Rhone American Cemetery

When Jay and I started planning this trip, we knew we wanted to do a road trip in France, that we only had about 12 days to play with, and that we wanted to see some beaches and do some wine tasting. But we weren't sure what region we wanted to focus on. When I was home in Haverhill in July, during a conversation with my dad and grandmother, I found out that my great uncle Orazio (the brother of my paternal grandfather) was buried in France having been killed in action there in WWII.  After a quick bit of googling, I discovered that his grave was in Draguignan, not too far from Nice and Marseille. And so our trip started to take shape, literally centered around paying my respects to Uncle Orazio.

And so it happened, that on day 7 of our trip, August 13th, a bright, hot day, on our way from Ste-Maxime to Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, we found ourselves parking outside Rhone American Cemetery in Draguignan. I was immediately struck by the beauty of this place, all vivid green grass, sparkling blue fountains, beautiful olive trees, and dazzling white marble. The grass was pristinely cut, and the white marble tombstones were arranged in perfectly spaced lines. I had done a little research the evening before and so knew the location of Orazio's plot - plot C, row 10, grave 4.  We walked into the visitors center, picked up a couple pamphlets, and headed through the gates.  As we walked back into the sunshine, we happened into a well-dressed American man and Jay asked him to point us toward plot C. He asked if we were there to visit a specific grave, and upon hearing it was my relative immediately ushered us back into the visitors center to see Alison Libersa, the cemetery's Interpretive Guide. Alison, a very kind British woman, was delighted to meet us.  She explained that they were always honored to have family members visit and that they had special procedures in place for the occasion.  So she gathered up a few things and escorted us back into the sunshine.

As we walked toward plot C at the back of the cemetery, Alison explained a bit about the cemetery and her work there. Part of her job is to keep the stories of those buried there alive, sharing them with those she gives tours to, especially school groups. She asked about Orazio's story, and I shared what I knew, vowing to learn more from my family and pass it on to her. I loved the idea of keeping the memories of these soldiers alive, especially since they're all buried so far from home.

When we stopped at the edge of plot C, Alison pointed to a particular row and asked that I walk along it until I found my great uncle. As I walked down the path, I marvelled at how pristine each of the white marble crosses was, and how much care was clearly given to each. And then, before I knew it, I found myself reading Orazio Emilio on the tombstone in front of me. I was immediately, and quite surprisingly, overcome with emotion. I don't know if it's because Emilio was my name or if it was the feeling of having something so familiar and familial that close to me when I felt so far away from home, but my eyes welled up a bit and I found I had to take a deep breath to steady myself. It was an amazing and incredible moment that I will never forget.

After giving me a little time there on my own to take it all in, Alison and Jay joined me. Alison brought out a small pail of sand which she told us was from Omaha beach in Normandy.  She went on to explain that this was a gesture reserved for family and proceeded to show me what to do. She took a small amount of the soft sand and rubbed it into the inscription of the date on the marble cross, and then stepped back and allowed me to take my time to smooth the sand over each letter in the rest of the inscription. When I finished, the words on the grave immediately stood out in a simple, beautiful way. 

Alison then placed an American and French flag into the ground in front of the cross, explaining that when we left we were to take the flags with us as keepsakes from our visit. She also told us what she knew about Orazio's unit and their whereabouts on the day he died.  We were surprised to hear that he likely died near St Tropez, where we had been the previous evening, and that his unit would have followed some of the same route we had driven that day. It was bittersweet to think that we had unknowingly followed in my great uncle's footsteps. Alison then left us to take pictures and have some quiet moments on our own, encouraging us to stop by the visitors center on our way out, and reminding us that she would be there if we had any questions or needed any assistance.

Jay and I spent time taking pictures and making our way through the graves in plot C. I found several other soldiers from Massachusetts, one from New Hampshire, and one from Orazio's unit. Occasionally, instead of a cross, the tombstone would be a Star of David atop a pedestal, all still made of the same gorgeous white marble. We learned that there are 861 soldiers buried there, 61 of whom are still unknown, coming from every state except North Dakota. There is also a memorial to 294 who are missing. We visited the small, peaceful chapel behind this memorial, and read the bronze relief map showing the advancement of the American forces into Southern France during the middle of August, 1944. It is a beautiful cemetery and a lovely monument to those who fought in the south of France.

