Medieval fete/cult of sport/macho finance

Recently we took a trip back in time, we went to the Fete Medievale in Cagnes sur Mer. In the afternoon there was a tournament, with jousting and hand-to-hand fights:

The kids in the audience loved it - was this encouraging aggression and sadism? Oh well, I played cowboys and Indians as a kid and I hate wars. However, this bit of escapism, into the era of chivalry and rescued damsels, has unfortunate connections with the current disaster in Iraq:

Medieval militarism and European expansionism

Chivalric orders first appeared with military activities against non-Christian states. During the Middle Ages, Western Europe aggressively sought to expand its area of control. The first orders of chivalry were very similar to the monastic orders of the era. Both sought the sanctification of their members through combat against "infidels"..."

http://www.medieval-life.net/chivalry.htm

After the tournament we strolled round the site which had examples of medieval crafts and products for sale - but also a fight school for kids, of both sexes:



They were instructed to stay down once "killed", but some couldn't resist peeking as the last two standing battled it out:



Some of the people strolling around were themselves in medieval costume, ready for the feast at Haut Cagnes, the medieval village above Cagnes sur Mer later:





But of course the crafts included making weapons:



Then it was time to catch the bus up to Haut Cagnes (while giving a young French woman a lesson in queuing etiquette, approved by a French guy) for the feast:



It had period entertainment - at least this could be enjoyed without too many unfortunate associations:





This is fun:





Fire dance:





But later, as I explored some medieval connections on the internet, I discover that re-enacting medieval fighting involves a million people around the world, many of them are Americans - who do it in what one might call a "shock and awe" style - or "full force" as they call it.

The Belegarth Medieval Combat Society is a sport where participants fight with foam padded safety equipment made to reflect medieval weaponry. The sport's combat is hard hitting and fast-paced, requiring a level of skill and aggression that challenges its participants to be physically fit.

Belegarth.com is a social networking website for people interested in Belegarth and medieval combat. Belegarth.com has existed as a location for our local sports organizations to communicate and discuss combat and other activities surrounding the sport of Belegarth and medieval combat since 2001.

http://belegarth.com/

This photo isn't the making of a Hollywood film, these American guys are about to attack each oher - just for the fun of it:



Here is a short video of a "battle" - "full force":

http://www.jubilex.com/movies/pennsic31/hadrian-1.mpg

One of the things I enjoy doing is historical middle ages fighting with a group called the SCA (society for creative anachronism).

This group is approx a million strong with members everywhere from New York to New Guinea. our goal is to recreate historical middle ages life through education, study , and practice. No there are no wizards or elves or any fantasy things.

The fighting is full force , I have a real set of steel armor, and of course we use UNPADDED wood. If we used steel I would not be alive to tell you of the group. it can be dangerous of course, people have been seriously hurt doing this, but it is a extremely rare situation that something does happen because everyone is really a brother even if they are your enemy.

We practice how we know/think that soldiers trained and learned back in the middle ages.

http://forums.darkfallonline.com/showthread.php?t=15826

The Iraq connection made explicit:

The group I belong to is run by a bunch of marines, our leader is actually over in Iraq right now unfortunently.



Notice the all-American sporting background.

Ibid.

It's no surprise that such "full-force" fighting should be popular in the US; there is a lot of money to be made from encouraging an obsession with competitive sports, and some die on the sports field because of it:

So powerful is the culture of sports in America that young men eagerly, even fanatically, mortgage their physical futures for a moment's football success. The payments are high.

"Players are much bigger than ever, much more muscular," Curry says. "It's year-around conditioning with no rest for the body. Some players are enormous, and they'll do anything to gain or lose weight. What's the cumulative effect of all that? We don't have the slightest idea."
...
Two weeks ago, the Broncos' defensive back celebrated over the body [ he wasn't killed - luckily] of Antonio Freeman, a Packers receiver. Brown had rendered Freeman unconscious. He did it with a helmet-to-face-mask hit as the sprinting Freeman stretched up toward a thrown football.

For the illegal hit, Brown was suspended a game and fined a week's pay, almost $25,000.

After the sort of violent assault that has paralyzed defenseless men, Eric Brown danced around the fallen body, laughing, hopping, his own body made electric with savage thrill.

It made no sense.

