Recollections: The Sea and me (part 1 of 3)

Certain events in life register with you for many years or forever. If an important event happens when you are a child, it certainly makes a lasting impression. As I mentioned in earlier posts, when I was about 6 years old my mother and I took a ship from Marseille, France to Istanbul, Turkey. This voyage lasted about 10 days I think because the ship had to stop, first in Athens, Greece, to make repairs and then it also stopped whenever we were close to a torpedo floating in the sea. This was in late 1946. Below is a picture of my mother and me visiting the Acropolis in Athens while the ship was being repaired.

Mother and me at the Acropolis, Athens, Greece, in late 1946

My mother was very sea sick and stayed in her cabin most of the time. I was free to roam the ship and I did. I made friends with other children, English, American, Greeks and also the staff. They kept an eye on me I think as I was always on deck watching the sea. I was fascinated. It was on old ship, no elevators but metal stairs. An old sailor there, or it could have been a petty officer, gave me a tour of the ship and often brought me in the galley. He told me “tu vois, au grand large, les vagues elles caressent notre bateau” [you see in the open sea the waves they caress our ship] “la mer, c’est comme notre mère, elle nous câline” [the sea, it is like our mother, she pampers us - In French the word for “sea” sounds the same as the word for mother – mer and mère.] “les vagues partent et reviennent sans arrêt , aujourd’hui et demain, autour du monde.” [waves come and go ceaselessly, today and tomorrow, all around the world.] How wonderful I thought that these waves saw the entire world. I decided that when I grew up I would see the world by ship. When we arrived in Istanbul I did not want to leave the ship, but I had to.

Picture taken in Istanbul in the fall of 1946

We stayed in Istanbul 4 or 5 months to take care of my grandmother’s affairs (selling her house, etc.) We did take a ferry to cross the Bosphorus – the strait that connects the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara - to visit the Asian part of Turkey. Then we took the ship back to Marseille. This time both my mother and my grandmother were sick as the Mediterranean Sea was quite rough. I did not take pictures then so I’ll have to rely more on my postcards, vintage or modern.



My love of the sea started with this sea journey to Turkey. In the summer we returned to Marseille to visit my father’s Armenian relatives that had been found again. I was pleased to meet then but also to often go to the sea in Marseille.

Picture on the Marseille Canebière boulevard, with our new found Armenian cousins – I am wearing dark glasses.

Since we lived in Paris and then in the suburbs I always talked about going back to the sea. Luckily at the time (I don’t know if it is still done) the primary schools of our “département de Seine et Oise” (county) finished the year by taking all the kids for “Une journée à la mer” (a day by the sea.) It would be somewhere in Normandy – usually Dieppe. Very early that morning all the children were brought to the train (steam train) and we would ride to Dieppe. We would go to a local school for lunch, then spend the rest of the day on the beach. It did not matter to us that the beach was not made of sand, but “galets” (smooth stones) we had a great time and came back late, exhausted and sun burnt.

Postcard of the beach at Dieppe and stones on beach, Normandy

When I was 11 years my mother finally said that we could go and spend the month of August on a beach if I planned the trip and selected the town. I had fun researching all the beaches, not too far away. I remember the first beach we went to was called Fort Mahon. Sand dunes were covering the beach, but not much else was happening there. Below is an old picture near Fort Mahon – a bit of a desolate place and a newer picture of the beach which shows it has not changed a lot…. I wish I had had a horse like the girl in the picture.

Beach de Fort Mahon, France (Wikimedia Commons)

We had no TV, no phone, no radio and knew no one. We went to the beach every day and when it was cool, I just would sit watching the waves or walk along the beach. But as long as I was near the sea, I was happy.

Picture of me on the beach in Fort Mahon, 1951.

Then every year after that we went to a beach in August and stayed for the month. Once it was in Saint Malo, in Brittany.

Vintage postcard of St Malo, a fortified town in Brittany

Another time we stayed at the Mont St Michel first for a week, then went to another beach.

Sometimes my mother would go back to stay with my father and a guardian would stay with me. One year we were in Courseulles sur Mer, in Normandie.

