We love Normandy…!

Week 3 (last week) from Sainte-Mère-Église to Calais 480 miles

Sainte-Mère-Église to Arromanches 40 miles

Saturday 18th May 2024

It’s 10 am and we are off.

A quick grey water drop and fill up with fresh water and we are on the road towards Arromanches and Gold Beach, the British beach during the D-Day landings. We have only one more beach to visit after today, Sword which we shall do in the next few days. On the way, we stop for a shop, as it’s another bank holiday weekend here in France. Anyone would think they were English…!

Before going to Arromanches, we stop at the biggest German cemetery in Normandy, Le Cambe. There are over 21,000 German soldiers buried here. Compared to the American cemetery, which is full of white crosses all in a perfect line and all at the same height, and the British cemetery which is full of colour and well-manicured gardens, the German cemetery is very ‘dark‘.

It’s clean and tidy, but the buried are marked with just a square flat stone with two to a grave, and each sector is denoted with 5 black, rough stone crosses. This German cemetery is only one of many, there are over 80,000 German soldiers buried in total in various cemeteries around Normandy. Just like the Americans and the British, the losses were heavy and also the age of most of the men were very young starting at 18 years old.

There is an interesting exhibition here which we end the visit with.

After over an hour, we move on towards Arromanches. We are heading for a spot that we have been to before which is on a cliff looking out to sea where there is a good view of the remaining Mulberry Harbour. It’s 11 euros for the night, and you pick your own place, of which there are plenty.

Once settled in we set off for a walk towards the town of Arromanches and Gold Beach. We have been here before as well, but this time the tide is out and we can get very close to one of the sections of the harbour. This whole project is just staggering, the planning and execution of the D-Day landings, the cost, not just in lives of course, but money.

The town is very charming so we stop for lunch which for us is unusual, but it’s a nice afternoon, the town is lovely so why not… Hayley has Steak and chips, Del Beef Bourguignon. For dessert, we both have…yes, another ile flottante, the 5th one of the trip!

A delicious lunch was had and we have seen almost all of this small but important town. Just as we are making our way back we see a small collection of classic cars, jeeps, and an ambulance from the war period.

There are also several people dressed similarly, it all looks rather good. We follow them all to the front where this group photograph is being taken.

We guess that they are preparing for the Normandy Festival which is in June, an important date in the Normandy calendar. Everything is being cleaned and painted and the bunting is going up!

Back at Jess, we spend a fantastic late afternoon in the sun reading and chatting. Before we know where we are, it’s 7 pm. No need for dinner but we do have some toast and crumpets followed by some oranges sprinkled with cinnamon. Nice. By 9 pm the sun is still quite high and will set on the sea.

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Sunday 19th May 2024

Arromanches to Caen 23 miles

Del is up first this morning, and looks out of the window to a dense blanket of fog! real fog. It still feels warm though.

Bacon and eggs and bacon sandwiches for breakfast before packing up and setting off for Ouistreham where there is Le Grand Bunker, which is a well-preserved and renovated German bunker that was part of the Atlantic Wall, a German defens line that stretches from Norway down to the Spanish / French border. Mad! We will also be going to Sword Beach, one of the two beaches of the British landings on D-Day. This means that we will have visited and set foot on all 5 beaches of the D-Day landings of 80 years ago,

Del is at the wheel while Hayley does the research on where we will be staying and the best way to get there. She has already put together a couple of options. It’s another bank holiday weekend here in France so places are pretty full. Sure enough, we strike out at the first two places. The idea is to get a place close to the Grand Bunker and walk or cycle to it, but so far everywhere is full.

Change of plan. Instead, we will head to Caen. Caen was devastated in the last war and was a major strategic point, so there is a lot of interest here. Hayley plots us in and off we go. To Caen. The journey is very tricky. Lots of little villages and towns with blind corners, the famous ‘priority to the right’, which is always a pest. We pass a town that has an oyster vending machine! You can get almost anything on a vending machine here in France, pizzas, bread as well as fruit and veg, and now oysters, prawns and mussels.

We arrive at our stop in Caen and right next to us, we have what is considered the best memorial/museum about WW2. Every review raves about it. It’s THE MUSEUM. We will, of course, check that out once we have had a cup of tea and walked around the Parc de la Colline aux Oiseaux. It’s a big park with birds! The flying kind!

