Our European Adventure Pauses To Remember - Blog Part 8 - Juno Beach, Dieppe & Vimy

This is the Never Leave Your Wingman book speaking. As you may know, I am a true story about Dionne Warner, a seven-time cancer survivor in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada who dresses in costume and dances into her chemotherapy treatments, alongside her fun-loving husband/wingman Graham (who has also dressed in some pretty funny costumes, I must say). I've been blogging about the adventures I had in Europe this summer, after my author/publisher and her publisher husband took me along on their once-in-a-lifetime European vacation (read my first blog).

As Remembrance Day 2013 approaches, I'd like to use a good part of this blog to introduce you to a friend of mine, The Little Coat: The Bob and Sue Elliott Story book. My friend tells the amazing true war story/love story about a Canadian soldier, a little Dutch girl, and the coat that has linked them together forever.

In case you haven't guessed by now, my publishers are pretty sneaky at times... and unknown to me, they brought three copies (I'll tell you about all three later) of my friend The Little Coat along on our journey to Europe this summer. I didn't know about this sneaky move... and I didn't see my friend until we arrived here...

...at the Juno Beach Centre, in Courselles-sur-Mer of the Normandy region of France.

My publishers all of a sudden pulled my friend The Little Coat out of their backpacks. And I was so pleased. It was the perfect place for him. The Centre houses the Juno Beach museum, which contains artifacts and films and tells some of the incredible stories and details of the Second World War. I was honoured to go into this building and onto the actual Juno Beach with my friend The Little Coat.

Before I move on in this blog, please allow me to tell you more about The Little Coat:  The Bob and Sue Elliott Story. This award-winning, bestselling book is written by Saskatchewan author Alan J. Buick. It tells the true story of Alberta soldier Bob Elliott, who was 15 years old when he enlisted in the Second World War. Almost four years later, on June 6, 1944, Bob landed on Juno Beach as a member of the 19th Field Regiment. That day would later become known as D-Day. 

Bob survived that horrid battle and advanced further into France and then into the Netherlands. At age 19, in November 1944, he was a tank commander fighting the German troops in the Netherlands when he met 10-year-old Sussie Cretier. Sussie's family had just escaped to the safety of the Allied forces, and this feisty little girl soon became a good-luck charm and adopted little sister to many of the men in Bob's troop. The soldiers wanted to give Sussie a Christmas gift, so they took a Canadian Army blanket and gave it to a seamstress in that Dutch village, asking her to make it into a coat for Sussie. The buttons for the coat came off the Canadian soldiers' tunics. On Christmas Day, 1944, Bob gave Sussie the coat on behalf of his crew, and teh Canadians soon left Holland to continue with the advance against the German forces. More than 35 years later, Bob and Sussie (Sue) reconnected and fell in love. She still had the little coat. She brought it with her to Canada and married her hero.

As my publishers and I and our friend, The Little Coat book, looked around the grounds of Juno Beach, we could only think of Bob Elliott and the thousands of others who fought and sacrificed so much for our freedom.

 We were overwhelmed by their strength, their courage, and their sacrifices.

The Juno Beach Centre grounds and museum share stories of those who fought that historic battle.

Walking down the path toward the beach, we wondered how many men had died in this spot.

How many lost their lives here in the service of their country?

My publishers set The Little Coat on the sand at Juno Beach, in an homage to those who fought... and to honour the late Bob Elliott, our hero, who passed away earlier this year - on February 15, 2013.

We miss you, Bob. Thank you for your service.

From Juno Beach, we drove further up the coast to the French port of Dieppe. We wanted to see this significant spot at which 907 Canadians lost their lives in a failed raid in August 1942, which later informed more successful attacks for the Allied forces.

These Canadians are not forgotten, though. The beautiful Dieppe Square honours the Canadians who died in that raid. 

This plaque commemorates the more than 1,200 men, most of whom were Canadian, who died at Dieppe during that failed attempt at liberating France.

