Tag Archives: Normandie

Day Thirty, A long day

I have difficulties sleeping. The last few nights have, even without coffee, been a practice in very late nights very early mornings. The challenge of the realtor visits is that I don’t want to be here when they are. I can’t contribute anything to the conversation, the place is too small for multiple people, and I just know that the “perfect” me would notice things “Real Me” had not. Best to get out of dodge and go see the world.

This morning? Last night? It was around 6AM when I finally fell asleep. Although I’m exercising a lot more and drinking less coffee than I would at home, I’m struggling. I was in a deep, warm, comfortable sleep when loudspeaker’s loud chanting voices woke me up. The music was upbeat and sincere. The chanting voices were raised in protest against something. The only word I could make out was Pourquoi (Why).

I willed them to continue on their way, but they stopped right under my tiny window, played two songs, marched on with a trail of equally loud chanting. I’d been asleep for 4 1/2 hours. Ugh.

I checked the time and my messages. The realtor wanted to make a visit today and tomorrow according to the host. I really don’t like feeling displaced by something I wasn’t aware of when I booked this place. Meh. I asked if they could do both visits tomorrow instead. Nope. Both visits would be today but none for tomorrow. Hooray!

I looked up the department of tourism for Caen, Normandie, France. The website was in both English and French which was great, but one of the events I was interested in (A Science exhibition at the Universitie de Normandie) didn’t have an address. It had a great write up, which is why I became interested, but the address was the name of a road.

I attempted to call but the woman who answered the phone didn’t understand or speak English. She managed to request I call back in five minutes. I told her yes. I waited. At the appointed time, I made another call. Nope. Same woman. Two minutes more please. (What I actually understood was: Sorry, Two, Please.

I felt a bit deterred, but Dude’s I’m in their country, I should at least have a rudimentary grasp on the language. Baby words is how I describe the knowledge I have. It’s been a handicap but not a disability.

I was able to gleen that the Science Exhibition was taking place on Campus 2. Hey! I know that the tram goes there. I did a Twisto search and Voila! I got dressed, put on a sweater today (22 mph winds all day with spotty rain), and went to the tram station.

The tram was clean although a bit crowded. It was lunch time so there is a transitional period. As each stop was announced, I started to feel a bit anxious. Would what I’m looking to do be where I think it is? What if I got it wrong? What if it’s a different stop? The inner dialogue can get noisy.

Abide, Dude. You’re killing time anyway, what difference does it make when you get to somewhere you don’t know where? Eat when you’re hungry, drink when you’re thirsty, rest when you need to, but keep abiding. That’s what I kept telling myself and it helped me slow my roll(s).

The end of the line, route termine’. I exited the tram in the rush of students. They were heading generally in the same direction. I can see how people end up in a crowd mentality. It felt like I could hear the collective saying, “We know where we’re going. Follow us.” Obediently, I cautiously followed.

AHA! On the ground in red spray-painted letters, Science Exhibition this way! My confidence leapt forward. I was really going to find it! As the crowd broke off in different directions, I found another sign on the sidewalk pointing me on the path. The wind was wickedly blowing, a might bit of a sprinkle, but not drenching. I reached a fork in the path. I took a guess and kept moving forward. I walked around a large bush and I saw the sign!

I took a picture of the map. I used Google’s translator lens to figure out what I was looking at, and moseyed towards the first building on the map. I have learned that Pousser (POO-say) means push and tirer means pull. Sortie is the exit. I was feeling quite proud and confident at this point. That is until I couldn’t understand anything.

Okay, it’s science. Not my forte as a rule although interesting enough to rabbit-hole me at times. But, I was lost. There were no visual clues to what was being discussed. There was a lecturer and a crowd of teenagers mostly listening. I tried to pick out words I know, but no dice. I exited feeling less confident but more curious.

The map said that the different departments were represented by color code but as I observed my surroundings, I came to understand that the map was upside down from my perspective. I went in search of the symbol I understood. Music. It was marked in teal on the map. I came to the courtyard where there was another map showing my changed location, but this one wasn’t upside down from my perspective.

There was an information booth in the center. I asked for directions to the music. Turns out that the concert isn’t until Sunday night. Although I was allowed to experience the exhibits, be aware they’re all in French and today (Friday the 13th) was primarily directed at school aged children. Lucky me! I speak baby word French, so no problem.

I found a cafe inside a building labeled simply SCIENCE. Sounds legit. My curiousity grew as the displays in this particular building were more tangible, more hands on, more engaging. I decided to try again.

