The Last Lion

Churchill in Paris

Like many young men in America, I went through a serious Second World War interest and read Churchill's six volumes over the course of 1992-94 (Moe read them in one month, he once told me). The drama reads better than fiction and, while I won't go into detail on this blog, my general knowledge on the war, held idle for so long, revitalised in Normandy and having a captive audience, poor kids.

Another epic read from that period was William Manchester's 'The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill', a three volume trilogy covering Churchill's life from the early days ("Visions of Glory, 1874-1932"), to his political isolation and triumphant return ("Alone, 1932-1940") and finally the master-work to never be, "Defender of the Realm, 1940-1965" which Manchester unable to complete prior to his death, at 82, in 2004, leaving tens of thousands of loyal readers on the edge of their seat awaiting the final victorious turn of events that sealed the world's future.

Madeleine's time of 2:31.57 yesterday's 800 puts her in the UK Top 100 ranking for girls 15 and under.

Race Day

600 of 800

We spend the day, a glorious one at that, in Wimbledon Park as Eitan and Madeleine compete in the Hercules Wimbledon Young Athletes track meet, the first racing of the outdoor season.

Eitan goes for the 1500, clocking a 4:47, placing him 7th in the U15s.

Madeleine competes the 800 and takes off like a rocket, forcing her heat to go with her. At the 3/4 point it is a close back and forth until both gals nipped by the outside lane, who passes them on the final 20m, our gal taking 3rd. She runs a gutsy race.

I change into a running shirt in front of some spectators.
Eitan: "Oh my God, Dad. Do you have to do that?"
Me: "Do what?"
Eitan: "Do you have to change here, in front of everybody?"
Me: "How about if I practise my break-dancing ?"
Eitan:
Me: "Definitely. Check this move out."
Eitan:
Me: "Well, off for my run now."

Klára Departs

Klára

Klára has been part of our family for the last 12 months or so and now she has moved on to the next thing: her own flat, working at one of London's cool restaurants Yauatcha.

I recover from New York with a five mile loop in Richmond Park including 2 miles at race pace against an equally paced runner; we nod at each other as we separate (me, holding it together). I then sleep the better half of Saturday, waking to a brilliant afternoon late sunset, dog walk and family dinner. What more could I wish?

The 79th Masters golf tournament televised from Augustus. I could care less but curious to see all the white people watching the old white men trying to put a little white ball into a small white hole.

Romeo And A Pair Ducks

Romeo Gili

Romeo Gili's velvet menswear ensemble ca. 1990 on display in Portland, Oregon, as part of the Glamour of Italian Fashion. One of my favorites.

From the V&A staff web noticeboard (filed under 'Only In Britain'):

"A number of colleagues have been in touch with both the Visitor Experience and Security teams to notify us of the pair of ducks who have been spending a lot of time in the Museum Garden recently. We have discovered that the female duck has laid two eggs, and have sought advice from the RSPB as to what steps we should be taking.

"Due to the legal protection ducks and their nests receive in all parts of the UK, we are legally obliged to not interfere with the birds and their eggs, so please do not be tempted to chase away the ducks or move the eggs. The RSPB have advised that if the breeding pair have decided to nest here we should leave them alone, and that they expect that if the family is successful they would expect them to leave the Museum quite quickly to find a larger body of water.

"We will be putting barriers up in the area, and ask that any colleagues passing through the garden are aware of the situation.

Head of Visitor Experience

"

Ammonite

Ca 200 million years old

Madeleine finds an ammonite on a Normandy beach, now on her windowsill next to a crab claw and a few rocks.

Originating from within the bacritoid nautiloids, the ammonoid cephalopods first appeared in the Devonian (circa 400 million years ago) and became extinct at the close of the Cretaceous along with the dinosaurs. The classification of ammonoids is based in part on the ornamentation and structure of the septa comprising their shells' gas chambers. While nearly all nautiloids show gently curving sutures, the ammonoid suture line (the intersection of the septum with the outer shell) is variably folded, forming saddles (or peaks) and lobes (or valleys). Source: Wiki.

Upper East Side

57 and Park

Thierry and I have nine meetings in 2.5 days.  Efficient describes it. Exhausting, too. I'm up at 4AM and on the treadmill by 4:30 with all the other poor slobs as jet lagged as me. There is some camaraderie, I suppose, but mainly we just work off the stress of the time zone. More interestingly, Thierry and I go to Le Marais on 46th St, a Kosher steak house, famous to the Jewish community. No reservations so we wait 45 minutes for a table and worth it.

Katie joins us for a drink at the Four Seasons then we have dinner afterwards. It's great to have a sister in New York and one as cool as her. Do note the 80s gold disco jacket.

