Sixt Fer-a-Cheval is in the Haute Savoie region of France near Samoens.

The village acts as a gateway to the huge nature reserve in which it resides, an area known for its outstanding natural beauty. Sixt is just 6km from Samoens, a gentle and very scenic cycle or walk following the Giffre river as it tumbles it way down the valley through the impressive Gorge des Tines.

We joined our friends Stephanie and Daniel for a hike along this stunningly beautiful valley deep into the mountains. We were greeted by some of the most impressive waterfall scenery we’d seen. A landscape photographer’s paradise, it was almost impossible to capture a bad image!

This region is best described in pictures. These images are a small selection of hundreds taken that day.

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The valley had waterfalls everywhere. Some were so strong they created a cold wind which almost sucked you towards them if you got too close. Alpine flowers were also plentiful. The water came mainly from snow-melt and small glaciers between the massive rock formations. The moraine of the glaciers encroached into the valley floor.

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So our time in France has come to an end. We only experienced a few regions of this historically and scenically impressive country.

The crowded but impressive Palace of Versailles; Claude Monet’s sublime garden at Giverny; hosts Dean and Susan at la Beauconniere in Lamberville, Normandy for the incredible 75th commemoration of the Normandy Landings on 6th June 1944; a stay with an accredited battlefield guide at the wonderful Silent Picket B&B in Martinpuich for a reflection of the terrible tragedy that unfolded on the Somme battlefields in 1916; the cycle trips to the chateaux of Amboise and the Loire Valley; the sensational scenery at the summit of Mont Blanc, Chamonix and Annecy and the splender of the Samoens region gave us enough to want to see more next time.

But it’s the beginning of July and it’s off for a short time to Solferino near Garda in Italy to Simon’s old school and Air Cadets friend Jonathan and his wife Lucretia.

Sometimes you go to a place where the weather is perfect and the scenery is of the kind they use for a jigsaw puzzle. The area around the southern French Alps was for us a bit like this.

We travelled across the middle part of France on the good but expensive highway system from Amboise to Annecy situated a short drive away from the southern French Alps. Annecy’s old town is the real attraction with its cobbled streets, myriad of canals and pastel coloured houses – and of course restaurants. The city, which lies on the northern tip of Lake Annecy, is dominated by the Chateau d’Annecy, once home to the counts of Geneva, only a short drive away across the border.

During our time in Annecy we had the pleasure of meeting up with work friends Stephanie and Daniel. Stephanie, who comes from this region of France, was kind enough to point us in the right direction into a region we’d never been to before.

It is often not easy for images to do justice to the location but we have done our best. To really appreciate it you need to go there. Here are some from our numerous walks around the old town of Annecy.

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Stephanie’s advice turned out to be perfect as we took the Aiguille du Midi cable car up to a point around 4700m overlooking the summit of Mont Blanc, Europe’s highest peak. The sky was blue and the scenery from this high point was quite sensational. Although it costs EUR65 per person, it is worth every cent. If you are afraid of heights, making the journey up to this point in the mountains will cure you for good! We had never been higher than this and after an hour or so one was starting to feel just a little bit light headed. They recommend about 2 hours up there before they bring you down on a scheduled cable car ride.

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The next day we embarked on a stunningly beautiful hike in the area of Sixt-Fer-a-Cheval near Samoens…………in our next post.

From our extraordinary time in the Somme we headed south west for something much lighter. After a relatively short drive bypassing Paris in the direction of Le Mans, home of the famous “24 heures du mans”, lies the fabulous Loire Valley. Our ‘maison’ was a pleasant twenty minute walk over the river Loire to the beautiful historic town of Amboise.

The Loire region of France is famous for its abundance of chateaux, its river system and the friendly flat landscape making it ideal for discovering by bicycle.

Amboise, which is situated in the central Loire region, was once the home of the French Royal Court. Here you will find the Chateau d’Amboise, the 15th century grand residence of King Charles XIII of France as well as the Chateau du Clos Luce, Leonardo da Vinci’s home for the last few years of his life as a guest of King Francis I. Other notable visitors to the town are Joan of Arc and Mary Queen of Scots who spent much of her childhood there.

We spent 3 days in Amboise discovering the town including the prominent Chateaux d’Amboise and Leonardo’s fascinating home. Armed with cheese, cold meats and baguette we rented bicycles and embarked on a 47km ride to the delightful Chateau Chenonceau spanning the River Cher, probably the most famous of the chateau in the region.

