Chartres Cathedral (9/11/17)

The Notre Dame Cathedral at Chartres began being constructed in the 12th century.  You can see the spires rising above the town from quite a distance away. I knew from my research on Tripadvisor that an English tour would be given at noon by Malcolm Miller.  Mr. Miller is probably the foremost authority in the world in this cathedral so we were lucky enough to arrive on time, despite our troubles in leaving Paris.

I worried that the guys would be a little bored by a 90 minute talk by an 85 year old expert, but they both said they found it fascinating.  We actually have never had anyone explain how to interpret stained glass windows before, especially in terms of some of the symbolism involved.  We all agreed it was one of the best tours we have heard.  The cathedral itself is being cleaned inside and the lightness is wonderful compared to the usual gray dingy color in most Gothic cathedrals. It would be fascinating to return in a few years and see the changes.

Driving the Arc de Triomphe

Unfortunately, one of our friends left his camera bag in the back of the tour van on the day we went to Giverny, so we needed to pick it up from the tour office after picking up our car as we were leaving Paris.  We entered the address in the GPS and set off.  Soon we had the dreadful realization that we would need to drive the roundabout at the Arc de Triomphe! Now the Arc's roundabout consists of about 7 lanes of traffic.  I say "about" because there are no lines on the road at all and the whole thing seems like a giant free-for-all.  We managed to get through it with a lot of watching out for other cars and then we ended up on the Champs-Elysees! So it was quite a morning just trying to get out of Paris.

Verdun (9/10/17)

We hired a private guide for a trip to Verdun from Paris.  Verdun is the site of a 300 day battle in World War I. I read about it while researching last year's trip and we wanted to include it this year. Mike and I both love history so we were really looking forward to this. I actually wish we had stayed closer, possibly in Reims, so we could have had more time.  It was a 12 hour day as it was, and we could have spent another few hours for sure.

Neither side really attained victory here, but the French Army's tenacity really kept the German forces at Verdun engaged so they couldn't be re-directed to other battlefronts.  There was also really no other line of defense between the Germans and Paris.  

We stopped off at a monument in the countryside and as we drove away we saw a poor abandoned dog with a muzzle on. The poor thing looked like it was half-starved and I couldn't imagine what sort of monster would abandon a dog without any means of eating! We stopped and tried to coax it to us but it was too afraid to come near.  Another car had also stopped and the lady had called the local police who were coming out to see if they could catch the dog and free it from the muzzle.  We couldn't wait for the police but the people in the other car were going to stay until they came. The thought of that poor dog haunted me the rest of the day. 

We drove on and visited the Verdun Memorial which was an excellent presentation of information about the battle, the soldiers and the aftermath.  There was so much shelling that several small towns were completely obliterated.  Blown off the face of the earth forever.  The unexplored ordinance was still being found pretty regularly as little as 20 years ago.  The area is still full of trenches and shell craters though the grass and trees were replanted and it is green there now.  Photos after the war show it looking like the surface of the moon- no trees or anything, just the craters. There were pictures of the soldiers and some video showing the shell shock that affected so many of them. Very, very sad. 

Next stop was the Ossuary.  The collected bone fragments of approximately 130,000 soldiers are enclosed in the Ossuary and another 70,000 soldiers are buried out in front of the monument. There is an area inside dedicated to the soldiers from each surrounding area with their names inscribed.  

Fort Douaumont was next.  One of the few defensive forts in the area, it was at times occupied by the French or the Germans, and sometimes by both at the same time! The fort itself was almost completely buried by the dirt being thrown up by the thousands of shells exploding around it. 

We also managed to find a small section of the remaining trenches nearby.  

All in all, it was a sobering but truly interesting day. Definitely something we will always remember.

                                              Fort Douaumont

                                                        Verdun Ossuary

France 2017 - Paris

We took off without a hitch from Sac Metro Airport and landed in Salt Lake City 15 minutes early - great! A 1 hour layover, just the right amount of time. Around the time we should have started boarding, they announced a delay of one hour due to a mechanical problem with the plane.  One hour turned into two, then three, then three and a half.  Finally they gave the word that we would be boarding, but we had to be very quick about it as the flight crew was about to time-out and then we would have a big problem and another delay.  Well we all managed to get on the plane and push off from the gate with just minutes to spare. Whew!