After quite a while, we retrieved the flags and said our silent good-byes to Orazio. We went back into the visitors center, signed the guest book, thanked Alison for all of her help, and took her card with a promise to send her whatever stories and pictures our family was willing to share. I left the cemetery with an amazing feeling of peace and happiness. It was a truly wonderful experience, and one that I am so honored and humbled to have had.

If you'd like more information about the Rhone American Cemetery, please visit http://www.abmc.gov/cemeteries/cemeteries/rh.php

Also, if you have any stories or pictures of Orazio Emilio that you'd be willing to share, please don't hesitate to message me.

(Note: These pictures are just the ones I took on my phone so I could share them easily. I have many more on my camera that I will share here once I've uploaded them.)

France Part 2

Ok, so my huge mega post wouldn't all fit...so here's the rest. The note about typos from my last post still applies!

Day 5 - Avignon to Cassis, Aug 11

The next morning, after our last lovely breakfast on the terrace, we set off south. We were sad to leave what felt like our home away from home, but excited to continue our adventure and make our way to the coast.

On our way, we stopped at Les Baux des Provence, a small village said to be one of the beautiful in all of France. The village was indeed gorgeous, but we were not prepared for the terrifyingly narrow mountain roads we had to take to get there. Cars (and lots of bikes and motorcycles) were zipping past with barely any room between us on one side, with a sheer drop on the other. Not exactly the relaxing morning drive we were hoping for. So we arrived a bit shaky, though thankfully in one piece, to the base of the village. Cars aren't allowed in the town, so we parked In the very full lot and made our way up the hill. Apparently, word is out about this town because it was massively crowded, so we weren't able to really enjoy a stroll through town to soak on the atmosphere. (In hindsight, we realized it was Saturday, probably didn't help). Instead, we headed up to the very top of the town to check out the ruins of an old chateau. Unfortunately, we didn't realize that the ruins are basically entirely outside, in direct sunlight. With highs over 100, we didn't last too long, though we did stay long enough to appreciate the incredible views. After that, we longed to get out of the sun and away from the crowds, and so headed back to our car to continue our journey. 

What was supposed to be an easy hour and a half drive to Cassis took over 3 thanks to some serious traffic. Now we knew what everyone meant when they talked about crazy August traffic in the south of France. Bumper to bumper for miles before each toll and stop and go in heavy congestion everywhere else, we we starting to feel a bit beleaguered.  When we finally arrived in Cassis, however, the view made it all worth it. We settled into our hotel room and soaked in the view of the Mediterranean from our balcony. 

View from our balcony

After catching our breath, we changed into our bathing suits, grabbed a quick lunch at the cafe below our hotel, and went for a dip in the sea. The water was cool and refreshing, especially after the day we'd had. We tried to lay out on the shore, but it was a pebble beach (as I mentioned in my last post, by pebble they really mean rocks) and we couldn't seem to get comfortable, so we decided to enjoy the comfort of the lounge chairs on our balcony instead. It was quite lovely. 

After a while, we showered and changed and strolled down to Cassis harbor where we enjoyed a few beverages, a great pizza dinner (with a huge carafe of wine), and a surprise concert by a rock cover band (on a stage out on the water off the harbor no less) before meandering back to our hotel where we enjoyed one last beverage on the deck of the hotel bar before retiring to our room. I was so happy to hear the sound of the sea, I actually fell asleep on one of the lounge chairs on our balcony for a few hours before making it into bed.

Enjoying some delicious rose at dinner

Our huge carafe of wine

Day 6 - Cassis to Ste-Maxime, Aug 12

The next morning, feeling slightly rough around the edges from our merriment the night before (we were over-served as my dad would say), we made our way down to breakfast on the deck and then headed out for our next destination, hoping an early departure would get us a bit ahead of the traffic. We also opted to take back roads instead of the main highway in hopes of enjoying a more relaxing ride (thank goodness for the avoid tolls option on our GPS!). Our plan worked pretty well and we enjoyed a relatively uneventful 90 minute drive to Ste-Maxime. 

