Normandy

Friday 3 May 2013

On the road again this morning at the start of another beautiful day. The birds were singing and the air was full of the smells of spring. France in the spring is such a lovely place and we are so pleased we decided to venture along the coast to Normandy. 

Today our target destination was Honfleur it was only 50km from Fecamp and an easy straight drive. We drove through some picturesque countryside with fields of oil seed rape in flower dotted here and there highlighting the slow undulating hills interspersed with small coppice. 

We arrived at Honfleur at 09.45am and found the Aire which turned out to be brilliant. For €10 (payable at the machine) we got free disposal of grey water and toilet waste along with electricity and water. We settled Bertie on the riverside and set about settling in and plugging in anything that would hold a charge. We have a whole cupboard in Bertie designated solely for the purposes of holding all the leads needed to charge things.

As soon as everything had been locked and loaded we walked into Honfleur a mere 10mins away from the Aire.

Honfleur is the best preserved of the old ports of Normandy and it is well worth a visit. It is situated on the Calvados coast and is a near perfect seaside town that lacks only a beach. It did have one once but the river silt from the Seine put paid to that. The ancient port still functions and still has fishing vessels in the harbour.

We made our way to the centre of the town around the Vieux Bassin, where slate-fronted houses each one impossibly to high not to fall over create a splendid backdrop to the water front. It is of course lined with cafe’s and expensive restaurants too expensive of the likes of us peasants. We walked on and enjoyed a very nice tour of the shops which sold mostly artisan goods and wine.

We meandered our way to Honfleur’s most remarcable building the church of Ste-Catherine belfry (one of Monet’s favorite subjects in his youth). It is made entirely of wood and has a separate bell tower on account of its weight. A fascinating building and we spent some time walking around it.

So we continued looking in the art galleries a plenty and made our way back to Bertie for a 2pm lunch. The rest of the day was spent cleaning and charging things. Strangely it’s the first time since we have had Bertie that we have had the opportunity to give it a good clean and polish since we have had it. Needless to say he is looking a lot better for it.

Saturday 4 May 2013

We really enjoyed our stay in Honfleur but at €10 a night we would rather move on. Today we wanted to see the Bayeux and in particular the Bayeux Tapestry. Bayeux is 80km from Honfleur and we hit Bayeux at 09.30 straight into Market day, the roads were quite narrow but Bertie weaved his way in and out until we arrived at the car park/Aire. As it market day the car park was bursting at the seams and cars were double parked all over the place. As luck would have it the driver of a motor home signaled to us that he was going and in seconds we were parked up and ready to go exploring.
Bayeux is a perfectly preserved medieval town with a magnificent Cathedral and of the world famous tapestry depicting Harrold getting an arrow in the eye for not keeping his promise to William (the Conquerer nee Bastard). It is situated only 10km from the sea so it’s other claim to fame is it was the first town to be liberated in 1944, the day after D-Day. In fact it was occupied so quickly that it escaped serious damage and became the capital of Free France.

We walked down the High Street which ran from the car park towards the Cathedral and on to the Centre Guillame Le Conquerant Musium and to the Tapestry. On entry €9 each, we were given the electrical proximity gizmo that gives a running commentary as you move along the line. The 70m (yes 70m) 11th century tapestry is housed vertically behind glass in an air conditioned room. It depicts how William (King of France) gave Harold and his army a good kicking and changed the history of our country forever. The commentary was interesting and the tapestry fascinating. We didn’t realise it was made in England?

70m later we got to the end of the story Harold gets his dues and William is given his new title Conquerer. However, the last pane of the tapestry is unfortunately missing! It was a bit like reading a good book only to find that some considerate so and so has pinched the last page. Following the viewing we sat in the cinema and watched a short film. To be honest it was great just to sit down for a bit. Petra (as is her norm) almost fell asleep. We had a quick whizz around the museum display on the Tapestry which again was informative and left thinking it was a well worthwhile visit.

After a quick lunch we walked to the other side of the town to visit the British war Cemetery  which was quite sobering when you read some of the inscriptions placed there by the families and the ages of the fallen. Most were in their 20’s. It really is a nice Cemetery and  is beautifully kept with spring flowers at all the graves and freshly mown lawns. It was nice to walk around with your thoughts and understand how lucky and privileged we are to be free to wonder wherever we want without fear.

Returning to Bertie the car park was a busy as ever so we decided not to stay the night. I am sure we would have been fine but it was a bit too busy for us. Tomorrow we are off to Mont-St-Michel so we decided to do the hour and a half trip to a place called Avranches about 15km from the mount. We parked in a free Aire which is situated high up in the town but had little to offer it other than it was free.

Sunday 5 May 2013

Low mileage day today, only 33km to le Mont-St-Michel. We were up early again and turning into the car park for St-Michel for 09.30. The car park was very big and new and Motorhomes were pushed to the outer part of the car park giving us the longest walk to get to ‘le shuttle bus’ certainly over 1km. We could have walked to the Mont but it was at least half an hours walk and when you get there it is all up hill.

Mont Saint-Michel is much larger in every respect to its Cornish cousin. But at least we can now say we have the set. One of the first differences is the Mont is permanently linked to the main land by a causeway it was done so in the 18th century. They intend to return it to an island very soon as they are building a state of the art bridge to link the two. When it is complete they will open the dam and let it flood as nature intended. Needless to say the shore level does resemble a building site.

The Shuttle bus take you across the causeway and drops you off at the foot of the Mont. A short walk and you are in the enclave and you immediately commence a steep climb through a very atmospheric shopping street lined with souvenir shops and restaurants. As we wound our way up the cobbled stones we passed the Dungeons and a beautiful chapel.

Out of breath we arrived at the top of the Mont in front of the Abbey. We had a welcome break of half an hour whilst we waited for the English speaking tour guide to come and show us around. The tickets were €9 each which included the tour. We found out this was excellent value for money. The tour starts at the top of the Monastery 15th Century and works it’s way down inside three levels all the way to the year 708 when St Michel poked the local Bishop in the head and told him to build him a Monastery. 

It is a fascinating journey through time and architecture which gives you a great insight into Monastic life through the centuries. The Church is breathtaking as is the cloisters. We descended down and down until we came out of the Roman sector on the ramparts and we were back in the shops. At the bottom of the Mont we sat on a stone bench and had our lunch before getting le shuttle back to Bertie.

The rest of the day was fairly domestic in that we camped over night in an Aire at Carrefour car park, did all our washing in a local launderette (much needed, ed) and we sat in the sunshine on our new chairs drinking Gin and Tonic’s, wine and cans of Pedigree with fellow campers Brian and Jan. They have been on the same routes as us and had noticed Bertie at Honfleur and Bayeux. Brilliant day.