A Wedding in the Netherlands

This weekend we were very lucky to be invited to see our college friend (and my roommate!) get married in the Netherlands. Our friend, Evan, moved to Europe three years ago, fell in love with a Dutch man and finally made it official in a ceremony outside a gorgeous Dutch manor on Saturday. While I forgot my camera (ugh!) we've stolen some other photos to be able to share the beauty of the wedding, the bride, and the incredible farm where the party was held!

Since we knew we'd have a lengthy drive to the wedding, we decided to head up a day early and practice for our upcoming road trip in August! We started off at 10:45 on Friday morning. The night before we left, I Skyped with my grandfather and told him about our upcoming driving trips. He told me that when he and my grandmother ived in Germany as a young couple, they used to make plans to road-trip various towns and attractions. However, they had a rule that they shouldn't pass any place that looked interesting just for the sake of sticking to the original plan. Occassionally they found so many other places to stop that they'd have to save their original destination for another day, but we thought this was a great rule to follow for our mini-tour of Belgium and the Netherlands. Well, what do you know, after one hour on the road, we passed a sign for the small Medieval town of Senlis, which we had read about and had always been interested in visiting. We pulled off the highway and explored the town and were very pleasantly surprised. A gorgeous cathedral with a sunny plaza where we picnicked, a local market, half-timbered houses and cobblestone streets were enough to make us think we'd definitely like to come back here sometime in the future.

Apparently an old city wall from the 3rd century!

A plaque commemorating the building of this church in the 10th century.

Next, we headed to Gent, Belgium for a quick stop.

There was some type of festival being set up. Too bad we didn't get to stay!

Like other Belgian cities, Gent has a few charming canals running through it.

The architecture of Gent is a mix of traditional Belgian, brightly colored buildings and modern ones.

A classic scene. Bicycles are a preferred mode of transportation here and most roads have specific bike lanes

Finally, in the evening, we reached our final destination for the night: Antwerp. This city is similar to but larger than Gent. It had the same mixture of modern and old architecture. We had just one evening to spend in the city, so we walked around to take it all in, stopping at an adorable Greek restaurant for dinner.

Our first fried calamari in months! And it was perfect.

On our walk, we caught a glimpse of this strange vehicule. Everyone drinks from the keg in the center of the...car?...bicycle?...and pedals to keep the...land boat? cart?...moving!

The center square lined with restaurants

A straight-up shot of what a typical street in Antwerp looks like.

 But perhaps the highlight of our visit to Antwerp was the Antwerp zoo which is a famed attraction of this city. We spent four hours exploring the beautiful grounds, laughing at the monkeys, watching the penguins wiggle and searching for the bears (which we never did find).

Two monkeys, sleeping cuddled together. So cute.

After we had our fill of the world of animals, we hopped in the car and completed our trip with the drive to Eefde in the Netherlands to celebrate the marriage of my college roommate, Evan, to her new husband, Michiel. Michiel's family is Dutch and lives just outside Amsterdam. They found this beautiful estate to hold the ceremony and reception for the wedding, and although it was rainy all day, the house was gorgeous. Now, like a bad blogger, I went and forgot my camera for the wedding. I know, I took about 30 pictures of animals at the zoo and don't have one photo of the wedding. But I've borrowed a picture from the new couple's wedding website to show where the party was held.

The rest you'll have to imagine for yourself: a long, shady driveway leading to a tall, three-story stone mansion surrounded by a wrought-iron gate. Inside, a lower level of small rooms, a band playing "Celebrate Good Times" and other wedding-appropriate dance music, a conga-line led by the bride's parents (and yours-truly). A bar serving drinks in a library, with books on 10-foot shelves. The bride in a gorgeous white, strapless dress, longer in the back and mid-calf in the front with a flower belting the middle and a sweet little fantasizer-a-la-Britain. The groom in a handsome gray suit, with his tie tied around his forehead within 5 minutes. The couple's Dutch friends and the groom's family singing a traditional song to the couple, and loving toasts and the presentation of a few gifts by friends.  I hope to Facebook-stalk the other gifts and borrow some more pictures to share with you, but for now, your imagination is all you've got.