"But it does make sense," Bill Curry says. "It's what all of us in the business want. Listen to us. `Headhunters,' `kill shots,' `blind shots, `clothesline.' We have to look at our whole culture, even the game's language."

Words reveal who we are. When Jerry Glanville coached the Falcons, he so loved one linebacker's attitude that he thought to praise the young man. So he called him "a borderline trained assassin." Heaven help us.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1208/is_38_225/ai_78790066

Cf.:

[Eric Brown]"You've got to play with emotion. You get a chance to make a hit, you can't think about how you're going to hit him. You've got to go out and hit him. There are consequences afterward, I guess." [!]

Freeman has taken his share of vicious blows in the past, including one from former Minnesota Vikings cornerback Corey Fuller in the 1996 finale at Lambeau Field in front of the Green Bay bench. He missed four games with a broken arm in 1996 and one game in 1998 with a broken jaw.

http://www2.jsonline.com/packer/rev/aug01/packnot21s2082101.asp

Macho Finance

It's not surprising that this powerful "culture of sports" affects other areas of society:

Women have long been underrepresented in financial services, where a macho culture and long hours meant women faced prejudice and the need to sacrifice the time they could spend with children.

… "When you really look at the people working in hedge funds, it is almost like the extreme sport of the financial industry,"
…
Gur's research using magnetic resonance imagery found that in women, the size of the orbital frontal lobe, the part of the brain that assesses the context of risk, is larger in proportion to the amygdala, the primitive animal brain that responds to threats, than it is in men. For example, Gur said, at a party, "when someone says something nasty, the amygdala reacts and says, 'Kill him.' By contrast, when the stimulus is sent to the front of the brain, it may say: 'He is a drunken fool; don't bother with him.' "

To Sargent, their heightened capacity to evaluate context means that women "are more methodical, better at weighing all sides, and they often ask: 'What is my downside?' "

http://mobile.iht.com/articles/mmidas.4.7080752.xhtml

But it's not just a question of biology, of course, certain abilties or tendencies can be encouraged or discouraged in a culture. Thus, though it may have been quite macho for some time, the culture of financial services like hedge funds has changed recently to become even more macho:

In his recent book "Hedgehogging," Barton Biggs, a longtime Morgan Stanley investment strategist who started up his own fund, writes of a hedge fund manager who complains that "our nice old game is being played at faster and faster speeds by bigger and rougher guys, so it's getting tougher and more dangerous all the time. Everybody is on steroids. The violence level is soaring. It's like the NFL."

ibid

We have just seen the latest example of the results of such a culture in the current financial crisis, where people were encouraged to take absurd risks in a highly competitive context. We need to move to a culture where people ask not only: "What's MY downside?" But also "What's our collective downside - of this sort of culture/ideology?" After Iraq, New Orleans, the Minneapolis bridge and the financial crisis, perhaps even sports-crazed Americans weilding medieval maces for a fun weekend are going to demand more attention to the downside and provision for a better upside.

A Nice lawyer - European business model

The French, and especially their fonctionnaires, are often unfairly criticized. It's another one of those cultural myths, unfortunate memes. In general I have found that, surprise, surprise, they are quite reasonable and often pleasant and helpful - and so are some in business - even a lawyer! :-).

Yesterday we visited the dept which deals with international applicants for inclusion in the French health system. Fortunately M is organising this and so, instead of going to an office about three streets away - but where my documents would only be sent on to this specialised office some time later - we went up into the hills behind Nice to deliver the documents in person. It was a long way up, and a very nice, quiet environment.

We were received very cordially by the woman in the office. Actually I think she might well have been happy to have visitors for a change (they usually just do admin rather than deal directly with people and I can't imagine many foreigners finding their way out to there). She quickly checked the documents, consulted a colleague in another office, carefully explained the process involved, and said that I'd be issued with a temporary number within a few days, entitling me to reclaim some medical expenses. Very helpful and reassuring.

Unfortunately the more exasperating side of the French was on display as we left the building - about half a dozen young people were smoking - outside this L'assurance maladie building !

I still find it hard to believe just how prevalent smoking is here. But, then again, these bureaucratic buildings  had names, not any old names but: Cezanne, Chagall, Cheret, Matisse, Picasso !

The French do appreciate culture and celebrate it in all kinds of ways. One area of Nice is known as Musiciens , the streets named after Berloiz, Paganini, Verdi, etc.

