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Hôtel de la Paix
19 rue du Gros Caillou, 75007 Paris
tel. 1-45-51-86-17 fax: 1-45-55-93-28
e-mail: contact@hotelparispaix.com
web site
23 rooms. Singles: €105 Doubles: €150 All major credit cards accepted.

This hotel highlights just how unreliable the French star rating system is when it comes to choosing hotels. While the government only gives it two stars, the de la Paix is cleaner and more stylish than many three-star hotels I’ve been in. The interior is done in chocolate-brown leather and wood furnishings, with gleaming bathrooms that are modern and fully functional. Both rooms and bathrooms are on the small side, but that’s not unusual for Paris.

It also has many of the things you would expect from a pricier hotel, like 24-hour desk service, an elevator (tiny!) and air conditioning. About the only things it lacks are a minibar and English stations on the TV. A great budget option in the ritzy 7th district.

Overall: B
Location: B
Ambiance: B
Cleanlienss: A
Maintenance: B
Staff: A

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Restaurant Le Fleury
15 Place Fleury, Beaune ✆ 03-80-22-35-50
Hours: 12:00 to 14:30 & 19:00 to 21:30, Open daily
Average Price: €40 per person All major credit cards accepted

With the outward appearance of a rather run of the mill brasserie, this is a place I had passed by on numerous occasions without much thought. Big mistake. When I finally sat down and tried it, it turned out to be one of my best meals in France.

While I looked over the menu, the waiter recommended a glass of nice rosé wine as an aperitif. I'm not normally a big rosé fan, but he gave it very high marks -- something quite exceptional were his words -- and since it was quite hot out, a chilled wine sounded nice. I gave him the go ahead and was not disappointed. It was a harbinger of things to come.

The menu has enough Burgundian classics to satisfy the first-time visitor to Burgundy, along with some foreign elements like pastas and risotto. Having eaten my fair share of Boeuf Bourguignon, I opted to go "foreign" with a starter of gazpacho, followed by risotto with spring vegetables, and tiramisu for dessert. I also ordered a glass of chablis, to follow when I was done with the rosé.

My gazpacho arrived quickly. Not just a lazy bowl of red soup with some crusty bread, it was a work of art and included a few greens dressed in olive oil and balsamic, plus a crispy wafer of baked parmesan cheese. The gazpacho was perfect. Fresh tomato taste, nice texture and just enough garlic to give it some bite without being overwhelming.

Next up was the risotto. I had by now finished off the rosé, and the glass had been cleared away, but my chablis was no where in sight. The waiter who brought the risotto was not the one who had originally taken my order -- common in European restaurants, where they're not working for tips and nobody "owns" a table. The system works wonderfully if you have a well-trained staff and diligent management, but can quickly fall apart if someone gets lazy and expects "the other guy" to pick up the slack. Pretty soon they're all lazy, and there's no "other guy" left.

After setting down the risotto the waiter spun off to another table before I could say anything about the wine, but not ten seconds later the original waiter glanced at my table from half-way across the restaurant, crinkled his brow, and then dashed out of sight. He soon appeared at my table with the glass of chablis. I hadn't needed to say a word, and Le Fleury was quickly winning my heart.

The risotto was a revelation. Creamy, with just enough tooth. Each of the vegetables, though they all would require different cooking times, were fresh and tender. Nothing mushy or over done.

Last of all the tiramisu. I fear ordering tiramisu in a restaurant I don't know, even in Italy, because so many restaurants put out a slab of semi-thawed, store bought mush on a plate, figuring most patrons are over stuffed and half drunk by this point and will never know the difference. Fortunately, this was not the case at Le Fleury. It wasn't exactly a classic tiramisu -- more of a tiramisu and berry parfait, but obviously from scratch. And it was delicious.

Everything was beautifully presented and brilliantly prepared, but the service was what really won me over. Top notch attention, without being intrusive.

The restaurant has a large indoor dining room, plus a small terrace when the weather is nice. A definite keeper.

Every Wednesday, three of the best chateaux in Bordeaux take turns opening their doors to the public to show off their prestigious Medoc wines, distinguished by the 1855 Classification. If you've ever enjoyed a glass of red, you won't want to miss the chance to sample the best of the best!

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An archivist in Britain has found a reference to a hunchback stone carver, who may well have been the inspiration for the famous Notre-Dame bell ringer in Victor Hugo's novel.

Check out the video highlights of our recent European Sampler tour.

A reader recently asked me: Our intention is to fly into Paris. We plan on renting a car to drive to Giverny, then to Normandy returning to Paris two days later and spending the rest of our vacation there. We definitely would get a rental, but would we drop it off at the airport or in Paris? Also, never having driven in Europe, is there a particular route that is better than another?

My response: Picking up a car at the airport in Paris and heading straight off to Normandy will work fine. It's expressway the whole route, first towards Paris on the A1, and then skirting to the north of the city before heading off on the A13 towards Rouen and Normandy. Figure about 2.5 hours for the drive, depending on where you go in Normandy.

