Some stuff from May 2008
Written by Rob under Baby & Children Portraits, Engagement Sessions on Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Been busy playing catch up since getting back from France.
 Plus, I just got back from Moncton, where I gave a two day workshop to the maritime association of the PPOC (professiola photographers of Canada.
What a great bunch. These guys are the most down to earth, nicest and friendliest people ANYWHERE!
Me last Saturday on the rocks beside Science North….shooting a wedding
(should I be up there with slippery dress shoes???)
Some beautiful babies….
Okay, it’s been the coldest May EVER! But that’s not stopping all the soon to be married couples from going outside and having an engagement session done…..
More babies…….
Samantha B., who we’ve known since our daughter started school, and she was one of the older kids back then, and in grade four….now in grade 11. This is one of her theatre promo piece shots. She’s been in many local productions and in very talented, you may have seen her…..
Some babies are too cute…..
Our last stop before we head back to Paris and then home.
There was a fair in town that week. Danielle wanted to go on this ride. Fat chance…..
And there was a road race marathon thingie….
Bruges has many old medieval buildings, canals and bridges…..
All packed and heading home….
OH, OH! What’s the noise??!! Dang. Blew the engine and stuck somewhere in the middle of Belgium, and everyone speaks Flemish.
Waiting for the tow truck…..
Eventually made to a mechanic and called the car rental. They called a cab and drove us to Lille, about 45km away, and we got a new car. Delayed by about 6 hours, but we had nothing on that day except get to Paris, check into our hotel before flying out the next day. It was all part of the adventure!
Rob
No CommentsAfter leaving the coast of Normandy and the D DAY beaches, we were headed towards Belgium, with our goal being the ancient town of Brugges. We were winging it and stopped at a town called Arras.
 Would’nt you know it, this is a major WW1 town. The front lines were right outside the town limits and this quaint little town was virtually desvataed during WW1. They’ve rebuilt the place to spec.
Check here for more history and before shots:
This is by far the largest monument we’ve seen. These pics don’t do the grandeur justice. It’s HUGE!
Thousands and thousands of names of soldiers etched onto the monument……
Sheep keep the grass short where men dare not walk. There are acres and acres of pitted landscape where bombs fell and many did not go off. They are still there, and mines too! Every year farmers and hickers get hurt or simply find old bombs from WW1
Warning signs:
Cemetary at Vimy ridge:
Ypres, Belgium.
When we arrived at Brugges, Belgium, it turns out the whole country was on holidays, and there was not a room to be found. We headed out with no real plans and discovered we were close to Ypres, where some of the biggest battles occured during WW1.
Every day at 8:00PM they have a memorial service at the Menin gate, where thousands of names are inscribed.
Crowds line up.
The town centre was virtually destroyed and rebuilt:
The next day I went by myself driving around, looking for cemetaries and such while the girls went shopping.
There were cemetaries everywhere!
Here’s some shots from Dieppe, on our way to Belgium.
On our way to Brugges, Belgium, we took a side trip stop at Dieppe. Dieppe is in the northern part of France.
READ ABOUT THE DIEPPE RAID HERE
Above. An oil painting depicting the raid.
Above: Monunent on the beach.
The cemetary. Very sad. So many killed in one day.
The beach today….
It’s May 8th, and I haven’t posted any images since Paris. We left Paris on or abouts April 30th and headed to Caen via a very fast train. In Caen we rented a small car, checked out the local museem, and drove off to Bayeux, with the intention of visiting the D DAY landing beaches the next day, mostly winging it, no schedule. We stayed an extra night at the B&B in Bayeux and then made our way slowly towards Belgium, with Brugges being our goal. A few snags and a blown engine put a new twist on things….as I’ll describe….
D DAY Beaches………
We arrived in Bayeux later in the day, after picking up our car in Caen and checking out the museem there. Very expensive museem by the way, but worth it. Bayeux is a small, quaint town. Where we stayed for two nights at a B&B.
This is the first town liberated and is very close to the beaches.
Huge ancient cathedral in Bayeux…
Our B&B (below). Very nice and great food. Met a family from Paris the second morning. They were on holidays. the french take a LOT of holidays. Students too. They go to school for something like 5 weeks, then get 2 off. The school days are until 5:00PM however.
 It was a struggle trying to speak french to them, but I had no reservations about giving it all I had. Only a few years ago I would have been embarassed and that alone would have made me draw blanks, however, not so anymore! I simply dug my heels in and gave it all I had. They had a 14 year old girl and 8 year old boy. Nice poeple, very friendly. Great for Danielle to meet them too!
Museem in Bayeux….
Cathedral at sunset….
The next morning, our first day on the Normandy coast! Yippeeee. Been looking forward to this most of my life!
Beautiful country….
First beach, Juno, where the Canadians landed on DDAY….. today:
Remnants of docks….
German pill boxes firing on assault troops…
The new Juno beach centre….great place!
More pill boxes…..
Danielle……
Here’s a video from You Tube of Juno beach on DDAY….
After visiting Juno beach and the new centre, we checked out the Canadian cemetary.
Here’s a quote from our travel book by american author Rick Steves…
“This small, touching cemetary hides a few miles above Juno Beach Center and makes a modest statement when compared with other, more grand cemeteries in this area. To me, it perfectly captures the low-profile nature of Canadians…..”
I guess he’s not the only one to say we keep a low profile Read this recent article by a UK writer:
Cemetary not far from the beach…
Did you know that Omaha beach (known as ‘bloody Omaha’..the opening scene in Saving Private Ryan depicted the fight) was the hardest, most brutal of all the beach landings. Which beach was the second hardest? Juno beach was, and the Canadians made more inland progress than anyone else, so much so they had to pull back some.
Ok, I gotta get to work and pay off these travel bills! I will add comments and more images later today and tomorow.
Heading out towards Gold beach…..
Remnants of the docks the english installed. It was a massive harbour, called Mulberrys, that Churchill created. A port was of utmost importance.
Gun installations back behind the beaches:
Look closely. You can see four guns….
The view…
A new monument….
Gun placement at the end of the beach…
Over looking the “eye of the storm” where the biggest casualties occured. Same area where the opening scenes in Saving Private Ryan was depicted….
Looking up from the beach where they landed…..
Watch a video here from the opening of Saving Private Ryan,
which gives a fairly accurate depiction of what happened here……
One of the gun placements up on the hillside…
View onto the beach…
Behind the beach we found a smallish closed museem of sorts, and the add some cool things outside:
Landing craft……
German gun:
Flag and old tires….
Beach obstacles….
German guns:
Sentry box…
This place is amazing. It’s where the US Rangers scaled up the cliffs and reached their objectives: the German guns.
You can see huge bomb craters still, from the US planes that bombed the area beforehand:
View from the top. Imagine scaling that!
After leaving Point Au Hoc, we found yet another monument at the entrance to a nearby small town:
The next day we headed back towards Juno beach and steered north along the beach, with our goal being Belgium.
More stuff on the further end of Juno beach….