A few years ago I got to know a French estate agent (yes, we know their reputation - especially in the UK) who turned out to be a very friendly guy, even after he realised that I would be unlikely to buy anything soon. He even insisted on paying for a meal. He'd actually told a guy who was quite ready to pay the asking price for a house that it was over-valued and he shouldn't pay that much ! When I met him a couple of years later, he was changing jobs and was doing up houses, something which he enjoyed a lot more, including some of the physical work. He had mentioned a local agency which was American-owned and didn't approve at all of the way it was run - they weren't even allowed enough time for a proper French lunch ! :-)

A Nice lawyer

Even more impressive was our recent visit to a lawyer here in Nice. They don't have a very good reputation, especially in the US, from where these jokes emanate:

What do lawyers and sperm have in common?

One in 50,000,000 has a chance of becoming a human being.

Why does the American Bar Association prohibit sex between attorneys and their clients?

To prevent the client for being billed twice for what is essentially the same service.

Why do they bury lawyers 27 feet under?

'Cuz deep, deep down, they're good people!

What's the difference between a Catfish and a lawyer?

One is a scum sucking bottom dweller, and the other is a fish.

Why does California have the most lawyers and New Jersey the most toxic waste dumps?

New Jersey had first pick.

How can you tell when a lawyer is lying?

Their lips move.

What's the difference between a lawyer and a duck?

Occasionally a duck will stick its bill up its ass.

http://www.gigaflop.demon.co.uk/humour/lawyer.htm

 How very different this lawyer was from the usual stereotype. We wanted advice on two issues, which she gave us, very fully, in French at a speed I could just about keep up with. But in addition to that we got the story of her life (she is half Italian,and fitted that stereotype, warm, expressive, etc .), some medical advice, her views about male/female differences in parental attitudes, etc., etc. She also typed out for me a form letter, indicating what I needed to include and telling me what was irrelevant. Then she refused any payment for this almost overwhelming torrent of advice and wisdom - AND told us that we didn't really need any further help from a notaire!

So later I wrote her a note, my French corrected by M, and bought her a plant. I thanked her for all her help and wrote that one of the things I really like about French culture is that even in professional affairs there is still room for a humanity now often lacking in the Anglo-Saxon business world. I read somewhere about a French woman working in a bank who used to get a lot of satisfaction from her job, feeling that she had given customers good advice. But then it had been taken over by a company run in a more Anglo-Saxon way; targets for sales of their products were set and there were unpleasant interviews with managers if one didn't meet these targets.

Let's hope that model doesn't take over in France. Arguably it would be better, even in a business sense (but not only that), if it didn't:

European business model

Which economic system will be more successful over the long-term - European diversity or the US world power approach?

Dutch author Donald Kalff expresses a clear opinion.

When Donald Kalff talks about the business world, it's not possible to overlook his vast experience. Kalff was a top manager at several international companies. These included companies such as Royal Dutch/Shell and the Dutch Airline KLM, where he served on the management board. It's therefore somewhat surprising when the former executive and professor at Leiden University proclaims that "the American shareholder value approach is flawed."

The concept has been basically misappropriated by investors and shareholders, managing without any foresight. Instead, they are more interested in squeezing the greatest possible amount of profit out of a company in the shortest amount of time.

...

Successful European companies are geared toward long-term value. They believe that value is found in people and their cooperation, not technical or financial resources...

The author provides new visions on the strengths of Europe's economy. He addresses the possibility of creating a sustainable form of capitalism with a distinct European character.

Donald Kalff is CEO of the Immpact biotech company. He is associated with Roland Berger Strategy Consultants and Guest Professor at Leiden University School of Management. His book, "An UnAmerican Business: The Rise of the New European Enterprise Model," is published by Kogan Page, ISBN: 0749444908.

http://www.best-of-european-business.com/news/2006-01-15-Best_of_European_Business_Kalff.html

The Good Sheherd - Sicko - No End In Sight

Thursday evening we went to see "The Good Shepherd".

The title itself suggests the resistance to the usual commercial norms of the film (the French title is "Raisons d'Etat"), it is also nearly three hours long, has a complex time structure - jumping backwards and forwards), an intelligent script - so even I, who already knows quite a bit about the CIA, Cold War, etc., was grateful to Wikipedia afterwards for clearing up some points in its plot summary.

