Homeward Bound!

We have called so many places home over the last 10 months. Our journey began on August 17, 2019 when we left San Diego for places abroad. Before we returned to the States on May 21, 2020, we had traveled to 10 countries (France, United Kingdom, Italy, Monaco, Germany, Switzerland, Morocco, Spain, Gibraltar and Portugal). If you're astute, you'll see one of those is a British Protectorate but for the sake of simplicity, I'm calling it a country. We traveled by plane, train, bus, and car. For fun we also rode a river ferry, Venetian gondola, horse-drawn carriage, camels, cable car and sailboat.

We enjoyed extended stays of several weeks in many cities: Edinburgh in Scotland, Menton in the south of France, Strasbourg in the east of France, Sevilla in Spain and lastly Mandeville-en-Bessin in the Normandy region of France. It became a running joke that when our kids referred to "home" we asked for clarification if they were talking about our "Edinburgh home" or our "San Diego home," for example. Dave started telling Sam that home is wherever his mother is.

Over the course of our journey, we have stayed the night in 42 different lodgings. No wonder when we packed up to leave Lake Tahoe for San Diego, it felt like a familiar routine. However, we feel relief knowing this is our last nomadic journey for a while.

As we drive down the San Joaquin Valley on this final leg of our epic journey, our minds bounce back to the green pastures of Normandy, the frozen winter of Strasbourg, the desert sands of the Sahara and the soggy Highlands of Scotland.

There is a poetic symmetry in our journey. We began our homeschool
year at the cabin at Lake Tahoe on August 20 and then ended our school year there as well on June 11. As far as years to be abroad and homeschooling, this one turned out to be fortuitous as it was a year when everyone had to transition to learning and working remotely.

We look forward to returning home to San Diego and enjoying our favorite place on Earth to live. Or as Dave says, "No matter where we go in the world, we're always happy to come home to San Diego."

Repatriation

After hunkering down in place for a few months as coronavirus spread across the globe and countries went into lockdown, we started our journey back to the United States. Our return is only a week later than we'd originally planned, though we've adjusted to leave from Paris instead of Amsterdam. Additionally, since coronavirus is so widespread in Paris, we chose to wake up super early and drive straight to the airport from our farmhouse to minimize exposure. While a bit painful to get up at 4am in the dark, the sunrise as we drove in was beautiful.

We had plenty of time before our flight as it turns out as the roads were empty and the airport even emptier. There was a temperature screening, half of the seating was blocked off and many restaurants (and water fountains!) were closed, but otherwise the airport felt normal. 

Our flight had only 65 people on it, though we somehow were all still crammed in one row! Despite no space to stretch out, the boys enjoyed having free access to a screen and we all indulged in movie watching and it made the long flight pass by much more quickly. 

Our flight was direct to LA and after a temperature check and brief series of questions from the CDC we were back on American soil for the first time in ten months. We had arranged to buy Dave's aunt and uncle's Honda Pilot and several good friends helped get our roof storage box on it and drove it up to LA and then to the airport for us! It was so helpful to have a car there and ready for us. 

We hopped in and drove up to Lake Tahoe for a 14-day quarantine. What a long day. We basically took turns sleeping and driving and managed to also meet Christine's parents at an In-N-Out parking lot on the way for socially distanced hellos and the best burger we'd had in a while. In the end, it took us 29 hours door to door from leaving our farmhouse in Normandy to arriving at our cabin in Lake Tahoe. Exhausting, but relieving to be back as well. 

Gold Beach and goodbye to Normandy

We finished off last day in Normandy with a visit to Gold Beach, one of the five D-Day landing beaches. After packing up our belongings and preparing for a long flight back to the States, it was lovely to explore the beach at low tide and run around. We've greatly enjoyed our time in Normandy, as unusual of an experience as it was due to the Covid-19 lockdown. We feel blessed to have been able to stay here safely and be healthy. Perhaps someday we can return to what became our "Normandy Home." 

Car Conundrums

I didn't imagine that driving a car in Europe would pose many problems. Sure, I knew it would be weird driving on the wrong side of the road in England. I also knew that automatics were not common and since Christine had only learned to drive stick once, I would generally be the primary driver. But beyond those, I felt confident about driving in this 9 month trip.

Well, 4 months into our trip, the surprises about driving keep coming. If you are thinking of driving substantially in Europe, here are a list of items that surprised us in our travels and made things just a wee bit more difficult.

1. Speed limiter - some vehicles oddly seem to switch into a mode where the car's top speed is limited to 50 km/hr (or some other speed).  I never figured out what caused this on multiple occasions.
2. In the US, traffic lights are found across the intersection from where you stop. In many European cities, if you go right up to the intersection, you may well pass the signal light at your corner of the intersection. This makes it difficult to know when it is your turn to go. Of course, having 4 kids in the back of your van is helpful in situations like this. :) 
3. In the USA, you can be pretty sure it is allowed to turn right on a red unless it is very clearly marked. I don't think we found anyplace in Europe where this was the case.  Or even turning left on red lights in the UK.
4. Roundabouts are the rule in most European cities, but it can be difficult at times to figure out which exit is the right one to get off in the direction you want. Fortunately, you can just take another spin around the block!
5. The most odd thing I found was a drive/park/reverse changer that was exactly where you would find the turn signals, and pretty much had the same form factor and travel. I'm happy the car was smart enough not to put us into park or reverse when I was going freeway speeds and wanted to signal my change of lanes.
6. White zig zag lines are placed either side of the pedestrian crossing areas at all UK pedestrian crossings and in some other countries. Prohibition of stopping in the white zig zag area increases the safety of pedestrians crossing the road as they will have a clear view or the road in both directions.
7. Travelling on the border of France and Germany, you might detour and take a longer trip through Germany to get there faster. The elimination of speed limits can make a big difference!
8. I got 2 different photo tickets for exceeding recommended speeds - one in Switzerland and one in France. Be careful, because they will track you down in the US and will send the ticket to your home.

