where art collides philosoperontap

Thoroughly liberated this morning. Went to breakfast without my device. Gave THG full attention and afterwards we sat outside in the sun enjoying a cawfee.

Couple of hotel guests were picked up by a WW2 Willys Jeep for a day out visiting the DDay sights. One assumes. I think it would be a good thing to do if we came back again although we covered all the Easy Company spots.

Moving on to Deauville today and will take in Pointe du Hoc and Omaha Beach on the way. Sgonna be a hotun. There is a (another) museum at Omaha beach but will see how we feel when we get there. We’ve done a lot of museum visits already.

This is France. As such our trip has been characterised by eating, eating and more eating. I did skip lunch yesterday as I knew I needed to be match fit for Chez Roger last night. Rog came up trumps. You didn’t know what you were getting until the dish turned up at the table. Not a single dud and apart from the lamb’s sweetbread no meat.

Today looks promising weatherwise. Yesterday we followed the Band of Brothers route from the point where Lt Meehan’s plane crashed, the field where Dick Winters landed (although we couldn’t access the actual field which required us to fo down a road that let us know in no uncertain terms that it was private), where he met Lipton, the road out of St mere Eglise to the ambush point, then on to Le Grand Chemin and Brecourt Manor. Although the field at Brecourt where the guns were positioned is full of cows and surrounded by barbed wire you could still get to the end of the hedgerow which was right by a gate.

On from Brecourt to Culloville where they spent the night on 6th June and then to Vieirville and Angoville au Plain. Saw the blood on the pews in the church there and the cracked flagstone where the mortar landed.

After Angoville au Plain we called it a day but did head towards Carentan past Dead Man’s Corner and Purple Heart Lane crossing the bridge over the river Douve used by Easy Co before the they swung right to get into position for the attack on the morning of 12th June.

Today we are headed back to the bridge outside Carentan as the plan is to photograph all the main points of action ending up at Bloody Gulch. I have all the locations pinned on google maps and will publish it once I’m satisfied I’ve got it as accurate as I can.

Utah Beach dawn.

The large French farmhouse windows are flung wide open and we lie in bed listening to the abundance of birdlife noisily greeting the day in the surrounding woods and fields. This is a marked contrast to mornings in Place de la Republique in Paris where the sound of refuse lorries and police sirens formed the early morning alarm.

We have an unhurried start to the day but have a plan to follow in the footsteps of the Band of Brothers from the field in which Dick Winters landed to where they finished after the battle of Carentan and the Bloody Gulch. Expect this will take us a couple of days especially with multiple museums to visit en route. We did the Utah Beach Museum itself yesterday seeing as the room at the hotel was not ready when we arrived.

If we get a chance I’d like to stop by the Herout calvados distillery following the delightful experience of the digestif after dinner last night. It is near Carentan and is closed on Sunday so it has to either be today or Monday en route to Deauville. 

Tonight we have a reservation at Chez Roger @Reza about which I am v excited. We did a recce yesterday afternoon en route to the beach. May skip lunch to ensure optimum gastronomic performance at dinner.

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Had to mute the Olympics on the telly. I just don’t get on with French sports commentary. Apart from the fact that I don’t understand it, it is a bit of a dull monotone and too irritating to be background noise in the way that test match special is good with the cricket.

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Well we’ve just got back from Chez Roger. Probably one of the best meals we have ever had. Oysters, langoustines, lambs sweetbread with sardine and sun dried tomato, lobster flambeed in something, tuna, five cheeses and some milk moussy pudding. Different wine with every course and green chartreuse as a digestif. I’d already had the 12 yo calvados. Great experience. If you have the opportunity to go don’t hesitate.

CR was 4 miles from the hotel. Country roads, bugger all traffic. We are now home watching the beeb’s excellent olympics coverage. Not the French stuff.