Ste-Maxime is a chill little beach town on St Tropez bay. We checked into our little hotel and headed down to explore the boardwalk and get some lunch, settling on a little cafe right on the beach where it turned out the service was awful, the food was decent, and the view was incredible. Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel to change into our swimsuits and then hit the beach. The sea was again very refreshing, and this time it was a sand beach (a super hard sand beach, but still a huge upgrade, haha). We enjoyed laying on the beaching, dozing a bit and being entertained by a surprise air show - fighter jet display teams from France and the US put on quite a performance, practicing (as we found out later) for a big show on August 15th to celebrate the anniversary of the liberation of France (at least we think). It was very cool, and little surreal.

Later that evening, we dressed for dinner and hopped on a quick 15 minute ferry over to St. Tropez. On the ferry ride we spotted some of the most ridiculous yachts I've ever seen. Like, beyond huge. Beyond opulent. Just, wow. We spent nearly two hours just strolling through the street, ogling the ridiculously expensive shops, and enjoying the lovely weather. We finally settled into a little restaurant at the edge of the harbor and enjoyed a delicious pasta dinner before hopping back on the ferry and heading back to our little town on the other side of the bay.

France Part 1

So I've completely dropped the ball with blog writing on this trip. My apologies. I blame the wine, and my inability to write while riding in a car, not to mention that I brought my iPad instead of our netbook thinking it would be easier, and unfortunately I was very wrong. So I'm going to recap the first half of our trip in one mega-post. So grab a glass of wine and enjoy!

PS I apologise for any typos, etc. My iPad is set to UK English so autocorrects extras u's into my words and changes z's to s's often. Plus, I lost parts of this several times and if I look at it anymore, I might pass out, haha.

Day 1 - Calais to Dijon, Aug 7

Really this was Day 2 of our trip because we drove from our house to Dover, England the night before. But since we didn't make it to France, I decided not to count it, haha.

We woke up in the guest house in Dover early, had a lovely breakfast, and then headed down the road to the ferry port. After a surprisingly painless trip through border control, we and our car loaded onto the ferry.  The ferry journey was easy enough, only taking about an hour and a half, and then voila! we were in France! We drove off the ferry in Calais without much fuss onto the roads of France...on the right side of the road, but in a British car (steering wheel on the right)...thank goodness Jay was driving because I wouldn't have stood a chance!

Day 1 was mostly driving. It took us about 6 hours or so to get to Dijon on surprisingly nice, wide, uncrowded roads. The one shocker was the tolls...you get your ticket, drive for hours, then pay a hefty toll - anywhere from 20 to 40 Euros at a time. Yikes!

We arrived in Dijon, checked into our little hotel, and headed out to explore.  We found ourselves in a gorgeous, huge open courtyard slash plaza called Place Liberation (I think). There was a lovely fountain, and tons of restaurants with outdoor seating. We ambled down a side street and decided on a nice little restaurant that wasn't too crowded (and not gonna lie, they had a menu in English available and with my poor French skills having been dormant for years, we decided to take it slow, haha). The food was delicious (I had scallops that were to die for, which interestingly are called St. Jacques here) and of course the wine was lovely. After dinner, it was just a nice stroll back to our hotel for an early evening...another long drive lie ahead of us.

Plaza in Dijon.

Requisite self-portrait in Dijon.

Day 2 - Dijon to Avignon, Aug 8

We awoke relatively early and a lovely breakfast - fresh coffee and orange juice, pain au chocolat, croissants and baguettes with butter and jam. Delicious. Then we hit the road for our last big drive for a while. Another 6 or so hours in the car and another obscene amount of money in tolls and we arrived in Saint-Saturnin-lès-Avignon, a little village about 15 minutes west of Avignon.  We arrived at an adorable guest house where we had a lovely terrace and access to a gorgeous pool with sun loungers and a pool house with free wine (that's right...free wine - it was in a box, but as we found out even cheap French wine is good wine). We were more than happy to make this our home base for 3 nights. It was early evening by the time we arrived so we settled into our room and then laid by the pool and read for a bit before getting ready for dinner.  For dinner, we wandered into he village to a local restaurant for a pitcher of wine and yummy French food.

Jay at dinner.

Day 3 - Avignon, Aug 9

We awoke well rested and greeted by a delicious breakfast on the tree shaded open terrace. We again found ourselves drinking fresh OJ and coffee and munching on pastries and baguettes with jam.  Here the jam was homemade (so delicious) and there was also fresh fruit and yogurt.

