Reflections VII                                                                      October 14, 2007

by Sandra Price

 

As we left a conference in Como, Italy on Friday, we saw the groundskeepers of the Villa Olmo mowing down the beds of begonias. Back home we found that the delightful floral display in the center of the village featuring suspended metal watering cans dripping with flowers was gone.  And my bags are packed for a now semi-annual trip back to the States – it must be fall and more than time to get this Reflections finished.  We left you last spring right after Easter.

 

Visit to Bas Rhin and Verdun

 

Over one of the several May holidays, Larry and I drove to Strasbourg. One purpose of the trip: I picked up the Bas Rhin department so that I now have been in all the departments in the east half of France with about 30 to go in the west.  Having not really planned ahead,  I drove while Larry found a hotel and made reservations for dinner on the road after consulting the internet and then calling with my French phone, his being Swiss.  The wonders of modern technology and the limitations of close national borders.  Our table in the restaurant we found was on third floor and so we could look down on the plaza by the stunning cathedral and watch the people eating at the outdoor cafes, the workers returning home, and the tourists admiring the cathedral.  Among the people at one cafe was a group of loud young men, one of whom was dressed up in a body suit and a huge diaper with a giant pacifier around his neck.  Japanese tourists stopped to pose with him. We gathered that what we were seeing was a stag party in plein (open) air. Such events are probably better done indoors.  After dinner we walked a bit in the charming old town and then the next morning headed west to Verdun to see the region so devastated by both world wars.

 

In Verdun we first stopped at a French war cemetery, Faubourg Pave.  It was a solemn place.  The description of the cemetery explained that the French practice was to place a cross for a Christian soldier and an appropriately marked flat stele for Jewish, Muslim, and freethinking soldiers. We found Star of David on some steles and anticipated crescents for Muslims but did not find any markers for freethinkers and cannot imagine what the symbol would be.  A question mark? 

 

At the museum to World War I outside Verdun there among the materiel of war was a display on women in the war.  Among the pictures I remember one showed three or four women hitched to a plow trying to pull it across a field since there were no animals or men to turn the land.  There were two shots of Marie Curie and her daughter in front of a mobile x-ray lab that she organized and took to battle sites to improve medical care of the soldiers.  There was a picture of a “marraine de guerre,” a “godmother of war,” who seemed to be part of a movement to adopt soldiers for the duration.  In another part of the museum was a section on the arms used in the war.  Rosalie was the nickname of the bayonets used on the Lebelle rifles and was depicted on a poster with a “Hail, Rosalie” version of “Hail, Mary.”

 

On the way to the Ossuary, which contained unidentified bones of all countries’ combatants, we passed a village that had been taken and retaken 27 times.  Of course, nothing was left of the village but the land remembers with small craters where the bombs fell still marking the devastation.  Other sites had the same pitted landscape.  The Ossuary itself sits in the midst of hundreds of crosses on top of a ridge, an odd tunnel shaped building with a bullet-shaped spire rising from the center, one half being donated by Americans and the other by the French. There are stone coats of arms of French cities around the building. Also on the site is a smaller monument built to remember the Jews who served in the war.  On the other side of the site is a monument to Muslims who also served.  I think it’s time for the freethinkers to put up a monument, too, although it might be hard to get a group to agree. 

 

We also visited Fort Douaument which was later part of the Maginot Line.  Military people like Driant in the region argued for fighting to keep the fort in World War I but the high command believed in an offensive war and reduced the garrison, ultimately leaving the Germans an almost invincible center for operations.  It’s a dismal place, mostly underground with seeping water and stalactites and delousing rooms.  It must have been hell to be there.  We did notice many German tourists at the fort, too.  600 or so German soldiers were killed in an explosion in the fort and are buried behind a wall.  Another nearby site it a memorial to soldiers in a trench who were buried alive by the dirt from explosions so that only their bayonets were visible.  What were the leaders thinking?

 

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douaumont for a picture of the ossuary and the fort and more detail.

 

On the way home we stopped at Metz so that Larry could see the cathedral, especially the Chagall windows.  The local museum featured Gallo-Roman ruins and even a statue of Epona, a Celtic goddess of horses.  My dinner at a riverside restaurant featured lamb that had been cooked 36 hours and was delicious.

 

Factoids from the trip

Stras-bourg means roads + city and while there we learned that the French national anthem, the Marseillaise, did not come from Marseilles.  It was written by a musician in Strasbourg at the request of the mayor. Troops from Marseilles passing through on the way to battle the Austrians learned it and spread it. 

