Monthly Archives: June 2011

Remembering The Valiant in Normandy, France

Normandy in Northern France — site of some of the bloodiest battles of World War II including the D-Day Landings. To this day the local population still honours those lost young men and also the lucky ones that returned home.

One of the most ferocious campaigns took place in a French town called Mortain and the Germans called this offensive campaign Operation Lüttich. We are currently living a mere 12 kilometres from there.

Last week was the anniversary of the D-Day Landings by the Allied forces. The poignant painting below, surrounded by genuine artifacts of the war, was seen in the window of a local gallery on the main street of the now peaceful Mortain.

Remembering the valiant military and civilian forces who defended France in World War II

Getting Sick While Travelling

Whether it’s a long trip or a weekend getaway, no one wants it to happen and no one really ever thinks that it could be ever be them that is inconvenienced that way. But getting sick whilst travelling is something that simply must be taken into account when you are planning your trip, booking your tickets, and doing those last pre-trip errands.

A long trip of several weeks or several months will require even more planning ahead, and that means one thing above all else — a good travel insurance policy to cover all of the contingencies including illness, hospitalization, routine but unexpected trips to the doctor or dentist, and (a worst case scenario if there ever was one!), medical evacuation back to your home country.

French medication for severe bronchitis

We are currently in France and one of those unanticipated situations arose just as we arrived in Normandy. I was sick with what I thought was a routine cold picked up from the child of friends in another part of France, but things went from bad to worse in a mere few days and suddenly I had such a severe bronchial infection that I was on the verge of pneumonia.

I am very fortunate that we have friends here in Normandy who could send me to their own GP in the next village, but I would not have hesitated to go to a local hospital if we had been on the road between stops. I felt completely fine about doing that since I knew that my outpatient care or even a full hospitalization would have been covered by the excellent travel insurance policy that we purchased from Travel Insurance Direct in Australia prior to our departure at the end of 2010. We knew that we would be travelling for at least a year, so we purchased a very inclusive policy that covered everything from lost luggage to damage to a rental car to unexpected delays to the all-important medical care.

As ill as I was, it was an office visit that I shall never forget as we tried to bridge the language barrier. I speak schoolgirl French and the doctor spoke no English! But I had written down all of my symptoms, swished them into Google Translate, and then printed that out for him. He understood completely and guess what — bronchitis means bronchitis even in France. I also had to giggle when he complimented me on my splendidly low blood pressure.

My sincere advice to all of you who are still in the planning and prep stages before departure is to do an internet search for travel policies that you can purchase online. They cost a lot less and seem to include rather a lot more than insurance policies offered by travel agents or your local insurance agent. This is their specialty and the coverage is excellent in most cases as long as you read all of the fine print and choose what suits your individual trip or lifestyle.

One of my sisters, Cynthia Hatton, lives in California and she has been either a nurse or nursing administrator for all of her adult life. She offered the following additional information to share with you — and I thank her for that.
“You might also add that it is important to consult a travel medicine clinician and check the locations that you are traveling. They will check the CDC and the International Institute of Travel Medicine tells you what is going on in the area …… TB, Influenza, hepatitis etc.”

Also — make sure you have adequate coverage for all of the areas that are important to you and consider adding ‘riders’ for additional protection on items such as expensive laptops and digital SLR cameras with lenses. I did exactly that prior to leaving Australia and have travelled for six months with an amazing peace of mind.

Photo Of The Day: Scarf Shopping Is A Very Important Business — Really!

Don’t laugh, any of you men who are reading this. Scarf shopping can be a very important business!

Just ask any French woman (and rather a lot of the men there as well!) how important it is to accessorize your outfit with just the right scarf. There is the fabric to consider — the weight, the drape, the feel against your skin, the colour — so many important variables.

But there are other reasons for scarves — and they include being an item of head-wear in a country where custom or culture dictates that women should have their heads covered. This picture was taken in Kuala Lumpur and there was a dazzling array of scarves on offer in this shop. The woman traveller, with her rolling suitcase in tow, was taking her time and making her selection with care.

Scarf shopping is an important business

Pourquoi Parking Signs Called The Musketeers?

Whilst driving north from the Pyrenees to Normandy over a several day period, we stopped one afternoon at an Intermarche grocery store to pick up picnic supplies for one of our cheerful and healthy lunches and I saw these signs on the covered parking area for bicycles and motorscooters. I didn’t know what the words meant at the time, but when I took a few minutes and did a Google translate of them a few days later, I discovered that Les Mousquetaires meant The Musketeers.

Les Mousquetaires logo on the cycle parking at Intermarche grocery stores in France

But why??? What did parking spaces have to do with the legendary musketeers of old? And was there some kind of association with Alexandre Dumas, the author of The Three Musketeers???

Image by Maurice Leloir, 1894

A bit of research answered that question — and don’t we just love the internet for speedy answers! The Intermarche grocery chain is one of several companies owned by a retail marketing conglomerate called Les Mousquetaires.

