A love story in Normandy... reunited 75 years later!

D-Day: Jeannine and her love reunited 75 years later

View fullsize

Jeannine’s touching story went around the world: this 92 years old French woman and her youth love, an American GI now 98 years old, were reunited. During the Second World War in 1944, 18-year-old Jeannine met a young American soldier, K.T Robbins, and they fell in love. However, one day, the GI was recalled to the front, and they did not see each other again or even speak on the phone.

During the commemoration of the D-Day on June 8 2019, they met in the retirement home where Jeannine now lives. A strong moment, rich in emotion, when they embraced as in the first day while revealing that they had never forgotten. Despite marriages and births, they had always thought about each other.

Another good reason to visit Normandy! See Raoul Dufy Special exhibition...

View fullsize

Raoul Dufy is taking pride of place in Le Havre MuMa which currently presents nearly 90 of his works in a special exhibition. Those include artworks from MuMa’s collection as well as from major public collections such as those of the Centre Georges Pompidou and the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, many fine art museums in France and Belgium, the Gemeentemuseum and Singer Laren in the Netherlands andincluding Milwaukee Art Museum in the USA, in addition to numerous private collections from countries including Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Luxembourg, Switzerland and the USA.

Raoul Dufy was born in Le Havre in 1877.  It was there that he trained and took his first steps as an artist. Its maritime setting provided subjects for many of his works and this city embodied his successive explorations of the field of light and color, from his early Impressionist works to his final Black Cargo Ships series via his early attraction to Realism, Fauvism, the influence of Cézanne and what could be called his “blue period” between the two world wars. Dufy remained moored to Le Havre throughout his life. It was his ideal city - a landscape of the mind that supplied his favorite subjects.

US paratroopers dash over Mont Saint-Michel for D-Day 75th anniversary

Some 135 US Armed Forces soldiers parachuted over the Merveille on Saturday, May 18, 2019, watched by 1,500 spectators. A “remembrance” performance which has been repeated on June 6 for the commemorations of the Battle of Normandy.  Among these soldiers, Sergeant Major Matt Kitchin, from US Special Forces, has just parachuted. This American soldier, smiling, confides on this experience: "This is the best place in France to jump.” His grandfather was a paratrooper at Sainte-Mère-Église in 1944.

View fullsize

A recipe from Normandy, the land of apples, cider and Calvados

Recipe! Cooked apples with quinoa and black pudding (boudin noir)

Preparation time: 25 minutes
Cooking time: 35 minutes

Ingredients for 4:

• 4 big apples suited for cooking (Golden Delicious, Braeburn…)

• 3 oz (90 g) of white quinoa, uncooked

• 6 oz (180 g) of black pudding

• 1 tbsp (15 g) of half-salted butter, softened

• Salt and Pepper
  
  

  Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 350° F (180 ° C).

• Rinse the quinoa. In a saucepan, pour twice its volume of water and bring to a boil. Add salt and quinoa and cook for 10 minutes. Out of the heat, cover and let swell up for 5 minutes. Drain.

• Wash the apples, cut a hat. Empty them with a Parisian spoon in order to make small balls which you will keep in a salad bowl.

• Remove the black pudding skin.

• In the salad bowl, combine the apple balls with the pudding, softened butter and quinoa. Add salt and pepper.

On a baking sheet, arrange the cored apples. Garnish them with stuffing. Cover with hat.

Cook in the oven for 25 minutes.

Tips

The Parisian spoon (often called melon baller) is essential to present your vegetables or fruits such as melon, watermelon, apples ... in the form of marbles.

Serve this recipe with a green salad.

Nutritional facts : For 1 portion = 6 oz = 573 Kcal

You know what? I dropped 577 boxes of Camembert in the mailbox of the French Deputies (House of Parliament) !

577 Camembert made from raw milk were deposited last Wednesday in the mailboxes of French MPs as part of an operation to protect the recipe of this emblematic product of the French terroir. "No to the pasteurized camembert, yes to the one made with raw milk for everyone". "The taste of the land before profit!" is written in the center of the round box containing a fragrant Camembert made from Normandy raw milk and molded with the ladle, as required by the Protected designation of origin (PDO). "By opening the door to large volumes, nine camembert out of ten will be uninteresting, boring and will not be different from a camembert made in Japan".

60 days before the 75th Anniversary, still no information about hypothetical international ceremony

The day of the commemoration of June 6, 1944, in Normandy, is always a special moment. Municipalities must organize their ceremony as well as accommodation for veterans. But this year, the municipalities of Normandy do not know where they stand. Will there be, yes or no, an international ceremony for the commemoration of the landing on June 6? And where? There is uncertainty at three months of D-Day's tribute ceremonies. Municipalities cannot therefore precisely organize their own ceremony. Time is also pressing for accommodation as they will have to find how to accommodate the veterans who have come for the 75th anniversary of the landing. Hotels are already often full or overpriced.