I got passes to the June 6 commemoration ceremony at the American Cemetery, yay!

woodstock

woodstock

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We are pleased to send you this invitation to the joint Commemoration Ceremony on June 6 at the American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, France. This invitation is non-transferable and for only one person. If you have received more than one email from us, please open them all as they may be invitations for you to pass on to others in your organization or family.


President Obama and President Sarcozy in attendance....
 
Nice! I know you were trying hard to get those.

We'll expect a full report!
 
Bill, it was pretty much just like networking. Passed on from person to person - but it finally worked!

Mari and Scott, I'm sure I will take at least one photo. ;) They did mention that only "small cameras" are allowed with no big telephotos. Not sure if my 24-105 counts as a "big telephoto" or not...
 
Just an update..

In Brittany right now, heading to Normandy on Thursday. The information is trickling in on the details...

I already knew Obama/Sarcozy would be there at about 3 PM (or rather, the ceremony would start then...)

But, they want the attendees to be at the central meeting point at 9 AM - you cannot drive to the cemetery. I believe we would not be returned to this meeting point until after 6 PM and maybe later.

There is no food or drink allowed on cemetery grounds, which is perfectly understandable. I don't know what time we are actually being shuttled to the grounds, but, whatever you may have brought with you must be eaten/drunk beforehand and they also stated "please plan accordingly".

I gotta say, my own 68 yr old Dad has blood sugar problems and has to eat regularly and if his sugar happens to drop he needs to eat something NOW. How on earth are they going to adhere to these rules with 85+ year old vets who probably have other health issues? Being held is bad enough, but no food or water the entire day?

I emailed the organizers to bring this up and haven't heard anything. Dad and I are rethinking this endeavor. Saturday is our last full day in Normandy as Sunday we start the drive back to Paris. I'm not sure either of us want to be held captive for 9 hours, as cool as the whole experience may be (and I do think it would be - we'd get to meet a lot of vets). I'm going to see if they rethink the food issues and if the timing is as strict as it seems to be.

Hope everyone is having a nice week. The weather has been just utterly perfect here. Blue skies, no humidity, mid 70s (maybe 80 in Paris yesterday).
 
Wow, those were amazing photos, Liz! I'll say it again--you have an eye for composition. Thanks for sharing them (I'm late, just getting caught up with older posts).
 
Elizabethie, I truly enjoyed your photography...your talent is apparent.
 
Thanks Troy and Kelvin! I've actually made a little progress since I posted last week (which I put up, on that link) and here is another link of Just Paris (photos from 2004 and also 2009 - both trips). I'm still adding photos to the set below, but this has about 35 photos on it right now.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/skywalkerbeth/sets/72157622230994201/show/
 
Those are downright great pictures, Beth. Simply great.
 
Thank you Bill!

Next up: making a book for each of my parents to commemorate the trips. It's fun but time consuming.
 
Beautiful pictures Elizabeth!!! You are VERY talented.
 
woodstock said:
Thank you Bill!

Next up: making a book for each of my parents to commemorate the trips. It's fun but time consuming.
Click to expand...

And that is one of the best gifts you can give. The product of one's own talent trumps any store-boughten gift you can get. My parents still talk about the time I sent them to Hawaii & my data got to revisit Big Mo at Pearl Harbor.

Thread drift: a couple of years ago the retired father of a friend of mine took up cooking for a hobby. His son went to family and friends to collect favorite, but relatively simple, recipies. These were collected in a book that was presented as a Christmas present to his father (the contributors were also gifted with copies). It truly was appreciated.
 
I am almost done writing about the trip. After that, I have to put up the photos on the blog itself. (i.e. come back later if you actually want to read the whole thing and see the photos on the blog itself).

Warning - there is a lot of writing here! You might want to make a pot of coffee if you really want to read all of it.

The blog is formatted to fit a wide screen monitor, btw. I will try to make sure the photos are spaced far enough apart so that they don't overlap on a regular monitor.

http://skywalkerbeth.blogspot.com/2010/01/trip-reportphotos-paris-brittany.html
 
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