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We were surprised to learn that Leonardo was a guest of the King of France and he spent the remaining few years of his life in Amboise. His home and gardens are open to the public and contain fascinating replicas of many of his most well known inventions which highlighted to us again what an extraordinary mind he had and forward thinker Leonardo was.

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Some images of our walk around the town of Amboise

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Some images taken of and from d’Chateau Amboise

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A bicycle ride through the Loire valley, along the River Cher to the stunning Chateau Chenonceau rounded off a beautiful three days. Our only regret was the short time spent in this region.

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Our next stop on our journey through France was to really blow us away with some of the most beautiful scenery you’d find anywhere……….in our next post.

It just so happens that two of the most momentous events in the the history of the world and more specifically of France took place within a couple of hours drive from each other and more shockingly within 30 years of each other. As our interest in military history (is there really any history not in some way related to the military?) continued after Normandy, we decided to spend a few days in another part of northern France, the Somme in the region Hauts-de-France.

We imagine few people have heard of the Somme river let alone the role it played as the stage of the costliest battle of The Great War. The Battle of the Somme, also known as the Somme Offensive, was fought by the armies of the British Empire and French Third Republic against the German Empire. This brutal battle of attrition took place between 1st July and 18th November 1916 around the upper reaches of the Somme river. And it was just one of many huge battles fought between 1914 and 1918.

We booked into a B&B in the tiny village of Martinpuich, set in gently rolling farmland between Bapaume and Albert. The front lines in July 1916 and November 1916 are a 10 minute drive from the village. The B&B, called ‘Silent Picket’ has a wonderful proprietor in John who is an accredited battlefield guide and his wife Jenni.

A ‘silent picket’ is basically a stake to secure barbed wire in place and enables you to insert it in the ground by twisting instead of hammering to avoid making a noise – thus giving away your position to the enemy. Silent Picket B&B caters mostly for people wishing to explore the Somme area and has a substantial library for your use. John and Jenni are both mines of information and very generous in sharing their knowledge as well as research help should you be looking for information on relatives who may have fallen in the battle.

A visit to the Somme WWI sites is probably not to everyone’s taste as it can be extremely confronting and has a way of challenging your emotions. To give you an idea of scale – within a 10km radius of the village of Martinpuich you will find approximately 110 British Empire cemeteries and numerous French and German. Some of these cemeteries have as many as 4000 headstones or as few as 30. These are mostly young men, many teenagers still who answered the call for King & Country or who were conscripted to serve for a cause which cost one million casualties in five months. In today’s very different world, it is hard to believe let alone comprehend.

Like Normandy, the area of the Somme is a tranquil, rural, pastoral canvas of small villages and farms. These cemeteries are literally scattered all over the countryside, on farmland or in some cases part of special national memorials. They are managed in the main by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and beautifully maintained with the utmost of respect. They have a surreal beauty of their own despite the tragic circumstances that lead to them being there.

This collection of images hopefully reflects the story of one of the biggest waste of life in the history of mankind. We feel, rightly or wrongly, that everyone should know about this.

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The South African memorial at Delville Wood

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Images of the cemeteries around the Sheffield Memorial Park. Serre Road cemeteries 1,2 and 3, Railway Hollow cemetery, Luke Copse cemetery and the memorial to the Bradford Pals. ‘Pals Battalions’ were specially constituted battalions of the British army that guaranteed a soldier could serve alongside his friends, family or colleagues rather than being arbitrarily allocated to battalions. The impact of losses of these battalions on society was devastating.

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The impressive Australian memorial at Villers Bretonneux. It contains the graves of Australian, British and South African soldiers who fell at the Somme and beautifully laid out on a hill overlooking the valley. The recently opened and much publicised Sir John Monash centre was, although informative, very jingoistic and in our opinion quite disappointing.

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The memorial to the soldiers of Newfoundland. The grounds are extensive and the impressions of the trenches from 1916 are still quite noticeable. A walk through gives a small idea of the scale of a battle. The enemy trench was sometimes only metres away. Areas of land never touched are ‘no go’ zones due to the risk of undetonated ordnance.

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In June and July poppies, the flower of remembrance for Britain and the Commonwealth, can be seen all over the Somme area – usually scattered through the wheat fields or in pockets as we found in this field which had not been ploughed the previous autumn.