 A woman and her fidgety son left the cinema halfway through (to my relief) - it's not your usual Hollywood, action-and special effects packed product. So it is very welcome; as a number of actors and film critics have noted, there aren't very many intelligent films being made these days and it's significant that it was directed by an actor, Robert De Niro.

The reaction to it amongst critics was very mixed, about 56% being negative (www.rottentomatoes.com); but significantly the audience reaction (admittedly a self-selected group, but over 15,000 of them), was 70% positive. As Chomsky would point out, this tends to reflect the fact that the general US population, despite the usual propaganda, tend to be to the Left of the supposedly "liberal media".

Public reaction was more positive, with members of the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com), giving the movie an average score of 7.0 out of 10 from 15,318 ratings.

Wikipedia - Good Shepherd

By contrast one gets this kind of patronising put-down from the Salon:

You can hear the movie's impending themes thundering through the forest before their massive heads even start poking through the trees, chief among them the idea that duplicitousness in the name of duty - particularly when you're working for the U.S. government - can poison not just your heart but your whole family. This is a somber, weighty, gray picture, one that pays clear tribute to the "Godfather" movies as it tries to scale some very rocky moral territory. But it's so unsatisfying to watch that even its biggest, most meditative right-and-wrong quandaries come to seem puny.

Salon

A Salon reader helps put this in context and reveals her anti-liberal bias:

Do what I've done, and look back over the long list of highly accclaimed movies with a strong social or political message component and try to find one strong positive review from Ms. Zacharek. Particularly when the movie has a liberal bent to it. Most particularly there.

She near uniformly takes the same track in all of them; angles like-- nice try, or cute message, or boring, or badly constructed-- jeese, she hated American Beauty AND Jarhead, LOVED "Charlies Angels", loved Anapolis, hated Syrinia (too complicated)-- and so on. Get the picture? She usually doesn't.

Salon

But, to avoid generalizing about the mainstream media, there were also very positive reviews, e.g. from the Los Angeles Times:

It's taken a dozen years for Eric Roth's smart, thoughtful, psychologically complicated script to reach the screen under Robert De Niro's careful and methodical direction, and it is easy to see why.

When Hollywood thinks spies, it thinks "Mr. & Mrs. Smith," it doesn't want to deal with an intricate, deliberately paced 2-hour and 37-minute work that not only quietly presents this quicksand world but also makes us feel what it would be like to live in it.

At the heart of this drama is Edward Wilson (Matt Damon), whose life in and out of the agency we follow for more than 35 years. He is the spymaster's spymaster, in the espionage business from the earliest World War II days of the Office of Strategic Services, the organization that gave birth to the CIA.

... Damon, in his second major role of the year (after "The Departed") once again demonstrates his ability to convey emotional reserves, to animate a character from the inside out and create a man we can sense has more of an interior life than he is willing to let on.

An argument could be made, in fact, that De Niro himself, famously undemonstrative in interview situations, was in part able to direct this role and this picture so well because he perhaps saw something of himself in its protagonist.

Because of the great regard his fellow performers have for him, De Niro was able to attract an impressive cast of costars.

By Kenneth Turan, LA Times Staff Writer

LA Times

I think they also wanted to be involved because it was an intelligent script and involved some serious acting rather than a set of stunts (significantly a number of stars have taken time out from films to play stage roles for a tiny fraction of their usual fees).

I found the scene with the Soviet defector (who claims to be the real thing and the one the Americans have been using is a double-agent masquerading as him) to be very powerful. It reminded one of the revelations about Abu Ghraib and the hair-splitting of US gov legal apologists about the distinction between torture and inhumane treatment of captives. They beat him up in an attempt to get him to retract his claim about his identity, and when that doesn't work, wrap a cloth round his head and pour water on it till he is choking. They then try using LSD on him as a "truth drug".

But during his "trip" he does come out with the truth but not the one they wanted; he says that the USSR is not a great power, that it has major systemic weaknesses and that the US only pretends it is a real threat in order to justify its military-industrial complex and imperial ambitions.