The expressways in France are mostly toll roads -- you pick up a ticket as you enter the toll road, and pay when you exit (or as you approach major cities, where there is no toll). On this route it would not become toll road until after skirting Paris and heading north. You'll need cash to pay the tolls, as US credit cards often don't work.

Since you'll be freshly arrived from a transatlantic flight, and probably a bit tired, I think it would be best to head straight to Normandy and bypass Giverny. Do Giverny and Monet's Gardens on your way back from Normandy to Paris. The House and Gardens are open everyday from the 1st of April.

For Normandy I like to base myself in the town of Honfleur. It's a bit far from the D-Day beaches (60 to 90 minutes each way), but a really charming village, some good hotels and great restaurants. More convenient to the D-Day beaches is Bayeux, my second choice.

Keep in mind that there will be a surcharge for picking the car up at the airport, but this is fairly minimal, usually around Euro 20 or less. The cost should be included in what ever rate quote you get for the car rental (which I can do for you, if you'd like). There's no problem with either returning it to the airport (to avoid driving in traffic in Paris) or returning it in the city after dropping luggage at your hotel.

If you're longing for the City of Lights, Paris in 26 Gigapixels may help you out. These images were all shot during one day in late 2009 from the tower St. Sulpice church, and stitched together to make a detailed panorama of the city. Get some bread, cheese and wine ready, crank up the volume, and click the full screen icon.

Annecy is located just south of Geneva, on the edge of the French Alps in the Haute-Savoie. Historically this region belonged to the House of Savoy, the royal family that would eventually become kings of Italy, so a certain Italian charm wafts through the Alpine air. It's a pretty town, sitting on the edge of cold, clear Lake Annecy, the old town is laced with canals, and studded with window boxes bursting with geraniums.

Hotel Palais de l'Isle
13 rue Perrière, 74000 Annecy
✆ 04-50-45-86-87 fax: 04-50-51-87-15
e-mail: palisle@wanadoo.fr
33 rooms. Singles: €70 Doubles: €99 to €148 All major credit cards accepted.

Overall: B
Location: A
Ambiance: C
Cleanliness: A
Maintenance: B
Staff: B

Located right on the edge of a canal, in the heart of the old town, which can be very busy and a bit noisy. The historic building masks rooms that are completely modern and, unfortunately, a bit soulless. There’s nothing wrong with them: they’re bright, clean and everything works. They have, however, managed to remove just about every trace of the historic origins of the building.

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One small village in France still clings to the old French Franc, though it was replaced by the Euro more than eight years ago. http://bit.ly/9IGxQE

Chatueau de Boucéel
D308
50240 Vergoncey
Tel: 02-33-48-34-61
Fax: 02-33-48-16-26
Email: chateaudebouceel@wanadoo.fr
Web: www.chateaudebouceel.com
5 rooms. Singles: €125; Doubles: €145 to €185

If you’re planning to spend a night in the neighborhood of Le Mont St. Michel, I normally recommend that the thing to do is spend a night ON the island. During the day Le Mont St. Michel is overrun with day-tripping tourists, but after about 4:00pm they slowly disappear, leaving you as master of the island. Wandering the empty streets of this medieval hamlet can be a memorable, if slightly eerie experience, enhanced by torchlit tours of the abbey offered in summer time.

But let’s face it, of the hotels actually on the island, none rise above mediocre. If you really want a great experience, and don’t mind not being on the island, Chateau de Boucéel is the place to stay. Built in the 18th century and located about 12 miles inland from Mont St Michel, the chateau is still in the private ownership of the Count and Countess Régis de Roquefeuil-Cahuzacare. It’s not so much like staying in a hotel as staying with some very rich and cultured friends in the French countryside.

Strikes in France continued for a second day, impacting some of the most visited museums in Paris, including the Louvre, the Orsay and Versailles.
Read more . . .

I love reading through old travel guides and seeing how things have changed -- or not -- in the years since their publication. I have a Baedeker's Guide to London from 1902 that claims that a frugal traveler can get by with £1.50 per day in the city, while someone who insists on the finest accommodations and dining will require twice that much.

Here's a really well-written article, based on following the world's first food critic through the streets of Paris.

Alsace, located in the eastern part of France, is not high on the list for most Americans. The region is not heavily promoted in brochures and tour itineraries, probably because it doesn’t fit with many of the preconceived notions or postcard views of France. This can be a good thing.

For most of the last four centuries Alsace has been the rugby ball in a brutal game of keep-away played between France and Germany. The region occupies a narrow, fertile plain bounded by the Rhine River in the east and the Vosges Mountains in the west — and there-in lies the problem.

With two equally impressive natural features, Germany and France could never quite agree on which should be used to mark the border. Germany has always held that the Vosges Mountains are the natural border, while France has considered the Rhine as the dominant feature and therefore the natural border.