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More images of the scores of cemeteries and memorials in the Somme region. One should not forget that this is only a small part of the Western Front which stretched from the English Channel in the north to the Swiss border in the south.

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After four days exploring this amazing yet sobering place, we moved on south to the Loire Valley and something quite different. Although it may seem rather sombre to some, the Somme has a surreal feeling of peace and beauty only perhaps understood once you have physically felt the history of what happened here 100 years ago.

We soon realised that to get a proper appreciation of the sheer scale of le debarquement as it is called in France, we needed more time. The Normandy landings took place over an 80km front along the coast and inland. After a few days visiting the eastern part of the invasion area (covered in our previous post), we then travelled west to the Cotentin peninsula.

While the strategic targets near Pegasus Bridge were being taken by the paras during the early hours of 6th June 1944, the US Airborne divisions were engaged in the west near St Mere Eglise securing key targets. The US forces landed in Waco gliders and by parachute inland near La Fiere. They found themselves scattered due to winds and fierce defences however managed to achieve their objectives.

Today when you look up at the steeple of the church at St Mere Eglise, you can see the ‘figure’ of John Steele still attached to his parachute. At around 4am he was injured and caught up on the church steeple. He stayed there for over two hours before being freed and taken prisoner. This small town was the first to be liberated in the Cotentin area and the impression of the invasion is plain to see today.

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Further inland around the village of La Fiere is the bridge over the Merderet River close to where the US Airborne troops landed. The battle for the bridge was intense and it was four days before the Americans captured this vital installation. There is a beautiful bronze relief showing the area of the battle then and now and a memorial to all those who took part.

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The Beaches:

A 40 min drive from St Mere Eglise at Colleville-sur-Mer we found the American cemetery and the excellent Overlord museum, just inland from Omaha beach where the Americans faced such enormous resistance on 6th June 1944. This huge memorial to all the US servicemen and women is beautifully placed on the clifftops overlooking the sea and Omaha beach.

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We made a point of visiting and walking on all five landing beaches and trying to picture what it may have been like 75 years ago. It was hard to imagine it really.

Omaha Beach – the most heavily defended beach and the most difficult of all landings:

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Utah Beach – another of the American landing sites.

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Gold Beach – near Arromanches, one of two British landing beaches .

The famous Mulberry Harbours can be found here at Arromanches, perhaps the most visible and impressionable reminder of the invasion. The Mulberry Harbours were temporary harbours to facilitate the landing of millions of tons of supplies and equipment for the invasion forces.

The idea was initiated by Winston Churchill and built mainly by private companies in England and towed across the channel by the Royal Navy later on the 6th June. The 400 essentially concrete parts weighing over 1.5 million tons were installed a few days later. The harbours were capable of handling 12,000 tons of equipment (excluding vehicles) a day. These are still to be seen off the coast and on the beach at Arromanches. Their sheer scale tells the story of what this must have been like.

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Views from the clifftops west of Arromanches

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Juno – where the Canadian troops came ashore.

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Sword Beach – the second of the British landing beaches and most easterly of the five.

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The 75th anniversary of this momentous event in Normandy was both humbling and awe inspiring and we feel very privileged to have witnessed the remembrance events. Perhaps the whole thing is summed up by these images taken on the clifftops west of Arromanches.

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This post is by no means a history lesson or even a personal view of events. It is a reflection of what we saw, felt and engaged with during the week long remembrance of this momentous occasion. The historical comments are reflected in a simple manner and we fully recognise that events in Normandy 75 years ago were far more complex than we have portrayed in this blog. We hope you enjoyed it.

Normandy today exhibits rural tranquillity and natural balance. Between the maze of hedgerows, herds of well nourished dairy cows pass the time lazily in the meadows. Sleepy villages, connected by tiny narrow roads, where hardly a car is seen, portray a peaceful and almost seclusive existence. For someone brought up in relative peace it is hard to comprehend what this corner of France endured 75 years ago.

The 6th of June 1944 might be considered by many as the most significant single day in history. In the first few minutes of the 6th of June, the 6th British Airborne Division in the east and the US 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions in the west landed by parachute – in the dark – with a mission to capture key strategic installations in Normandy.