Coppola is an executive director on the film, and that the frequent return in The Good Shepherd to the taped conversation, and attempts by the CIA technicians to clarify, it is very reminiscent of Coppola's own great but often neglected film, "The Conversation". He directed The Godfather in order to be able to make it ! The Conversation is also not a very commercial film and Gene Hackman plays a very introverted, paranoid character rather like Wilson (Matt Damon) in The Good Shepherd (and so different from the the extrovert cop role Hackman played in The French Connection 1 & 2):

The Conversation By Roger Ebert January 1, 1974

... It's a movie not so much about bugging as about the man who does it, and Gene Hackman's performance is a great one. He does not want to get involved (whenever he says anything like that, it sounds in italics) -- but he does. After he has recorded the conversation, he plays it again and again [and filters out background sound to clarify the conversation] and becomes convinced that a death may result from it, if he turns the tape in. The ways in which he interprets the tape, and the different nuances of meaning it seems to contain at different moments, remind us of Antonioni's "Blow Up." Both movies are about the unreality of what seems real: We have here in our hands a document that is maddeningly concrete and yet refuses to reveal its meaning. And the meaning seems to be a matter of life and death.

The movie is a thriller with a shocking twist at the end, but it is also a character study. Hackman plays a craftsman who has perfected his skill at the expense of all other human qualities ...

Ebert review

While I found the film interesting and only occasionally "ponderous" (cf the otherwise positive review by Philip French in the Observer) and I welcome such thoughtful films about major political issues, it was a pity that, as usual with a Hollywood drama, the focus was so much on the individual. Thus it concludes with a shot of the protagonist (Matt Damon, in another almost non-speaking part) entering the new CIA, having lost his wife and (it's implied) having killed his son's fiance and his own grandson.

But what is obviously more important is what the creation of organisations like the CIA, did, not only to those who worked in them, but to others around the globe and thus to Americans through "blowback". Though, to be fair to the CIA (OK, maybe this is taking fairness too far :-) ), they have given accurate, pessimistic assessments (apparently this was the case with Iraq as well as Vietnam) only to have these ignored by crazies like Bush, Cheney, et al.

While I haven't yet seen Michael Moore's "Sicko" I'm very pleased to read about its success, even though being so overtly political. But then it's easier to do that in a documentary, and Moore's big achievement is to make popular documentaries, which also get people talking and stir things up. The Democrats are currently pushing for a better medical system; I think the timing is no coincidence, cf:

Michael Moore's new film, "Sicko," is a communal experience that begins the moment you stand in line to get tickets and continues through the laughter and moans you hear during the film to the tears and outrage you see expressed as you exit the theater. This is more than a movie, it's an experience to share with others.

Michael Moore has done it again. He has sparked a hot conversation that has the potential to start a raging fire under our national politicians to actually do something about something that everyone admits is a problem.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/sicko/news/article.php?id=10073

Moore is a politico-comic genius, here's his latest idea, which is bound to get yet more TV coverage;

You now have the opportunity to print and carry your very own "'SiCKO' Health Care Card." Playing the 'SiCKO' card has worked for a family in DeBary, Florida, whose daughter suffered profound hearing loss and was denied a cochlear implant. Her father sent a letter to Cigna asking, "has your CEO ever been in a film before?" Before he knew it, his daughter's denial was overturned. It also worked for a family in Flint, Michigan who was stuck with a $66,000 medical bill until they posted their healthcare horror story on YouTube ...

http://www.michaelmoore.com/sicko/what-can-i-do/health-card/

Arguably Moore's success has helped the cause of other documentary makers; docs aren't now seen as inherently rather boring.

Richard Schickel thinks "No End In Sight" is likely to be the most important film you'll see this year, and, despite the largely "talking heads" material, it is by no means boring:

No End in Sight: Iraq in Harsh Light

TIME magazine Friday, Jul. 27, 2007 By RICHARD SCHICKEL

Ambassador Paul Bremer and General Jay Garner from No End in Sight, directed by Charles Ferguson.

Basically, it is just a talking-heads documentary, interleaved with some routinely dismaying shots of deadly carnage in a far-away place. Moreover, what those heads are talking about is a failed political policy -- not, on the face of it, the most riveting of cinematic subjects.

That said, prepare to be riveted: No End in Sight, Charles Ferguson's first film, is without question the most important movie you are likely to see this year. It is not a film that simply massages your pre-existing attitudes about the war in Iraq. Rather it is a work that tells you things you almost certainly did not know about that disaster or things that have been lost to sight as chaos, anarchy and our feelings of helplessness have grown over the years since the invasion of 2003.

...