Each year since the end of the war, on August 19, ceremonies are held in Dieppe to commemorate that battle and the loss of life. Unaware of this annual event, we arrived in Dieppe and saw the displays set up in preparation for these ceremonies. Fascinating.

From Dieppe, we drove inland, towards Vimy, France, where we were anxious to see the great Vimy Ridge Memorial site.

About 30 kilometres southwest of Vimy, we began seeing cemeteries in the Pas de Calais region. These are the final resting places of soldiers killed in the First World War.

It was quite moving, driving through small towns surrounded by farmland and seeing these beautifully kept markers of soldiers known and unknown who died in the service of their country. We saw grave markers for Irish, Welsh, English, Australian, and Canadian soldiers. There was even one German soldier's grave marker.... and that was only in the first couple of rows of this cemetery.

There were many, many cemeteries in this region, all well-kept and providing an everlasting tribute to those who fell in the First World War. We were particularly moved by this often-seen grave marker:

'Soldier of the Great War. Known to God.'

The above statue, in the village of Puisieux, France, also commemorates the fatalities of war, as does the statue below. It stands in the village of Ayette and remembers the children who died from 1914 to 1918.

Arriving at Vimy, France, we walked through the museum and along the paths on the grounds, which still show the crevices caused by bombs and mines from the First World War.

The Battle of Vimy Ridge in 1917 was not one of Canada's most successful military achievements, but was significant for bringing Canadian forces together as a unified fighting force for the first time..

The Vimy Memorial site includes a piece of the trench from the war and memorials to those who served.

Signs warn visitors to not step over the electric fence because parts of the land, which has been donated to Canada by France for the memorial, contain undetonated explosives. 

The memorial is spectacular... from far away... 

...and up close.

Soldiers are honoured here by their names engraved on the memorial. Publisher Al touches the name of a J.A. Driver. He is not related to Al, but Al's grandfather did serve at Vimy.

Soldiers are also remembered here with gifts left by their loved ones. 

We will never forget.

One final comment in this blog commemorating those who fought for our freedom...

When we were at Juno Beach, my publishers set three copies of The Little Coat book down on the sand of Juno Beach., and they sprinkled a few grains of sand from that significant beach inside the pages of each of the books. 

Days later, they gave one of those special books to this amazing woman....

... Sussie (Cretier) Elliott - the 'little girl' who received 'the little coat' from Bob Elliott and crew in December 1944. 

But that's a wonderful story for my next blog.

In the meantime, please pause on November 11th to remember those who served and those who continue to serve today.

Never Leave Your Wingman's Excellent European Adventure - Part 7 - Barcelona & Paris

It was a little difficult for me to leave France (see my last blog) after having such a great time in Nice and then in Monaco, but I felt better once my author told me that we wouldn't be out of France for too many days. We were leaving just long enough to go check out Spain.

I know! Spain! Can you believe it!

Sangria, spicy foods, exotic flamenco dancers, running of the bulls and all that. Well, I didn't actually see or eat or do any of those things… but I did see this –

... a sign that warns of deer rappelling.

Really? Spanish deer are smart enough to know how to rappel off a cliff? Nah, it couldn't be. My author Deana and her husband (Publisher Al) thought this was so funny, but surely, they thought, there must be a Spanish word for ‘rappel’ that means something other than ‘haphazardly jump off the edge of something and throw yourself into the air.’ So they looked it up when we all got home … and they didn't find any other definition... so rappel off a cliff it is. Crazy Spanish deer.

And we saw far too much of this on our travels:

...Road signs that allow you to go 130 kilometres per hour on the highway. In parts of Europe – Germany in particular – we discovered that the speed limit signs were merely suggestions. At one point, a fellow in a little sports car zipped by us so fast that all we heard was the vrooom of his vehicle. He scared the bejeebers out of Publisher Al! The guy – or maybe it was a girl -  was going so fast that we didn't even see the car coming up behind us. Yikes!

We saw these beautiful hills/mountains on our way to Barcelona and we couldn't resist sharing this pretty picture.