Getting ready to catch some shrimp in Courseulles sur Mer, Normandy, 1954

There were still some German blockhaus near the beach and I would go and visit them. The Canadian forces had given the code name of “Juno Beach” to Courseulles for the D Day invasion there in 1944, just ten years earlier. You can find more about Juno Beach here

(click on "Canada in WWII" under the heading Juno Beach Center) and here.

Courseulles sur Mer (Juno Beach) Normandie

I found some more pictures, but with not any date or location. I always wanted to stand near a ship or a boat when photographed.

Then when I was maybe 16 years old my father bought a small house in Mers-les-Bains, a small Normandie town 27 kms from Dieppe (16.7 miles.) I spent many hours reading on the beach, or roaming all around the little town with a bicycle, alone. Here is a picture of a similar house as ours in Mers-les-Bains – and a picture of my mother at the window.




We would drive there quite often as it was not too far from Paris – 95 miles/150 kms or so. But when I was 17 I started going to Italy in summer – the first two summers I traveled with a chaperone to San Benedetto del Tronto, on the Adriatic Sea.

Picture taken at San Benedetto del Tronto, Italy, near a boat (of course) in 1957.

The 3rd and 4th year I travelled to Rimini, also on the Adriatic Sea, with 4 other girl friends. I spoke better Italian then than English.




Concurrently, starting when I was 13 years old, I went to England to improve my English. I joined a school group in December 1953, but on the ship crossing the Channel, I managed to stay alone. The family in England was so very nice. They invited me the following July to accompany them to a beach on the Isle of Wight. I was pleased to go of course as I could take a ferry first to go to England and then another one to the island. The beaches on the Isle of Wight were lovely. Here is a 1950 era postcard showing the ferry to the Isle of Wight.




For several years I went back to England, mostly during the Christmas vacations. I would travel on the ferry taking the longest time to cross the Channel, the 4-hour crossing from Dieppe to Newhaven instead of the 1 ½ hour Calais-Dover. I did not take a picture of the ferry then, but below is a vintage postcard showing a Dieppe ferry boat.



This is getting a bit long, so I’ll finish next week. My mother (my mère) loved a song created by the French singer Charles Trénet, called “La Mer” (the sea.) He composed it in the 40s after a trip along the Mediterranean Sea. Later on lyrics were written in English, unrelated to the French lyrics. Bobby Darin made it a hit in 1959 under the name “Beyond the Sea.”

La mer
Qu'on voit danser le long des golfes clairs
A des reflets d'argent
La mer
Des reflets changeants
Sous la pluie...

Note: Top picture was taken off the coast of Sicily on 11/05/2009 with my Nikon.

January… time to plan travels (Part I)

Every January a large scheduling sheet was passed to each of us in our department so we could place an X on the weeks we requested for our annual holidays. I worked in the corporation for almost 26 years so the habit to look in January for anticipated travels is still with me. When I started working there in 1982 it was hard to make traveling plans so long in advance. There was no Internet with quick information. I had to go to our library to do my research and much of the information was dated. Then I would write – slow mail since there was no email and long distance telephone was expensive – to the hotels or bed and breakfast to make reservations. I remember how I wrote to a bed and breakfast in Chester, England in the early 1980s with anticipation but three weeks later they replied that they were full for that date. I had to start my research all over again.

Vintage postcard of Chester circa 1906 (this was before I went there!)

I still like to make travel plans in January but also other months, long enough in advance of the trip to allow for full research and reading on the area, the history, the authors, et al. My love of travel started when I was 6 years old, after World War II, when my mother and I took a ship to Istanbul, Turkey to sell my grandmother’s house and bring her back with us to Paris (my father’s mother.)

Painting by Robert Otto Nowak, Austrian 1874-1945

It took more than 10 days for the ship to go from Marseille to Istanbul because it had to stop many times. My mother told me “look at those black things in the water” I saw them and asked “what are they?” my mother replied “they are unexploded naval mines so the ship has to move slowly” “why?” “Because the ship would blow up” (and some already had prior to us.) I did not fully understand the implication but since my mother was staying in the cabin being sick while the ship was moving I had a great time being free to run on the ship with other little children. I especially remember an English girl and an Italian boy and started talking to them somehow. I liked this trip so much I decided I would travel always and also learn English and Italian.