Germany lost the last, and hopefully final match, so Alsace is now firmly French, but with a definite German accent. Out of the chaos has come a distinct culture and heritage, a wonderful melding of French and German. Children are educated in French and given French first names, to go with their Germanic sounding last names. The village elders speak Alsatian, a Germanic dialect. The cooking is heartier than in other parts of France, but softened by the French flair for subtle flavors and sauces. German grape varieties are grown in the vineyards that dominate this region, but the wines they produce are made in a dry, French style.

Two major cities form bookends for the Alsace region. In the north Strasbourg, home to the European Parliament, has a well preserved (if small) old town, and one of the prettiest Gothic cathedrals in France. In the south, Mulhouse was one of the major manufacturing centers during the Industrial Revolution, and is now home to the French Railway Museum, the Schlumpf Automobile Museum (with the largest collection of Bugatti’s in existence), and world headquarters for Peugeot.

Squarely between these two big cities sits Colmar, birthplace of the sculptor of the Statue of Liberty (a gift to America from France, remember), and home to the most visited museum outside of Paris — the Unterlinden Museum.

Dozens of small wine villages dot the landscape, most with no blockbuster sights, but fairly oozing charm. You’ll find towns with Germanic sounding names, cobble stone streets and half-timbered architecture more reminiscent of the Black Forest than France. Alsace makes an ideal location from which to explore the Black Forest, just 30 miles away across the Rhine. It's also considered good luck to have a stork living on your house, so you'll see lots of circular platforms put up by homeowners to encourage storks to build.

Le Manoir les Minimes
34 Quai Charles Guinot
37400 Amboise
Tel: 02-47-30-40-40; Fax: 02-47-30-40-77
Email: reservation@manoirlesminimes.com
Web: www.manoirlesminimes.com
13 rooms. Singles: €115; Doubles: €115 to €190

During the 1500's France's Loire Valley became something of a Renaissance version of the Hamptons, a playground for the rich and influential (or at least those who wanted to appear to be rich and influential). King Francis I, who loved the area for its dense forests and bountiful hunting, had several palaces in the region. He even managed to entice Leonardo da Vinci to abandon Italy and spend the last years of his life here.

Today many of these palaces have become museums, while others have found new life as hotels. If you're traveling by car you'll be spoiled for choice when it comes to choosing a chateau hotel. Since many of them are located in isolated positions in the country, it's harder to get the chateau experience if you're relying on public transport. One great option is the village of Amboise, with frequent train connections to Paris, most via the town of Tours.

My favorite spot here is the Manoir les Minimes, a charming little manor house, located a short walk from the center of town and right near the river. Beautifully decorated, well-managed, and easy on the budget.

The Colosseum, one of the most iconic monuments from ancient Rome, is also one of the most crowded. Combine its bloody past, renewed interest thanks to the movie Gladiator, and the fact that there is only one entrance gate, and you end up with lines that can stretch hundreds deep and create a frustratingly long wait to get in. Fortunately the city of Rome is not the only place where you can experience the grandeur that was the Roman Empire.

For over a thousand years Rome dominated the lands bordering the Mediterranean, adopting, developing and exporting almost everything that we think of today as Western civilization. As the empire expanded into the 'barbarian lands' they brought the modern world with them, building projects such as roads, baths, aqueducts, theaters and amphitheaters. Vestiges of these public works projects are scattered all around the Mediterranean, from Spain to Tunisia to Syria. Some of the best preserved Roman ruins are in southern France, especially in the region of Provence. Pictured here are the theater at Orange and the aqueduct know as the Pont du Gard.

Orange's theater is the best-preserved in Europe, and is still used regularly for performances. It's one of only two Roman theaters in Europe that still has the original back wall intact, and tourist visits are complimented by an extremely well-done audio guide, included free with your admission. I made several visits to the theater this year, and there were never more than three or four people in line in front of me; there are seldom more than 30 people inside the theater at any one time.

The Pont du Gard, one of the ancient world's most elegant structures, is nothing more than a bridge built to support a water channel crossing a valley. The Romans designed and constructed huge water projects to deliver a constant flow of fresh water to their cities -- dams, reservoirs, water channels, and cisterns. With no modern pumps, they had to rely on gravity, so their water channels had to have a constant, steady slope from the source to the city. If there was a mountain in the way, they dug through it. If there was a valley, they bridged it. Romans were "CAN-DO" people. While the Pont du Gard gets more visitors than the theater at Orange, it seldom feels crowded. There's no admission charge, just a €5 fee for parking.

The ancient Romans are not the only connection Provence has with Rome, though. During the 13th century, for a period of about 70 years, the city of Avignon was home-base for the Roman Catholic church. Pope Clement V, born in France, decided to establish his court in southern France rather than moving to Rome. He owned property in Avignon, and set about building a palace fit to be the home of the world's most powerful leader. Today the palace, in the center of Avignon, is mostly a beautiful shell hiding empty rooms.

