Towns and Villages We Met Along the Way

Harbor at Honfleur near Le Havre and the Cruise Ship, the Bizet

After an organized tour or two of Europe back in my younger days, I decided that this kind of travel wasn't for me.  It was too rushed to form any lasting impressions of the places that I visited.  I'm a slow impressor!

But Grand Circle's Seine cruise in 2003 changed my opinion.  It followed the route that my grandparents, Johann and Magdalena Meier with their children had traveled in 1861 and that's what I wanted to see.  The only drawback - my sister and I were traveling in a reverse direction.  But perhaps that was fitting.  My ancestors were never able to return to the "old country."  Instead I made the return, almost from the point where they boarded a ship at Le Havre, back along the Seine river to  Paris, still filled with magnificent structures at which they, peasant farmers from Germany, must have marveled.

Looking toward the port city of Le Havre, the last place in Europe the Irsch emigrants would see

Look from the Seine Estuary toward the English Channel

River Side Village on the way to Rouen

The Cathedral in Rouen

Rouen, the largest port city in Normandy

Coming ever closer to Paris

 The slow pace of our small ship, the Bizet, let me focus equally slowly on the route from Paris to Normandy.  I stood side by side with my long dead great-great grandmother Lena.  The gentle, unhurried sway of the ship gave me the time to look at the scenery with two sets of eyes, hers and mine.  Lena did not have a camera, but she had the astonishment of seeing a magnificent city which she had never expected to see and would never see again.  Perhaps her pictures, though not digital, were clearer than mine. 

Near Vernon

Arriving at Vernon

Metz and the Kabop Shop

Metz Railroad Station 

In September of 2004, a friend and I took trains from Paris to Metz, France, and then on to Saarburg Germany.  We spent two nights in Metz in the French province of Lorraine.

When it was under German rule, Lorraine was called Lothringen.  But it had been a French city for a long time by the time Laurie and I arrived and it is likely to stay so.   That made it more difficult for Laurie and me.  We both speak a little German but only a French phrase or two.

The first morning in the city, I went out to explore a little while Laurie, who woke up feeling under the weather,  stayed at the hotel to sleep.   My sister had told me that there was a lovely pedestrian area in Metz - with shops and eating places.  I had a map from the hotel which I followed until it showed a street that didn't exist and I was stymied in my search.

I tried asking people who looked friendly for directions, but most spoke neither English or German.  One nice lady called back a friend from whom she had just parted.  The second woman did speak some German; but I think I misunderstood her, because I walked quite awhile before I concluded this was the wrong direction.  Unfortunately, by that time, most of the shops had closed for their two-hour lunch break - no help there.

Walking by a shop offering Kabops, I decided to try one.  Marilyn, my sister, and I had often seen "Kabop Shops" (as we called them) in Germany and promised ourselves to try one sometime.  We hadn't done so - now here was my chance.

The young man behind the counter looked as if he might be from the Middle East, and he greeted me in a flow of French.  I was unsure if he was asking me what I wanted or telling me that the shop was about to close.  I asked him if he spoke English.  He shook his head. On the off chance that he might know a little German, I tried that language.  His face broke into a huge smile.  He was a new resident of France.  He had worked in Germany during the prior two years and was so happy to have someone with whom to review his German language skills.  The shop was quite empty and so he told me the story of his life, some of which I understood, while he prepared my kabop.  It was more on the order of an exotic wrap than the shish kabob I had expected.  

We said a German "Wiedersehen" and I left, munching.

Later Laurie felt better, but not good enough for a kabop.  Eventually we found our way to the center of Metz and a cafe where she could have a late lunch.  Then we explored more of the city, including the Cathedral and a shopping mall.  We had made so many twists and turns that as we toured that we had an almost impossible time finding the way back to our hotel.  Our mileage probably topped five miles.   Metz has a more difficult street configuration than Waukesha, my home city, even though I'm not sure anyone who has spent a couple of hours lost in Waukesha would agree

Views from Metz exploration:

Metz and the Moselle

Laurie walking toward the Cathedral

Did you bring some Euros for the bus trip back to the hotel?

 Waukesha, my home city, even though I'm not sure anyone who has spent a couple of ho