Painting by Maurice Prendergast, American 1895-1924

I have traveled to many countries and islands – some more than once like when going back to France, England and Italy and some just once. Here is the list in alphabetical order (I am not counting stops at airports like Jeddah, Saudi Arabia): Algeria (3 times or 3 X) Barbados, Belgium (many X) Canada (9 X) Denmark, Egypt (4 X) England (many X) Ethiopia (2 X) France (many X) Gabon, Germany (2 X) Greece (2X) Grenada, Iceland, Indonesia (including Bali), Italy (many X) Jamaica and

Japan, Laos, Luxembourg (2 X) Malaysia, Malta, Mexico (2 X) Monaco (4 X) Morocco, Netherlands (3 X) Netherland Antilles, Portugal, Russian Federation, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, San Marino, Senegal, Singapore, Spain (2 X) Saint Pierre et Miquelon, Sweden, Switzerland (2 X), Thailand (2 X) Tunisia (4 X) Turkey (2 X) United Arab Emirates – Dubai and Sharjah, United States (46 states) Vatican City, Virgin Islands, Uzbekistan and Yugoslavia = 48 total and I hope to make it an even 50 this year. I also learned to speak English and Italian (with a spattering of Russian and Arabic.)

“I have not been everywhere, but it’s on my list.”
-Susan Sontag, American author 1933-2004

Traveling to all these cities, states, islands and countries has kept my mind open and alive. Learning the various customs, religions, history, visiting monuments, historical sites, museums, speaking to the local inhabitants and eating their food have challenged my perceptions and expended my experiences. When I was little and declared I would travel all over the world adults said that it was too expensive. They said growing up and realities would cure me of this dream. I kept the dream alive all these years and vagabonding is in my heart. I am still keeping dreaming and hoping - I think that each one of us is the master of our destiny and in control of our fate so why not keep on dreaming - and planning trips. I keep hoping that I can travel and be a vagabond as long as I am able.

Hope, painting by Edward Burne-Jones, English 1833-1898

"DREAMS"

Hold onto dreams
For if dreams die
Life is like a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.
– Langston Hughes, American Poet, 1902-1967

We can always find a door that will open for us

Picture of a door I photographed in Florence, Italy (with my old film camera) click to enlarge

One of my blogging friends commented that I was not a “vagabond.” I guess since the term most commonly refers to a “vagrant” or “hobo.” In French, however “vagabond” or “vagabonde” in its feminine form has various meanings: 1) someone whose imagination travels and 2) who travels or wanders without set ideas and 3) who is eccentric and whose mind goes from subject to subject - an eclectic mind.

Here are some more pictures I took with my old film camera

from top left: Kamouraska, Quebec, Canada – tailor shop in Dubai, UAE – the tomb of author Karen Blixen (1885-1962) who wrote Out of Africa, Rungstedlund, Denmark – House of Renoir Cagnes-sur-Mer, France (click to enlarge)

Now that I am getting older and time is slipping away, travelling, far and near, is still a top priority. You never know when you won’t be able to take the next trip, or when life will stop. There is still a lot to learn. Travels will stay with you for a lifetime as a wealth of experiences but also as interior journeys expanding your knowledge and awareness. Traveling in your own country is fine but it is not like being in a foreign land – you feel vulnerable and it changes you in a way and humbles you. You can empathize with people from very different social, economic and cultural perspective. To read about traveling or watch travel shows is most entertaining but it's not at all as being over there. You cannot turn the page or turn off the television. First hand exposures increase our objectivity and explain differences. It challenges our perception and sharpens our understanding of other cultures. It makes us see things from a different angle than the accepted “home” angle and realize that “our way” is not always the only way or the best way. It destroys ethnocentricity. Travel intensifies living and gets around preconceived ideas about foreign places.

