Dieppe

Early in the morning of August 19, 1942 almost 5000 Canadian soldiers stormed the beach at Dieppe, France, hoping to temporarily seize and hold the port town, while destroying coastal defenses and gathering intelligence. As almost everyone in Canada knows, it did not work out this way. By early afternoon, over 900 of those Canadians had been killed, and almost 2500 captured by the Germans. Less than half of the Canadian troops that headed out from England that morning made it back safely that night.


As we walked along that same beach 67 years and 4 days later, it was hard to fathom what had occurred here. Despite the fact that there are reminders of the Dieppe Raid all around the town of Dieppe, its hard to believe that so many people died not that long ago on the beach where people sunbathe and swim today.

We ended up in Dieppe on Sunday evening, as Erin had to go there for work for Monday and Tuesday. I tagged along to see the sites and pay our respects at the Canadian memorials in town.

Today, Dieppe is a relatively sleepy beach town in Normandy. It has a nice enclosed harbour with a number of waterfront restaurants, the aforementioned beach on the English Channel, an old castle/chateau on the cliffs overlooking the town, and pretty nice, if somewhat run-down old town right off the beach. But as Canadians, there were some other things in town that held a lot of interest as well: The Dieppe Canadian War Cemetery and the Mémorial du 19 Août 1942, a museum in town dedicated to the raid.

The Canadian War Cemetery is actually a few kilometres out of town, in some farmland in a small village outside of Dieppe. It is very peaceful, and is quite attractive as well. There are soldiers from France, England, Australia, New Zealand, and Poland buried here as well, but the vast majority of the graves belong to Canadian soldiers. Most have names, but there are a number hat just say something like "a soldier of the war of 1939-1945", which is quite sad. In addition, you see some tombstones where the soldiers died as young as 18, which, as trite as it may sound, gives you pause to think, and thank that we didn't have to go through anything like that in our generation.

After visiting the cemetery, I walked back into town and visited the Mémorial du 19 Août 1942. This is a small, but moving museum. They have a 40 minute video with film and pictures of the raid, as well as first person account from Canadian and British soldiers, as well as a doctor and nun from Dieppe that helped wounded Canadians on the day of the raid. In addition, they had newspaper clippings from Canada, Britain and Germany from the time of the raid, as well as memorabilia from the raid, such as Canadian uniforms and things like that.

One other tribute to Canada that they have in Dieppe is the "Square du Canada", a small park-like square right below the Château de Dieppe. Its quite nice, and right in the heart of town. It's nice to see that Dieppe has remembered the sacrifices Canadians made to make them free.

After Erin got off work the two full days we had in town, we just explored the town a bit and tried to find nice places for dinner. The walk along the harbour is quite nice, but unfortunately the restaurants were quite touristy, and the food wasn't that great (which was a shame, as we were looking forward to some good seafood, being on the sea and all). We also got a taste of the legendary French customer service, which we had thus far avoided for the most part in our earlier visits to Paris and Strasbourg. Let's just say that most waitresses in Dieppe won't be winning any awards for congeniality.

On Wednesday morning, we left Dieppe and spent some time on planes, trains and automobiles (train to Paris, flight to Zürich, car to Konstanz) getting back home. Dieppe was another valuable historical trip for us, and one we're glad we made.

Coming up this weekend is our final vacation in Europe, a week long trip to Croatia, where we will hopefully soak up some sun on the Dalmatian Coast of the Adriatic Sea. After that, it's back to Konstanz for not quite three weeks before we move to Ohio.

Back to Paris

Last weekend we took advantage of affordable train tickets and some local connections and went back to one of our favourite cities: Paris. Early Friday afternoon we hopped on a train for Paris with our friend Laurence, a colleague of Erin's whose boyfriend, Fred, is a Gendarme living in Paris. Fred lives on a Gendarmerie base in the Paris suburbs and we were able to stay with him for the weekend, making Paris much more affordable.