Ah well — marketing — plain and simple — using the romantic imagery of heroic figures as the name of a retail umbrella corporation.

C’est la vie!

Turning This One Over To Mark

Most of you who follow this site know that I have been a professional photographer and journalist for most of my life. But an emerging talent needs to be introduced.

I bought Mark a slightly more user-friendly version of a Nikon camera than my big, heavy pro cameras when we left Australia and I told him what my university instructors in the journalism department told me decades ago — a good photo is dependent on the skills of the photographer, not on the cost of the camera or lens. And then you need to practice, practice, practice. We’ve been spending time as we travel fine-tuning his technique, his stance, what to include or not include in a picture, general lighting questions, etc.

Mark taking photos inside canal at low tide in Mimizan, France

When we were at the seaside at Mimizan on the Atlantic coast of France last week, Mark wanted to climb inside a canal that was practically empty since the tide had gone out. I politely said no thank you since I didn’t wish to (1) fret about getting my own two cameras and a camera bag safely down there and (2) worry about when the tide would come back in and fill the canal. I was right on both counts because (1) I was coughing too hard from a developing chest cold to have fabbo balance whilst scrambling over rocks and (2) no sooner had Mark finished taking his pictures than the sea began to slide back into that canal as I kept repeating, “Mark, the water is rising at the end of the canal!!!”

Mark inside canal in Mimizan, France as tide begins to come back in!

Enough from me — enjoy some of Mark’s moody mossy shots.

Posts abloom beneath the waters of the canal in Mimizan, France

Base of the canal wall in Mimizan, France

Posts like standing stones beneath canal waters in Mimizan, France

Bumpy bottom of canal revealed at low tide in Mimizan, France

COPYRIGHT
©Deborah Harmes and ©Mark Harmes and ©A Wanderful Life
Please respect the words and images on this page.
All rights reserved.

By The Sea, By The Sea — But Where Are We?

The familiar elements were all there…

The surf shops were selling t-shirts, swimsuits, and surfboards with names that I knew — Rip Curl, Billabong, Cocoa Beach — and the stack of blow-up flotation rings waited for the wee folks to waft about on the waves.

Beach clothing and boards on sale at surf shop

Cocoa Beach shop

Stack of 'floaties' waiting for the children

The red flag was flying on the beach to warn of the unstable swimming conditions and young families were riding their bikes in formation.

Red flag at beach warning of swimming conditions

Family on bikes in Atlantic seaside town

But wait a minute — where were we??? Did that pink neon sign say La Croquandise??? And what does gaufres mean??? I found out later that it meant waffles! And being very European, we could have put some glacé (ice cream) on those waffles. Yum!

Food stall in Mimizan

We weren’t in a seaside town on the Atlantic Ocean in Florida no matter how familiar it all seemed. We were in a seaside town on the Atlantic Ocean in France — in Mimizan to be specific. The colour palette was more gray than blue since it was coldish and overcast on and off for our two days — definitely jeans and a fleece jacket time instead of shorts.

The architecture was even similar to Florida’s beachside communities — high-rise apartments hugging the intercoastal canals and generic concrete-rendered houses with red tile roofs. We found a basic and rather old-fashioned hotel a mere one block from the roaring ocean which we could hear through our sliding glass balcony doors.

Intercoastal apartments in Mimizan

Houses on canal in Mimizan, France

Le Plaisance Hotel in Mimizan, France

And speaking of the roaring ocean, our walks down there were rather brief because it was quite cold and windy!

The French coast of the Atlantic Ocean in Mimizan, France

Come back soon for more adventures as we wander and work our way around Europe!

Bye-bye Pyrenees — But Only For Awhile!

Two little balls of energy sat at the kitchen table, dressed in matching red and white striped shirts, gulping mouthfuls of food so that they could go back into the lounge and watch a cartoon on television. Everyday life in France was just like family life in Australia, England, the USA or any other place that we have lived.

We ended our two week stay in the village of Argein on Wednesday and began driving north to Normandy. But we were going to miss this lovely family and I thought I’d share some photos from our time with them.

Matt and Becky are transplanted Brits raising the previously mentioned boys, Ed and Henri. Matt is a builder and Becky is a real estate agent who also manages the business side of the building company, Ariege Artisan. My husband Mark did stone work around their house and then did construction work with Matt for two days as well. So now Mark has dipped his toes into French construction methods.

This charming couple are currently expanding their company a bit, so I have spent the last few weeks doing public relations work for them — taking photos and editing/improving old ones, helping to fine tune the gallery on the new website, setting up a Facebook business page for them, and creating business cards and new brochures for them.

And did you know that if you do business in France and you advertise, all of the advertising that might be in the English language is required to be translated into French as well! That made for some interesting layout challenges.

Their village setting in the Ariege region of the Pyrenees is absolutely stunning and their lovingly restored house is wonderful. Below are shots of the house, the deck, what you see if you are lying in the pool, and the view from the deck.