Preparing For France

France Trip Orientation - We Shall Return!

The five of us are eagerly anticipating our trip to France in late July this year! It's a return for myself, Kim and Mom, but it will be a new experience for Gerald and Lynda.

We lived in the Paris suburbs with Dad and Bob 1962 - 1964. We certainly wish Dad were still with us to enjoy the experience, recapture some of our many pleasant memories and, above all, to share some good laughs. Bob isn't joining us, but it is hoped that this blog will enable him and other family members and friends to join us vicariously. Since I anticipate that our travels will be frenetic, thus making access to the web and concurrent production of a travelogue difficult, the intention of this blog is to preview our itinerary, along with photos. The combination of the previews with blogs while traveling can then be more informative to readers.

Where We Lived

As mentioned earlier, our family was based in the Paris area in the early to mid-'60s. Dad was an RCAF officer, stationed at SHAPE (Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe). SHAPE, relocated to Bruussels in 1967, was then located at Rocquencourt, west of Paris. Here's a link that describes SHAPE and its history:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supreme_Headquarters_Allied_Powers_Europe

We initially lived in La Celle-St-Cloud for a brief period of time:

http://www.lacellesaintcloud.fr/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=21&Itemid=50

I have vivid memories of the house and location, but have been unable to locate it via the likes of GoogleEarth (so it ain't that vivid unless it's been bulldozed in favour of other developments). Likewise, over the years, I've tried unsuccessfully to locate Jean-Charles and Denise Hebrard and their children, Catharine (Cathy-chou) and Marianne. They were good friends and very kind in looking after me for a period of time when the family returned to Canada while I remained to complete my school year. Denise had been interned in a concentration camp (Dachau, I think), having been pulled from a bus in a round-up after some partisans had opened fire in the general area). She had 1 or 2 children by a 1st marriage, and I can't recall if they survived the war. Jean-Charles was an architect, with an office on or near les Champs-Élysées.

We soon relocated to a house in St-Germain-en-Laye. Louis XIV was born in the château of Saint- Germain-en-Laye in 1638. Composer, Claude Debussey, was born there. In 1919, the peace treaty between France and Austria was signed. The House of the author of Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas, is also there.

The following links aren't as useful as I might have hoped, but they're the best I could find:

http://ville-st-germain-en-laye.fr/en/cto/de/dh.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint-Germain-en-Laye

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C3%A2teau_de_Saint-Germain-en-Laye

This link has an interactive map of the château, but also related information on Louis XIV:

http://www.louis-xiv.de/index.php?id=54

Louis XIV of France placed this château at the disposal of King James II and VII when he retired to France in 1689. James died here in 1701. His wife Queen Mary Beatrice died here in 1718.

http://www.jacobite.ca/gazetteer/France/SaintGermain.htm

Here's a New York Times article from 1981 that gives a flavour of the place:

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0DE0D8153BF936A15752C0A967948260&sec=travel&spon=&pagewanted=all

To see where our house was located, If you go to:

http://maps.google.com/

enter:

Rue Lamartine

78100 Saint-Germain-en-Laye

France

select "satellite"

and increase the magnification, our house was opposite the arrow, the 3rd house up from the end of the street. At the time, the street at that end (Blvd Victor Hugo) had a very high stone wall. On the other side of it was a bunker once used by Generalfeldmarschall Gerd Von Rundstedt during WWII. Both Eisenhower and Montgomery regarded von Rundstedt as the best of the German commanders. On 2 separate occasions, following D-Day, both he and Field Marshal Gerd von Runstedt tried to impress upon Hitler that the battle for France would be lost unless the Wehrmacht withdrew to a stabler and shorter front line. Fortunately, Hitler ignored their advice. Von Runstedt was to be tried at Nuremberg, but was discharged after 4 years of captivity for being too ill to stand trial, having had 2 heart attacks. Here are some related interesting links:

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/rundstedt.html

http://www.powcamp.fsnet.co.uk/Field%20Marshall%20Gerd%20von%20Rundstedt.htm

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Rommel.html

Where We Attended School

During our 1st school year there, Bob and I attended the Lycée International (I think) at SHAPE Village (not SHAPE but, rather, the housing quarters), located about 2.5 km NW beside Château d’Hennemont. Bob ended up in a boarding school in England, but that's another story..., while I went to the American School of Paris (ASP) then located in the Pavillon de Madame du Barry in Louveciennes. Madame du Barry was Jeanne Bécu, Comtesse of Barry (1743-1793) and Louis XV's mistress. Given the Pavillon by Louis XV, she was arrested and guillotined during the French Revolution:

http://www.ladyreading.net/marieantoinette/det5-en.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C3%A2teau_de_Louveciennes

It's a beautiful building. This next link only is en français, but it is easily has the best photographs. Note that it is an interactive map. Click a room and its photo will display. Importantly, note in the top right corner of the photo an arrow. When activated, it will rotate, so that you are able to view the entire room. And be certain to see the videos that are located in the mid-left tab, "Presentation du lieu"!

http://www.pavillondemusiquedubarry.fr/nouv/expl.php?pg=visite

What you can't see in any is the small outdoor basketball court at the rear, on the stone terrace that you can see in the video as it overlooks the Seine and Paris.

Here are some others:

http://world.std.com/~hmfh/dubarry3.htm

http://world.std.com/~hmfh/louvecph.htm

from:

http://world.std.com/~hmfh/louvec.htm

ASP and its student population of children from military, business and diplomatic parents was a fabulous experience. Those were great days as a teen, tooling around on my Peugeot 50 cc motorbike that I'd souped up, running around to bag groceries at the American PX at Garches, playing basketball at the American base, Camp des Loges, but also driving right around l'Arc de Triomphe and down les Champs-Élysées!

But this was only a small piece of the experience in that we also visited nearly every country in Europe as a family when on holiday, largely camping! Great days - ones we'd love to relive with Dad, were he here.

And, at long last, so endeth the lesson. We are preparing to return to the land of our earliest triumphs. You know where we have been.

Lynda and I fly to Paris from Toronto the evening of July 25. Kim, Gerald and Mom join us there the evening of the 27th, coming off a tour of Ireland. Our return flight is August 8.