The walk around the park is fabulous. There is a huge rose garden, unfortunately, it is not all out yet, but by the summer it will be amazing. There is a maze here that Hayley has a go at. It’s not long before she reaches the middle, but getting out proves to be a challenge. Poor love.

At 2:30 pm we go into the Caen Memorial Museum. What a place! It’s huge.

Admission is 19 euros. Once in we start with a bite to eat and then we are off. There is an original 70m long Nazi bunker that the museum is built on. The section about World War 2 is immense and tells the whole story from the signing of the Versailles Treaty to Hitler getting mardy about it, doing a bit of agitating before letting off a big stink in Europe… Well, the rest we all know about. There is a section about the D-Day landings, a section on Normandy, and the whole area devoted to the Cold War with a 360-degree cinema recalling European history from 1914 – 1991 in 30 minutes. As humans, we are not good. There is, and always will be someone, somewhere having a moan and starting a scrap.

At 6:45 we exit the building… Worn out. It is a brilliant museum and an absolute must-see. Sadly we didn’t take any pictures as it just kept our attention throughout, but do check out the website and see for yourself.

Back at Jess for a lovely dinner outside. We finish just in time as it clouds over and chills the air a bit, so we head inside.

Hayley serenades us with her mini guitar, while Del sorts out photos and brings the blog up to date. It’s been a good day. We were a bit worn out physically and mentally after 4 and a bit hours in the museum, but it was well worth the time and the 19 euros.

Tomorrow we are going to have another attempt to go to Ouistreham and to have a look at the Pegasus bridge. Not long until our return home now.

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Monday 20th May 2024

Caen to Ouistreham 12 miles

A short twelve-mile drive today to the town of Ouistreham. This is a port town, and it is where the Portsmouth Caen ferry comes. There is our last “war attraction” there called Le Grande Bunker. It was part of Hitler’s Atlantic Wall, a wall of defence from the top of Norway right down to the French / Spanish border. But first, we need to do a van service which is the usual, grey water drop, fill up with fresh and change the toilet. Nice. We have a good hearty breakfast first before the service.

Soon we are off. We do a quick and uneventful diversion via the Pegasus Bridge.

The original is in a museum, but oddly enough the replacement is almost identical. Not much to see here really although we gather it was important at the time! We drive on and arrive at Camping Les Salines.

Hayley goes into the office and gets a nice friendly reception from the lady there, who gives us a pitch number. As soon as the engine is off we are walking towards Sword Beach.

We have now been to all 5 beaches from the Normandy D-Day landings in the following order. The links below are to Wikipedia details about each beach.

JUNO BEACH (CAN & GB)

OMAHA BEACH (US & GB)

UTAH BEACH (US)

GOLD BEACH (GB)

SWORD BEACH (GB)

Of course, there is a whole load of stuff to see at all of the beaches and the surrounding areas and it is all good, historical and interesting stuff.

We walk along Sword Beach towards the Bunker. It’s a good half-hour walk and we finally find the bunker in the middle of a housing estate.

Back in the day, the area was just brown land with a hideous concrete monolith bang in the middle of it, but they have preserved the bunker and over the years built a housing estate around it. It does look and feels strange.

7 euros each gets you into this solid concrete block with its 4 floors. It’s quite cramped and busy so there is a lot of manoeuvring going on. The rooms in the bunker have been rebuilt with the real stuff inside as it was used, with accompanying descriptions and photos.

It is a bit creepy looking at a photo of the room that you are standing in and looking at the German military “doing their thing“. For Del, it is quite unsettling.

We are all ‘museumed‘ out now. We have been in so many and learnt such a lot, stuff we just didn’t know… Time for something to eat. We find a restaurant set back from the front and dig into mussels, veal, fries, and… yes… another ile flottante. Can’t get enough of them now.

The wind has built and it’s chilly as we walk along the front back to the van. It was well worth it, a good day out! Back at base we just relax and chill out, Hayley is wiped out, poor thing.