Eitan: "Can we go to 'Pickle and Rye?" [Dad's note: Pickle and Rye a sandwich shop in Mortlake, near the train station]

Me: "Do you have any money?"

Eitan: "I have a couple of pounds."

Me: "And you used to be the one who was the saver. Now it is Madeleine who is stowing away her dough." [Dad's note #2: Madeleine is saving her money to buy a plane ticket to America, possibly one-way]

Madeleine: "I don't 'stowe' money. I save it."

Me: "Isn't that the same thing?"

Madeleine: "Stowing sounds like hiding."

Me: "Makes sense."

Eric En Route

With Normandy a distant memory and on my way to Manhattan, I re route to Boston for a late meeting with the Mass state pension plan (ca. $80bn under mgmt).  I leave the kids with instructions to water the front yard and sweep out the back. There is resistance.

Incredibly it snows in Boston - a storm, it seems, that has not abated since my last time on the East Coast. A record winter for snow. The mood is .. claustrophobic.

Eric is free for lunch and we catch up on work, kids and life. An excellent unanticipated bonus. Eric's work office comprises of a number of jerry-rigged computers that serve as his coding palette, filled with language as foreign to me as Sanskrit. He has a standing work station surrounded by books, a few bones, a chalkboard with more software script and other various nick-nacks that capture my interest. Today he is testing his work before it goes live and, he notes, 'buggy.'

Side Road

Madeleine: "Can I have a sip of your wine?"
Me: "Sure."
Madeleine drinks a half a glass of wine in one go.
Me: "Madeleine!"
Madeleine, giggling: "What?"
Me: "Did I tell you about the first time I got drunk?"
Eitan: "Was that the time with the vodka?"
Me: "It was after league championships. Kristen, Jana and I went to Hillside Park with a bottle of Champagne."
Madeleine: "How old were you?"
Me: "16. I'd never really had alcohol before. A bottle of Champagne didn't really do anything so we went to Jana's house and got a bottle of vodka."
Madeleine: "So you are saying you stole a bottle of vodka?"
Me: "When I got home I was like, 'hi Mom and Dad, I'm home' then went into my bedroom. Everything started spinning around."
Madeleine: "Were you dizzy? From all that drinking?"
Me: "It's the worst feeling in the world. Just awful."
Eitan: "Did you get sick?"
Me: "I barely made it to the bathroom. Then Moe and Grace came in, they couldn't believe it. Katie thought it was hilarious though."
Madeleine: "Did you get into trouble?"
Me: "No. As parents, you expect your kids to do something stupid now and then. Like what I did."
Eitan, Madeleine:
Me: "Just don't do it twice."

Reading Room

'sup?

I surprise the kids - they're reading! - but in fairness they have been disciplined about their revisions and each day put in a couple hours of work though here it is for pleasure: Madeleine "Roots" and Eitan "The Two Of Us."

This morning Madeleine and I power-walk in the fresh countryside air. We pass by two 30-foot long stone ramps equally separated with blocks every seven feet or so. Eitan puzzles on it for several days but Madeleine gets it right away: a ramp to raise a car or tractor so the mechanic can work underneath.

We've been sleeping until 10AM with lunch around 3PM or 4PM. Since the sun sets at 9PM, our days have been thoroughly thrown off kilter. We are loving it.

Tomorrow back to London.

Passover Run

I go for a 13 or 14 mile run, something I haven't done in ages, and it feels great.  The first 30 minutes achy and stiff but then the old body warms up and I cruise along the seaside feeling like a million bucks. Or 17 (much more valuable).

Madeleine cranks away on her religious studies : "I'm doing stuff about Jesus, and the Old Testament and the New Testament. And the Pharisees (Me: Who are the Pharisees? Madeleine: "I have no idea. That's why I'm revising").

I chop off the chicken's head. Sonnet: "Don't tell Madeleine."
Me:
Sonnet: "We don't need a vegetarian in our house."

Bayeux Tapestry

Morningtime. Sonnet and Madeleine go for a 5 mile run

We take a break from the Second World War to visit the Bayeux Tapestries.  Madeleine explains:

"The tapestry describes the Battle of Hastings in 1066. King Edward (of England) was going to die, and so he told he nephew Harold to make peace with William, Duke of Normandy. Harold set out to Normandy to pledge his loyalty but ended up in Picardy and was taken hostage by Guy (Count du Ponthieu). Then William arrives, there's a small fight between William and the Picardy people, and William frees Harold. Harold then swears his allegiance to William should Edward die.