Square du Temple – Elie Wiesel

Great couple of days at the Olympics rugby sevens. The absence of beer at the ground turned out to be a blessing as the temperatures hit the high twenties. We were lucky enough to be in a box where it was easy to pop inside every  now and again and watch the games from bar stools.

We weren’t that impressed with the catering facilities generally as they seemed to run out of things on a regular basis and didn’t have enough staff working. This is in marked contrast to the cricket at Trent Bridge where they had a large number of people working behind the bars which meant service was almost instantaneous.

Despite the catering we had a good time. Was incredible how many people they shifted out of the stadium afterwards. Eighty five thousand people walking to the RER station twenty five minutes away. Shuffling really.

It was still less than an hour door to door and Simon and I managed a welcome cold beer in the bar over the road to the hotel when we got back.

Last night we hit Le Procope. I had planned to stop by Harry’s New York Bar afterwards but we were all knackered and it made more sense to find a bar local to the hotel.

Our hotel, the Beaurepaire, was a classic low cost Parisian joint. Tiny rooms with no air con. The room did have a fan but that made a terrible racket as the fan kept clicking against the metal cage housing. The windows did open wide but then let in the noise from the bar across the road and the many police sirens that are a feature of the streets in Paris, at least whilst the Olympics are on 😀

Don’t get me wrong. The hotel was clean and the staff friendly. Also the lift worked and brought with it the distinction of being the smallest lift I’ve ever been in. 

We are now on the 10:59 to Caen from Gare Saint-Lazare, unaffected by the chaos that would appear to be the Eurostar service following concerted arson attacks last night on high speed lines. 

Good to be leaving the concrete jungle that is Paris. I quite like the cafe culture but many of the normal touristy things were off the menu due to large sections of the city along the banks of the Seine being closed to regular punters pending the opening ceremony tonight.

Already a hot morning on the pavements of Paree. Back at the hotel, party to charge my phone having taken so many vids, and partly to recharge meself before heading to the rugby all dayer at Stade de France.

A highlight was coming across the place where the Montgolfier bros lived.

We bought lunch from a v nice patisserie somewhere in town before strolling back. Jambon beurre baguette pour moi and a salade pour THG. There was a heavy and very visible armed military presence on the streets. The five troopers who walked past us at Place de La Republique carried lots of spare cartridges of ammo for their rifles and also had pistols slung around their waist. No messin.

The soldiers were a bizarre contrast to the almost naked violinist sporting an Aztek costume plying his busking trade on the steps of the monument. He wasn’t a particularly good violinist and I didn’t see anyone give him money. Ditto the beggars that seemed to be every fifty metres or so on the streets around the square.

No backups for 353 days. Should I be worried? 🙂

Anyways nous sommes sur le train a Paris Saint-Lazare. Non stop from Caen which is a good thing as it was a real scrum to get on board. Didn’t help that we got on at the wrong end of the carriage and had to squeeze past families trying to get prams on board and other passengers who had also got on at the other wrong end.

Caen was ok. The city had the sH1£ bombed out of it during the Normandy landings. Took until the middle of July to get rid of the Germans. They are still rebuilding the castle. Doesn’t do any harm to repoint the masonry every thousand years or so. 

We arrived in Caen mid afternoon having driven along the coast from the ferry port at Ouistreham to Arromanches where we had a spot of petit dejeuner in Hotel de Normandie. As we got off the ferry early, not long after dawn really, there were no caffs open until we got to Arromanches. The building was around during the D Day landings. Picture the scene:

Allied soldiers finally get ashore having flushed out the German opposition. They spot Hotel de Normandie which is now open. Its proprietor, Pierre, having got up early to walk his dog had noted the huge invasion armada and rushed back to tell his wife Genevieve to stick a few more croissants in the oven in anticipation of a bit more business than normal. The Germans often didn’t pay anyway and strode around as if they owned the pace.

Pierre did have to shut the shutters whilst the fighting was going on but once the shooting had died down he opened up for business and stuck some tables and chairs on the pavement outside. The pretty red and white checked table cloths would have immediately grabbed the attention of the incoming British troops. Fierce fighting does give you an appetite and they rocked up in their droves.

