Oldwineaux in Europe

I lose track of the number of times I have been to France – maybe five or six.   Perhaps I am drawn here in part since my heritage and a petite bit of sang du France pulses in my veins. (according to our book of genealogy, Jean dejarnat, a Huguenot, fled the country to avoid religious persecution after the king revoked the Edict of Nantes.   The Edict of Nantes, a document signed in 1598 by Henry IV, aimed to give Calvinist Protestants amnesty and restore their civil rights in a country where the predominant religion was Catholicism.  .   Some years later it went through what we shall call a ‘shaky period’.   Finally, in 1685 Louis XIV gave it the coup de grace.   Protestants were given two weeks to leave the country or convert to Catholicism.   To exacerbate the situation and cause immense confusion Protestants were forbidden to leave the country.   (Hmm, reminds me of present day Presidential proclamations.)   Still, some severa...

I know it has been some time since my last post.  Anyone following this blog must either have insomnia or little else to do right now. So where did I leave off? Right, massaging the sore muscles from my partially completed Walk Across England (WAE).  Here is where we are going next. The week after the WAE (which was the last week in August) I visited Whitby and Cambridge, retrieved my bicycle (thank you Caroline), and prepared to fly from London to Paris for a ten-day excursion to western France before flying on to Bulgaria.  That France visit included Giverny, Mont Saint Michel, a hop on a ferry to the Channel Island of Jersey (and back) for a couple of days, Saint Malo (forget about Carcassonne), the American cemetery at D Day beaches, and, last but not least for the religious among you (surely there must be one or two), mass at Chartres Cathedral en route to Paris. And let's not forget visiting the enormous cathedral in Bayeux. ...