"Harold goes back to England and King Edward dies. Then Harold becomes King and breaks his promise with William. In England, people see Haley's comment and get nervous. William gets really really mad, and starts building boats. He puts armour, horses, swords, supplies and people onto the boats and sales to England.

"The men and horses get off the boats and the battle between William Duke of Normandy and King Harold begins.

"It is a 14 hour long battle and the first few hours many people die on both sides. Before the end of the battle, William's soldiers think he is dead. But William is not dead and he lifts up his visor to rally his troops.  Then an arrow, shot by one of William's archers, hits King Harold in the eye and he is killed.

"The battle finishes and William's name is changed from 'William The Bastard' to 'William The Conqueror.' "

Crisbecq Battery

 Battery

The Crisbecq Battery, constructed by the Germans near Saint-Marcouf in the north-east of the Cotentin peninsula and jogging distance from where we are staying. The battery formed a part of the German Atlantic Wall coastal fortifications overseen by Rommel who had concluded by 1943 that Germany's Blitzkreig was no longer potent and that a strike on Normandy inevitable. He turned his attention to defense.

The main armament were three Czech 21 cm Kanone 39 canons, two of which were housed in the casemates (pictured). The Battery, with a range of 17–21 miles, could cover the beaches between Saint-Vast-la-Hougue and Point du Hoc, ie, Utah and Omaha Beaches.

Vista from the canon point

The stretch of land between the battery and Utah beach about 3 kilometres. The Germans flooded this region to make it more difficult for the Allies to advance on Normandy, with five pathways traversing the swamps (the first wave para gliders tasked with securing these routes, as well as taking out the bunker canons). Crisbecq offered a perfect location to target D Day ships. Dawn aerial and naval bombings reduced some of the threat.

In the end, Crisbecq was captured in the morning of 12 June without a fight by the 39th Regiment after the 9th US Infantry landed at Utah Beach. They found it deserted.

Le Hebert

The moat around Le Coeur

From Valognes we drive to St-Martin-Le-Hebert to visit Le Coeur, a sixteenth century manoir fortified by a moat and next to an ancient beautiful church (they are a dime a dozen here).  We lunch at Bricquebec followed by a local art fair.

Last night, at a country estate, we join an unusual group of local French land owners and English eccentrics all who have inherited their wealth. The host, a charming French woman named Sophie, married to a multi-billionaire away on a sailing expedition. There is a lot of wine and spirit. I get the sense these gatherings take place regularly.

The highlight, and reason, for the dinner is Annabel, a soprano trained at the Paris Conservatoire, who performs a selection of arias from Shubert to Mozart in preparation for a concert she will give next weekend to raise money for "the hunt" (in this part of France, the tradition of hunting involves deer rather than fox, as in England).

The evening ends by singing happy-birthday David, one of the guests and a retired British banker, who owns farmland in Malawi, South Africa, California (weirdly, grapefruits) and France. He oversees a local choir in which Anabel occasionally sings.

Sonnet: "That was a night."

An Old Man And His Ducks

Valogne market 

Our six villages take turns hosting a daily market and today we visit Valogne to buy Easter provisions. I chat with the friendly man, pictured, who is selling three ducks which, when asked how they should be prepared, illicits the motion of ringing their necks and stripping their feathers. Then, he says, best served au jus.  He speaks no English. We compare notes on France, my favorite country I tell him, and California and he is aware that there is a severe draught on the West Coast.

Sonnet collects four kinds of cheese, a whole cauliflower, potatoes, one large stripped chicken, two types of clams, four different preserves, bread, croissants, a large brioche and a custard tart picked out greedily by the Shakespeares. Followed by a double espresso at a local cafe. How can this not be a great day?

Rush Hour

Fontenay-sur-mer must have 25 people max including a mayor, who has the one fax machine in town which I need to use, knocking on her door [Digression: nobody uses a fax machine so why does my bank, Coutts no less, require faxed instructions? I email a photo of my fax but they need it faxed.  This is the kind of modern-day-stupidity that makes me nuts. Digression end]

Eitan and I go for a 60 minute jog this morning - he is chipper and a good jogging companion. He has yet to put training into his running, which has always come naturally. That probably won't fly in today's competition.

We have oysters. Me: "You know, Madeleine, oysters are still alive when we eat them."
Madeleine spits out her oyster, ptui! "What? Mom, Dad is joking. Tell me he's joking."
Sonnet: "It could be possible."
Me: "That's how you know they are fresh."
Madeleine: "Animals. You are all animals."