It did come as a bit of a disappointment to find that Hotel de Normandie only offered croissants, French bread and coffee on its breakfast menu. No orange juice as oranges were not yet in season and supplies from the southern hemisphere had been impossible to get.

They grudgingly accepted what was on offer being better than army rations and polished off every last croissant in the joint. They also drank every last drop of cider, red wine and calvados the hotel had to offer. The descendants of Pierre and Genevieve still dine out on the story about the best ever business day the hotel has ever seen.

After breakfast we did the museum which was tres interessant and then headed to Bayeux to see the tapestry. It was also tres interessant to hear the William the Conqueror story from the French perspective. I won’t bore you with the deets. Bayeux was an attractive mediaeval city, town really, though its cathedral had been butchered about a bit over the centuries and wasn’t nearly as nice as our own in Lincoln. 

So today we are off to gay Paree for Les Jeux. The French harvest is in full swing as the train speeds towards the capital and all is calm in carriage number three.

Deck B5. Docking. Waiting for the doors to open. We will be third off. Priority disembarkation innit. In May when I arrived in Rotterdam it took a good hour to get through customs. Not d’aujourd hui, fingers crossed etc. 

All sorts of alarms sounding. Keeps making me think the doors are about to open. Not yet. 05:46.

The car deck is a hive of punters returning to their vehicles. Happy faces. Start of their summer holidays. We’re all going on a summer holiday, no more working for a week or two. Kids being squeezed in between the bags on the back seat. THG used to have to put her feet in the pressure cooker.

Another bright and beautiful morning to be enjoyed by all creatures great and small. Good lie in after hitting the hay at nine pee em. A great day out at the cricket in which the Windies overtook our score and set a first innings lead which is great. Makes a game of it. Sense this game could be heading for a draw though as we don’t seem to be able to knock the wickets back at any great rate.

Today we set off for France. Fair stands the wind but our ship will not be relying on sails to get there.

Good day’s criquet yesterday. A dramatic moment when the Windies number 11 hit a six and the ball clattered onto the roof of the bar behind us bringing some tiles down on the spectators below. It was generally one of those classic days of test cricket where nothing happened too quickly and the game plodded along steadily.

More or less ready to go. A few last min bits to sort out plus a trip to the market to buy picnic supplies for the journey.

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The queue for the ferry in Portsmouth harbour is busy enough. People milling around having checked in but now waiting to board the boat. We are right at the front and a couple of lanes across a load of French Masonic bikers have rolled up. I used google lens to check it out – Widows & Sons. Fwiw.

The lights have come on around the port. We are sat immediately in front of a big neon sign distributing advertising and messaging to anyone who cares to have to stare at it because there is nothing else really to look at. This is how i disc=overed that the change from using GB stickers on your car to UK was insisted uponby the UK government. Wft? Pathetic.

Mind you it annoys the hell out of me that the British Olympic team is called Team GB. Rubbish. What’s wrong with calling them GB?

Worra day yesterday. Blisteringly hot. Another great day out now in prospect as the Windies held up their end and finished the day with only five wickets down. Should also be a little cooler today. The stand we were in, Larwood and Voce, was very convenient for the pub below which served a wider set of beers than the usual stuff in the Trent Bridge concessions. Also it was just a short walk down the stairs.

The bar I thought we would be using was only letting members of the Trent Bridge Taverners in or anyone else willing to fork out a tenner for the privilege. Didn’t seem worth it.

For today I’ve changed our breakfast venue to the Larwood and Voce as the Waterside Bar we were in yesterday only wanted to serve bacon sausage butties in a brioche bap. No full English wot!

Ready bright and early. Off to Trent Bridge today and currently printing my ticket off in the shed. Taxi coming in half an hour. 8am.