Our inbound train had to be re-routed due to a tree on the tracks somewhere, and thus we were a little late arriving. Because of this we decided to stay in and take it easy, and cram our Paris adventure into Saturday and Sunday.

We got up relatively early on Saturday and had a nice French pastry breakfast before heading out. We had wanted to go see the Catacombs, but the line to get in was literally around the blocks, so we went with Plan B and checked out Rue Daguerre in the same neighbourhood, and fun street with some cool shops and cafés. After that we went to the Grande Mosquée de Paris, which has a café/restaurant attached, and had a really nice lunch. We had various Moroccan dishes, with a sweet mint tea, and some great pastries for dessert.

Afterwards, we walked through the Latin Quarter, Île Saint-Louis, and Le Marais before heading back to Fred's to get ready for our evening event, a dinner cruise along the Seine. While the dinner cruise may be a little touristy, it was still really enjoyable. We boarded the boat right near the Eiffel Tower, and the boat then goes upriver through all the main sights along the river, turning around on the eastern edge of the city before turning and heading back downriver, finishing up right by the Eiffel Tower, which at this point is all lit up in the night sky.

The meals were very good, and despite being on a boat, it felt more like we were in an elegant restaurant. There was live music from a jazz band, nice wine, and expensive dishes with portion sizes half of what we would get in a regular restaurant... yep, we're in Paris! After the cruise, we strolled around the city a little more before heading home.

On Sunday, Fred and Laurence took us to one of their favourite places for brunch in the city. It was this place in a very nondescript neighbourhood in the 19th or 20th Arrondissement, where we can't imagine tourists would ever go unless they were specifically looking for this place. The brunch has two parts. The first was an all-you-can-eat buffet of delicious pastries, baked goods like brownies and cookies, fruit and beverages. That would have been easily enough food, but they then offer you a choice of one of five or six prepared dishes, with things like an English Plate (with eggs, sausages, bacon), lamb or salmon. It was all very good, and filled us up for the rest of the day. We'd highly recommend this place, which is called La Bellevilloise, if you are ever in Paris.

Having to head back to Konstanz late Sunday afternoon, we didn't have too too much time to do much else, but we were able to head back to one of our favourite streets in Paris, Rue Mouffetard, where we spent another nice afternoon.

We arrived back in Konstanz late Sunday night, appreciating Paris even more. Every time we go there, we find something new which makes us love the city even more. And it definitely helps to have some local guides like Fred and Laurence to show us around!

Easter and Erin's Birthday in Paris

This past weekend we went to Paris to celebrate Erin's 30th birthday in style. Thursday morning we hopped on a train to Strasbourg (one of our favourite cities), hung out there for a couple of hours, and then transferred to the TGV train to Paris in time for dinner.

After a nice dinner at a little Egyptian restaurant on Rue de Lappe that we'd stumbled upon on our first trip to Paris, we decided to take it easy for the rest of the night and save up our energy for a full weekend of touring the city.

Since it was Keri's first time in Paris, we took some time to see some of Paris' big sites over the weekend. The three of us saw Notre Dame Cathedral, the Latin Quarter, Le Marais, Montmartre, and of course the Eiffel Tower. We spent most of our time just exploring the different neighbourhoods, experiencing Paris.

One of the highlights was Saturday night. In honour of Erin's birthday (which was actually on Sunday), we went out for a nice dinner at a Moroccan restaurant, followed up with a show at the Moulin Rouge. The show was pretty cool, and had something for everyone (dancing for the women, breasts for the men). It was definitely a fun experience.

Sunday morning we woke up to find that the Easter Bunny had found us in her hotel, and Erin opened her birthday presents before we headed out for the day. We lucked out pretty much all weekend with the weather. The forecast called for doses of rain throughout the weekend, and while there were a few quick showers, they were all while we were inside, so we were able to walk around and enjoy the city in summer clothes pretty much the whole time.

This was our 4th time going to Paris together, and every time we go we love it a little more. Here's hoping that we get back there soon.