Sunday 24 July 2011

Vacances en France part3

Riding back to Normandy was very wet – again!  So we just stopped for a photo at Mont St Michel.  It was absolutely heaving with tourists despite the weather.  We will have to put it on our list to come back.France 143France-2011-123_thumb

Luckily the rain stopped as we approached the town of Arromanches.  One problem with this weather is the faffing and messing about we have to do when we get off the bike!  Off come the overboots, the leggings, the helmets, some of it goes in the top box, some of it we carry!  Several times Maurice mentioned that next time we’ll come in the little sports car he has promised himself!

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We visited the D-Day museum at Arromanches, where the ‘Mulberry Harbour’ was built for the troops landing on D-Day.  It was fascinating and we were amazed at the scale!  Here’s Maurice sitting on the sea wall, and way in the distance you can see the remains of that harbour.  It was massive!

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We rode along the coast to Omaha beach where the Americans landed, and visited the American Cemetary.  Again, it is the scale that hits you!

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We stayed at a wonderful French B&B, where we shared another evening meal (table d’hote) with 4 other guests and the hosts.  It was a fantastic meal – very much based on cider and apples, a local speciality, and of course the meal took all evening!  With the help of copious wine, we managed to have quite a conversation with their little English and our little French!

 

On our final morning we visited the Bayeux Tapestry.  Wow!  How awesome!  It is 70 metres of sheer delight!  It tells the story of William the Conqueror and Harold King of England.  1066 and all that.  We loved it!

 

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Our final stop was at Honfleur for lunch, and a few last photos. There was a vintage Citroen rally – very atmospheric!  Honfleur is one of the prettiest harbours along the north coast, and is full of lovely little restaurants and cafes.

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And then we rode off into the sunset back to Dieppe for our ferry home!  All in all a great week, some 1,200 miles, and what a lot we did!

6 comments:

Shari said...

Lind - really loving reading about your French trip, looks like a really great time and you visited some very interesting places. Loving your photos too, as always :)

~Kathryn~ said...

what a fun little trip
and cool you got to meet Lau

Alison said...

Looks as though you had a great time..fab pics!
Alison xx

Jo.C said...

They are great places to visit - brought back some memories. I found Mulberry Harbour moving and fascinating too x

alexa said...

Such atmospheric photos ... I remember Honfleur as such a retty place too. Perhaps next time a sporty little car with a sun-roof and some good weather would sort out the glitches this time!

Lesley Edmonds said...

Hi Linda,
Lovely to hear from you. Looks like you both had a fab holiday en France! We just had 2 weeks in the Dordogne so still feeling very frenchified.
Take care.
Lesley x