Travel went incredibly smoothly, and I'll take that as a good omen for the job to come, (fingers crossed behind back). But no matter how the job goes, I'm in France, I'm in France, I have new French underpants (sort of, but I bought them at a mall in the U.S. before I left)!
I've really needed to keep pinching myself over and over on this one for the last few days...I barley comprehend the sudden turn of events in my life, my work, my life...in any case, as far as I can tell through the travel-induced haze,...I'm in Normadie, France about to embark on a really scary-looking movie job. Yikes!
So tired. So tired...yet So completely in awe of my current surroundings. And made all the more surreal by the sudden onset of this job. One week ago, "not-hubby" was in NY looking to lock in a job that would take us to within blocks of the fabled LM, Nathan Gendzier for the entire summer...and now, a week later, here I am... lying in bed in the dark, (after 17 hours of travel) having made it to my room upstairs in the little stone B&B, in St. Mere Eglise, France. I am just a few miles from Utah and Omaha beaches, and can faintly smell cowshit coming in over the pastoral countryside and through the tiny single skylight above my head. Wow.
I barely know what time it is, but it's late (GMT?, Paris time??? internally-EST???)!
Our movie, (more details to come after tomorrows first meeting in the early a.m.) is about a particular corps of paratroopers who held an important bridge (La Fiere) over the flooded Meredet River, and took back the few surrounding towns, (one of them, the town I'm in right now - St Mere Eglise) on D-Day plus 3, June 9th 1944, despite horrible communications and reconnaissance failures. WWII buffs, (or barley "buffs") should know about these paratrooper missions pre and post D-Day, that took place all over this part of Normandy, thus allowing the amphibious landings on the beaches, their foothold in Europe. Think, Band of Brothers (on a smaller budget).
Anyway, much more to say about it all, but I MUST sleep.
Final note though: The actual Manor House that was held by Germans, and then taken back in this " Battle of La Fiere", is the actual B&B from which I now write my blog and will live for the next 3 months! And I swear it could still be 1944 by the looks of everything! Amazing!
Bon Nuit.
4 comments:
I don't know about adding my own comment to my post before anyone has read it...poor blog etiquette? But I must add this:
–I just climbed up on the bed in the dark and stuck my head out of the skylight into the chilly night. The moon is a bright egg streaked with wispy clouds against a blue-black night and a tiny light-colored bat few up past my face twice, and I didn't flinch in it's beauty. It is more silent here than anywhere, and the stone village and stoney church spire glow in the moonlight below me, oozing history onto the narrow empty streets.
I'm so friggin' jealous I can't believe it.
If you haven't replaced your digital camera I will personally send you my spare. We need pictures. Many, many pictures. A picture a day would not be too many.
Wench. I'm jealous too. I hope you recover quickly from jet lag.
That last bit in comments, btw, was very poetic and beautiful. :)
So amazing that you are there. Been thinking of it all. You can do it!
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