Thursday Ramble: What Do These Two Things Have In Common

Every year, at Christmas time, if I find it, I buy cheese from Insigny Sur Mer in France.  I see Whole Foods has an exclusive on this particular Brie, and it is good.  It is not an unusual or exceptional cheese, and yet I am drawn to buy it when I see it.  There has to be a backstory here, and as is often the case for me, it is tied to travel.  And how does the coke glass tie into this, and why have I held onto the glass? 

The second time I went to England with Sweetie Bear, when he was attending the Oxford Patristics Conference (google it is you want,) we spent a week together with friends in Yorkshire.  That is a story in it self, we rented a house, they rented a car and Bert had just started driving, we had many adventures on the back roads and across the moors in Yorkshire.  When it came time for Sweetie Bear to go to Oxford, I took a train to London, and Eurostar to Brussels, spent a couple of nights, then a local train to Amsterdam and spent a couple of nights, then flew from Amsterdam to Paris, and took the TGV to Normandy (I was suppose to fly to Normandy, that is another story.) I rented a car and explored Mt. St. Michel, and the Normandy D-Day historic sights.  

In many ways it was a major life experience. I was traveling alone, in foreign countries, and seeing things with great historical significance.  I visited places I had said, "someday I will see that in person."  

If you are going to Normandy, I recommend watching the movie, "The Longest Day" before you go.  It offers a lot of insight into the allied invasion into Normandy.  One of the units portrayed in the movie was charged with taking and holding the village of St. Mere Eglise.  Much to my surprise it is a real place, and the battle portrayed in the movie is relatively accurate. I knew I had to visit there and I did.  

It had been a long day, I had driven along the beaches, stopping to see the various monuments and markers, and I had spend an hour in the American Military Cemetery. It was late afternoon and I hadn't eaten since breakfast at the hotel.  I had gotten on the motorway headed back towards my hotel, and I spotted an exit that appeared to have services.  I turned off and the first place I spotted was McDonalds.  I had been exploring for the better part of a week, some home comfort food was in order.  The coke-light that I ordered came in a green souvenir glass. I don't usually keep such things, but that one struck me as special and I stuffed it in between the T-shirts in my bag, and I still have it. When I see it, it reminds me of that week exploring and especially of Normandy. 

How does the cheese tie in? The exit that I found the McDonalds at was Isigny Sur Mer, as I sat there eating lunch the view was of the massive creamery across the street.   

After that late lunch, I took the roads less traveled across the countryside of Normandy, stopping at a local village festival in a hayfield, a pottery, and arriving back at the hotel with memories of the adventure that I relive every year. Memories that are associated with that glass, and that cheese.