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We’ve returned to our Devon home after five weeks in France. The grass has grown, but nothing else has changed. Our departure from the church went well; our journey from Versailles to the Channel was enjoyable and straightforward. We visited Monet’s garden at Giverny again – different seeing it at the beginning of autumn (our previous visit had been in mid-summer two years ago) but still enjoyable and visually stimulating. After spending the night in a small hotel beside the Seine, we drove through rural Normandie to the Abbey of Le Bec-Hellouin, a Benedictine abbey from which St Anselm had come. There are still strong links to the Anglican Communion. The village in which it is set is delightful, but we both felt the abbey itself was a bit ‘empty’. Perhaps there are too many visitors. Then we drove up to Caen, to see the Memorial, a museum devoted to the events leading up the Second World War, the Battle of Normandy which followed D-Day, and the continuing tensions of the Cold War...