Archive: October, 2011
WWI: Ah-Rahss not A Rat
What is not to love about this set of light-filled rooms on the second floor, with their old beams and serene quiet. The occasional vehicle rumbles by on the street beyond the kitchen. From the other side horses nicker conversationally. Gîte Les Tilleuls, “Lime Trees,” is also a working stable. We are up early this…
WWI: Who knew?
The best laid plans may go awry but small inconveniences, what the French road system terms déviances, provide marvelous surprise. We could not have planned such adventures; we did not know that these were things we would want to do; we were in general completely ignorant of our options. Serendipity is what they call it;…
WWI: Going High on the Bar
I knew there was an upper town and a lower town in Bar-le-Duc; I was a little less clear on the difference in elevation. The Ornain and its fellow waterway the Canal of the Marne cut through the town’s steep hillsides from northwest to southeast. They plus a few smaller canals lend certain ancient quartiers…
WWI: Blue Cows and Saints
I lay in bed and listened to the rain insistent on the roof. We would go to Liffol-le-Grand, I decided. Liffol-le-Grand is one of the small towns near Neufchatel, an administrative center of the American Expeditionary Force, which provided housing for soldiers. It was where, in late October, my grandfather David Cutler was billeted with…
WWI: Belle Skinner’s Passion
The visitor’s guide to Hattonchâtel opens with a discussion of geology established 150 million years ago as rivers cut down through soft strata leaving limestone bluffs to tower over the plain, a perfect natural fortification and a position that provides gorgeous views to each of the compass points. Its “modern” history dates to the ninth…
WWI: In the Trenches
Nicole insisted we go to the church in Marbotte, a key stop on the Salient circuit, on our first full day, a Sunday. In 2002 we obeyed the emphatic directions of a desk clerk at the hotel in Arles, heading into the Camargue instead of driving to our planned destination of Aix-en-Provence to blissful results….
WWI: Bread and Monuments
Frost was thick on the windshield of the rented Renault Scenic, the eight o’clock sky above Montsec palely blue, and sunshine reflected off the mist collected in the valley. Yesterday was long and mostly damp and gray until the fog burned off midafternoon. The flight from Philadelphia to Paris had been efficient but extremely uncomfortable….
I Could Sit and Rock Forever
Whitecaps foamed on brown Susquehanna waters and gusting winds snatched at tickets and threatened the frame tents sheltering crafts people and food vendors. It was only a little past noon and already Deesigns by Deena was packing up. Necklaces with cross-sections of nautilus fossils, freshwater pearls, crystals, and all kinds of stones—I snatched a business…
Goodnight, Irene! What a Mess!
Pay attention, folks. We are trashing the world and hurricanes and the ensuing floods are throwing it back at us. Making a wreck of our world is not like making a wreck of our childhood bedrooms—Mother Nature, unlike our own mothers, cannot pick up the garbage we strew and municipal, county, state and federal services…