Between the city of Avignon and the town of Orange lies Chateauneuf du Pape, literally "the Pope's new castle." Pope Clement V was from the region of Bordeaux, so naturally he wanted some good wine in his new home. Wine lovers know this is one of the best wine regions in France, producing hearty red wines that are generally a blend of syrah, grenache and cinsault (though 13 grape varieties are officially allowed). Chateauneuf du Pape is a regional designation, like Bordeaux or Champagne, not an actual producer. Today there are over 300 wineries producing wines in the Chateauneuf du Pape region, and the village of Chateauneuf provides plenty of opportunities for tasting their products.

Just before departing on any trip to France that includes Provence, I'm given clear, unmistakeable instructions: do not return without a box of chocolate. This order comes from my wife, but our children eagerly chime in as well. By "chocolate" they don't mean just any old bar, but a box of Joël Durand chocolate.

The little Provençal village of Saint-Rémy is the home-base for Joël Durand, Chocolatier, whose flavor creations bear about as much similarity to a Hershey® bar as Welch's® grape juice does to a fine Bordeaux. Durand's main product is what he calls the Alphabet of Flavors. Each member of the alphabet is about one inch square and a half-inch thick. Visually they all look the same, except for a cluster of small letters stenciled on top of each one. The letters identify what's inside each chocolate (maybe See's Candy should be taking notes here). Using the standard 26 letters plus some punctuation marks, Durand produces roughly 32 different flavor combinations. And what combinations!

There are the standard sort of flavors that any chocolate lover would expect: C = chocolate and caramel, in this case 40% milk chocolate with salted Brittany butter caramel; O = dark chocolate and fresh orange; K = dark chocolate with pure Arabica coffee. Many of Durand's flavor combinations lean heavily on the products close at hand in his provençal home, things like lavender, thyme, rosemary and honey.

But as you work through the alphabet you'll find some flavors that give you pause, sort of a "I wouldn't have thought of that, but it sounds good." These include things like H = dark chocolate, clove and fresh lemon peel; or G = 40% milk chocolate, nutmeg, cinnamon, sun-dried Bourbon vanilla, and fresh lemon peel. And then there are things like: P = almond praline with black olives from Les Baux valley, and X = dark chocolate and India green cardamom. You wonder what sort of mind-altering state he was in when he produced it. And then you taste it and realize . . . he's not mad, just a genius.

During my recent trip through France we hit the Burgundy region during the vendange, the annual grape harvest. Wine country is beautiful anytime of the year, but doubly so in September. The vineyards are a visual feast, with straight rows of neatly tended vines, broad green leaves and tightly packed fruit bunches. As the season's first chill winds bring hints of Autumn, the vineyards buzz with excitement. Months of anxiously tending to the grapes is over. Tractors laden with their cargo rush from vineyard to winery as the workers descend on the rows like hungry locusts, stripping the precious fruit from the plants.

The Burgundy region stretches in a thin line from Dijon to Lyon, but the true heart of Burgundy is the Côte d’Or (golden banks), centered around the village of Beaune. Known as La France Profond, or Intense France, Burgundy exemplifies the characteristics that the French themselves hold dear -- small villages, beautiful countryside, good food, good wine, and a care-free way of life. Think of a little old man riding a bicycle down a tree-lined country lane, wearing a beret, a fresh baguette strapped to the back of his bike, and you’re visualizing Burgundy.

As part of the Discover France tour, my group spent one day enjoying many of Burgundy's great pleasures. We started our day at the weekly farmer's market, one of the best in France. Thousands of shoppers, locals and tourists alike, stroll through the stands admiring the season's offering and jostling for position when they find something they like. I gave each member of my group a task -- bread, cheese, fruit, meat, wine, etc. -- and sent them out into the market.

With picnic fixings duly assembled, we drove out into the countryside for a tailgate lunch with a view of La Rochepot castle, a remnant of the Hundred Years' War. The picnic spot was cooler and windier than ideal, but the food and the view made up for it. On our drive back to town, we ambled through the vineyards, enjoying scenes of the workers busy gathering a treasure we'll enjoy in years to come.

Many of the items featured in the market make their way into the local restaurants. The Burgundy region is one of the major reasons that France is famous for food. Some of it’s most famous specialties are boeuf bourguignon (beef stew with red wine sauce), coq au vin (chicken in red wine), and jambon persillé (ham in a parsley and wine gelatin). With Dijon as the capital of Burgundy, mustard also figures large in many dishes.

Below I've listed some of my favorite restaurants in Beaune. For more recommendations in Beaune or for information about other areas of Europe, contact me about our trip planning services.

Relais de la Madeleine
44 Place Madeleine, Beaune
✆ 03-80-22-07-47
Open: 12:00 to 14:00 & 19:00 to 22:30
Average Price: €12 to €23 per person
Good meals, a wide range of choices, and very reasonable prices.