 

Mulhouse, a city near Strasbourg, is pronounced mul-oose in French.

 

The Amish have a connection to Alsace which was then not yet a part of France.  The leader retreated to Ste. Marie de Mines and it is said that Amish quilts got their inspiration from quilts of the Alsatian region.

 

Visitors

 

In May and June we were fortunate to have visits from Joel Stein and Michelle Grimaldi-Stein who “bought” five days at our home at our church auction.  They got a taste of French and Swiss living and then went off to Normandy and Paris.  In June, Joanne Webb and Dave arrived, starting and ending a month in France with us.  They introduced us via their pictures to the Lot region in southern France where they spent two weeks in a friend’s house and got to see a lot of the French countryside.  Recently a co-retiree from Oak Park High, Darlene Kabat, was in Macon on a tour with a La Grange church.  Despite some car concerns and scheduling difficulties  I drove over and we and a friend of hers had a brief visit to a grocery store and a nice dinner in the town. We’re looking forward to a visit from my cousin Linda and her family in a few weeks.  If you’d like to get a taste of our region, you have approximately one more year.

 

Mid - Summer 2007 – the Medical Tales

I had elective umbilical hernia surgery on June 18th.  It was a hard decision about where to have the operation but I finally decided it would be easier to have it done here. I was forced to stay overnight in the hospital for what in the US is an outpatient procedure but in the end was thankful for the automatic bed for those first few hours.  I was recovering well, even driving in a week when I stepped out the front door while shaking out some grassy gardening clothes, fell, and broke the fibula in my ankle on July 19th.  So then I wasn’t supposed to lift anything over 5 kilos (11 pounds) and had to lift me if I was going to get anywhere.  It’s been a quiet summer in Thoiry, France, but I’m out and about now but a bit careful..

 

I have learned some important medical lessons:

 

  1. While doctors can speak English with varying degrees of fluency, hospital staff and doctors’ receptionists do not.  My French was good enough in the hospital for an overnight but not good enough to handle a broken ankle especially with my carefully cultivated English-speaking doctors out of town on vacation – in July. Who knew that some doctors go away in July? At one point I even called my doctor in the US to see if I still needed to give myself blood-thinner shots in the stomach after getting conflicting advice here.  She said no. I was glad.

 

(Footnote – there ought to be a scale that goes with the phrase “S/he speaks English,” something like “at a 3 level” on a 1-5 scale.  I speak French to a 2 or 2.5 level.  Somehow people should know that.)

 

  1. Get a second opinion and always have someone with you.  I didn’t always so was frustrated because later I couldn’t be sure I understood what had happened in the conversation with the doctors.

 

  1. Care in France requires a bit of work on the part of the patient.  I had to get to the

x-ray center and take the x-ray back to the doctor (would you like to see my complete set?) and go to the pharmacist get the materials for the cast to take back to the doctor and to buy crutches (called canne anglais or English canes) and rent the wheelchair.  In retrospect I should have gone to the emergency room of the American hospital in Switzerland where I had my surgery.

 

  1. To deal with a broken ankle, get lots of little stools that you can place all over the house as a resting place for the afflicted leg. Have a chair on wheels.  Hang a rope from the stairs balcony to raise and lower things between floors. Rent a wheelchair.  Have resources like water, paper towels, and snacks within reach. Move furniture so that someone on crutches can get through. Check the internet.

 

  1. Know your shoe size in French.  I was off and had a too large boot.

 

  1. An extremely capable and caring spouse is crucial. Larry totally took over dinner and made sure I had the things I needed.  My CREW friends stopped by to visit and waited a long time for me to negotiate the stairs, took me shopping and to appointments, invited us out to dinner, and helped me do chores around the house.

 

Medical Differences

 

In my limited sampling of medical care here, one thing is striking.  There are not seven layers of people between you and the doctor.  There might be a receptionist but the doctor often answers the phone.  And the doctors give the care.  My doctors put on the cast and took it off.  The pharmacy people are top-notch, careful to make sure there are no drug conflicts and able to sell drugs that we have to have prescriptions for. On the other hand, over the counter items like aspirin that are cheap in the US are expensive here.  The government sets the prices on medications so pharmacies make their money on all the other items.  There are also many homeopathic medications available on the shelf.  But a recent article in the International Herald Tribune indicated that local pharmacies are an endangered species as chains are moving into Europe.