It can be argued that this film is largely addressing mistakes and grievances that are now beyond redress. But that's not strictly true. The kinds of errors it examines are entirely duplicable. And it is important to have this grand compilation of serious, sometimes anguished, testimony to remind us that big talk is always cheap and essentially dreamy. Who knew that a bunch of medium shots of well-spoken, nicely dressed men and women could transcend mere journalism and bring us very close to the authentic tragedy lurking behind the Green Zone's concrete walls.

http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1647716,00.html

A celebration

of what we are trying to preserve with energy policies which will help avoid climate change:

Nice has a lovely museum of Asiatic Art in beautiful grounds with pool close to Phoenix Parc. It is an example of what stste/local taxes provide, though sadly there were very few people there, though the beaches of Nice are packed at the moment.

"Le plan de ce musée posé sur un lac artificiel parcouru d'oiseaux aquatiques, repose sur deux formes géométriques fondamentales en Asie: le carré, symbole de la terre et le cercle, symbole du ciel."

http://www.arts-asiatiques.com/html/start.html

Art in a lovely setting (before I was told, very politely, that no photos were allowed inside the building).



In addition to the permanent exhibition, there was an exhibition of treasures of Georgia with some very impressive works in gold:





Toison D'Or


Then time for a meal: "OK, so you have the healthier dish - but you need it more than me."



Then we went to the nearby Parc Phoenix.



What a delight.



Beautiful, precious water.



The tropical house.



Inside.





Some flowers are gorgeous but quite obscene.



"If you're going to San Fransisco, better wear some flowers in your hair ..."



Worth protecting.

The Marne and Normandy - the personal and the historical

After the Eurotrib Paris meetup we went to M's relatives, first to her parents who live close to the Marne river:

It's a lovely, tranquil place - now:

Miracle of the Marne

But, as with so much of France, it has seen its fair share of horrors. In fact it's where the Germans lost the First World War, in the first weeks of the first year - but the war dragged bloodily on for four years - slaughter on an industrial scale.

Dead soldiers remain on the battlefield after the battle of the Marne in September 1914. After this battle, the opposing armies in World War I began digging defensive trenches across from each other. This defensive strategy, known as trench warfare, characterized the rest of the war. AP

The First Battle of the Marne (also known as the Miracle of the Marne) was a World War I battle fought from September 5 to September 12, 1914. It was a Franco-British victory against the German army under Chief of Staff Helmuth von Moltke the Younger.

By the end of August 1914, the whole Allied army on the Western Front had been forced into a general retreat back towards Paris. Meanwhile the two main German armies continued through France. It seemed that Paris would be taken as both the French Army and the British Expeditionary Force fell back towards the Marne River.

...As the German First and Second Armies approached Paris, they began to swerve to the southeast away from Paris, exposing their right flank to the allies. By September 3, Joffre recognized the German armies' tactical error, and quickly made plans to halt the French and British withdrawal and attack the Germans all along the front.

... By September 9, it looked as though the German First and Second Armies would be totally encircled and destroyed. General von Moltke suffered a nervous breakdown upon hearing of the danger.

... The German retreat between September 9 and September 13 marked the abandonment of the Schlieffen Plan [i.e. as the Germans estimated that it would take the Ruusians weeks to mobilise, the plan was to quickly attack and defeat France, then move the bulk of the German armies to the East to confront the Russians].

 Moltke is said to have reported to the Kaiser: "Your Majesty, we have lost the war." In the aftermath of the battle, both sides dug in and four years of stalemate ensued.

The First Battle of the Marne is best remembered for the approximately six hundred Parisian taxicabs, mainly Renault AG's, commandeered by French authorities and used to transport six thousand French reserve infantry troops to the battle. Their arrival has traditionally been described as critical in stopping a possible German breakthrough against the 6th Army. Today, some historians question their real impact. Their impact on morale, however, is undeniable: the taxis de la Marne were perceived as a manifestation of the union sacrée of the French civilian population and its soldiers at the front, reminiscent of the people in arms who had saved the French Republic in 1794.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Battle_of_the_Marne

The La Ferté-sous-Jouarre memorial is a World War I memorial in France, located on the south bank of the River Marne ... Also known as the Memorial to the Missing of the Marne, it commemorates over 3,700 British soldiers with no known grave, who fell in battle in this area in August, September and early October 1914.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Fert%C3%A9-sous-Jouarre_memorial </font>

Then to Normandy to meet M's sister and family - a very French welcome:

The dog is clearly French:

Unfortunately the weather (which had been very good earlier in the year) was rather depressing, but we made the effort to get out and took advantage of the few breaks in the clouds.