Caveau des Arches
10 Blvd Perpeuil, Beaune
✆ 03-80-22-10-37
Open: 12:00 to 14:00 & 19:00 to 22:30
Closed: Sundays and Mondays; two weeks in August
Average Price: €20 to €35 per person
It’s hard to imagine a more atmospheric setting for a dinner in the wine country than an underground wine cellar. Nice choice of fixed price menus, all well-prepared. Friendly, attentive service. Reservations recommended.

Le Jardin des Remparts
10 Rue de l’Hotel Dieu, Beaune
✆ 03-80-24-79-41
Open: 12:00 to 13:30 & 19:00 to 21:00
Closed: Sundays and Mondays
Average Price: €55 to €85 per person
Excellent food in a garden setting. Reservations essential.

One of the many advantages of my small group tours is the fact that we fly under the radar when it comes to certain sites that prohibit tour groups. The Font de Gaume cave, home to some of the most stunning pre-historic paintings in the world, is one such place.

Deep in the southwestern part of France, about 75 miles east of the city of Bordeaux, lies the Vézères River Valley. This small river winds from the Massif Central in central France, eventually joining the Dordogne River near the village of Les Eyzies-de-Tayac. The region around Les Eyzies is riddled with natural limestone caverns that provided shelter to early humans about 35,000 years ago. The first Cro-Magnon skeletal remains (named after a cave in the area) were found here.

Lascaux cave, which has the most famous paintings in the region, is just a few miles away. Unfortunately tourist visits to Lascaux were causing irreparable damage to the paintings, so the site was closed to the public in 1963. Lascaux II, a perfect copy of the cave, was opened nearby. Visiting it is interesting, but you always know in the back of your mind that what you're looking at are modern copies, not the real thing.

Font de Gaume is the real thing. They manage to stay open because the cave has good natural ventilation to get rid of all the carbon dioxide and other pollutants visitors introduce into the cave, and because they limit the number of visitors to just 180 per day. Naturally with that kind of restriction, regular tour groups are not allowed. Four or five bus loads, and you'd be at the limit. Big tour groups visit Lascaux II. With less than eight tour members in tow, I visit Font de Gaume.

A guide leads us into the cavern to discover just a few of the more than 200 images that line the walls. Bison are the most common theme, though the most famous painting is a scene with two reindeer. Facing each other, the one standing is clearly licking the head of the kneeling reindeer (the image shown here is a stylized copy, that does not do justice to the real thing). Around 14,000 years old, it's the world's first story, a love story. Male and female? Mother and child? We can't say for sure.

What impresses me most about the paintings at Font de Gaume is the skill of the artists. The paintings are polychrome, made with a mixture of iron oxide (red) and manganese oxide (black), which were blended in various proportions depending on the effect the artist wanted to produce. The artists used the natural contours of the cave walls to achieve a three-dimensional effect and give volume to the bodies. We could not do better today.

These pre-historic artists did not just wander into a cave one day and decide to paint. This was a skill that had to be learned, and by necessity, taught. Painting deep in the cavern, using only fire light, they achieved incredible realism. It demonstrates a sophistication that belies the image of "cave men" as unintelligent, thick-browed apes dragging their women around by the hair.

If you're visiting the area, reservations for Font de Gaume are highly recommended, and should be made at least a month in advance. For more details about visiting Font de Gaume, or for help with planning a self-guided trip to France, please contact us.

Thomas Jefferson once wrote that "traveling makes a man wiser, but less happy." It's a reminder that travel, at least travel as I practice it, is not just about relaxation and laying on a beach in the sun, drinking margaritas all day and dancing all night. My tours focus on the art, the culture and the history unique to each region in Europe. Each trip is a learning experience, but not everything we learn is happy or easy to digest. Among visits to the Eiffel Tower, the vineyards of Burgundy and the sun-splashed hill towns of Provence I fit in places like Oradour-sur-Glane, scene of one of the greatest tragedies of World War II.

In a small valley less than 20 miles from the famous porcelain center of Limoges, Oradour-sur-Glane is surrounded by idyllic countryside. Its hills are covered with well-tended fields, the rolling terrain broken by small river valleys and by patches of oak forest, the source of much of the French oak used in wine barrels.

By early summer of 1944, war had been raging throughout Europe for almost five years. In a small village like Oradour-sur-Glane, it was easy to ignore this. France had succumbed quickly to the German invasion, and for most of the past four years the heavy fighting had all been far to the east, in distant countries nobody from Oradour had ever visited, in towns nobody here had even heard of. Germans seldom passed through Oradour, and the people of the village were content to be left in peace.

But on June 6, 1944 the Allied Forces landed in Normandy, and France was again the center of attention. News of the invasions taking place more than 300 miles to the north drifted in slowly. Disturbingly, the Germans seemed to be holding up well. In response to the invasion, large numbers of German troops began moving up from rearward positions in southern France to drive the Allied Forces back into the sea.

