Northern France Getaway

Somewhat last minute, we decided to take a little getaway to Northern France for a few days.  We flew from Vienna to Paris, where we rented a car and began our drive through France.

Our first stop was Lisieux -- home of St. Thérèse and her parents, newly named saints, Louis and Zelie Martin.

October 1 is St. Thérèse's feast day.  It is also the day Brian proposed to me in 2011 -- a day he selected after carrying St. Thérèse's casket in Madrid for World Youth Day a few months earlier.  When Brian proposed on that day, he gave me an envelope containing 18 letters that he had written to his future wife over the past 4 years.  Unbeknownst to both of us at the time of his proposal (only later discovered when I put all of the letters in a scrapbook), the first letter he wrote was on October 1, 2007.  So yeah - we have a thing for St. Thérèse :)  We named Ellie -- Elliana Thérèse -- in honor of her!

Here's Ellie with just a few of the St. Thérèse statues around the town!

Here she is at Les Buissonnets, St. Thérèse's home from ages 4 - 15 (when she joined the convent).

Here is one of the upper rooms inside the home, which now contains St. Thérèse's First Communion dress, other clothes, and toys!

Here is Brian and Ellie posing by St. Thérèse's and St. Louis in the garden in their backyard, where St. Thérèse's spent much time admiring the little flowers as a child!

Here is the Lisieux Carmel, the convent that St. Thérèse entered at age 15.

Here is her tomb inside the Carmel.  The statue of Mary above the tomb is the one that she had in her bedroom as a little girl, who once smiled at her.

St. Thérèse's full name in the convent was Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face.  This is the picture of the Child Jesus that Thérèse kept with her from 1894 to her death in the infirmary on September 30, 1897.

Here is St. Thérèse's "Act of Oblation to Merciful Love," the famous prayer she wrote on June 9, 1895 with her heart ablaze with love!

From the Carmel, we walked up to the Basilica of St. Thérèse.

We entered the Basilica via the Mercy Door.

In the crypt of the Basilica is the tomb of St. Louis and St. Zelie.  We were able to pray for some very dear intentions here!  We missed the Mass we had hoped to attend -- only to have an English speaking group from India arrive as we were in the crypt and we were able to join them for Mass! 

From Lisieux we headed further north along the coast to reach the town of Bayeux in Normandy.  In the morning, we went into town to see the Bayeux Tapestry.  The intricate embroidered cloth is 70 meters long, which depicts the events leading up to the Norman conquest of England concerning William (Duke of Normandy) and Harold (future King of England), culminating in the Battle of Hastings in 1066.  Made in the 1070s, the cloth was able to teach history to a largely illiterate population.  It pays to have a History professor for a friend/neighbor -- otherwise we may not have known to check out this impressive piece of history.  Thanks, Buff!  ;)

Here's a picture of a copy of a small portion of the cloth (the real thing can't be photographed!)  

From Bayeux, we drove to the beaches of Normandy.  We were there on June 3 -- three days before the anniversary of D-Day, so we were able to see quite a few reenactors.  Brian and the kids also got to meet three D-Day veterans (while I was on a tour of the cemetery).  Brian and I watched the first part of Saving Private Ryan before we went - and the tour guide said vets often say those gruesome opening scenes when so many gave their lives is very much what the day looked like.  

Here are a couple of pictures inside the Overlord Museum.  (Operation Overlord was the code name for the Battle of Normandy).

Here we are on Omaha Beach.

Here is the American Normandy Cemetery and Memorial.

Here is the bronze statue, "Spirit of American Youth Rising from the Waves."

The average age of the 9,387 buried here is 24 years old.  

The number buried here is only about 40% of those who gave their lives, approximately 60% were laid to rest in America.

Plane flying overheard -- very close to us (no zoom, no filter on my phone camera).

The kids looking out over the cliffs onto Omaha Beach.

From Omaha Beach, we drove a couple of hours to the northwestern coast of France to the town of Saint Benoit Des Ondes.  Our room had a lovely view out onto the water.

Ellie insisted on me taking her picture out front and posing with her "crazy eyes" face :)

In the morning, we drove to Mont-Saint-Michel Abbey.  Mont-Saint-Michel is an island about 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) off the coast.  Its history dates back to 708 when Aubert, Bishop of the nearby hilltop town of Avranches, had a sanctuary built on top of the island.  Legend has it that St. Michael the Archangel appeared to Aubert and asked him to have a church built atop the island just out to sea. 

We arrived in the morning at low tide so we were able to walk out on the beach around the island.  (For much more impressive pictures than we could take - check out this link).

We stopped at St. Peter Parish Church, before going all the way to the top of Mont-Saint-Michel.

Here are the kids at the top of the Abbey.  (And Brian standing nearby in case Francis decides to lean forward ;)

From Mont-Saint-Michel we had our longest drive of the trip -- 4 hours -- back to Paris.  I was nervous about how the kids would do, but they did great!  I just kept feeding Francis his beloved 'puffs' snack anytime he woke up and that seemed to do the trick!

Originally we hadn't planned on going into Paris.  We were flying home Sunday morning and had planned on going to an evening Mass upon our return.  But we decided it'd be great to get to a Saturday Vigil Mass before we left, so without knowing the Mass times we headed into Paris to go Sacre-Coeur (Basilica of the Sacred Heart).

Driving through Paris we didn't get to see the Eiffel Tower (Brian and I have both been there before; sorry kids).  But we did catch a glimpse of Arc de Triomphe (just look directly above the center white arrow/black car below :)

Although I really had hoped to see the Eiffel Tower -- mainly so I could use that emoji on Instagram -- it turns out that Sacre-Coeur is far more beautiful AND we got to see Jesus!

Sacre-Coeur is at the summit of Montmartre, the highest point in city.  We climbed the many stairs to reach the summit and enjoyed the beautiful view!

Entering Sacre-Coeur (through another Mercy Door) is breathtaking.  There was a huge monstrance containing the Blessed Sacrament that we were able to pray before.  BUT there was no Vigil Mass as we had hoped.  It was now past 5:30pm and we thought we had missed our chance to attend Mass.  But God had other plans!

We were visiting Sacre-Coeur (Sacred Heart Basilica) on June 4, the day AFTER the Feast of the Sacred Heart.  And what is the day after the Feast of the Sacred Heart?  The Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.  So as we walked out of the Basilica discouraged we'd miss Mass, I saw a sign on the building in front of us saying "Eglise Paroissiale Saint-Pierre" with an arrow.  We walked about a block away and there stood a small church with its Mass times posted out front: Saturday Vigil 6:00pm.  We looked at the time - it was 5:48pm.  Inside the parish church we immediately saw the beautiful statue of Our Lady of Montmartre, Our Lady of Beauty, Patroness of the Hill of Montmartre and Artists of the whole World, Queen of Peace.  

Jesus and His Sacred Heart, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, had heard our prayers to attend Mass and so beautifully answered them!

After Mass, we got gelato at the square right outside of the church.  The square is Place du Tertre, a place we didn't even know existed - and it was so lovely!  Apparently it is the heart of the Montmartre quarter, where many artists set up their easels each day for the tourists.  The square is a reminder of the time when Montmartre was the mecca of modern art -- at the beginning of the 20th century many penniless painters, including Picasso, were living there.  Such a sweet treat for God to surprise us with before our getaway ended!

We stayed at a hotel next to Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris that evening, and flew back to Vienna in the morning.  We will return to Charles De Gaulle in two-and-a-half weeks en route to the USA!

Au Revoir!