Before wrapping up our weekend in the Netherlands, I wanted to share the photos of the pancakes we had for dinner before the wedding. Each table is adorned with adorable pots of powdered sugar and honey to top off the pancakes. We ordered ham and cheese and they were some of the best pancakes we've ever had!

On Sunday morning, we were invited to a lovey brunch in a lovely town. Zutphen was about 10 minutes from the sleepy town of Eefde, where we stayed. This little town was beautiful and charming and worth a visit in its own right. My old college roomie and I had one more chance to catch up before we both hit the road- Peter and I back to Paris, and the bride and groom on their way to Turkey for the honeymoon!

Congratulations Evan and Michiel!

Bastille Day

Bastille Day takes place every year in France on the 14th of July (le quatorze juillet) and is a celebration in honor of the revolutionaries who freed France from the corrupt and totalitarian King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. Parisians kick of the celebration on the 13th when select fire stations and mayor's offices throw big parties open to the public. We joined friends for dinner at our favorite little local restaurant, Le Dernier Metro, and then headed the firehouse down the street from our apartment in the 15th arrondissement. The line was long but once in, we enjoyed bright lights and loud dance music entertaining the crowd!

Squished in the crowd with friends Sarah and Jon

The following day we decided to head to the Longchamps horse-racing track in the nearby Bois de Boulogne. Arriving at the metro stop (Porte d'Ateuil) there was a free shuttle to take people to the track. We found a great picnic table in the free, grassy picnicing area, and watched the horses as they whizzed by!

As the sun started to descend, we headed over to the Champs de Mars to watch the fireworks explode over the Eiffel Tower. We were slightly disappointed that this year's theme was "Broadway Musicals" and almost every song accompanying the fireworks display was from an American or British musical. The final song was New York New York and somehow that took away from the excitement of the celebration of FRENCH Independence day. We still enjoyed the show, however, and were happy to celebrate this national holiday in the country's capital, just down the street from our home.

Normandy, Part II

The second (and last) Normandy blog post focuses on our visit to the Point-du-Hoc.  This imposing bluff on the coast of France was an important part of the D-Day landings where a group of Army Rangers led by Lt. Colonel James Earl Rudder was tasked with climbing the bluff with grappling hooks and taking a large German artillery position by surprise.  However, due to some mixups and rough seas on the day of the invasion, they lost their element of surprise.  U.S. warships were able to fend off the Germans with naval artillery fire while they scaled the cliffs, but unfortunately, they found that the Germans had removed the artillery before they arrived.

A view of the Point-du-Hoc

Point-du-Hoc remains an American memorial and the landscape is almost untouched from 1944.  As you can see here, it is still covered in craters from the American naval ships that shelled the position on June 6, 1944.

One of the gun emplacements for the guns that were moved before D-Day.  One can only imagine that these were huge.

Today, the Point-du-Hoc is a great place to see the original bunker emplacements that formed the German "Atlantic Wall" and to appreciate the sacrifice made by the Army Rangers that day.

A German bunker complex.  Most of the bunkers at the Point-du-Hoc have the same layout.

This was the gunport that defended the entrance of each bunker.

My friends Sean and Peter standing in front of a concrete wall that clearly saw a lot of action on D-Day. 

Germans in this bunker may not have been so lucky as it appears that the wooden roof slats are completely charred.  This is likely the result of an American flamethrower.

The inside of a German underground bunker.

Whats left of a decaying bunker.  We weren't "officially" allowed into this one, but snuck in anyway.

The view from the observation post of the Point-du-Hoc looking out at the English Channel. 

After securing the Point-du-Hoc on the first day, the 225 Army Rangers commanded by Lt. Col. Rudder spent 2 days fighting off German counter-attacks until they linked-up with other American troops.  By the end of the 2 days, only 90 of the 225 were still able to fight.

Looking out from the Point-du-Hoc