At 00:16 that morning a force of 181 troops of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry aboard six Horsa gliders. They were towed from Dorset, England and released from the tow aircraft six miles out from target in total darkness. All but one landed in a meadow the size of two football fields. Their mission was to capture the strategic Caen Canal and Orne bridges. They achieved this in 10 minutes and it has been described as the greatest feat of airmanship in WW2. The bridge thereafter became known as Pegasus Bridge after the Parachute Regiment Pegasus emblem. That bridge is now in a museum.

And so unfolded the largest amphibious military invasion in history with 156,000 US, Canadian and British troops along with other allied nations landing on 5 beaches across an 80km stretch of the Normandy coast.

The names of Gold, Juno, Omaha, Sword, and Utah and hundreds of other places inland are now etched in the history of this beautiful part of France.

Our main reason for this trip to Normandy was Simon’s interest in military history and he was not going to miss this significant occasion. 18 months ago we booked a charming 16th century B&B called La Beauconniere in Lamberville in the heart of rural Normandy, about 45 mins from Arromanches (Gold Beach). Our very room was a refuge place for the French Resistance and the owner has found numerous British and German ammunition whilst working on the property as well as messages scratched into some of the walls.

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On 6th June 2019 the world was in Normandy to commemorate this momentous event and pay respects to all those, no matter who, soldier or civilian, affected by it. This is how we saw it……..

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To commemorate these momentous events, twenty or so DC3/C47 aircraft reenacted the parachute drop by deploying 200 paras over Drop Zone K near Touffreville (the precise area they came down in 1944). All troops were kitted out as they were in WW2 and the canopies were of 1940’s style. Even the weather had some similarities to 6th June 1944.

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Two members of the British 6th Airborne who landed in Normandy early that morning in 1944 repeated the feat by doing a tandem jump with the Red Devils before the mass drop. They are now 94 and 95. We were lucky to witness this and went to see one Harry Reed afterwards.

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Before the mass jump the Red Devils displayed national flags and regimental insignia.

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Services were held throughout the week across Normandy. Heads of state from all participating nations were present and the Gendarmerie were everywhere. You could not get near the invasion beaches on 6th June unless you had a special pass. Roads were closed but we found a way to view events from other places, clifftops etc.

The streets were overflowing with WW2 vehicles meticulously restored and shipped from all corners of the world for this event. There must have been a thousand at least camped out near the invasion beaches, bivouacked in tents and other makeshift accommodation. Sometimes village streets had more military than civilian vehicles such was the enthusiasm for this event.

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Away in the west, at more or less the same time, American forces were operating near the small town of Sainte-Mere Eglise behind Utah beach. Our next post to follow in Normandy Part Two………..

We deliberately avoided Paris as we’d previously spent time there. We both felt a little underwhelmed by the city, not optically – it is absolutely beautiful – but rather because of what we experienced, it’s general unfriendliness, lack of value, poor service and, well we’re not quite sure, just a feeling……

However, there are two places nearby we’d had on our list of ‘must see’ for ages. These are the Palace of Versailles and probably the most well known of the impressionists, Claude Monet and his garden at Giverny.

We spent a few days at a charming petit maison in Bennecourt, an hour from Paris. It was situated right on the river Seine and we had a couple of glorious summer evenings sipping wine and enjoying the plentiful and outstanding French cheese and baguette.

If you want to know about French royalty over the past 4 centuries, the Palace of Versailles is the place where all the stories are told. Its walls, corridors and halls are a fascinating canvas of intrigue, revenge, extreme opulence, child kings, foreign occupation and revolution.

Some free travel advice – the site on which the palace is set is huge and you need a full day at least to see everything. Book tickets in advance and be prepared to be part of the 7 million visitors who cram through the buildings each year. We’ve said on a few occasions during our trip, “the problem with being a tourist is other tourists”. Be prepared for crowds, not all of whom have any manners.

Versailles is grand on any scale which these images hopefully show.

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A short drive from our little house is another monument historique. These are the house and gardens at Giverny, home to Claude Monet, a founder of French impressionist painting and perhaps the most well known.

The gardens at Giverny, are surely one of the most enchanting to be seen. The house has been preserved in the colours from Monet’s palette which he oversaw before his death in 1926. Monet took inspiration from being in nature and one can understand how this garden would have inspired him.

The House & Garden

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The Flowers

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The pretty village of Giverny is also well worth a walk around for there is other history there. Monet’s grave is in the local churchyard as is that of an RAF Lancaster crew which crashed near the village two days after the Normandy invasion on 6th June 1944. A memorial to the crew is also in the village.