Calvados orchard tour

The Normandy region is well known for its apple growing and the unique brandy they distill from apples - Calvados. Dave called around and found a distillery that was willing to give us a tour now that some of the lockdown measures have been released. We hopped in the car and enjoyed a jaunt across the backroads of Normandy to the Domaine Dupont. 

We got to learn about their orchard and apple varieties. It was quite interesting to learn they don't need to irrigate at all - the trees all grow strictly from rainfall. What a difference from our Central Valley back home in California! The cider is distilled from varieties with small apples and they are able to collect them from the ground after they fall. 

They discussed the distilling process, showed us the various rooms and giant barrels where it's stored. At the end, we got to taste some of their various apple and pear brandies - though for the boys it was apple juice! 

We all particularly liked to learn about the "pomme captive." You've heard of a ship in a bottle. Well, they have an apple in a bottle. Inside a bottle of brandy, you can see an apple at the bottom which is much too large to fit through the narrow neck. How did it get there, they asked us? Well, the boys puzzled and debated whether you could create a collapsing apple that could pop back up. They examined the bottom of the bottle to see if it screws on and off or has some sort of seam showing. However, the answer revealed to us was both simpler and more challenging. They place the bottle around the baby apple just after it starts to form from the flower. The bottle stays there all season long - hung on and propped up - while the apple grows away inside it! At the end, they can pick it off and it stays in the bottle while they fill it with brandy. So neat!

Unfortunately, towards the end of the tasting, in Adam's excitement at getting more juice, he jumped up as Christine leaned over him. His head smacked her in the face and gave her quite a bloody nose. Dave was worried it was broken given the crack he heard. Luckily the bleeding stopped after ten minutes or so and Adam's brothers were able to calm him down as he'd taken off running across the orchard in his embarrassment. Dave was able to secure a quick ending to the tasting so Christine could get home and rest. Luckily the injury healed just fine. Being a Mom is sometimes a full-contact sport!

Mon Mont-Saint-Michel

 

At last, we got to share Mont-Saint-Michel with our children. This was on our bucket list for this trip from the beginning - a place Christine visited as a child and then with Dave when they were dating. We were lucky it was just at the 1 km limit from our gite and we could visit while still following the modified lockdown rules. On the way there we did a brief drive through of Granville and were amazed seeing all the boats left marooned by the low tide. Quite a sight! 

We enjoyed our coastal drive down, stopping at a viewpoint to catch our first glimpse of Mont-Saint-Michel in the distance. 

The access to Mont-Saint-Michel had completely changed since our last visit and we were pleased to find it open and the shuttle running. There are huge new parking lots built in a little village nearby and a large visitors center with a shuttle running along the new causeway into Mont-Saint-Michel. There are also wide sidewalks for a pedestrian approach to the mount. 

We opted for walking and as we had chosen a time that coincided with low tide, we walked in the bay along what appeared to be a sheep's path. It wasn't your typical way in, but was very pleasant albeit with some mud. Christine really wanted to do the longer hike across the tidal flats but you are supposed to use a guide as it can be treacherous to time it correctly and navigate the changing pools and quicksand. All tour companies are closed due to the lockdown. That will have to be next time!

Upon arriving to Mont-Saint-Michel we found we had the tidal island nearly to ourselves. There were locals walking around and taking it in, but nowhere near the crowds this UNESCO World Heritage site usually draws. The rocky hill is dominated by a Gothic-style Benedictine abbey dedicated to the archangel St Michael. The abbey was built between the 11th and 16th centuries. The high walls surrounding the village and abbey keep the tidal waters at bay - they rise and fall by 46 feet. In 2015 the tide even rose high enough to cover the new causeway and making it a true island for a few hours. Because it was low tide, we were able to walk all the way around the island before wandering inside along the narrow streets. 

It was a bit surreal to be there with only a handful of shops open and nobody within 30 feet of us. It really felt like the only other people there were French couples, happy to have their local wonder to themselves while tourists were temporarily barely present in France. 

We then visited the nearby fortified city of St. Malo and enjoyed a walk along the ramparts. Due to concern about coronavirus, they limited the ramparts to one-way walking only. It was a bit confusing to navigate, however, as some stairs leading up to the ramparts were only up or only down. We tried our best to follow the signage but it took quite some effort to figure out where to enter to be able to walk the semicircle around near the sea. In the  end, we walked several sections multiple times but really enjoyed the beautiful views of the English Channel from high up on the walls.

It was a day well spent and we greatly enjoyed getting to visit the area after having been here for two months!

Omaha Beach and Pointe du Hoc

Today we combined history with outdoor exercise and went for a walk at Pointe du Hoc.  

The signpost described the area's historical importance well: "This site witnessed extraordinary acts of courage during the allied invasion of Normandy. In World War II, German forces occupied Pointe du Hoc and transformed this quiet spot into a fortified stronghold protecting a battery of heavy guns. On the morning of June 6, 1944, US Army Rangers scaled 90-foot cliffs to capture this heavily defended position and then held it against repeated counterattacks. Their heroic actions helped to establish an Allied foothold in France and begin the liberation of Europe."

As we walked around and personally observed the tall cliffs, remnants of bunkers and enormous batteries, it was all the more impressive to us that the invasion was a success despite the formidable cliffs and installments. 

Afterwards we headed down to Omaha Beach that had a beautiful tribute to the fallen soldiers, both in sculpture and words. The American cemetery was not open but we walked near the edge of it and thought about the sacrifices made to free Europe in WWII.