Motorhoming in France

[Duque de Bragança]

Artisanal means home-made, as in the baker is not supposed to just heat deep frozen flour to bake his bread.

[mongers]

Artisanal means home-made, as in the baker is not supposed to just heat deep frozen flour to bake his bread.

Over here it often means paying through the nose for a part burnt loaf, whilst the 'baker' proclaims himself as 'artisanal' rather than building a word of mouth reputation as a good baker.   

[Duque de Bragança]

 

[Threviel]

 

Over here it seems to mean that you ay 1.00€ for a superior baguette than the already good one at 0.90€.

So far Omaha seems like a tourist trap rather than a solemn memorial.

[Threviel]

There's a huge circus tent here claiming to be a travelling invasion museum with about 50 US flags flying of it. And that's about 500 m down the road from a barn claiming to be an invasion museum. It's like torture museums in Prague or something.

[Duque de Bragança]

1 € for a baguette is a common price in West Paris (classic bourgeois) but with gentrification/boboisation in the east, can't be much cheaper. More expensive probably for the gluten-free baguette. 

[Threviel]

It was raining all day today, so we just lounged around until lunch. Then we went to the american cemetery. It was very beautiful and dignified. The white crosses really hanmered home the price that was paid for liberty. The kids liked the stars of the jewish graves. 

After that we went to La Cambe german cemetery. It was very solemn and much closer to my heart, being half-german and all that. My own grandfather could have been lying there if chance had gone another way. Wife and daughter was in the car since daughter was sleeping. I walked around with my son hand in hand and felt generally sad. Until my son asked me why there were no stars there. I tried to explain to him that this is the evil side compared to the previous guys and that some of the men in the graves here were really evil bastards that tried to kill all the guys with the stars. But that it's still a place for sorrow since most guys were good guys just caught up in bad shit. And then we chanced upon Wittman and his crews grave. I suspected it was his from some distance since there were much more flowers around it. And boy, was there more stuff around his grave. Including lots of coins lying on it, mostly 0.20€ bit also Chinese yuan and to my great shame a Swedish 2kr. Now, Wittman was a nazi, he became a member of SS in 36 and was part of LSSAH before the war. He was one of the evil ones. That pissed me off something fierce. Fucking nazi-fanboys desecrating the memory of all those lying there that were not nazis and that died in a useless war.

Now, this brings up two questions:

Is there a specific reason that there were lots of 0.20€ and the equivalent 2kr? Does that specific amount hold any specific meaning?

Why was his crew four strong? What about a Tiger I demanded five crew members?

[Maladict]

Is there a specific reason that there were lots of 0.20€ and the equivalent 2kr? Does that specific amount hold any specific meaning?

Brandenburger Tor? Assuming they were German 20ct coins.

[Syt]

Never heard of the €0.20 thing. The Brandenburg Gate is also on the German 10 and 50 cent pieces.

Chances are a fair bit of the flowers etc. are not even from (neo-)nazis but from unreflected Wehrmacht/Waffen-SS fanboys (some people use the term "Wehraboo") who just love WW2 nazi stuff because "it's kewl".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Wittmann#Cult_status

[Duque de Bragança]

Chances are a fair bit of the flowers etc. are not even from (neo-)nazis but from unreflected Wehrmacht/Waffen-SS fanboys (some people use the term "Wehraboo") who just love WW2 nazi stuff because "it's kewl".

Good one!
Wehraboo, inspired by Weeaboo, the Japanese wannabee. 
Mostly for obsessive Japanese culture fans, such as anime but not necessarily only that.

[Tamas]

Wehraboo, inspired by Weeaboo, the Japanese wannabee. 
Mostly for obsessive Japanese culture fans, such as anime but not necessarily only that.

That must be at least quarter of Western nerds.

[Maladict]

So, apparently this is a thing

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/coined-tradition/

A coin left on a headstone or at the grave site is meant as a message to the deceased soldier's family that someone else has visited the grave to pay respect. Leaving a penny at the grave means simply that you visited. A nickel indicates that you and the deceased trained at boot camp together, while a dime means you served with him in some capacity. By leaving a quarter at the grave, you are telling the family that you were with the soldier when he was killed.

[Duque de Bragança]

A modernised version of Charon's obol. Interesting.

[Threviel]

A few days more and now we're in the middle of Bretagne, in Paimpont. A region claiming to be the center of Arthurian legend and the resting place of Merlin. I have my doubt, but it seems to be a nice forest.

Nothing especially interesting has happened. Normandy seemed to be a center for war tourism and war tourist profiteering. Lots of American and British tourists and the place seams to be geared up for the 75th anniversary of the invasion.

St Malo was nice, we were very tired and just rested there for two days. We tried shellfish of different kinds and it was nice and cheap.

Some notes.

The french are still very nice. Almost always kind, friendly, helpful and forgiving of our rowdy kids. Even waiters.

I'm cured of my francophobia.

They drive good. Considerate and not stressful, but perhaps to fast in parking spaces and camping sites.

Dead flayed rabbits look horrible and i don't like it when they peer at me from the meat counter.

I saw some yellow west dudes. It was in st Malo and a guy with a pirate hat started to talk to me. I thought he was selling some thin because of the hat, but then he asked me what I thought of Nigel Farrage. I sais that I was a Swede, but Nigel Fartage is a vicious evil cunt. He declared that he doesn't speak swedish and walked away. It took a few minutes and the I noteced him in a group of yellow wested people and the I understood. Based on the yellow wests I saw there they are barely fit for the british army. True dregs of society.

Later on I saw a protest at the supermarket. Lots of Bretagne flags and barely more yellow wests than police. Was not close enough to se if there were any seemingly non-addicts among them. The police was very friendly and gave us big smiles when they directed our route.

Pommeau (sp?) is nice.

French women dress very nice. Style and class.

Is puree of potatoes tge same as mashed potatoes? I think I got firm potatoes when I wanted to mash and the bag sais it was potatoes for puree.

[Oexmelin]

Potatoes *for* purée are potatoes that will make a good purée (I.e. you buy the potatoes, you boil them, and you make the purée) (pommes de terre pour purée)

Purée *of* potatoes are mashed potatoes. (Purée de pomme de terre). They are already prepared.