Wanderlust has been in my blood all my life but I do understand that travelling does not affect everyone like this. Some will say – how can you afford it? It is a matter of priorities. Some people at work would envy my travels but then they would tell me about their new boat or flat screen, high definition television they just bought. With that budget I could arrange a great trip in another country. We go on a budget, travel frugally and sometimes do not decide where to go until we see a great deal, and then decide to go there. Since this is getting long I will give examples of some of my trips, on a budget, in the second part of this post.



So, this January, as in many Januaries, I have already made plans to travel to another state and in another country during the months ahead. I will take photographs there and bring them back for future posts.

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do... Explore. Dream. Discover." -Mark Twain (1835-1910)

Recollection: Little Stamps and a dream of St Pierre et Miquelon

When I was 6 years old my mother and I sailed to Istanbul, Turkey to take care of my grandmother (my father’s mother) and to bring her back to Paris. It was very hard to travel so soon after World War II and we had to wait for a long time to get passage on a ship. It took about 10 days from Marseille to Istanbul, with a few days’ stop in Athens, Greece. On the map below you can trace the trip from Marseille (south of France) to Istanbul, Turkey (southeast of Bulgaria.)

Click on picture to enlarge it.

We stayed in Turkey about 5 months and came back on another ship with GrandMama. I loved the ship and enjoyed the trip very much; that is where my love of traveling started. I’ll talk about this trip in another post.


When we came back to Paris I asked my parents when we could travel abroad again and was disappointed when they told me that we would not. To console me my mother gave me a stamp collecting album and several stamps from various countries.


This way, she told me that a stamp collection together with my postcards collections would let me “travel” to foreign countries from Paris. I had stamps from Egypt, Spain, Canada, the USA and many other places. I decided then that I would visit all these countries when I grew up and learn as much as I could about each one. I was very inquisitive and wanted to know everything about the subjects l cared for. Several readers of my posts said that I would make a good tour guide. That could be because, after all these years, I still want to know and learn and have not lost the “what, where and why?” from childhood.


Some of the stamps were very pretty, some interesting but I had four little stamps, of the same scene, in different colors that intrigued me the most. They were from the French islands of St Pierre et Miquelon. I found these islands on the map. They seem so far away but I dreamed that, someday, I would go there.


Over time I did travel to many countries but never forgot St Pierre et Miquelon. This group of small islands is located about 16 miles from the coast of Newfoundland, Canada. They are part of the French Overseas Territorial Collectivity. They are the only remnant of the large French colonial empire which included Louisiana (when Louisiana was 1/3 of the USA) and parts of Canada.


French fishermen have lived on this island since the mid 17th century. Cod was so plentiful that many fishermen would sail from Brittany and Normandy in France for the fishing season near these islands. Many stayed permanently.

Cod fishermen, 1921

Britain and France fought over these islands repeatedly but with the Treaty of Paris of 1814 the two main islands of St Pierre et Miquelon plus several little islands surrounding them have been French.

A passport is needed to enter these islands and the Euro is the local currency. You can ask anyone in the US where is there sovereign French territory in North America and likely no one will be able to answer. During Prohibition the American rum-runners used St Pierre and Miquelon to warehouse Canadian whiskey which brought some extra revenue to the islands.

Rum-runner boat, 1920s

Finally in August 2008 my husband Jim and I went to St Pierre et Miquelon. It had been a very long wait and a long journey since I was 6 years old and my dreams of childhood, but I always thought that, somehow, I would make it there.

(RF means République Française - French Republic.)

I was never afraid and dared to have big dreams. I was convinced that if I really wished to travel somewhere – I would – that the opportunity would arise. I never doubted. I am not rich, but I traveled to 44 countries so far and I am not finished yet… In a future post, I’ll tell you more about our trip but if you are curious about St Pierre et Miquelon, click here.

“The things which the child loves
remain in the domain of the heart until old age.“

-Kahlil Gibran (Lebanese-American Poet, 1883-1931)

Painting by Daniel Garber (1880-1958)