After stuffing ourselves we dressed, packed our backpack and headed to Avignon. Avignon is a neat little city, surrounded by a high wall and bordered by a river with many bridges. Our first stop in Avignon was to do a little sight-seeing of the Palais des Papes and its gardens. We enjoyed strolling through the city, enjoying a leisurely lunch (I has a salad with smoked salmon and a sea bream mango tartare that was so delicious and had a prosciutto salad he said was divine).

Jay's scrumptious lunch.

After lunch we discovered a great little wine shop that offered tastings.  You put money on a little card (a cross between a hotel gift card and a credit card) and then simply put it into one of these cool machines, pressed the button fore the amount you amount you wanted (1, 2, or 3 ounces) above the bottle you wanted to try, and out came your wine! One of the store's clerks spoke great English and gave us a great little lesson on the different wine regions on the area. We had a great time and walked away with two bottles of great wine. After that, we enjoyed a little gelato before heading out of the heat and back to the luxurious coolness of our inn's pool.

Instead of eating out, on our way home we picked up some dinner supplies (cheese, baguettes, humus, wine, salami, chocolate, grapes and nectarines) and enjoyed an evening reading by (and in) the pool and dinner on our terrace.


Day 4 - Avignon, Aug 10

On our second day in Provence, we started out early (after another fantastic breakfast) to see Orange before the afternoon heat hit. Orange was a 30min drive north, and our Marian goal was to see the Theatre Antique, a Roman amphitheatre built somewhere between 27BC and AD14 to seat 10,000 spectators.  It has been extremely well preserved and we were absolutely impressed by its sheer size and remarkably good state.

Self-portrait at the Roman Theatre

After leaving Orange, we decided to escape the heat by doing some proper wine tasting - we were in France after all. We started in a little family run vineyard where we tasted a few wines and bought a couple bottles (Domaine de Fontavin in Courthézon). Then we headed over to a tasting room slash wine shop just down the road (also in Courthézon) called Cellier des Princes. The woman who did our tasting spoke fantastic English, and was extremely knowledgable, friendly, and helpful. We had a great time with her, tasting nearly 15 wines. The wine was delicious, and not being able to help ourselves we bought 10 bottles!! Even more shocking was that it only cost 80 Euros! We also got great advice on which bottles to keep and age for a few years and which we can drink sooner - we're really looking forward to breaking some of those bottles open for future wedding anniversaries!

Wine country!!

After that, it was a trip into one of the wine capitals of Provence, Chateauneuf du Pape. We really didn't have a plan upon arriving and pretty much just happened upon a little vineyard tasting room. Inside, we were lucky enough to walk into a cellar tour and tasting that had just started for another couple, so we joined in and enjoyed an informative explanation of how they make their wine and the different strict regulations they have to adhere to. Then we has a little mini-class in how to taste wine while we sample three different varieties of their wine. It was really fun and we actually learned a lot! We also walked away with another bottle of wine (a really nice one that will be best after being aged 3 to 5 years), bringing our grand total to 15 bottles.

Yet again, we returned to our lovely little inn for one last night of relaxing by the pool and then dinner in the village. This time we found a quirky little restaurant that felt a bit like eating in someone's backyard (complete with our waitress taking a smoke and cell phone break at the table next to us, haha), but the food and wine were tasty.

Bonjour from France!

So I wrote a monster blog over several hours yesterday all about the first week of our trip and then my stupid iPad deleted half of it. So, while I get over my frustration, and in the interest of getting something posted,  here's a few tidbits from our trip...

Things I've Learned About/In France
1. Everyone smokes everywhere. I literally don't think I've seen a "no smoking" sign at any point.
2. Several times we have seen a whole section of a rest area convenience store dedicated to champagne. Only in France.
3. Most of the beaches down here in the south are pebble beaches. And by pebble, they mean pretty large stones. I'm not really a fan.
4. The tolls in France are ridiculously expensive. Like...wow.
5. Even cheap French wine is delicious.
6. In restaurants, it is often cheaper to order a glass of wine than a soda. This is how we have been saving money for tolls, haha.
7. The only French I remember is from 6th and 7th grade. Remarkably, it's gotten me pretty far. Thank you Sister Florence.

Hello from Cassis!!

Ok, that's all for now. Hopefully within a day or two I will get over my intense annoyance with my iPad and re-finish my first blog post. Until then au revoir!