cathedral Notre-Dame of Laon

Another fun example of street art!  And it keeps the streets shaded and cooler.

One of the fort's outer walls.

Our car for the weekend!

On Friday night, we reached Reims, where we immersed ourselves in the local culture of a town square, while listening to a band play, eating American burgers at a French cafe.

American cheese burgers with a side of baguette.

The next day we headed out to see the famous cathedral of Reims (Cathedral of Notre Dame), where the kings of France were coordinated.  This too was starting to look like all the other cathedrals except for the unique stained glass windows, modern art, and statue of Joan of Arc, inside.

Cathedral Notre Dame of Reims

Le Gaulous - the central square of Reims.

We also learned, while in Reims, that this was the city where the Germans surrendered on May 7, 1945 at 2:41 a.m.  Will, Edy, and Jeff got to tour the Supreme Headquarters of the Allied Expeditionary Force, headed by General Eisenhower, and see the desk where the treaty was signed.  

Will, the historian, at one of the most significant desks of all time.

We then headed back to Paris on Saturday night, giving Edy her first chance to sit up front and navigate within the city limits, to try and get us to Gare de Nord to drop off the car.  For her first time doing it, she did great!  We only missed a few turns, and got to see more of the city than we had intended to.  

So that's a recap of our latest trip.  I'll post later today about the Graffiti class we took on Sunday.  

This week we plan to stick around for a few days before maybe heading to Strasbourg France for the weekend.  We have some friends arriving next week so we thought we would sneak in another trip before then.  

Bonne Journée!

Betsy