Winter 2006

Gay “Paree” at Eighty-Three

A daughter's gift of a whirlwind trip
Paris, France

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Next day we drove to St. Malo, about four hours west of Paris, where my daughter had gone as a sixteen-year-old exchange student. It’s a walled city and great fun to trundle all the way around it on the walls. That, of course, called for a visit to a patisserie.

We stayed that night in a huge chateau, Chateau de Bouce’el, which dates back to the French Revolution. Napoleon’s troops were billeted there, and their first act was to completely empty the wine cellar, one of the region’s largest. Then, because the owners were known to be sympathetic to Napoleon’s opponents, the troops completely sacked the house, leaving only its walls and a single oil painting. No one knows how the soldiers missed that one, but you won’t be surprised to know that it is now displayed prominently in the main dining room.

The next day it was on to Mont-Saint-Michel, a tenth-century abbey set high on a rocky island. The building completely dominates the surrounding terrain. A band of some sixty friars survived the English seige during the Hundred Years War, and the abbey has became a revered symbol of the French identity, right along with Joan of Arc.

That afternoon we drove to Omaha Beach, where the American First Infantry made a bloody landing on the way to liberating France from the Germans during World War II. There’s a fairly high ridge over the beach where the German defenders were dug in. Looking at how wide that beach is and how high the ridge, it seems almost impossible that our troops were able to cross the beach and eventually take it while the Germans fired down on them. A small museum and a large monument memorialize the event. Not far away is the huge American Cemetery, a forest of white crosses.Most of the men buried there were young, ages eighteen to twenty- two.What a sacrifice!

On the way back to Paris we stopped at Fugerres to see a Norman castle, then continued on to the Chartres Cathedral with its 28,000-plus square feet of stained glass — more than any church in the world. The glass was removed for safekeeping during the World War II bombings.

On May 2 we went to the Louvre to see the Madonna, Venus de Milo, and the Winged Victory. You see no lettered signs guiding you to the Madonna, which was by far the most popular attraction, just small photos of the painting itself. No need to speak any language other than your own.

The next day I flew home. Quite a trip. I was skeptical at first that it would truly be “the trip of a lifetime.” Now I’m not so sure — I’ll try to characterize it once my head stops spinning.

Russell Haley, professor emeritus of marketing at the University of New Hampshire, lives in Medford, New Jersey. Russ attended the last three Wooster Alumni Weekends and intends to continue the practice.

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