Category: Connelles

Chalk Mountains, Connelles, Romantic Mysteries, Travel, Two Lovers of Connelles, Unknown RAF pilot

Love Mysteries in Connelles, France

Mona Alvarado Frazier

Les Duex Amantes de Connelles/The Two Lovers of Connelles
Two Lovers of Connelles-www.alvaradofrazier.com
There are as many variations of the legend of the Two Lovers of Connelles as there are villagers. The main story remains the same. 

Two young lovers involved in a forbidden love affair are forever eulogized in this sculpture and in the Chalk Mountains of Connelles. 

These two young people were from different classes, some say the young woman was a princess, the young man a peasant. Others say he was the rich son of a lord and the girl a poor farmer’s daughter.  

What is the same is that the parents forbade the young couple’s desire to marry. In the princess version, the King gave the young man a task: Carry my daughter up the steep mountainside on your back. If you make it to the top you may marry, if not, you do not have our blessing. 

The young man carried his love on his back almost to the top of the mountain before he stumbled and fell, both of them tumbling to their death. The mountainside turned white, to chalk. 

Chalk Mountain, Connelles

Was this for the innocence of their pure love? 

The question is pondered, no one knows that part of the story. But what is known is that young love is forever memorialized on that mountain. 


Connelles War Cemetery: RAF Lieutenant

Connelles Cemetery-www.alvaradofrazier.com
The sign on the iron gate, adjacent to the old stone church, reads, “For those who died for France.” A worn blue, white and red French flag gently waves over marble, stone, and gravel grave sites. 

This is a community cemetery where everyone tends to the care of the sites whether they have a family member here or not. Water jugs, hand trowels, and bags of potting soil lean against a corner. Pink and red geraniums fill small graveside boxes, tiny cypress trees sprout besides headstones.

There are the ornate granite headstones and small crumbling ones, several listing births in the mid 1800’s, deaths in the very early 1900’s. 

The mystery in this cemetery is this one: 


Unknown RAF Lt.-www.alvaradofrazier.com
Charles de Gaulle, the leader of the Free French Forces, announced the official end of World War II to the French people on May 8, 1945. Church bells rang to communicate and celebrate this message. It marked the end of a six-year war and the Nazi oppression in France, which resulted in millions of deaths.

This headstone tells us that R.L.F Day was a Defense Force Commander with the Royal Air Force as a flight Lieutenant. The emblem on the top shows the Queens crown. He did not have the opportunity to celebrate the end of the war.

The story is that his plane crashed in the green fields by the Seine. After wandering through the village, someone encountered the Lieutenant. Did a young woman find him? Did she or her family care for him and his injuries. It’s not known when he was born, where, or how long he lived, but he was buried in the Connelles cemetery after his death in 1944.

Lt. Day’s headstone and the area around it is kept very clean. Someone is taking good care of his resting place. Could it be the woman who fell in love with him? 

Does your town have any romantic mysteries?

Connelles, France, French hospitality, Travel

An Empty Bowl in France

Mona Alvarado Frazier
French pastries, breakfast-alvaradofrazier.com


There is such a thing as too much pain du chocolate, pain ou raisins and baguettes. 

We buy our staples, basically starches, water and wine at the reception area. Pastries can be ordered each evening for a morning delivery to the lobby. Guests take a morning walk from the small duplexes to pick up their baguettes and pain.

My mon ami (friend) Amada and I are craving the crunch of a sweet apple or carrot, the feel of ripe tomatoes, salad greens wet with tart balsamic vinaigrette. 

We stroll down a grassy road towards the village, a bag tucked into a pocket, just in case we find vegetables and fruit. “We’ll put our quest for vegetables out into the universe,” Amada says.  We will be just like the monks who go out each morning with an empty bowl, trusting that their needs will be met.” 

My crooked smile gives me away, but I say “Okay.” 
A dirt path detours toward a meadow next to the Seine. We follow it and soon find a woman pushing a pram, blue eyed baby inside, a red shirted young boy ahead, and a man at her side. 

“Bonjour,” we greet each other. Through Amada’s French we learn the baby is named Angela, the boy Louie, the woman their aunt, the man her brother. 

My craving for vegetables initiates the question about a grocery store. 

“There are no stores in Connelles, no vegetable stands. Would you like some tomatoes from my garden?” 

Mild shock on my face but I manage to nod several times and say “merci.”

“Knock at the gate when you’re ready,” the woman says, points to the gate. She turns back to the path. 

“Please, there is no hurry,” Amada says. “Enjoy your stroll.”

The woman explains it’s cold for the baby. “Don’t forget to come over when you’re ready.”

french family-alvaradofrazier.com

We smile and wave to the family that departs. “Merci Boucoup.”

Now is a good time to write. We sit on the bench on the bank of the Seine, pull out our journals. Mowed grass sits in mounds like miniature haystacks around the area. Violets dot the bank, fish jump to catch water spiders, doves coo, the odor of goats wafts by. We’re finished. 

We knock on the gate. The woman opens it wide, smiling and waves us inside the flower filled courtyard. Another woman stands to greet us, and we are welcomed to sit at the patio table. Louie and another boy play tag while two grey geese honk their greeting. After introductions we find out they are Michele/Michael, Margot and her belle soeur (means sister in law, literally pretty sister).

french hospitality-alvaradofrazier
Amada and the family converse. I catch some words. Michele loves Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, and most country music. His wife likes Tracy Chapman. Margot offers coffee and cinnamon cookies. We find the café Brasilia delicious, the cookies delicate.

Margot shows us her flower garden, which sweeps around the large courtyard. Pink and red fuchsia, geraniums, hydrangeas (Hortense) fill a wishing well. Across the road, where we first met, is her vegetable garden and goats.
french garden-alvaradofrazier.com
After we finish our coffee, Margot goes into her kitchen and brings out a bag of red leaf lettuce, arugula, and other greens. Another bagful of tomatoes and huge zucchini fill another sack. We thank them for their generosity and say goodbye.

Before we get into our room, we pick some herbs from the colorful ceramic pots that line the walls of our hotel.  Dinner is tossed salad with tomatoes, basil; zucchini sauteed in butter, flavored with chopped chives; baguette, Camembert with rosemary; lentils and Burgundy wine. We toast to the universe and French hospitality. 
french vegetables-alvaradofrazier.com
How about you? Have you ever needed something and received it when you asked?