Henry visits Isigny-sur-Mer and takes a night-time walk on Omaha Beach

Friday, March 11, 2022

Chère amie, cher ami,

We packed our bags last week, and left the Chateau behind...for a couple of months. Monsieur and I will spend a few autumnal weeks in Argentina, where a grape harvest and various other pressing matters attend us.

(If you would like to check in on our adventures in Argentina, please look for an email with a link in the next day or two).

Meanwhile, winter still holds Courtomer in its frosty grip. But Spring is not far off, and there is plenty of sun to warm one's heart! 

Henry and his chère amie went out from Paris last week for a breath of fresh air. He wrote me the following Letter, which I will share with you.

           A très bientôt,

               Elizabeth
             
             
         
Ma très chère Mère,
 
The two of us left Paris Thursday to spend a couple of nights at Courtomer. These winter days, the Paris parks – where, as you know, we have been painting and sketching – are rather inhospitable.
 
So, we drove out in the afternoon. After picking up the car from the rental agency, we went out through the West gates of the capital…away from the sidewalks, buildings old and new…and into the green fields of Normandy.
 
The next day, we drove to the Coast. We had learned that Walt Disney, creator of Mickey Mouse and the world’s biggest entertainment company, had French roots…and not far from the Chateau. Two hours from Courtomer, to the North, we visited the small seaside village of Isigny. 
 
As it turns out, the family name of D’Isigny - from Isigny - turned into Disney, as the forebears of Walt followed William the Conqueror to settle in the British Isles – and then the Americas.
 
On top of that bit of curiosity, Isigny is famous for its milk and dairy products… in particular the fresh cream and caramels. So we went to see whether we’d discover some unknown connection between the creator of animated cartoons and this small town near the North coast of France.
 
As we reached the village after a couple of hours on the road, we saw what looked like the humble beginnings to the later successes of the Disney name. 
 
The town sits near the water with a small canal…a few houses…and hardly a town center, aside from one or two buildings near the Town Hall. 
 
There, you’ll see a small museum about Walt Disney, although we didn’t get to go inside. It has closed for now. Probably until the tourists show up again.

But just outside of town, Les Halles d’Isigny sells a wide range of specialties from Isigny… which has its own protected label, or Appellation d’Origine Protégée… under the name “Isigny Sainte-Mère.”
 
The store sells caramels, soft, squishy or as hard as cough drops. They come in a wide range of flavors… from salted butter… to Calvados liqueur… to green apple. One side of the store sells candy and the other holds dairy products – cheese, cream and some of the richest and most creamy butter in the country. 

It also sells gelé and confit made from cider, teurgoule – the Norman rice pudding -- and foie gras. There are jars of cooked meat. Rabbit. Fish. Chicken or beef mixed with cabbage or other vegetables. As well as terrine and pâté. All made locally.
 
We took caramels and a box of candies in the shape of a camembert to give away as gifts back in Paris. The town of Isigny has seen more than maids a-milking... or adventurers setting sail for the Battle of Hastings. It isn’t far - just a half-hour - from the beaches of Normandy.
 
We arrived as the night had begun to fall. Over the years, we had both been to Omaha beach. In the American and Canadian Cemeteries, the scale of the dead… the fragility of human life… stare down at you wherever you go. Rows of crosses. Lists of names. War monuments. Inscriptions. This is where the last Great War in Europe entered its final stage in the summer of ‘44.
 
But now, the beach struck a different kind of note. At nightfall on Omaha…in the dead of winter and without tourist buses or lines of white grave markings… you could walk past the battlefield without a second thought. 
 
At one end of the beach, a recent monument - from the early 2000s - marks the victory of “The Braves” over the forces of evil…The modern art piece, set into the sand, seems to evoke fire, or waves crashing down on the beach…or perhaps a line of troops wading through the water and standing tall against peril.
 
An older concrete monument, erected just after the end of the war, gives simple written thanks for the American soldiers who landed and liberated France on the 6th of June.

More signs along the beach give more history. The number of the dead. The importance of the beach, after the war. The Allies built an artificial port, which stood for years as the most important in Europe. Now, you might catch a glimpse of some scrap metal in the tide. It is what remains of the battle and the war.
 
Usually, you walk on the beach on sunny summer days. But Omaha beach isn’t any usual beach… and so, in spite of the cold, the damp, and the darkness… I decided to go for a barefoot walk, at least along the main stretch, about half a mile. Perhaps some important idea about D-Day or the danger and destruction that happened… right on those sandy shores… might come to me. 
 
It’s the kind of place that makes you think.

In the end… the truth about what it meant… and how people went from peaceful lives side-by-side to a bloodbath reaching across the Earth… has somehow been washed away between the soft sand and the endless roll of the waves as they wear away at the shoreline day after day.
 
                       Henry
 
P.S. That wasn’t the end of our short trip to Courtomer. The next day, on the road back to Paris, we stopped in the small town of Camembert. Another closed museum. 
 
A gathering of stone and wood buildings, surrounded by hills and pastures… which feed the cows that produce one the most popular cheeses in France… 
 
Another humble birthplace to a worldwide culinary success !
 
A signpost near the entrance to the town of Camembert also points out other famous places for French cheeses in the nearby countryside. Livarot. Pont l’Évêque. Neufchâtel. More “super-stars” of the cheese world.
 
How much can come from these gentle, green hills.


As always, Heather and Beatrice (info@chateaudecourtomer.com and +33 (0) 6 49 12 87 98) will be happy to help you reserve your holiday or special gathering at the Farmhouse or the Chateau. We still have a few openings for this year and are taking bookings through 2024. Please feel free to call or write us.