I learned that the large black dome-like structure was actually an inflatable planetarium! How freaking cool! Then I found a sandbox display to demonstrate erosion. That turned into a conversation with a knowledgable young man with dark curly hair and brown eyes. I spent the most time with him learning about the ecological effects heavy agriculture does to the environment.

Then he showed me the display next to his which deals in exponential micro-plastics. I can’t remember the name of the effect he told me (a couple times actually), but it’s like…if a fish eats one piece of micro-plastic, it could be okay. But the heron that eats that and 9 other fish is going to have 10 micro-plastics. The bear loves herons and eats 10. That’s 100 micro-plastics. It just keeps getting more and more. This is an extremely simplified version of what I was told, but the more we talked, the more concerned I grew.

SIDENOTE: I read a short article today about how the ecology of the planet has declined with as much as 73% of wildlife being driven from their homes, or eradicated all together. Roadtrips when I was a kid meant we had to stop relatively often to clean the bug butts off the windshield. As I’ve grown into the world around me, it occurred to me that I haven’t had to clean my windshield very much at all. I mean, their bugs, who cares? But bugs are food for other useful species, a necessity to the world.

With what I learned and that trivial bit of knowledge, I was feeling guilty that I contribute so heavily (although not as bad as I used to be) to the decay of our precious planet. But, I did manage to download the DIY plans for a micro-plastics filter for washing machines. Basically, it acts like the lint screen in a dryer works, only it captures the offending plastics that come off our clothing without our knowledge. I’ll see if I can figure out how to give you the link since I got it from a QR code. Does it work on American washers? I don’t know. I’ll have to make one and see.

Okay, exit soapbox. Thank you for indulging me.

I found several other tangible activities that I could understand and follow. It became intriguing to understand. A challenge that I met to my satisfaction. My confidence returned.

As I left the exhibition, the rain was coming down at a pretty good clip, the wind was blowing the trees so hard, they were bending and bowing in protest. I found my way back to the tram and rode back to Rue Saint-Jean. It was a great afternoon and I’m glad I did it.

Peace be with you wherever you are. You are loved!

Day Twenty-Nine, Palace and Mall

I know! I’ve been sharing with you all these wonderful places. When I went to the Chateau de Caen, there was just so much to see and share. This will be the third and final installment of what I’ve already done.

The white building

is where they held banquets and meetings.

It smells like age, it felt hallowed, it had bird

poop everywhere as well as their feathers.

The meeting hall is where they gathered. The stained glass window faced towards the East. The broken picture with the walls showing could feel the age it held. Even though much of the buildings that I’ve been showing you were destroyed by the bombings that took place in 1944-ish, they’ve been lovingly restored.

Why all the pictures of the floor? Because they weren’t just stone floors. They were carefully crafted of 3″x3″ squares with the brown broken up by the blue/green/and white mosaic tiles. I was impressed with the technique and the style. In addition, I could sense the thousands of people who walked those very floors whether they be nobility or a janitor. It’s an inanimate building, but I imagined the stories the history could tell if it were explained by the people who lived, worked, met, and played there.

The building on the lower left is the Meeting Hall. This picture was taken as I stepped up onto the castle wall to walk about and see the “world” layed at my feet. I wondered, since this is one of the larger palaces, what it must have felt like to keep watch from here. Pacing back and forth, ever keen for noises or visual changes in the landscape.

Gratuitous flowers for you.
Growing because they Caen.
13th century courtyard

A bit of a confession. When I exited the Meeting Hall, I went to the right. I saw a path that led up a hill to the castle wall. I really got excited to walk about the place, but instead I ended up at the wall, not a place to walk it. As I wandered back down to find the right way to get where I wanted to go, I snapped these shots to give you a bit more observational points of view.

From this opening in the wall:
I saw this…
and this…
and this…
and this. Wow!

I’m not exaggerating when I tell you I couldn’t breathe at first. After having seen pictures at the Musee de Normandie several days ago, the destruction that was brought on this city was painful to witness. But like a true warrior champion, thriving despite the terrors it’s endured, I felt the resilience of the people throbbing with life. I didn’t expect to feel emotional. Curious, yes, but to feel the collective breath of humanity pulsing was phenomenal.

An archer’s window.
The view from the archer’s window.

These pictures are of a keep being excavated. It dates back to the 11th century in some places. The round building is one of the corners. Around that is a freaking moat! I wonder if it were filled by the canal that used to run in front of the nearby church of Saint Peter.

