April Flowers

What a difference a week makes. We returned from the London Book Fair to find flowers in the circle and around the Office de Tourisme.

The fountain in the town center is flowing again.

People are dining outside, enjoying the sunshine and fresh Spring air. All of the restaurants are full on the weekends and pretty days and people fill the sidewalks.

Alice and I took a walk around town to take pictures and enjoy the beautiful day. It really feels like Spring now.

Walkers on the trails around town, using their ski poles. This is a very popular form of exercise here for all ages.

Ferry from Portsmouth to Caen

When it was time to return home, we decided to take the ferry from Portsmouth to Caen. It would retrace the route of the D-Day invasion and I was excited to see the ports, the channel, and the beaches of Normandy. So, as we left England we said goodbye to Portsmouth and prepared for a seven hour crossing.

The ferry run by Bittany Ferries is basically a big cruise ship with two lower decks devoted to carrying vehicles.

The aft deck has plenty of room for passengers to lounge about.

We rented a cabin with two berths for the passage. It had a fold out couch that made into a bed and an overhead fold out berth. It also had a shower and toilet. Alice and I spent two hours napping in our cabin which was very refreshing. The ferry also had at least two cinemas, several eating places, shops, a bar, a dance floor, and plenty of seating with views out the side windows.

The decks holding the vehicles is locked and restricted during the passage. Once the ferry is docked then passengers can access their cars and drive off the ferry into France. It was a smooth easy way to travel.

London

After the London Book Fair, we made time to do a little sightseeing. We spent the morning at Harrod's.

Alice found her brand of make up and bought more supplies to keep her cuteness going. Of course Alice being Alice, she hugged the staff and made new friends.

I found a great chair, made from salvaged aircraft aluminum. There is a matching desk made from an aircraft wing and the best part of all is; they have a store in France, so I can just pick it up there.

We also took time to visit the Natural History Museum.

The dinosaur fossil collection is world class, but most of the exhibits were poorly lit and unsuitable for photographing. This is the hall of ichthyosaurs. We enjoyed the museum and ate at their cafeteria before walking back to our hotel.

London Book Fair

It is recommended that cars show up 45 minutes prior to departure for boarding on the Eurotunnel train that takes you across the English Channel, beneath the water.There are only two departure times, 8:15 in the morning and 10:30 at night. So it was an early morning for us, since we still had to drive thirty minutes from Dunkirk to Calais. Then of course we sat in line for forty minutes waiting to board. Customs has a drive through booth to check passports before you get in line.

Then it is just a matter of driving directly through a side door on the last train car. On door leads to an upper level and one leads to the lower level. It's a double-decker train.

Then we just followed the car ahead of us until we were as far forward as we could get. Parking assistants helped keep the cars parked close together without bumping bumpers.

Once everyone is aboard, all engines are shut off and the doors between train cars are closed, it's just a matter of riding the train to England. Passengers are free to get out of their vehicles and move about. There are toilets on every other train car and a lunch bar on the lead train car. It's only a twenty minute ride through the tunnel, so Alice and I just stayed with the car. Once we arrived, an overhead display board informed us to start our engines and proceed to disembark. We drove off the train and into the left hand lane of the English highway to London. Remember to drive on the wrong side of the road!

The London Book Fair was awesome and almost overwhelming. Publishing houses and distributors and authors from around the world. Turkey seemed to be the spotlight for this year's event. We talked to publishers and attended lectures until our heads were ready to burst.

Of course we made time for a pint of Guiness and an order of Fish and Chips at the Blackbird Pub while we scheduled our afternoon seminars.

Amazon provided the best talks and meetings for Alice and I. The Authors Corner gave writers a place to meet other writers and discuss the digital world of self publishing. Marketing and branding were topics covered by successful writers. We will definitely plan on attending next year.

Dunkirk

The museum in Dunkirk commemorating Operation Dynamo.

Dunkirk is famous for the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force at the beginning of WWII, when German forces had swept across Europe and trapped the British and French army with their backs to the English Channel.

Operation Dynamo was the attempt to rescue over 500,000 troops from capture of death at the hands of the German army.

Inside the museum/bunker.

This bunker along the coast, built between the wars, has been preserved as a museum and is filled with maps, newspapers, equipment, and salvaged relics of that great attempt by Britain to rescue her men at arms.

Tank turret on display.

One of the guides to the museum is an 86 year old French gentleman that answered many of our questions and gave us an excellent feel for the times in 1940 when things seemed so desperate and unsure.

The city of Dunkirk was bombed and ravaged as the Germans kept the pressure up on the British and French troops awaiting rescue.

Dunkirk city hall today.

Dunkirk harbor after its fall to German invaders.

The harbor today.

Two hundred ships were lost to mines and attacks by the Luftwaffe during the rescue. The Sirocco was attacked at night by two German torpedo boats. Although struck by two torpedoes it did not sink. The next day the crippled destroyer is attacked by a German bomber and three bombs hit the Sirocco causing the ammunition stores to explode. The ship soon capsized. Out of the 930 soldiers on board and the 90 crew members, only 270 were saved. Most of the men were in the 92nd Infantry Regiment stationed in Clermont-Ferrand. Sirocco St. is named after the lost ship.

Ship's wheel salvaged by divers. The Mona's Queen still sits on the bottom of the English Channel.

RMS Mona's Queen.

Some of the ship wrecks are still visible today.

Monument to the Battle of Dunkirk, or Dunkerque as the French call it.

Dinner at Le Corsaire, overlooking the harbor. Alice and I both look forward to visiting Dunkirk again. There is so much more to see.

Buying DVD's

Went to the store to pick up some groceries, a new computer mouse and a movie. I have been wanting to see a movie titled "Battle Los Angeles." Now buying a DVD in France is fine, as long as you have a DVD player purchased in France. DVD players from America will not play DVD's from Europe. It's an anti-picracy kind of thing that is built into them. DVD's and DVD players are encoded with a region, Europe, the America's or Asia. The DVD player and the DVD must be compatible. This is why I brought two DVD players from America with me to France. So I could play all the DVD's that I have collected over the years.

Back to buying the DVD. Most of the titles are in French and English, so no language worries. But try as I might I could not find the movie I was looking for. I looked under the action/adventure sign. I looked in the horror section. I looked in the drama section and the new video section and even on the cheap sale shelves. Nothing.
I finally gave up after my eyes began to cross from reading all the movie titles along their spines. The DVD's were mostly stacked like books, very few were turned to display their front cover.
I got home and searched Amazon France for the movie. There it was. A different title, same movie. "World Invasion: Battle Los Angeles" it would have been under the W's, silly me.

Movies over here often have different titles and/or different covers.


P.S. I knew French for battle was bataille and of course Los Angeles is the same in any language. I thought it would be an easy one to find. It had to be in the B's right?