Back in France again
We have been in Chantilly for ten days now, and feel comfortably ‘at home.’ We arrived on the eve of Ascension Day, so we could take the evening service on Ascension Day – which is a public holiday here in France, despite the separation of church and state. Today – Pentecost Monday – is also a public holiday, and warm and sunny, so people are out and enjoying themselves. We had a week visiting new places before we came here. On our arrival in Caen, we drove to Chalons-en-Champagne (near Reims), which has some attractive churches and buildings (and is home to the Perrier champagne house.) From there we drove to Strasbourg, stopping at Verdun, which was the scene of a year-long battle, with hundreds of thousands of casualties, in the first World War. It was our first visit to Strasbourg in Alsace, which of course has had a complex history, having been both German and French at various times. The city itself is very attractive: many half-timbered houses, shops and ...