Overlooking the recovered walls of the keep, I looked over and saw a gully like space. When I looked over the edge, to my delight there were sheep munching on grass, doing sheep things. SQUEE!
As I was getting ready to leave, I saw this cannon lined up with a place from which it could possibly have fired from long ago. There had, at one time, been stairs allowing people to get closer, but I’m going to guess this had to be idiot-proofed.

All that and a bag of chips, eh? That concludes my visit to the Chateau de Caen, former palace of William the Conqueror. I’m glad that it’s taken me a few days to get through all the pictures I took because it’s allowed me to reflect instead of react.

Thursday, the twenty-ninth.

The place where I’ve set up shop until the 20th is for sale. They call it a condo, I would call it an efficiency apartment. For a person who travels a lot or who spends a lot of time at work/play, this is an ideal place for one person to crash. Live…I don’t know. It’s functional.

Because of the circumstances, a realtor has been bringing people by to view the place. Monday and today I’ve had to make myself scarce so they could show it uninterrupted. I’m totally okay with that. In a way, because the place is small and gets untidy if you turn around, it’s holding me responsible for maintaining a cleaner environment than I would back home.

My house in Tennessee is pretty much my studio so there are a variety of projects in various stages of progress in my organized mess. My cat is a furball so I vacuum more frequently that I like, but he’s a cute asshole of a furball.

ANYWAY!

I went in search of art supplies. I’m jonesing really bad for a fix of some paint on my hands. I tried looking up art stores and art supply stores but got housewares and home decorating shops. I thought a bit and tried looking for craft stores. TADA! I found one. Address in hand, I used my Twisto app to navigate. What do you know? Not only did Line 1 go where I wanted to be, BUT the stop was a half a block away! I did the tidy up of apartment and of myself, dressed (because nudity is not acceptable as a rule) and headed out to kill some time.

The ride was very city view. Twisto warned of protests in the city center of Caen that were possible disruptive of the bus service, although I didn’t notice delays. I rode to the end of the line.

Color me so very American because I was perplexed at what I was seeing. I even asked the conducteur if I was at the right place. He assured me I really was at the mall. I didn’t think to get a picture because I’ve never seen anything like it.

Think, strip mall made up of big name box stores (each with a separate entrance but not connected inside), surrounding a more American version of mall familiar? The mall was made up of a variety of shops and boutiques like what I’m used to. I visited a shop called “Normal” because…

Have you ever seen the videos of sheep being put through a chute to get sheered? That’s pretty much how this store was set up. A guided maze with products in white wooden sectionals towards the inside of the store, the walls holding shelves of products. The shop primarily sold toiletry items. Colognes, face masks, makeup, cleansers, bodywash, razors, lotions, etc. There were some things that didn’t seem quite right in the Normal store, but it wasn’t a bad experience.

Food courts weren’t a thing. It had casual dining places around the periphery of the mall proper. There wasn’t a central place where you could pick and choose from a variety of gluttonous gorging.

There are a LOT of hair salons in this town and in the mall. There are also a large number of lingerie stores. Side note relevance: Along Clinton Highway (25W) from inside Clinton (TN) all the way down to I-40 (near Knoxville) there are a ridiculous number of car dealerships both old and new. FINANCE HERE! is a common hawk. In comparison, there are as many hair salons here as car dealerships there.

Having walked the circle, returning to my entry point, I stepped back outside. I went to the left (East I think) where I found another store.

Context: I left my apartment at 1PM (7AM East Tennessee time). I didn’t get back until 7PM (1PM East Tennessee time).

I went into every freaking store they had. Turns out, I wasn’t at the right place for the craft stores. I popped (typoed and wrote that pooped) back on the bus which took me to a place called Mondevillage.

It was like a shopping community. An outdoor mall, per se. The middle of the complex had an island shopping area with a variety of restaurants, chocolate shops, toilets, and a security office. That island had a bus stop on each side of it, but each side was one-way. The next layer was parking lot broken up by color. Example: You parked in Rose 3 or in Aqua 4. It’s a much better system than the parking lot marking in American malls. You parked in…G7? H6?

There it was. The craft store. It had a list of things it contained. I could pick out beaux art, musical instruments, books, and a couple of other things. I felt proud of myself that I could recognize the names of things even though they were spelled out in French.

I entered the store and felt a bit confused because it was similar in style to say…Books-A-Million or a single story Barnes and Noble. Undaunted by the books I couldn’t read, I checked out a few things, browsing about.

Next I found the musical instruments section. It wasn’t as flashy as Guitar World, but there was enough to do basic instrumentation. I plugged on.

Need a planner? Agenda books lined shelf after shelf. I like the idea of making an agenda better than a day planner. It sounds more like you’ll get something done instead of writing it down hoping to cross things off a list you planned to do.

