Arromanches and the Mulberry...

Winston Churchill was full of ideas, and this one paid off. Everyone should know the story of the Mulberry harbours, and as a logistics professional my sister could not miss seeing their remnants. I figured there wouldn't be much to see, a couple of caissons on the beach or something. I was very wrong.

Utterly astonishing.

Pirou Castle...

This was lovely. An 11th century manor castle of the sort which once existed every 10 or 15 miles across the fertile parts of Europe. These were the domains of local knights with maybe 200 or so people on their land. This castle, in the middle of noplace, gradually fell into disuse and ended up as a farmhouse. Unlike most, it was not completely removed as a source for building stone, and it has been cleaned up and made habitable. Beautiful, especially on a balmy autumn morning and with no one else there.



















Now, go away, or ah shall you know...

Have Fun Storming the Castle!

I Think We Stayed...

in the big hotel...

Avranches and Mont St. Michel...

Off south. First stop Avranches. Museum of manuscript illumination. Scores of beautiful works of the calligrapher and miniaturist's art. Especially interesting were the exhibitions of how it was done- making the parchment, creating the coloured inks, and so forth. Incredible pains and details, everything had to be perfect. No erasures! Yet within the practical constraints of "copy the book", a whole world of art and craft emerged and throve.

Art, the joy of expressing feeling, is as much a part of human beings as breathing oxygen.

And here is a bad picture of a lovely little ivory's expression of peace:



Then to Mont St. Michel. A foggy day so it arose out of the mist, suddenly just THERE.



It was just magnificent. Varied from cute and charming, to amazing, to puzzling, to awesome.































Maintenance and reconstruction on these places never ends.One of the things we were privileged to watch was a man replacing stained glass in the refectory.

What a lovely thing to do, and to know that your work will, even just a little, make beauty, please and touch people you will never know, centuries after you are dust.




Or until the tide comes in.

Gettysburg and Grasmere...

are not the only places that live off history.