On Sunday we cycled all along Juno and Sword beaches, then followed the Caen canal to Pegasus Bridge, where we had a beer in the wonderful Café Gondrée. No visit to Normandy would be complete without a visit to this famous and evocative site. The cycle ride was a total of 27 miles, stopping on the way back to meet a party of NVA veterans for a short service on the beach and a chat with one of the vets. He was a real character and we could have spent hours chatting to the wonderful man. In the evening (well, 2330hrs at night) there was an excellent firework display, although we got caught in a shower of rain. It didn't dampen our enjoyment of the fireworks, or our late night picnic on the beach.
 |
| Piper Bill Millin's statue at Colleville |
 |
| Café Gondree |
On Monday we set off for an hours drive to Sainte Mere Eglise to find the aire next to the airborne museum. The D-Day celebrations were in full swing, with lots of military vehicles and people dressed up in 40s fashion. We wandered around the small town and had a beer with a couple of very pleasant 82nd Airborne Soldiers here for a parade. The parade itself was a boring affair. The German Fallschirmjager detachment did their best to make the 82nd Airborne contingent look smart and the US General made a politically correct speech containing historic references that were inaccurate, but who gives a damn as long as it sounds good eh? The wind picked up and the rain started so we retired to the van and it was very sobering to consider the fact that on this night 70-odd years ago thousands of people were dying.
On the morning of the 6 June we thought we would pop down to Omaha Beach to pay our respects to the 9387 US Servicemen buried there. Obviously there were a lot of ceremonies going on and somehow we managed to delay a huge entourage with lots of police outriders and cars with blacked out windows as we did a 3 point turn in a narrow road. They didn't look impressed - hey ho.
Leaving the D-Day beach area we headed across to the aire near Mont St Michel in Beauvoir, which is expensive but nice. We walked along to the dam for a view of the Mont and Debs decided that she wanted to blend in so she bought a Breton top (albeit we were still in Normandy and 50 or so metres from the Brittany border).
On Wednesday we cycled to the parking area near the causeway to the Mont and walked across, beating the crowds by getting there early. We climbed the narrow streets past the tat shops and explored the abbey, albeit we gave up on the quietest tour guide in the world as we couldn't hear a word he was saying. As we descended the crowds had appeared and the streets were rammed so we headed back and revisited late in the evening when it was much quieter. We didn't eat there however - when they want 10 euro for a pint of beer (eye watering by even French standards). We made a hasty retreat from Mont St Ripoff and ate delicious Moules Frites in a local bistro.
On Thursday it was nearly time to head for the Ile de Re but we didn't want to arrive at the weekend so we crossed the Loire at Nantes and followed our noses to the sea, ending up at a delightful little site in Pornic with the friendliest staff we had ever encountered in our travels. A real gem of a site. We spent a very enjoyable afternoon just relaxing by the pool.
On Friday we cycled into Pornic, walked around town and along the beach. The place is very pretty and would undoubtedly look better when the tide was in.
No comments:
Post a Comment