 

Reviews of Nearby Places Based on Handicapped Accessibility

 

Our plans to visit Bordeaux over the summer so that I could, in part, increase the number of departments I’ve visited was not possible.  At least I thought it would be too hard.  So we took day trips.  Two were to new areas of the Jura Mountains.

 

Arbois is a charming village where we had a lovely lunch.  We opted not to visit Pasteur’s home but did try the Wine Museum.  Jura wines are unique and probably an acquired taste.  The grapes they use are not ones you’ve heard of – pommard, trousseau, and sauvignin.  Their technique is to dry the grapes first and then keep them in casks for a long time.  The museum explained all of this in French.  (Note – Americans seem not to get to this region in France.  The default for English-speakers is British.)  But for us to get to the lower level to get all the details a guide had to lead us all the way around the block, Larry pushing me in the wheelchair. Then I still had to use crutches to get down the stairs. It was difficult to stand and read the informative signs.  

 

Later that day I finally got Larry to the Saline Royale, a pre-Revolutionary salt-works that combined a plan to increase tax revenue from salt and a dream of a worker’s paradise.  They let me in free since the main exhibit is inaccessible. Since I’d visited previously, that was not a major problem. We also learned that large gravel pathways are not wheel-chair friendly. I felt I understood a bit what jostling over the prairie in a covered wagon must have felt like.  

 

A few days later we took a different route up over the mountains, stopping for lunch, and mostly driving around.  Someone must have done extremely well financially selling the locals metal siding for the west facades of their houses to protect them from the snow and winds.  The siding is all over the area in different patterns and colors but unfortunately now beginning to rust giving the region the feeling of a rust belt.  The lack of snow last winter may have contributed to the sense of economic problems, too.  We drove around the Lac de Joux (joux is the franco-provencal name for the Jura) and passed Noirmont, a local mountain.  At the time I was reading a book in French about the life of a moutonnier or shepherd based on interviews with him as he passed his last summer on the job on Noirmont. What a difficult life he had.  I knew about the flocks and herds spending the summer in the high meadows with the shepherds living in rude cabins but I did not know the sheep also spent from November until snow covered the grasses and the shepherds slept under trees.  Talk about cold.  On the way home we stopped at Ikea and got a much better desk chair for me so that I could move more easily around my office. 

 

As I felt more confident, we took off for Besançon in the Franche-Comte for a week-end, based in part on glowing reports from friends who’d visited. Along the way we drove above the source of the Loue River, had a lunch in a restaurant that overlooked the river, and visited the childhood home of the realist artist Courbet.  Larry saw all the art works there but I opted to skip the three flights of stairs having already negotiated one to get into the place.  The guide did give me the book that described the exhibit so I got to see at least representations of his paintings.  He was involved in the Paris Commune period after the Franco-Prussian War.  In charge of art for the Commune, he saved the museums from looting but permitted the destruction of the Vendome column.  When the Commune failed, he was arrested and was sent to jail and fined to pay for the restoration of the column.  As a final insult, the government would not take his paintings in payment. He died at 58 just before the first payment was due in Switzerland where he’d fled.

 

Then it was on to Besançon (pronounced Beez san son) Located in an oxbow of the Doubs river, it’s in a strategically important place.  Caesar wrote about it and there are Roman ruins in the town.  In the later Middle Ages it was part of the Holy Roman Empire but had considerable freedom.  When Charles V split his kingdom, the area went to Philip II and so became a Spanish possession.  The Spanish developed a citadel on a hill that overlooks the city using a plan by the French military advisor, Vauban.  Then Louis XIV decided French speakers should be under French rule and the city was besieged and fell.  That’s when Vauban, soldier and military engineer, appeared in person to complete the project.  This year is the 400th anniversary of his birth and France has proposed that eight of the forts he designed or improved should be named a World Heritage site.  (Note that they get eight for the price of one.)  We had learned a bit about him at the Military Museum in Paris and seen his fort at Antibes and wanted to see the exhibits about him in Besançon. He redesigned the citadel and reinforced the walls the French had been able to destroy in their attack from a nearby hill. He also put a fortification on that hill and a number of others.  At the Citadel, my wheelchair and I were given a ride to the top while Larry walked up the steep path.  The place is a wonderland for families, of which there were many, with a zoo and aquarium and lots to walls to clamber over.  Again the gravel made getting around a bit of a challenge but we did get to see two exhibits as well as the grounds.  The Mercure hotel where we spent the night had a ramp and elevator and the restaurant we found was easy enough to negotiate. 