Next came a beginning art section. I didn’t realize it was beginner. Dude, I can’t read French as well as I’d like! But, I found a small set of paints, a small set of brushes, some graphite pencils, a small sharpener, and a gum eraser. The paper they had was in envelopes, not books or pads. I searched through, looking at the pictures that showed what the paper could be used for. I couldn’t find any that would work with gouche. I asked and was shown the correct paper to purchase. Hot diggety!

CHRISTMAS doesn’t come just once a year. It shows its ridiculous face in October here too. Meh. Don’t get me wrong, I’m fine with the holiday season. But, it should not be bleeding this far into early autumn.

I turned the corner and found a painter’s dream. I looked at what I’d selected, thought about what I already have back in Tennessee and what I would need bare minimum to get my “fix.” After checking out some of the pricing, I can honestly say, I was much happier with what I’d already selected. Less than 20 Euros too!

Okay, let me confess one more thing. The checkout line was rather crowded. Off to the side was a self-checkout. I thought, what the heck. It means I don’t have to use the translator to communicate. I can just ring up my stuff and go. I’ve done it reluctantly before, how hard could it be?

There was a security guard standing watch over this particular section. A good looking fellow with dark skin and a bright smile. I went to the one he directed me to, looked at the screen, and froze. A big red button on the touch screen had words I didn’t recognize on it. I looked around the area but didn’t see anything else. I pushed the red button.

I understood that it was ready for me to begin ringing up my items. I scanned each item and set it on the loading shelf to the right. When I’d done that, I wasn’t sure how to tell the machine I had completed my transaction and was ready to pay. I stared at the screen willing myself to understand. The security guard came over and showed me how to push the red button again. OY! I gave him a tiny yellow duck as a thank you.

My Twisto app kept crashing so I couldn’t figure out how to navigate back home. I deleted it, redownloaded it, signed in again and I wasn’t at the right stop. Are you seeing a pattern here? I sure as heck am!

I got on Line 21 which would take me to someplace around the halfway point where I would transfer busses and get on a different bus to get back. BUT! As I was following the location finder, the correct bus I was on, was NOT going on the route shown on the map. Crap!

Luckily, as the bus was turning, I saw the stop with the bus that I KNEW went in front of my house and back to the stop I’d first got on from. Thank the stars someone had already dinged for the stop. I got off, made it to the correct Line 1, waited briefly, and made an uneventful trip back.

What a glorious day. Tomorrow I’m going to do laundry, wash the sheets and towels, and relax. Saturday morning, I have to find something to do again. I’m thinking of taking the bus out to the airport to see what’s shaking. Or I’ll head to the Twisto bike stand and pick up a bicycle to ride around for a bit.

May peace be with you wherever you are. You are loved!

Day Twenty-Seven, Can Caen!

I spent six hours walking around today looking at various places in Caen. I started out with no particular place to go, but found the Caen Castle. It was the palace of William the Conqueror. I have a lot of pictures to sort through for that one, so I’ll share those tomorrow since I have to work and most likely won’t get out much to explore.

As I ride the bus to work, there is a place called Moon and Sons. I thought it a clever name. I notice it quite frequently making a mental note to visit, but I didn’t until today. OMG!

20 Avenue De La Libération, Caen, FR 14000 It was simply magnificent. It’s an British restaurant in Caen. A mix of magical and muggle alike. You won’t be sorry for stopping in for an espresso, a meal, or a pastry.

But this…The bartender played a few pieces while I drank my espresso and ate a cinnamon roll. When I asked him if he was okay with me posting, “Yes!” he said. When I asked if he wanted his name on the video or did he want to be some random Dude, he laughed, “I’m okay with random Dude.” I think his name was Justin. I gave the staff each a little yellow duck.

The absolute enchantment of the place was gushing over my senses. I messaged my friend Jen and told her, we would hang out here. When I showed her several pictures via text, she enthusiastically agreed.

Sidenote: I’ve been working through Going With Grace’s The Living Practice. There are a few that I didn’t do because they’re not as important to me. But there have been a couple that have really put me in a stuck position.

  • Who/What was your most impactful death?
  • Who are you? (You can’t use: job, body, relationships, characteristics, accomplishments, possessions, or anything external to you).

I don’t know how to answer those questions. I could give knee jerk answers but these are deep questions. I want to answer them to my personal satisfaction. Quality vs. Quantity I suppose. As I ponder these two, I encourage you to consider them as well. AND, if you’re of the mind to try the course: The Living Practice (The link will open in a new tab).