French Resistance fighters, who in the past had been no more troubling to the Germans than flies to a bull, took this opportunity to launch attacks on the moving German troops, as well as sabotaging train lines, bridges, and communications points. On June 10, 1944, a regiment of soldiers from the 2nd SS-Panzer Division Das Reich was sent to the village of Oradour-sur-Glane. German command believed that the village was being used as a Resistance base, and this regiment was given orders to search the village.

Under the command of Sturmbahnführer Adolf Diekmann, the 180-man unit arrived in the village shortly before 14:00, while most people in the village where in the middle of their midday meal. The troops moved quickly to seal off all of the roads in and out of the village to prevent any entry and exit. Diekmann called for the mayor, and gave the order that all inhabitants of the village were to assemble at the fairgrounds for an identity check.

By 15:00 nearly 650 citizens of Oradour were assembled on the fairgrounds. The SS troops had set up machine guns on tripods, as a normal precaution against the superior numbers of townspeople. While it may have been natural for the people of Oradour to feel uneasy, the soldiers repeatedly told them this was just an identity check, so no one seemed overly alarmed. Occasionally, isolated gun shots rang out in the distance. That was more alarming.

Quiet conversations rippled through the crowd. The baker, Maurice Compain, asked that he be allowed to tend to his ovens, as he had bread baking, but the soldiers told him they would take care of it. While he doubted this, there was nothing he could do, and he returned to the assembled crowd.

At this point the SS began separating the women and children from the men, and fear among the citizens greatly increased. To allay this, they were told that the Germans had information that there was a cache of weapons, ammunition and other illegal items hidden in the town. It was better if the women and children waited in the church while the town was searched. Several hundred women and children were marched to the church and locked inside. The men were divided into six groups, and taken to various barns or garages around the town.

At around 16:00, soldiers carried a large wooden box into the church. Fuses dangling out of the sides were lit, and the box exploded with a ferocious bang. Choking smoke filled the inside of the building, and the pews began to burn. With the inside of the church in complete pandemonium, Marguerite Rouffanche made her way to the sacristy at the rear of the church, and sat next to her daughter on a step to escape the smoke.

Soldiers outside fired machine gun bursts inside, tossed in a few hand grenades, and then began throwing wood, chairs, and straw inside to feed the flames. Mrs. Rouffanche’s daughter was shot and killed next to her, but Mrs. Rouffanche was only wounded and managed to hide behind the altar. When a cloud of smoke hid the altar from view, she seized the chance to jump through one of the already broken windows. She buried herself under leaves and grass in a garden near the church and remained hidden until 17:00 the next day. She was the only person from the church to survive the day.

In other parts of town, at some pre-determined signal (probably the explosion of the box in the church), machine guns opened fire at each of the barns and garages where the men were being held. Because the guns were mounted on tripods, low to the ground, most of the men were shot in the legs and lay bleeding, badly wounded, but not dead. After a few minutes the guns fell silent. Soldiers entered the sheds and shot any men who were still moving, then piled wood and straw on top of the bodies, set fire and left.

In one location, the Laudy’s barn, six men were still alive and able to move. After the soldiers had left, the men dragged themselves into a small courtyard at the rear of the barn, made a hole in a stone wall (one of them was a master mason) and crawled through to the other side, where they were able to hide in rabbit hutches until dark. Five of them eventually escaped, while the sixth was shot and killed on the outskirts of town. After the mass killings, small bands of SS troops moved through the village, systematically looting and burning every single building, and shooting any one they found hiding. A small garrison remained in the town overnight, and left the next morning.

In addition to the women and children killed in the church, and the men who were executed in the barns and garages around town, 52 bodies were found, individually or in small groups, on the streets of the village. These were probably people who had hidden when the Germans first arrived and were later discovered. In all, 642 people were brutally murdered in the space of a few hours. From Oradour the 2nd Panzer Division continued it’s push northward, arriving in Normandy as early as June 15. Sturmbahnführer Adolf Diekmann was killed on June 29 by shrapnel from a shell that struck him in the head. It’s reported that he left the bunker without his helmet in the middle of an air bombardment. Of the regiment that took part in the Oradour killings, over half of them died in Normandy.

The lingering question: why Oradour? One possible answer lies in confusion over two towns and two pieces of information. On June 9, Sturmbahnführer Helmut Kämpfe, a personal friend of Adolf Diekmann’s, was taken prisoner by the French Resistance and executed near Limoges within a few hours of his being taken prisoner. On the same day another officer, Karl Gerlach, was taken prisoner along with his driver and taken to Oradour-sur-Vayres, a town about 35 miles southwest of Oradour-sur-Glane. The driver was shot, but Gerlach managed to escape, sending word to SS-Panzer command that he had been held at Oradour-sur-Glane, confusing the names of the two towns.

