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Going Back To France

5/30/2016

Norwegian Air

Ok, not that soon. Not until close to the end of the year, actually, but we are going back to France - to Paris and to Lonlay l'Abbaye. So I am very happy. I have Norwegian Air to thank for it. Opening the U.S. air routes to this low cost carrier was quite controversial, for reasons I don't fully understand, but Norwegian has a good safety record and mostly brand new Dreamliners from Boeing, so I was pleased to see the carrier begin non-stop flights between Los Angeles and Paris - the best part being that our tickets were less than $700/person!

Image: Norwegian

While Norwegian splurged on new aircraft, they must have saved a lot on the budget designer who came up with their flight attendant uniforms. Wow, blue plaid! Now, I've read that the staff is incredibly nice and friendly, so no reflection on you guys, but I have to say it looks like they are dressing you for the supergeek prom night here. The women, meanwhile, are sporting those tight caps like the kind they put on babies with misshapen skulls, and must wear Boston Strangler red leather gloves. Interesting. Hope I don't fall asleep on the plane. But really, maybe they just have a good sense of humor.

Image: theflightattendantlife.com

So, what's happening with the house? We spoke last week with Jim D., our builder, who has been very busy on other projects. He assures us that with the better weather arriving, he and Nicola will begin laying the underfloor on the ground level which is the prerequisite for all the other work. Once that is done and they have something to walk about on, their team can begin to rewire the house and extend the plumbing where we need it. Then will come wall framing and other exciting stuff. For now, it's mainly a shell, although the delightful original plumbing fixtures are still in place.

Here you can see that the old outside wall and door to the small bathroom have been removed. The space is tiny, about 2 meters by 2 meters, but we can't expand into the neighbor's area behind here, so we will keep it simple. I'm so anxious to see it all torn out and redone, but I know that we have to be patient and see to the utilities first. If all of the electrical wiring and plumbing can go in before the walls, we will avoid having unsightly pipes and cables running along the ceiling and floors, as they do in many renovated French homes.

We will have to keep the toilet in the same location, maybe switching to a wall mounted type. Would love to see suggestions as to how others have configured the necessities in such a small space. But no links to photos of airplane lavatories, please, especially if they are done in blue plaid! If you must be amused, enjoy "Lavatory Self-Portraits in the Flemish Style" by the outrageous artist Nina Katchadourian at http://www.ninakatchadourian.com/photography/sa-flemish.php _.

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The Valiant Ghosts of Lonlay l'Abbaye

5/1/2016

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Rue St. Michel, Lonlay l'Abbaye, August 1944

Rue St. Michel, Lonlay l'Abbaye, August 2015

The photos above were taken at approximately the same spot in the village of Lonlay l'Abbaye, but seventy-one years apart. I took the color shot as I wandered, punchdrunk with jet lag, on my first day in Lonlay l'Abbaye. I had just arrived a few minutes before - concluding a four hour drive from Charles de Gaulle airport, on the heels of a long flight to Paris from Los Angeles. It would be months before I would see that World War II photo of American soldiers on this very same street. But I feel as if they were with me from the very first day.

Before I talked to a living soul, I felt welcomed and at home in this village - and as if someone was looking after me here. In fact, it was partly the experiences of two other American soldiers from WW II that led me to believe that Lonlay l'Abbaye was exactly the right place to buy a French house.

Just about two years ago, in early April of 2014, as soon as I had spotted the listing of this house in Lonlay l'Abbaye, I started looking up information about the town on the internet. A mysterious pdf file came up under this url: https://nara-media-001.s3.amazonaws.com/arcmedia/nw/305270/EE-891.pdf. Someone had copied a previously classified report from World War II, written by Sgt. Joseph Porter and Lt. "Duffy" Kalbfleisch.

Why was this previously secret WW II report coming up in a search for Lonlay l'Abbaye? I was intrigued and read it all. It seems that Sgt. Porter and Lt. Kalbfleisch had survived the crash of their aircraft which was shot down near midnight in an area not too far from Lonlay l'Abbaye. The whole area was controlled by Germans at the time. It was the 5th of April, 1944. Sgt. Joe Porter was 28 years old. Lt. Kalbfleisch was only 24. After hiding separately, they were each helped by some courageous French people who later brought them together again.

For weeks, they sheltered at different places, and were introduced to a variety of persons. It was hard for them to know who to trust. One lady in Beauchêne let them sleep in her chicken coop to hide from the Gestapo, and fed them well during the day. Then they were on the move again.

At one point, two men from Lonlay l'Abbaye, Alexander Gueston and Rene Leray, bravely led the two soldiers with a group of French citizens who were also evading the Germans. Sgt. Porter was helping to carry a baby. Germans were approaching, so they had to hide. Sgt. Porter hid in a ditch under a bush near the road with the baby. Had the baby cried, that would have meant discovery and perhaps imminent death. You can read the relief in the report as Kalbfleisch writes "the baby never made a whimper."

There was a happy ending for both Lt. Kalbfleisch and Sgt. Porter. They were reunited with American troops and returned to England, and then to the States. From what little I could glean from searching their names, they each lived long and productive lives after the war. Porter was a photographer who worked as a consultant for the 1962 D-Day movie "The Longest Day", and Kalbfleisch became an inventor of some note. I feel privileged to have been able to read their war reports.

Someday perhaps I or my family members will encounter the descendants of Alexander Gueston and Rene Leray, the men of Lonlay l'Abbaye who aided these Americans so long ago. Or meet someone related to Yvette Dubocq, the educated woman from Beauchêne, who hid them from the Gestapo. I am glad to know their stories. The bond between the French and the Americans is one we cherish, and for good reason.

"The wrong of unshapely things is a wrong too great to be told;
I hunger to build them anew and sit on a green knoll apart,
With the earth and the sky and the water, re-made, like a casket of gold
For my dreams of your image that blossoms a rose in the deeps of my heart."
W.B. Yeats

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a tiny house in normandy blog

Going Back To France

The Valiant Ghosts of Lonlay l'Abbaye

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