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Next stop Normandy to experience a commemoration of one of the most significant days in the history of the 20th century.

We must confess, Mallorca to us was a place to where northern Europeans flock in their thousands to get roasted by the relentless Spanish summer sun, eat familiar fare and generally indulge. We flew into Palma on the south western part of the island, stepped out of the airport to be greeted by dozens of tour buses lined up to swallow the hordes of holiday makers arriving on budget airlines (as we did too bye the way). And it wasn’t even holiday season yet! This did not look promising.

We were soon on our way in the cheapest rental car we’d ever hired and before long we were passing olive groves and vineyards, beautiful farms and lush landscape.

After an hour’s easy drive we arrived at friends Pit & Gundi just outside a small town called Arta in the north east of the island. It was now looking promising. We hadn’t seen a tourist bus for ages and we were to stay on a ‘finca’. Some of the delights of travel are that you will always experience something new. The best way to describe a ‘finca’ is a small farm or ranch with numerous arable portions of land, olive, avocado and fruit trees, wild grass and flowers and the sounds of nature. Our finca was an exquisite place. The original buildings are still there and most are functional. Pit & Gundi have done an extraordinary job in renovating and improving whilst keeping the original character of the place. Initially we’d planned four or so days and ended up staying a week, so much did we enjoy ourselves.

Over the next week we explored a good part of the island from Cap de Formentor to Port de Soller and across to Potocolom and places in between. To put it mildly, we were just blown away by the beauty of Mallorca.

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Flowers in spring are plentiful on the island in spring.

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So it was farewell to Pit & Gundi and also to Spain. Our first visit touched just a small portion of this beautiful and fascinating country. We had no time for many cities and regions but the Camino de Santiago (and the rest of Spain) will be there when we next visit. Next stop France……….

Continuing with our romance with Andalusia, we found ourselves in Cordoba, our last stop in southern Spain before heading off to the largest of the Balearic Islands, Mallorca.

As with many Spanish cities in this region, the Moorish and Islamic influence, in architecture particularly, is everywhere. Initially a Roman settlement, it was taken over by the Umayyad Caliphate in the 8th century. It became a centre of learning and by the 10th century Cordoba was the largest city in Europe.

Amongst the most notable and exceptionally beautiful buildings is the Mezquita, now a cathedral, which became a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1984. This status was expanded to include the historic centre of Cordoba. Much of the architecture has been reworked and reconstructed by the city’s successive inhabitants over the centuries.

We spent our few days walking around the old city and exploring the myriad of tiny streets, stopping in at the fascinating shops, restaurants and bars. It was very hot but ‘watering holes’ were frequent and the Spanish beer and outstanding red wines were most welcome.

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The walk through the streets and alley ways gave us a real feel about the city. In places is was like walking back in time such was the authenticity of the place. This is a collection of our discoveries…….

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Our next post will be our last stop in Spain. Palma, the capital of Mallorca is an hour and a half’s flight from Sevilla. We thought Mallorca was the party capital of Spain with Bratwurst and Beer and Bacon & Eggs the standard fare. How wrong we were!

Every city has one special attraction that sets it apart from others. Granada is no exception. It is universally known for its Alhambra, a medieval fortress dating back to the Moorish occupation of the area, with small beginnings in AD889 having been built on the remains of Roman fortifications and renovated in the 13th century by the Nasrid emir Mohammed ben Al-Ahmar of the Emirate of Granada. Surprisingly, over the centuries, it fell into a state of neglect and only after the fall of Napoleon was the Alhambra rediscovered. Notably the Duke of Wellington planted scores of English elms in 1812 which are still there today.

To our total disappointment we discovered it was fully booked for the next 8 days – a good lesson for anyone – book well in advance!

Even from the outside this UNESCO World Heritage Site is truly a spectacle of extraordinary proportions. Perched on top of a hill outside and well above the city, the Alhambra dominates the skyline under the distant shadow of the snow tipped Sierra Nevada mountains.

While the city is dominated by the Alhambra, and one can clearly understand why, the old city’s tiny and often very steep cobbled streets are full of hidden gems. The following set of images reflect a slightly different look at this city compared to Sevilla.

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We had this strange fascination with some of the doorways and windows of Spain, as we did with Portugal. They have such texture and somehow appear inviting to the visitor.

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We loved this city! It is really a “must see”. On leaving, we wondered how Cordoba would compare…..next post coming soon.