Also… We found Nemo!!

Ha ha. Well, maybe not that Nemo. Cute, though.

We also saw this lion. He is very handsome and quite manly, I think. I actually developed kind of a crush on him. My author set me very close to him. I could feel his strong, hard paw. Oooh.

He is one of four lions that guard a very important statue of Columbus near the harbour in beautiful Barcelona - which marks the spot where Columbus returned after discovering America.

Yes, my lion does have three friends who are also fairly handsome and guard the other sides of the statue, but I like my lion the best. With those deep-set eyes, strong jawline and majestic pose... he’s totally in command of his domain. Aaaahhhhh….

Ahem… Perhaps we should move on…

There are tour buses all over Europe, especially in the bigger centres. We didn't ride on this one, but we loved its colours and I loved how my beautiful pink showed off so well against the blue-and-white bus.

And turning our attention back to the Barcelona Harbour, and the statue of Columbus...

...We couldn't resist a few photos of me with some angel friends...

It really felt at times as though we were meant to be in that spot – so we could see and enjoy the beautiful architecture and statues around us, all lined up with pretty angel wings. 

My beautiful Dionne would smile. Except she’d probably strike a funny pose alongside these statues. I did my best, given that I’m just a book.

We saw so many interesting sights in Barcelona.

   

The fruits and flowers along the main downtown street, Las Ramblas.

Plus these sights that we would have expected to see in Las Vegas, but not as much in Barcelona - people dressed in costumes and asking for tips from passersby. It felt kind of strange and out of place for us.

    

 We also saw the typical touristy stuff...

... and we took this fun photo... 

...of some pasta boxes that reminded us of one of my editors, Dani. It made us smile, and that's always a good thing. 

 The most remarkable, astounding, spectacular site we saw on all of our travels through Europe was this incredible structure:

Construction of the Basilica de La Sagrada Familia (Church of The Sacred Family) began in 1882 (no, that's not a typo) and construction continues to this day. (Note the crane on the right side of the structure.) The building may not be finished until 2013, but some believe it may never be finished, as it is one of Barcelona's most popular tourist attractions and may not draw the crowds if work was ever completed.

As we walked up the subway stairs to ground level, we saw people standing at the top of the stairs, facing toward us and taking photos. We wondered what they were looking at... and then we saw the building! Our jaws dropped open. Above is our photos of just a small section of the outside of the building. You can see a bit more of the building in this video.

Inside, the church is awe-inspiringly beautiful. Huge, bright, colourful and beautiful. 

This is a small section of the ceiling. Photos do not do it justice. It has to be experienced to be believed.

Antoni Gaudi spent 10 years working on just the design of the cupola. Creating an inverted version of his proposed design, he hung bags of sand on strings to figure out the perfect configuration that would support his design. Details are shown of this process below, in one of many displays of the building's downstairs museum. Remarkable.

Antoni Gaudi definitely left his mark on our souls during our visit to Barcelona, as did others. After two beautiful all-too-short days in Barcelona, we headed north towards Paris.

I know! Paris!!!!

But first, a pit stop along the side of the highway to have a little lunch – French-style…

...with a baguette, some sandwich meat, a few pickles.

And oh, look at those legs on Publisher Al! Ooh La La! It was still above 30 degrees Celsius, so the shorts were definitely the comfy way to travel.

My author (and co-publisher) Deana loves sunflowers. So do I (and so does my subject Dionne, but she wasn't with us, of course)… so we asked Publisher Al to pull over along the highway so we could carefully walk into this field to take some photos of me with these beautiful flowers.

I love the spirit of these flowers. They make me want to smile and smile and smile.

Paris!!!

What can I say about Paris except that it is perhaps the most beautiful city on earth. Or at least the most beautiful city I’d seen in Europe to that point. There were so many wonderful sights and places to explore and enjoy that a dozen photos wouldn't even begin to explain it all to you. So my author and I have chosen a few of our favourites. We hope you love them as much as we did.