Madeleine: "What would you have named me, if not 'Madeleine'?"
Sonnet: "'Hannah' or 'Abigail.'"
Me: "I like 'Abby Orenstein'. Or 'Ava."
Eitan: "What common British name would you least want me to have?"
Me: "You fuck'n wanker."
Eitan: "Seriously."
Me: "It's the most common name in England. Like, come 'ere you fuck'n wanker."
Sonnet: "You were almost an 'Oscar.'"
Me: "Good thing you're mom was on the case."

Tuck Shop

"Girl On The Train"

Eitan brings his monkey suit to France, good on him. He finishes "Girl On The Train" by Paula Hawkins which is about "a girl who's an alcoholic and has a pretty terrible life and she takes the same train twice a day and can look into all the houses she passes. There's this one couple that reminds her of her ex husband. She creates an imaginary story from what she sees of them and what she thinks is a perfect life. One day she finds out that the women has gone missing, and she tries to get to the bottom of who killed her. She kind of goes into their world, meets the husband, sees the house, and finds out about their past lives. And stuff."

We buy oysters from a seaside shop; Madeleine on the water cage: "That would be a nice place to live."

Sonnet: "Eitan you have such big feet."
Me: "You know what they say about big feet, don't you?"
Eitan:
Madeleine: "Dad!"
Me: "Big feet, big hands."

Madeleine: "Oh, yeah, right Dad. Like that was what you were really going to say."

Me: "What did you think I was going to say? Oh, that Eitan has a big willy?"

Eitan: "Hahaha."

Sonnet: "Don't listen to your father."

We have a discussion about school.

Me: "So what do you guys do when you get hungry?"

Madeleine: "We go to the tuck shop."

Me: "What's the tock shop?"

Madeleine: "The tuck shop. It's where we go to get snacks."

Me: "It's where you go to get sex?"

Madeleine: 

Me: "That's what I thought you said. Look, really, my hearing is going."

Sonnet: "It must be the British accent."

(Madeleine rolls her eyes)

Utah Beach

"The VIIth corps will attack Utah beach the D Day at H-Hour and will storm Cherbourg in a minimum of time."

--Field order number one dated May 28th, 1944

We re visit Utah Beach which is always extraordinary to me, what these men accomplished, and sacrificed. 

"Our landings in the Cherbourg-Havre area have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I have withdrawn the troops. My decision to attack at this time and place was based on the best information available. The troops, the air and the Navy did all that bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt, it is mine alone."

--Notes for an announcement, written by Eisenhower in advance of the Normandy invasion, in case of its failure, but never delivered.

Poor Dead Bastards

OGEFR. HUB. BRIEDENBACH, 8.8.24 + 11.6.44

We visit the German cemetery in La Cambe with its small parking-lot and no visitors. It is striking to see the U20s, and those gravestones marked after June 6, 1944, when a soldier's death would have been meaningless.

La Cambe was originally the site of a battlefield cemetery, established by the US Army Graves Registration Service during the war, where American and German soldiers, sailors and airmen were buried in two adjacent fields.

After the war ended on the continent and parallelling the work to repair the devastation, work began on exhuming the American remains and transferring them in accordance with the wishes of their families. Beginning in 1945, the Americans transferred two-thirds of their fallen from this site back to the United States while the remainder were reinterred at the American Cemetery overlooking Omaha Beach.

Because of the pace of the war, the German war dead in Normandy were scattered over a wide area, many of them buried in isolated field graves - or small battlefield cemeteries. In the years following the war, the German War Graves Commission (Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge) sought to establish six main German cemeteries in the Normandy area.

La Cambe covers over 21,000 German dead. 

(Source: Site, edited)

Self Portrait XXXXIII

Madeleine gives me a fake tattoo on my upper arm (she says, "a skull eating a blue rose while thorns are going through the top of its head."
Eitan:  "God you look like such a douchebag."
Me: "Do you even know what a 'douchebag' is?"
Eitan: "Yeah. Everybody does."
Me: "Is that so?"
Eitan: "It's not like it's a bad word or anything." [Dad's note: Eitan has no idea what a 'douchebag' is]
Me: "Let's keep that one in the house."

We visit a small village to look at antiques and paintings (buying a charming bird bath) then the boulengerie, charcouterie and the fromagerie.

Fonteney Sur Mer

Day 1

We pull into a familiar place following a six hour drive and The Chunnel crossing under the English Channel which, I learn, is the largest such vehicle transport in the world. Go figure. The car (over)loaded up with suitcases, electronics and bikes - missing only Rusty who got shipped off to the kennel, poor guy.

Madeleine suggests a car roof and I immediately connect it with the dog. Mitt Romney would approve.

Eitan: "Crepe."

Me: "Crap?"

Eitan: "Hahahaha!"