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Tuesday 21st May 2024

Ouistreham to Blagny-sur-Bresle 137 miles

It rained a lot last night. Heavy rain at times, loud on the roof. It’s ok when it’s a light shower, but heavy rain can make quite a racket. Hayley didn’t sleep well as a result. Today we are heading north, closer to Calais and home. We are not sure yet where we will stop tonight. Hayley did find a very nice place but there was one report of van break-ins, but only one person mentioned it so we were a little suspicious that the review was false. We set off and spoke about it a lot along the way and elected not to go there, and to find another place instead.

French motorway today for most of the way which means tolls, lots of them. By the time we finish this part of the trip, we have spent 28 euros!! These French motorways are expensive. We are going to a campsite just off the motorway in a town called “Blangy-sur-Bresle” which is about 1 and a half hours south of Calais.

Last night’s rain has left everywhere damp and boggy even at the campsite. We are welcomed by a nice lady who says we can pitch wherever we like. We decide on a spot with a view of a lake, even though it’s a bit grey today, it still looks very nice. There is a bit of maneuvering in the pitch as it is boggy and there are large trenches made by the wheels of previous vans. We try moving around in the pitch to get level and decide to give up.

There are plenty of pitches to choose from. Del jumps out and goes in search of a better spot while Hayley is reversing Jess out of the pitch when suddenly…

“Crunch” she has hit a power bollard on the passenger side of the van. The result is an 8-inch crack on the lower cowling.

It sounds worse than it looks but Hayley is devastated. She has been driving for over 35 years, and driving the van for 6, and has NEVER had an incident so of course her pride, as well as Jess, has been damaged.

It really is no big deal, stuff happens. A bit of Araldite and some webbing on the back, and a new UK sticker will cover up and make good the damage. No problem. Let’s have a big “Awwww…” for Hayley… Poor love, she is upset.

The sky keeps threatening rain but we get some boots on and set off for a walk around the lake. The path is not very clear and some parts are muddy so there is a bit of backwards and forwards going on.

After a while, we give up. Hayley’s enthusiasm is also cracked so we head back to Jess for a tea while she watches a bunch of YouTube rollercoaster videos to cheer herself up.

Tonight we are having Pizza from the campsite with a glass of rose wine and an early night. Tomorrow we are heading for Calais where we intend to have a good look around the town as we have heard it’s very nice despite the bad press back in the UK. We shall see.

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Wednesday 22nd May 2024

Blagny-sur-Bresle to Calais 92 miles

Today we are on our last French drive before home. We are heading for Calais and a campsite right on the beach. Hayley is at the wheel taking us north. Again toll roads and today it cost 13 euros. The campsite is called Camping Calais Plage or Camping Calais Beach. The drive is easy and reasonably quick although the weather is a little brutal with sharp showers of rain when we set off and strong winds that buffet the van on the exposed parts of the motorway.

Before we get to the campsite we want to fill up with LPG for cooking and heating. We like to leave Jess full of gas and diesel while stored, it means that she is ready to go for the next trip. We find a service station close to the campsite that does both. Before all of that though there are a few things that we need from the shops first. Of course, there are a few essentials like milk, bread, and a few foodie things to take home, but more importantly we need to take back some wine and fizz. There is a huge supermarket where we spend a good hour walking around browsing and filling the trolley.

This is Carrefour, which is the equivalent of Tesco in the UK, but France being France it just goes that little bit further. Cakes are a big thing here of course and in this supermarket, they have a fabulous display of cakes. Stunning.

By the time we leave, we have purchased 5 boxes of wine. A red, white, rose and of course some Cremant, a champagne substitute. Oh well…, sometimes. you just have to cut your cloth accordingly.

Del is charged with pushing the heavily laden trolley to the van in a force 9 wind. He makes it. The drink is safely in the van!

The campsite is warm and friendly and we are checked in quickly with a nice private space. As soon as we are in we get to work on some of the de-prep of the van. Everything is on the site so the van shower is cleaned down and closed off, cupboards are emptied and cleared out and some bits are packed away. The rest we will do when we get home. Our unpacking is now much simpler as we can park Jess right outside the flat, open the large terrace doors, and just dump everything in the flat for sorting later. We also now have a new storage space for Jess which is just a three-minute walk.

The sun is out now, but the wind is vicious. No matter we get some big coats on and set off for a walk around Calais.