It is a glorious morning with the forecast set to hit thirty one at the cricket so have my factor 50 sun hat wot I bought in Miami Beach and long sleeved safari shirt purchased for the African bush.  It is very lightweight and totally suitable for sitting in the sun all day. Shorts and sandals complete the outfit.

No shade in the Larwood & Voce stand although there is a bar at the back. It will be important to take in lots of fluids during the hot day ahead. Likewise a good breakfast is called for. We have a table booked for nine thirty. Gotta do these things properly innit.

The big question is whether the Windies will bat out the day. Recent form suggests otherwise but because I am also going to the match tomorrow I need this to happen.

Cmon the whites 🙂

Awake since around five this morning and at five forty got up and headed downstairs. It is going to be another lovely day. The rooftops of Lincoln Prison can be seen in the distance across the allotments from our landing window. The early morning sun shining on the red brick structure of the building is striking. Peculiarly artistic. I don’t want to say attractive. Bet the inmates don’t look at it like that.

Before hitting the hay last night I was researching hotel prices for Paris next week. They have come down from when I booked in November or whenever it was. Emailed the hotel suggesting they might want to reconsider our pricing. I have six rooms, all cancellable by the 21st July which is in three days time.

Whilst looking at booking.com for alternatives I came across Hotel Avenir in Montmartre. THG and I stayed there in 1987, I think. Don’t recall exactly. Long time ago now. Will we ever return 🙂

That trip was memorable for us finding out how expensive Paris was. We had a spends budget of fifty quid and blew twenty of it in the first bar we got to on a dry martini and a gin and tonic. It was a jazz joint just down from Harry’s New York Bar. I guess the drinks prices were hiked in lieu of a cover charge.

Can’t remember where we visited on that trip. We do have photos somewhere. Usual places I think. Eiffel Tower, Versailles etc.

I look forward to hearing back from next week’s hotel 🙂

Second test starts today, at Trent Bridge. Exciting. The absolute height of British summer. Hopefully the Windies will knuckle down and last a bit longer. It is a far cry from the glory days of Clive Lloyd and Viv Richards. Busy day today but I daresay there will be enough downtime to catch a few overs. Glad I made progress with the garage yesterday. The rest of the garage clearing can wait until after the Olympics.

Doesn’t feel like twelve years since the London Olympics. I was lucky enough to see twelve events. I remember at the time the brand Gestapo insisting that references to those games be always called London Olympics 2012 or similar. There was a large money element to the games and nobody was allowed to dilute the brand. I guess it does cost a lot to put on a games.

The notable thing about the Rugby Sevens in Paris, that’s what we are there for, is the absence of beer from the ground. Only found this out after buying the tickets. Now if I was watching athletics or swimming I’d be ok with that but rugby??!! I’ve got over the shock and we will have a good time anyway.

I’ve booked a table at Le Procope on the Thursday night. Oldest eatery in Paris and where Voltaire based himself to publish his stuff. Quite an interesting gaff that our Hannah introduced me to. This’ll be my third visit there, not counting the time Han and I just walked in to have a look. Did try booking at La Coupole but it was full, or at least couldn’t take our party of eight. Another time. That was another place Hannah introduced me to.

So today is all about finishing off. Bit of packing. A visit to the local market for supplies. More visitors this weekend! This evening in fact. Swim booked for three pee em. I was happy with yesterday’s swim. There were only five or six of us in the pool and I had a lane to myself. Made it easy to add ten minutes to my normal routine. Luxury swimming.

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Lots of train delays as Hannah and George head north to Lincoln. Problems down Stevenage way by all accounts. They are running an hour and a half late with the prospect of a  replacement bus service from Newark.

Totes bootiful day in prospect. I expect an ideal combination of relaxation and productivity. Bit more garage clearing out, a swim, stuff like that. Start the packing for France as Friday and Saturday are going to be wipeouts.