Diekmann received word that an unnamed German officer (who he assumed to be Kämpfe, but in fact was Gerlach) was being held at Oradour-sur-Glane. Later he learned that Kämpfe had been executed, and he may have gone to Oradour with the intention of exacting revenge for his dead friend. This is all conjecture, as nobody involved in the Oradour massacre ever explained why they did it, and most of those in command where killed in Normandy within a month of the massacre.

After the war, the government of France decided to leave the village of Oradour-sur-Glane as a memorial to those who died, and as a stark reminder of the true costs of war. It’s estimated that more than 30 million civilians died in World War II. Today Oradour stands exactly as it was on June 10, 1944, the streets eerily quiet, as if everyone has just gotten up in the middle of lunch and disappeared.

L’écailleur
1 rue de la République
14600 Honfleur
Tel: 02-31-89-93-34
Open: 12:00 to 14:00 & 19:00 to 21:00
Closed: Wednesdays and Thursdays
Average Price: €40 per person


L'Ecailleur (scaler, as in fish scaler) is one of my favorite stops in all of France. To start with, the location is marvelous. The restaurant occupies the ground floor of a small building on a corner of the Enclosure area, with views of the old harbor. The interior is smart and modern, with little to distract you from the view and the food.

I have always been greeted warmly and graciously at the door, even when they have had to inform me that -- malheureusement -- they are fully booked for the night. Make a reservation, so that doesn't happen to you. Once seated, you'll find a few items listed on their a la carte menu, but you're far better off considering one of their fixed price menus. At €27 to €39, a meal here is not cheap, but it's good value. The four-course meal includes an appetizer, main course, cheese plate and dessert.

Once you've ordered, and while you're enjoying the view, a little amuse-bouche will arrive. Literally a "mouth amusement", this will be a small and always interesting something to tickle your palate and keep you busy while your appetizer is being prepared. It won't be long, though, before your courses begin to arrive. The presentation is a work of art, and you may feel like it's just too pretty to eat. Fortunately they pay as much attention to the quality and flavor as they do to the visuals.

Mention the word Normandy to most Americans, and they instantly think of D-Day. This momentous struggle that took place more than 65 years ago has left an indelible mark on the region. Concrete bunkers, war memorials and cross-filled cemeteries litter the countryside.

Everybody in my group is eager to see Omaha Beach, but I leave that for last and allow the suspense to build. I start our day with a stop at the German Military Cemetery at La Cambe. Originally an American burial ground established in the first days of the invasion, it was a holding place for those killed in action from every side. War is a messy business, and somebody has to clean up afterwards. That's an aspect few have even considered. La Cambe became the German cemetery after the war, when the American bodies were relocated to the American Cemetery at Colleville.

Small black crosses huddle together in groups, while flat stones mark the grave sites, usually with two soldiers per grave. In all, more than 21,000 German soldiers found their final resting place here. The number of unknown soldiers makes clear just how hectic and disorganized the German retreat was, as they seldom had time to bury their dead. Open remains and hastily dug graves in the fields just inland from the beaches continue to be found to this day, the most recent in April 2009.

While Hollywood has done a good job of portraying the German soldier as a ruthless killer, the very personification of evil, the truth is often more difficult. Take Rifleman Walter Kus here. I don't know Walter's story, but I can read the dates of his birth and death (written European style -- DD.MM.YY). Born July 30, 1926. Died July 29, 1944.

As the Soviets pushed forward on the Eastern Front, grinding German soldiers into the snow and mud, Germany became increasingly desperate for new recruits. They stretched the age limits on both the high and low ends, pulling fathers out of homes and kids out of what little school was left. Many of the soldiers posted here, on the Atlantic Wall at Normandy, were raw recruits with little or no real military training. I can imagine that Walter Kus, on the day before his 18th birthday, would have rather been just about any where else.

From the German Cemetery at La Cambe we move just a few miles down the road to the Pointe du Hoc. This scarred piece of land, situated on a point of land between Utah Beach and Omaha Beach, has been left essentially as it looked after June 8, 1944. The terrain rolls and bucks with huge bomb craters. Several concrete bunkers are still intact.

A critical observation and defensive position for the Germans, the Pointe was subjected to heavy aerial bombing in the days before the invasion, yet intelligence suggested that the bunkers were too strong to have been completely destroyed. The guns of the Pointe du Hoc, sitting on a cliff hundreds of feet above the beach and capable of wreaking havoc on both Utah and Omaha, would need to taken by ground assault.

Capturing the Pointe, and taking out the German heavy artillery placed there, became the special mission of 225 American Rangers. Using medieval siege tactics -- rope, grappling hooks and ladders -- the Rangers assaulted the cliff under enemy fire just prior to the main landings. The 225 Rangers suffered 135 casualties before securing the cliff top. When the Pointe was finally captured, the Rangers discovered that the big guns had been moved inland several days earlier to protect them from the bombing.

A few miles down the road from Pointe du Hoc we come to a wide gully, where a modern paved road makes it easy for us to access a beach that 65 years ago was so difficult, a beach thousands of Americans fought and died to secure. After leaving the group a little time to walk and reflect on the beach, we head up for our last stop of the day, the American Cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer.

