Just like the great migrations of Wildebeest and Zebra in the Serengeti and the Monarch Butterfly in North America, my kind migrates as well. However, we are miserly of our efforts and therefore only do so every 5 years.
At least since 1954, the known descendants of our common ancestor Hans O have been meeting somewhere in Europe but I seem to recall evidence (an old photo) of a reunion already in 1931. The last reunion was in Boppart (Germany, along the Rhine River) in 2003 and therefore we met again this year in Chantilly (France, near Paris).
There are now 12 generations of descendants – I am the 11th generation and my ‘code’ in the family tree is 13511131112 – it means that I am the second child of my father, who is himself the first child of the first child of the first child of his great grand father Hermann O and so on.
One of my cousins Cathrine O (number 135111311231) actually married her great grand uncle (many times removed) Christian O (number 13537323) who is a member of the 8th generation, but only a few years older than she is. They met at a family reunion 25 years ago.
The format of the reunion is generally the same. Everybody gathers on the Friday evening for “Registration” in the hotel selected for the occasion. Just like all good conventions, we have name tags just to remind ourselves who we are (and not all names end with O any more as there are many descendants of female lines who have adopted, some may wonder why, another name!)
Dinner was a first opportunity to reacquaint with people we do not see on a regular basis – this is even more the case for me as I live far away from everybody else. Most people came from Europe (France, Germany and Belgium) but a few also came from the US.
Saturday morning and the fun begins. While one group decides to visit the stables of the Chateau de Chantilly, known for horse dressage, the rest visit the Abbaye de Royaumont, founded by the King of France known as Saint Louis
The garden is very nice as we approach the buildings
Everybody listens intently to our guide in the musical chapel
and than in the garden where she explains all the medicinal plants which were grown by the monks. We are blessed with beautiful sunshine.
The old cloisters are still almost intact
But only this corner tower remains of the church, which must have been really grandiose – it was destroyed after the French Revolution, in a period when many monasteries were destroyed, and monks fled to Belgium and other neighboring countries.
The monastery had a very ‘sofisticated’ system for latrines – up to 60 monks could use it at the same time, in silence! It seems to fascinate our group…
Here are some of the organisers of the week-end. This is not a minor activity. Planning usually starts a year in advance and final attendance is confirmed several months early. Just for the visit of the Abbaye, we had three guides, one of which needed to speak German. All these arrangements needs to be in place in order to keep things flowing smoothly.
Lunch was at the restaurant of the stable in Chantilly after which we visited the castle of the same name.
O’s were seen meandering from one location to the next
Once again, several groups were guided through the ‘chateau’.
One room above all others attracted my attention: The Chinese room, with oriental motifs that were not necessarily Chinese, but everything East of Arabia used to be associated with China!
That evening, big dinner with speeches and lot’s of merry making.
On Sunday, we visited Senlis, a small town that can trace its history back to Roman times with a roman wall and a stunning church. There is something up there ….
Ah, yes – the church …
old Norman architecture
and a nice place for lunch.
That marked the end of the week-end and time for O’s to return to their own pastures, until 2013 when once again they will gather in Brussels.From here, I headed for the Normandy Beaches made famous by the D-Day landings, but that will have to wait for another post in the future …
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