Notre Dame Cathedral is one of those jaw-dropping, amazing sites that has to be seen to be believed. It is so huge and so overwhelming that one could sit for hours and just stare at the front façade and soak in the splendour.

The Paris Opera House is another 'Oh-Wow' kind of building. And that’s just seeing it from the outside! The golden angel on the top caught my eye, of course, but there is so much rich history and beauty to the actual building that we were all astounded. You can see why someone  would use it as the setting for a novel like Phantom of the Opera. Magnificent!

And the Arc de Triomphe. We saw it first from a few blocks away, while on a Hop-On-Hop-Off bus.

The closer we got to it, the more majestic and glorious and spellbinding and incredible the site became. Very, very cool.

You can’t be in Paris without recognizing its history of being a shopping and fashion mecca. We knew that if our Dionne would have been with us on this trip, at this point, she would have shouted for the bus driver to “Stop the Bus!” so she could get off and check out this shop… and quite a few of its friends along Paris’ famed shopping district.

There are several bridges in Europe on which passersby put locks - in celebration of an event, in honour of someone they love, or just because others are doing it. One such bridge is in Paris, and my publishers decided to buy a tiny lock from a street vendor and join the crowd in leaving their hearts and lock in Paris. Romantic, huh?

We spent an entire afternoon walking around the outside and through many of the exhibits at The Louvre, one of the most famous art galleries in the world. It was quite the experience.

 The Louvre, of course, is home to this special lady, the Mona Lisa.

A lot of people are disappointed after seeing Mona Lisa, because they thought she would be bigger or something else. We thought she was beautiful, and we were pleased to get so close to her serious expression.

Then we saw hundreds of other beautiful pieces of art while on our way to see this lady... Venus de Milo.

She is quite exquisite. I loved Venus de Milo. Maybe it`s because of her colour and shape, but it's probably because she looks so content with her lot in life. She's quite magnificent in her pose... looking at the world as if to say, "That's right - I'm awesome!"

You go, girl! You are awesome.

While enjoying the yards of the Louvre, we happened upon this talented musician in one of the archways.

He was tucked away under the pillars, playing his cello and accepting tips. His beautiful music was echoing across the grounds of a beautiful place. A mesmerizing experience.

This of course, was the pièce de résistance… the Eiffel Tower.

Publisher Al couldn't believe that his acrophobic wife (not keen on heights) joined him in riding to the top of the Eiffel Tower and looking out over Paris. But she did it in Florence… and she had to climb those steps herself! Yes, that was an accidental climbing, but still. This was a once-in-a-lifetime (so far, anyway) opportunity to see Paris from atop this phenomenal metal structure, so up they went.

The Arc de Triomphe looked like a Lego piece from this height. A beautiful Lego piece, but still small.

Did you know that Gustave Eiffel had a small office/living quarters atop the tower from which he worked and entertained visitors? This is the replica of that office, as seen through the strong glass windows. Fascinating tower. Fascinating man.

Four days in Paris ended far too soon. We could have walked the Champs Elysee and explored the city for days… but we had to move on.

Further north and into the Normandy region of France, we made our way to a Unesco World Heritage site – the island of Mont Saint-Michel.

It’s a unique monastery which sits on an island. The waterways around it are being restored to prevent erosion and to maintain the status of island..

After checking out the site, we stopped at a local store back on the mainland, and who did we meet there but an author!

Vincent M. is a photographer, actually, who spent several years taking photos of the beautiful Mont Saint-Michel and area at all hours of the day and all year-round. His photos and thoughts about his photos are published in this beautiful coffee-table book, written in both English and French.

My author had a nice visit with him and, as authors should always do. She supported him by buying a copy of his book and asking him to sign it. He was intrigued by me, the Never Leave Your Wingman book, of course, but since there was only one of me on this journey, he could only look but not keep – which is opposite of the advice we give others who meet me.

So that`s it for this part of our journey, folks. Have a good day and I look forward to talking to you again soon.

The next time you hear from me, I will have a very special guest. So stay tuned.

Take care.