But, if you have some knowledge of history, you can't help thinking of who else has been on these beaches.

Once more unto the beach

Laurence Olivier in "Henry V"

It was somewhere near here that Henry V waded ashore with his army. Of course in England he is generally thought of as the great hero of Shakespeare's play, memorably played by Laurence Olivier in his excellent film version, and more recently by Kenneth Branagh.

So it comes as a bit of shock, even for a Lefty like me, to read the last sentence of this:

Those who admire Shakespeare's Henry V and Kenneth Branagh's film adaptation, and who are curious about the real King Henry, will find this book to be a good read [Henry V As Warlord by Desmond Seward] fluently and clearly written, neither too short nor too long. Henry was a sort of monster; he was also a great man. The human race naturally admires such men, and for that reason one should not fault Shakespeare for creating a great national hero out of a ruthless military genius. What is remarkable is that so much of the real Harry comes through in the play. Even so, the disasters of war inflicted on the French are appalling to read about in this book. The Nazi occupation was mild in comparison.

http://www.amazon.ca/Classic-Military-History-Henry-Warlord/dp/0141390581

And when one reads the quotation below one is tempted to say cynically: "Tout ca change, tout ca reste la meme chose":

Most historians agree that Henry's goal of conquering France was far beyond English resources. Thus, although Henry's premature death at the height of his success assured personal glory, his short-sighted ambitions left his son's administration burdens heavy enough to make civil strife inevitable.

The cost of the war later bankrupted the Lancastrian government, and territories were permanently lost which had been held securely for over 400 years.

http://ise.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/history/henryv.html

But Olivier's film version was made during WWII and was powerful propaganda (though unfortunate that our allies, the French, were the enemy). 500 years after Henry's brutal attack, we returned with the Americans and troops from the colonies to liberate France. This is the usual focus of Hollywood and British films, largely ignoring the far greater struggle in the Soviet Union, which really determined the final outcome of WWII. But on both fronts the suffering was appalling:

The gates of hell:

An American soldier wrote at the time:

Death & wreckage and I don't want to be a hero.  Shells and mines exploding all around.

7-21-44 Finally got news  all other boats but 3 were sunk.  About 10 of my personal friends were on them.  They drifted in the night to Island of Guernsey.  No ammunition or nothing it was German occupied.  They had no chance Just like clay pidgeons (sic).  We had no maps or course when we started out some one really fucked up. 12 boats left out of 36.  it sure is hell.  Will I ever be the same again...

Joe Baker, July-August 1944

http://www.daughtersofd-day.com/lettershome.htm

Cf.:

I made my way forward as best I could. My rifle jammed, so I picked up a carbine and got off a couple of rounds. We were shooting at something that seemed inconsequential. There was no way I was going to knock out a German concrete emplacement with a .30-caliber rifle. I was hit again, once in the left thigh, which broke my hip bone, and a couple of times in my pack, and then my chin strap on my helmet was severed by a bullet. I worked my way up onto the beach, and staggered up against a wall, and collapsed there. The bodies of the other guys washed ashore, and I was one live body amongst many of my friends who were dead and, in many cases, blown to pieces.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/dday/sfeature/sf_voices_04.html

A later reflection on that awful time; it's not the most sophisticated poetry but has deeply felt memories of that "hell on earth":

 A Quiet Place

It's quiet here ... so quiet

Standing on this hill

But if I stand here too much longer

My eyes with tears will fill

Looking down ... I'm there again

On that beach ... just down below

Far different ... to that morning

That I remember so

That beach ... it was a hell on earth

Where no man ... should ever go

I remember

I was down there

I should know

Don't cry now ... dear old soldier

That was many years ago

http://www.combinedops.com/Poetry.htm

Honfleur

Honfleur is now a quaint place full of tourists and it has the very nice Eugene Boudin museum (I don't recommend the trendily confusing Erik Satie Museum, though some might like it):

It's full of images of happier times in the area:

Eugene Boudin, Beach scene, Trouville, 1864

"When will they ever learn ..."

A break in the clouds, Ouistreham (Sword Beach), Normandy 2007