 

In the morning we stopped at the Roman ruins which had a nice paved path and then headed for the cathedral at the top of the hill. Part way up we found a way to go around to the back of the cathedral to a handicapped ramp. The road we followed was rough going. In the cathedral we learned about a clock on display nearby so Larry gamely pushed me up a steep incline and we got to hear a lecture in French and see an extraordinarily elaborate clock.  Ordered by the local bishop in the 1800’s, its base is about 12’ by 6’ and it’s maybe 14’ high.  On it were small clocks for tides and different places and phases of the moon.  On the level below the top level there were statues of the disciples, six of whom were visible, but who moved over one on the hour. But the best part was that at the same time Mary, who graced the top of the clock, lowered her arm and Jesus rose from the dead on the floor below her.  Our guide told us such clocks were common in Europe but news to Americans. 

 

Our last stop was the newly refurbished museum where they even had a lift to take me up three stairs.  It moved very slowly.  When I negotiated the steps with crutches later, I felt a bit guilty.  Elsewhere the elevators were modern and fast. 

 

Along the (Road)Way – Notes from our travels

The French have an admirable system of placing small signal lights at driver’s eye level which means no craning to see if the light has changed. 

 

Each town’s beginning and end is clearly marked with a round sign bearing the town’s name.  The exit sign has a bar diagonally across the name. 

 

The French seem to have a high tolerance for graffiti.  It’s on bridges, wind panels, houses and even the spaces between steps in escalators in Paris. 

 

Some highway features we’ve spotted  – solar powered emergency phones along the highway, toll booths that take credit cards, signage with different speeds for dry and wet road surfaces, a bridge over the highway for deer, clear wind/snow barriers along the highway so that you can see the scenery, windsocks on roads subject to high winds,  and old hole-in-the-floor toilets at the rest stops or aires.

 

There are narrow roads in France but I’ve discovered a subtle distinction.  Some of them have a white stripe down the middle which indicates that the road is wide enough to be considered a two-lane road.  Those without a stripe require vigilance. Today (October 11th) we found ourselves on one such road in Italian Switzerland with two lanes and both passing vehicles driving on the shoulder. All bets are off on either road if there is a tractor, a tour bus, or a truck loaded with cows. 

 

One almost never sees police cars on the road.  That’s because speeders are caught by machines along the road that take pictures of the licenses of speeding cars and the offending driver is just sent the incriminating evidence and the bill.  Two horror stories – a new employee in Switzerland had a huge fine to pay.  He’d been going fast along the same stretch of road for two months and it took that long for the first letter to get to him.  The other involves people in a rented car who were in a bit of a hurry to get to the Zurich airport.  They got a steep bill back home in California for going one kilometer per hour over the speed limit.  We have been lucky in the Pays de Gex since there are no “boxes” in our area.  That will change soon but no one knows where the box will be for sure.  We’ll have to update our GPS system since it lets out a loud beep when it knows there is a box.  The location of fixed boxes is published by the French government although there are “roving” boxes as well.

 

When lost, we’ve learned to drive until we find a “Toutes Directions” sign.  We follow it to a roundabout where there will be signs to places.  We have been known to go around in circles several times until we’ve figured out which is the exit we want. It does confuse those waiting to enter the circle.

 

Occasionally a two lane road will become a one lane one where buildings refused to move for a second lane.  Then there will be a sign with a fat red arrow for the side that has the right of way and a skinny black arrow for the side that must yield.

 

There is no right turn on red but in towns (or agglomerations) the car on the right has the right of way unless it has a stop or yield sign.  That is a problem here because Americans find that hard to adapt to and one never knows if the car approaching from the right is French and knows the rules or is American or is British and is not sure which side of the road to drive on.  He who hesitates avoids an accident. 

 

Random Note on Cow Behavior

 

Since there are so many cows in our region and indeed in both France and Switzerland.  Often they are lying down.  In my childhood when my family drove to Lancaster County to visit our relatives, my father would often say “Look, the cows are lying down.  Means it’s going to rain.”  Even casual observation of the behavior of cows around here would give lie to that statement.  So I checked with a friend whose husband grew up on a dairy farm.  I have it on good authority that cows lie down to move food from one stomach to another.  (Reminder – cows have four stomachs.)  Another truth bites the dust.

 

 

On that note, I’ll end this section.  More later.