Situated on a cliff overlooking Omaha Beach, the American Cemetery is located on the site of the temporary American St. Laurent Cemetery. Established by the U.S. First Army on June 8, 1944, this was the first American cemetery on European soil in World War II. After the war, this land was given by France to the US as sovereign territory.

Covering more than 170 acres, the cemetery contains the graves of 9,387 American military dead, most of whom lost their lives between June 6 and August 20, 1944. Inscribed on a wall are the names of 1,557 soldiers who were never found. While the sight of 10,000 crosses and stars of David is overwhelming, it’s important to realize that they represent less than 25% of those Americans who died here. Only those who’s families requested that their remains be buried at Omaha Beach are here, the rest were returned to the US for burial.

My tour group members return to the van wiping their eyes. Young and old, male and female, interested in military history or not, no one leaves Colleville unmoved. The ride home to the hotel is always quiet.

Le Bistrot du 7eme
56 Blvd de La Tour Maubourg
Paris
Tel: 01-45-51-93-08
Open: 12:00 to 14:30 & 19:30 to 23:00, every day.
Average Price: €25 per person

Last night I took my group to one of my favorite Parisian bistros. I've been visiting Bistrot du 7eme for the past 10 or 12 years and, other than some slight price increases, I don't think it's changed a bit in all that time. I first happened upon the restaurant the way I find many of my recommendations: while out wandering around during lunch I passed by, and the place was packed. Not a single person seated at the tables was speaking English. I consider that a good sign in any local restaurant, so I made a note and came back to try it for dinner that night.

Bistrot du 7eme is a classic bistro, with red walls, black wooden accents, a few framed prints on the walls and one or two 19th century advertising posters. Plain wooden tables with low-backed chairs are packed tightly together, a few spilling out onto the sidewalk in front. They have a couple of a la carte items listed on the menu, but the bulk is occupied by the fixed price meal. Currently priced at €22, this gives you a three-course meal -- starter, main course and dessert -- with a list of a dozen or so options to choose from for each course. They have a modest selection of wines, all very fairly priced.

Starters include a variety of soups, salads and, of course, escargots. I especially like the Salad Auvergnate, a mix of greens, toasted walnuts, sliced apples and cubes of Roquefort cheese. Main courses range from steak and fries to duck confit. I'm fond of the veal, and have it from reliable sources that the salmon is excellent. For dessert: creme brulée, chocolate mousse, or a dozen other choices.

I once led a tour in France where it rained 19 out of 22 days. And I'm not talking little sprinkles. These were downpours of Biblical proportions. Every morning we would get up and turn on the weather, eagerly hoping for a sunny forecast. But no. For 19 out of 22 days it was sunny everywhere in France -- except where we happened to be that day.

As designer, operator and guide of a tour, I have control over many aspects of a trip. I choose the route. I decide how many days to spend in each place. I pick the style and locations of the hotels. What sights to see. What restaurants we use for included meals. But I can't control the weather. I know this in my head, as does every member of a tour. It's not my fault. Couldn't have predicted that.

Still. When someone has waited maybe their entire life for a trip to Paris, dreaming of seeing the Eiffel Tower or Notre-Dame in the flesh, their dreamy vision usually is built around a bright blue sky. So I can't help but feel a bit disappointed for them when the day turns out rainy. I'd like them to see the sights as I have seen them, a selective memory built over dozens of trips when I happened to catch this place or that one at its best.

Yesterday's bright sunshine and 70 degree bliss had, overnight, turned into an oppressive gray lid across the Parisian sky. Puddles were forming, slowly becoming small lakes. Fortunately I spent the first few hours of the day in the airport, gathering my flock as they arrived at different times and from different locations. Our drive from the airport into the city was still a moment of excitement for most, despite the rain-obscured views.

By early afternoon, luggage settled into the hotel and our sightseeing underway in earnest, the rain had slowed to a drizzle. Umbrellas were tucked away as we explored the 2500-year-old history of Paris on the Ile de la Cité, and talked about the symbolism of the sculptures on the façade of Notre-Dame. We emerged from the church some time later to find the proof that God does indeed answer prayers.

This afternoon I'm boarding a plane for London, getting ready for my next round of tours. Looking at the date on my tickets, I realized that today is another famous date in history: today is June 6, the 65th anniversary of the D-Day invasion of Normandy. This video is a beautifully done look at the course of the invasion, with images that mix historic footage with modern looks at many of the memorials, museums and other sights of Normandy today. Once you click on the English version and are taken to the "movie theater," it takes a few minutes for the video to load and start playing, so if you just get a little black screen -- be patient, it'll start up eventually.

The Eiffel Tower was closed again, for the second straight day, by striking workers. The worker's union, which includes about 500 tower employees, is negotiating for job stability and improved safety, as well as stronger security measures for the public.