I’ve started unsubscribing from sites sending me emails I wasn’t interested in. My “social” tab was easy as that was all LinkedIn. Email from LinkedIn are of no interest whatsoever. I also deleted around 12k emails from my “promotions” tab which is now empty. Stuff does come in but I either unsubscribe or leave depending on the source and then delete. 

Time will tell if the unsubscribes work as they often come from complex mailer addresses. I used to get spammed with press releases from vaguely tech related sites when I was actively writing for trefor.net but that has dwindled, nay gone. Must be eight years since I stopped writing that blog.

The most pleasing aspect of my email strategy is the amount of crap I get on my hotmail address. I use that exclusively to register with wifi hotspots in pubs etc and if I need to provide an email address on website I might have had a vague interest in once, maybe. My hotmail address is rammed with rubbish.

I am now sat tapping away in the shed with the doors wide open and a pot of tea brewing on the desk in front of me. I like to start the day with tea and a bit of ritin. Breakfast was a very satisfying granola, yo’gurt and berries. THG’s home made granola is the best and can leave you filled up for the day despite only having a small portion. When I smugly ordered granola on the Hull to Rotterdam ferry in May I thought I was doing the right thing but the bowl turned out to be massive and I couldn’t finish it all! Would have fed a family of four.

The critical aspect of the improving weather outlook is the days out at Trent Bridge planned for Friday and Saturday. Saturday is not without risk as the current tourists have not demonstrated staying power. Hopefully they will last to the end of day three. We are in the members only Larwood & Voce stand which has a bar at the back so we will be ok one way or another.

I’ve been a good boy since the NetUK1 conference the week before and the days out at the cricket will represent a break from that. You need to keep hydrated in the heat.

Milkman arrived at three twenty three wearing a polo shirt. Must be reasonably warm at that time of day.

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Coco Chanel. Heard her name on the telly. THG is watching some sewing programme so I’m doing stuff on my laptop whilst listening to tunes in order to drown out the chatter. The noise of the sewing machines. Chatter chatter chatter chatter. THG does a bit of sewing herself. Dab hand fair play.

Saw a documentary on Coco a while back. V interesting woman. I’m looking for some inspiration here. Ain’t coming. Nothing I want to watch on any media. Finished watching Anything Goes earlier. Totes fantastic musical.

Been moving my schedule around this morning. Had intended to go to the tip, drop car off at Coops’ garage and get home in time to take THG to the gym in a loaner. Turns out the Lincoln Recycling Centre doesn’t open until nine so THG gets to go first.

Was awake at five twenty and even pondered getting up but the next thing I knew it was twenty past seven. Got up and made the tea.

It’s chucking it down in Lincoln and I did note the lack of birdsong at dawn this morning. Obvs our little feathered friends stayed hunkered down in their nests. Either that or their voices were drowned out by the rain.

Busy enough day ahead. Good job I mowed the lawn yesterday. Need to buy one of those headlight reflector strips for THG’s car. Last year when we went to France in the Defender I didn’t need to as the lights on that car were ok for France. The Peugeot ain’t. The difference will be that there will be no problem parking the car this year. 

The French mostly build car parks that are unsuitable for 4×4 cars. This is down to their revolutionary streak seeing such vehicles as the product of the capitalist system, or something like that. On the flipside I will have to take great care when following sat nav directions in Normandy. Last year when headed for Gold Beach I ended up in a field full of sunflowers and was only able to extricate myself because of the off road capabilities of my car. Fifty grand well spent  😂.

The sat nav proved to be unreliable in France. On another occasion we headed for a car park in Arles and found ourselves down a narrow dead end street with a difficult reverse out. We ditched Arles and headed for the Camargue which was blessed with plenty of open air parking. The Camargue was great fair play.

This heavy rain is relaxing. Even whilst sat in the kitchen. What’s not to like? Good job I loaded the car up for the tip last night.