On the way into the town, we spot this large mechanical dragon, yes a dragon, with people on its back! As we get closer we see it throwing out fire and slowly moving around a flat concreted piece of land.

It’s quite something and is a permanent attraction in the town, and well-liked by the locals and tourists alike. It’s called the La Compagnie du Dragon. It’s a massive 72-ton human-controlled dragon that offers 1-hour rides for just under 10 euros. It interacts with the public watching and is quite scary when he turns around and looks at you then spits water at you! It’s great fun and quite a piece of kit.

As for Calais itself, we find it to be very nice. There are some rather brutal 60s built blocks of flats and buildings, but Calais was flattened towards the end of the war in 1944 with the interim period seeing all kinds of temporary buildings going up. Saying that there are some very nice buildings, the town hall for example is stunning.

The streets are very clean and tidy, and the beachfront is wonderful, having just recently been built. The main street has lovely shops, restaurants, and bars. Not what we were expecting given the news that we hear about Calais, most of it is nonsense.

On the subject of restaurants, Hayley has found us a nice place. Calais, it would appear, has quite a collection of excellent and highly-rated restaurants. She can secure us a table for two at Histoire Ancienne. We walk around to kill a bit of time before our dining time. There are some lovely parks here too to walk around.

Dinner is a fabulous event. The restaurant is superb, beautiful inside, with excellent service, and the food is very tasty. A lovely place.

The walk back is via the hanger that the Calais Dragon is stored in (sleeps in). He looks great with his eyes closed with just a light on at the end of his tail.

Full of food, and drink we make it back to Jess, for bed. Up early tomorrow.

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Thursday 23rd May 2024

Calais to Home, East Cowes 190 miles

We are up at 7am this morning, the earliest that we have been up at on this trip so far! Sadly we are going home today, our ferry from Calais is at 9am, so we are up for a short breakfast and a quick coffee. We have already done some of the breakdown and packing, we will do the rest when we get back.

It’s a bright sunny morning when we leave the campsite, the drive to the ferry port is only about 10 minutes. We arrive in time for our check-in time, and everything goes well, very quickly, quickest yet. Soon Jess is parked up at the front of the boat and we are in the lounge having another coffee and a croissant.

1 hour and 40 minutes later we are disembarking after a, thankfully, uneventful crossing of the channel. Already we have discovered that the M20 has multiple accidents as Operation Brock was put in action overnight for some reason. As a result, because of all the contra-flows and chicanes used for Operation Brock, it seems there have been accidents.

Brilliant. If you read the opening sentence on their website above, it’s a joke. The delay is more than an hour.

Hayley has found another route for us but as usual, we have bumped into 30 mph speed restrictions, police speed checks, and the usual 50mph speed restriction on the A2. Why do things not work here…? Oh, and the mobile reception is rubbish as well. Not that we are moaning you understand.

We have a set ferry time to the Isle of Wight so the race is kind of on to make that time. We shall see.

After a lot of stopping, starting, and diverting, we finally arrived at Portsmouth Harbour with 15 minutes to spare! However… When we check in we are told that there is £19.80 outstanding, even though we paid the full amount in advance and we have a receipt to prove it. After some back and forth a call is put into the Caravan and Motorhoming Club who confirm that we have paid and instruct Wightlink to let us on the boat and that they would sort it out. We guess that Wightlink, who are not immune from making a mess of things, have messed this up as well. Useless.

The 40-minute crossing is very nice, with bright sunlight and lots of boats out enjoying the day. We get off the boat and head for home. Once parked up at the flat we empty the van into the living room, clean Jess down, and take her around the corner to her new storage place.

With her cover on she is now safe and sound, cleaned up, and ready for the next outing which will probably be a couple of island stays and then another French trip in September. We have had a very enjoyable trip to Normandy which is a lovely place and a place that we will revisit. We had great company in the first week of our trip from a good friend from the island.

Once again we would like to thank all of our friends and family that have followed us on this short trip. We love getting your comments. Our very best wishes to you all. If you can get out there then do it, travel, and see what you can while you can. Once again, many thanks to you all.

Some simple stats from this trip

• French motorway tolls: 85 euros
• Diesel: 217 euros
• Miles covered on this trip: 909 miles