We had a good flight and arrived in Paris without incident, but now it was late afternoon and so our plans changed to basically dinner and bed instead of doing a little sightseeing after landing.  The next morning, we woke up and had a nice breakfast of French pastry then decided to walk around a bit.  We walked through the Tullieries gardens and over to the Grande Palais and then the Eiffel Tower.

In the afternoon, we had arranged to go to Monet's home and gardens at Giverny with a small group tour.  The gardens were very nice and still showing a lot of color, it did rain a little bit on us but we enjoyed the gardens and looking inside the house. We enjoyed a good dinner and took ourselves off to bed as we had an early start for Verdun the next day.

                                           Monet's garden

France 2017

Back to France! I've been planning our return for several months now, almost since returning from our last visit. When we went to France last year, we realized there was so much more to see and we decided to go again this year!

We decided to spend 3 weeks - the first week with two of our friends to see Verdun and Giverny, and a little more time in Paris. After that, we would travel to the Loire Valley to see some of the big chateau. The second week we would all meet up with two more friends and the six of us would take a riverboat cruise from Bordeaux.  The third week would be just Mike and I exploring the Dordogne region.  

So a lot of planning had to go into this trip because the three different weeks are so diverse and so different from each other.  I feel as though I haven't done as much research in some areas as I should have, so we'll see how it all turns out.  :-)

Yosemite National Park/ Half Dome Hike

This was "take 2" on Half Dome. Last year we attempted it and couldn't make it to the top because I had very bad cramping in my legs. I was determined to have a different outcome this year, so I made some changes in my preparation and approach.

Firstly, I did not work out for a few days before the hike.  I think this was a big factor in the cramps I had last year because I did a leg workout the day before our hike last year. Secondly, we brought more water with us and also a filtration device, because last year we ran out of water on the way down. The third change was bringing salt and electrolyte supplements with us and using them a few times throughout the day.

We started out at 4:30am to take advantage of the cooler morning temps and get a head start on the rest of our group.  They are younger than we are and faster, so getting started earlier meant we could go at a pace that was easier for us.  It was a bit scary doing the first hour in the dark, I imagined bear and mountain lion lurking around the giant boulders on the trail. Luckily we only saw a bobcat and that was actually in the road on the way to the trailhead.

The hike up the Mist Trail was just as difficult as I remembered from last year.  I had knee arthroscopy in 2015 and still have a partially torn meniscus, so all those step ups on the Mist Trail become  painful for me. We were rewarded with a beautiful view of Vernal Falls at sunrise and even some mist this year since the falls are still flowing pretty nicely thanks to all the rain and snow we had this year.  We carried on up to the top of Nevada Falls, more steps and climbing up rocks. There were also a lot more bugs this year, yuk!

Once at the top of Nevada Falls we headed through Little Yosemite Valley heading to Half Dome Trail. It was about half way to the subdome that our friends caught up to us, so our timing was perfect. We made it to the ranger checkpoint at the subdome in good time. A special permit is required in order to continue up and over the subdome and up the cables to the top of Half Dome.  The ranger checked our permit and we were good to go.

The subdome seemed a little less scary than last year and we all stopped to regroup before starting up the cables.  Going was up was definitely hard but doable.  It definitely takes some arm and leg strength but takes some mental determination as well. Two of our group have a fear of heights so this was a major accomplishment for them and I really admire their veracity.

Once at the top we looked around enjoying the views, had a little rest, took a bunch of celebratory photos and then prepared for the descent.  Smoke from the nearby wildfire was starting to blow towards us as we headed down.

Personally, I thought going down the cables was much easier than going up. We basically went down backwards/sideways, holding onto one cable with both hands.  Thank goodness we had good gloves because we could feel the heat from the friction right through the gloves.  We finally all made it down to the subdome and started the long hike back to the valley floor.  Elevation gain 4,000 feet and distance of 8.1 miles on the way up! Bad news: you have to hike back down now.

Three of us opted to take the John Muir Trail down from the top of Nevada Falls. It added an extra 1.5 miles but we wouldn't have to go down all those steps on the Mist Trail, and my knee was already pretty sore.

We made it back to the trailhead at 15 hours which is an hour better than our time last year. I finally can check Half Dome off my list of things to accomplish! Hooray!

Half Dome Hike - Yosemite Photos

Wildfire smoke 

Half Dome (from Yosemite Valley floor) 

Me on the "diving board" at the top