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Must buy a lottery ticket. Every traffic light seems to be on green this morning 🙂

The most interesting news this morning comes in the Guardian where it states that visitors to Copenhagen are being offered free drinks and skiing as part of the city’s efforts to lure tourists. The caveat appears to be that you have to be well behaved and use public transport or ride a bike. Simple enough I’d have thought although the ride a bike bit could involve an element of personal risk. 

Being a pedestrian in Copenhagen, as I recall, involves having eyes in the back of your head as you not only need to avoid cars but trams and cyclists as well. As a cyclist you have to avoid other cyclists, trams and cars but also tourists who have been on free drinks and are unfamiliar with the road system.

Not much else of note happened over the weekend. 

Today though is a different ball game. The sun is shining and our excellent meteorological office tells me that we can expect the temperature to rise to a sweltering twenty one degrees on the deck outside the shed.

This should mean that not only can I expect to have assembled the new lawnmower but also deployed it. I might also reasonably expect to do a bit more sorting in the garage and perhaps even a trip to the tip. Let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves though. There is tea to be consumed.

The milkman came at five oh seven and it was still light.

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A kettle has been installed in the shed and there is milk in the fridge. This is important because we have a load of Spanish kids in the kitchen this morning and I don’t want to have to engage with them. They’ll be gone soon.

In the meantime the lawn mower assembly turned out to be a doddle. All I have to do is stick the batteries in and my uncle’s name is Bob.

The law states that Sunday mornings should have a relaxed start. These start the day posts are getting a bit repetitive but you gotta tell it like it is 😀Already done a few stretching exercises. I use PhysiApp to keep track of my progress. I need to get a lot more supple. Movement, exercise, stuff like that. Got a slightly dodgy hip innit.

Waved THG and Janice and Jamie off. The former to her place of worship and the others to their place of abode in a far away land. Up for Clarkie’s sixtieth bash last night. THG was thrilled to meet some folks she knew from Uni she hadn’t seen for forty years.

The day ahead will be one of quiet composure. The weather is mildly inclement making the completion of outdoor jobs unlikely. The assembly of the mower can wait until tomorrow unless I get a rush of blood. It is unlikely to see deployment before tomorrow anyway. I will however harvest the pea crop. I am hoping to get half a small cup full but let’s see how it goze.

The afternoon and evening will be filled with sport. Men’s final at the All England Tennis Club and the European soccer final in Berlin which has some local representation. I imagine the James Joyce Irish Pub in Madrid will be rammed. Having been there once I must have followed them on Facebook and periodically get to see their posts. Silly really as I have no plans to return there. It’s a shame the cricket finished early as that was due to end today. Classic British summer action.

THG and I do have a swimming slot booked but I realise now that this clashes with the tennis. We can decide nearer the time. An hour’s swimming slot probs represents just one set of tennis for the men so could still go without missing much action. This is slightly different to the time I saw Serena Williams win her semi final in fifty minutes or so. She was a machine. Devastating.

My latest read arrived yesterday pm. Buck Compton – Call of Duty. He was in Easy Company. Band of Brothers. Doing a lot of reading in advance of our visit to Normandy next week. It is interesting how everyone’s memory of different events differs. Buck doesn’t remember that much about the attack on Brecourt Manor, for example, in which he won the silver star. If you haven’t read the book or watched it on TV this will mean nothing to you.

I sense a week of (relatively) frenzied activity ahead in which I try to clear the jobs list before we set off. I also need to get my hair cut. My god life is exciting isn’t it?

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Been pottering around in the garage. Tidying the garage and other jobs of national importance need to be approached in an unhurried manner. First you pick up any obvious bit of rubbish and deposit it in a suitable plastic bucket or bin. Doing this reveals other obvious next steps such as replacing a drill bit/screwdriver/spanner in a relevant container or box.

There will come a time when a whole shelf of miscellaneous bits and bobs gathered over decades really needs tidying, finding a new home for or chucking. I would guess there are three man days of garage sorting ahead. To some extent this requires a sunny day so that I can move stuff onto the drive before