FRIDAY JULY
28, 1961 - LABOUHEYRE, FRANCE
France sure is out to skin
the Americans. A room & 1/2 dz. beer & 2 cheese sandwiches $5.00. Met 3
G.I.‘s here & boy do they hate the French. After last night I could see
why. The hotel owner asked them to pay their bill before going to bed but did
not ask anyone else. Truck & car
accident ahead, quite a big tie up, car smashed to bus. truck is in the ditch.
Everyone hurt don‘t know the cause. Spent the eve with G.I.‘s. Had a nice time. Drove most of the day through France. Left Bordeaux, Nantes, Chateaubriant, Vitré, Caen. We slept at Vitré, good bed and meals, old hotel.
However it was clean. Picked up hitchhiker at Nantes & he stayed with us until Vitré, English lad. I was quite
sick all day. Lots of gas & stomach pain. Felt better toward evening. Had a
good dinner. Bought fruit for the road.
Here we are at Normandy
& Avranches where the Normand invasion took place on June 4th, 1944.
Some of the barges, cannons etc. are still here plus the Mulberry Harbor. “D” Day 6-4-1944. We are
spending the night here. My camera fell and won’t focus anymore so we took it
to Bayeux, a small town 5 miles inland.
It will be ready tomorrow. Hope it‘s something they can repair. There’s also a museum
here, which gives the history of the whole invasion, mostly with movies.
While
in town with the camera we met an English man who runs the camera shop. He invited
us into his back room for a beer or what have you?? We had... beer (E.W. Gunton). Our room here
(F850), dinner wasn‘t bad, meat a bit tough, the rest OK. Tried to buy some
antiques in a small town. She wanted a bit too much.
Stayed at a small hotel on the beach, not bad, fair food, nice people.
Dropped my camera so I
took it to a camera shop for repairs. My lens was broken & they couldn‘t replace
them. So the man without asking loaned me one. He didn‘t even ask our name but
we gave it to him. I don ‘t know what good it would do if we once left the
country. But he trusted us, so we’ll return it along with a bag of corn for
popping. We visited Amalia beachhead also. The American cemetery here is kept
very beautifully (Omaha Beach). Thousands of our boys lie
here. There’s a lovely small chapel, a memorial etc. All crosses that mark the
graves are of white marble. Took some shots & picked up 2 boys, one from
Texas & one from Sweden & dropped them off at Avranches. Now we‘re heading for Paris & Papa is resting by the roadside. We checked into the
Palace hotel on the Left Bank. Not bad.
MONDAY JULY
31, 1961- PARIS, FRANCE
Got a room, got cleaned up
& walked for a while. Later had dinner, not so hot. stopped into a beer
garden & had some beer. Went for mail & as usual there was none. Guess
no one loves me. Met some people at American Express from Newport Beach. Had a
nice chat & got a client for Dr. Bill. 11:00
PM went to Les Halles but didn‘t get the thrill
that the book writes about. Got 2 qt. beer & went to our room, then beddie.
TUESDAY
AUGUST 1, 1961 - PARIS, FRANCE
Decided to go to the Arch deTriumph & again it was closed
so we didn‘t get to the top of it. However we did take a few shots then went to
the American Embassy about our car & they sent us to the German Embassy.
The fellow there said he’d take care of the car papers but we had to go to the
hotel & get our car so that he could see it, this we did & here we sit
in front of the Embassy waiting for the fellow to come down & look at our
car. I can‘t understand why at the American Embassy they employ French people
which makes it hard to talk to but at the German Embassy we deal with Germans,
how come?? Well anyway our papers were taken care of here & we won‘t need
to go back into Germany. While driving to
the embassy we decided to drive past the Eiffel Tower, it has a new coat of paint. Also drove past the Statue of Libertyon the Seine, the twin sister to our statue inthe NY harbor. Later Chas. decided he’d
like some “Mussels” for dinner, so we took the Metro to Les Halles & found a French restaurant that had them, so in we went
& had a bucketful of mussels, then steak & “pomme fris” & a beer
each - good? Talked to a couple of students while here from Koln here on vacation. Both boy & girl are medieval students.
After dinner we wandered around Montmartre, then the theatre district & Pigalle etc., the Metro back to the hotel & 3 qts of beer &
beddie. Boy I’m tired.
WEDNESDAY AUGUST
2, 1961 - PARIS, FRANCE to YPRES,BELGIUM
A visit to American
Express and a letter from ole faithful Carole. I’m almost cracked up to think
no one else wrote so far. Only one short note from D.J. Guess if no one misses
me. I’ll stay away. Back to the hotel. We paid our bill & checked out,
heading for Belgium border & Ypres. Bought fruit on the way & looked at some antiques, too
expensive. Came through the Belgium border & didn ‘t even know it. No one
even stopped us. Arrived here & checked into an English hotel. All very nice, clean too. Had a fabulous
dinner, in fact we couldn ‘t eat it all. Later at 9 PM walked to the Menin Gate & was present for the “Taps” honoring the dead, a very
impressive ceremony. It started to rain so headed for the hotel. Talked to 2
men from London & one from So. Wales, had a few beers & decided to go
to bed. Chas. had a head cold.
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