The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and a Note on Shoes

Last Saturday, Jennifer and I did some serious tourism. The original plan was to go to Bayeux and Cherbourg via Caen, but on the first train—to Caen—we realized not every train ran every day. So we ended up doing three cities in one day. The itinerary:

Train from Rouen to Caen
Once in Caen: An old church and the Abbaye-aux-hommes
Train from Caen to Cherbourg
Once in Cherbourg: A basilica, the quay, a lovely garden and a natural history museum that would have made Darwin feel quite at home. Umbrella shopping.
Train from Cherbourg to Bayeux
Once in Bayeux: The Tapestry, the cathedral, a WWII museum that was closed when we got there
Train from Bayeux to Caen
Once on the train: talking to a pair of American college students in France for a rocket science seminar.
Train from Caen to Rouen

I was excited to actually get to Cherbourg. I have a thing for the movie “Les Parapluies de Cherbourg”—the Umbrellas of Cherbourg. It was made in the sixties, I think. It’s a musical without a single spoken word, bright colors and a tearjerker plot. It reminded me of West Side Story, except that it’s in French and nobody dies except someone’s old aunt. The title of the movie comes from the store the main character’s mother owns, and ever since I saw the movie for the first time, I wanted to buy an umbrella in Cherbourg. This was my motivation for going.

I was planning on just stumbling on a shop called something like “Les Parapluies de Cherbourg,” which didn’t actually happen. After Jennifer and I had been wandering around for maybe forty minutes, the closest we had gotten was a “Cherbourg!” postcard with an umbrella boarder—which made me begin to ask myself: where are the umbrellas of Cherbourg?

But we found them. We didn’t actually buy umbrellas, though, because these ones were priced in the 40 euro neighborhood. I was satisfied just to have found them.


Last week, I bought another pair of shoes. I say “another” because this is the second pair of shoes I have during my stay in Europe, which puzzles me, since I’ve never considered myself a shoe person. The new ones are a pair of knock-off Puma- or Adidas-style tennis shoes. I was so enthusiastic about them that I wore them on the big adventure Saturday—and my feet hurt before the Rouen to Caen train was underway. After a pharmacy experience, I was on my way again.