105 miles from Montreuil
Spent the morning doing 'van-work' - a bit of cleaning and stuff - before heading off from Montreuil for the afternoon and parking at an aire in Wissant (coastal resort south of Calais).
Nice little coastal town - but the tide was high and there was about ten square metres of beach with five hundred people packed into it for the couple of hours that I was down there.
Then headed for the ferry from Calais to Dover at 19:50. Reached my sisters place in Tankerton at about 21:30. Hard to believe that it was three months ago when I was last there on the way to France at the beginning of April. The time has just flown by.
Staying there until Sunday, then making my way back to Scotland stopping to visit some friends in Lancashire and Cumbria on the way.
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| Wissant |
18 miles from Stella Plage
Cloudy morning that became a sunny afternoon - great for a long lounge on the beach listening to an audio book on the ipod - less energetic than reading. Wish footballs, as well as dogs, were banned from beaches! Both are bloody irritating and owners of both blatantly ignore their impact on everyone else around them.
Drove back to the aire at Montreuil in the evening to get an electric hook-up and eat at a restaurant there, that I had used before when camping in the town last summer. Mmmm oysters - very yummy!
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| Montreuil-sur-Mer - Statue commemorating General Haig and BEF HQ 1914-1919 |
29th July -Stella Plage
18 miles from Montreuil
With miserable grey cloudy weather in the in the morning (just like Edinburgh) optimistically headed for the coast and a free coastal aire at Stella Plage. Found it on a dead-end road to a campsite and separated from the beach by a huge sand dune. Nice signage - 'reserved for camping cars'.
Luckily the weather picked up in the afternoon and I walked along the beach to Le Touquet and back.
Many smart holiday homes around these parts in neatly landscaped gardens - especially just inland. This is the area where Ian Fleming's James Bond book 'Casino Royal' is based.
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| Stella Plage - nearly August the French 'seaside' beginning to get very busy |
31 miles from Melville
The weather was stormy and windy so decided to head up towards Calais and get across the Seine as well.
Needing to avoid Rouen - nightmare of a place to get through. And also trying to avoid tolls on the Pont de Normandie I used the old bridge a few miles down stream, Pont de Tancarville, assuming it was toll free - as nothing was shown on the map and there is actually a free ferry about five kilometres further upstream (which I had previously used with the the car - but it will not take campervans etc) - I was well p*****d to be charged a toll of 3.20 euro to use the Pont de Tancarville ! I have now paid a total of just over 14euros in tolls in nearly three months!
Arrived in the old walled town of Montreil-sur-Mer, which was where the HQ of the BEF was located between 1914 and 1919. There is a huge statue of Haig in one of the squares (apparently a replica as the Germans pulled down the original during WW2 and melted it down). Parked up at a free aire with a service point (unfortunately charging an outrageous fee of 2 euro for water and electric hook-up). Furthermore, the town is not any where near the sea! It's about twenty kilometres from the coast.
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| Montreuil-sur-Mer - Town Walls |
31 miles from Arromanches
Pottered along the coast to Merville which is just to the east of Caen. Couldn't find the aire listed in my book; but came a across a car park on the edge of Merville where there were some vans parked up and signed that said 'camping cars toleree'. Parked up there and went off on the bike looking for the beach.
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| Merville - Beach at Merville Plage |
83 miles from Mortain
In the morning drove on to pleasant aire, adjacent to a park near the centre of a small town, Sourdeval, about 15km north of Mortain. Needed to use the free electricity to cut my hair and hoover out the van! Stayed here until lunchtime - getting the shopping done and cleaning! Then made my way towards Bayeaux and stopped at a very busy coastal aire at Arromanches.
Arromanches is where the Mulberry B Harbour was built in the weeks after D-Day with concrete caissons ferried across from the UK. It is huge, about two miles across, and remains about 10% to 20% intact. The weather picked up and I had a few hours on the beach and a walk along the cliffs. Great ice creams after.
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| Arromanches |
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| Arromanches - Mulberry Harbour caisons to the south of Arromanches |
67 miles from Dol
Left Dol in the morning and got to Mortain (yesterday's planned destination), at the edge of a hilly part of Normandie for lunchtime.
Parked up in an aire in the Place de Chateau (but not much of the chateau left) with good views across a valley to the northern part of the town. Had a walk in the afternoon picking up a couple of waterfalls, collegiate abbey and other odds and ends.
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| Mortain - Grand Cascade |
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| Mortain - Pace de Chateau and remnants of the castle wall |
47 miles from Erquy
After a week of variable weather headed off in the direction of Normandie along the north coast; but, crossing the base of the Contentin Peninsula. Went around that last summer picking up various D-Day sites and the landing spots of Henry V and Edward III for their invasions of France.
Was intending to stop at Mortain in Normandie; but, driving along saw an interesting looking cathedral town - Dol-en-Bretagne - and pulled into an aire there in the centre of town. Five minute walk to the cathedral etc - where there was a free concert in the evening by a Dutch music group from near Breda. Followed by intense winds, black skies and a huge thunder storm.
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| Erquy - Cap d'Erquy and coastal path |
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| Dol-de-Brettagne - Folk dancing and regional food and drinks at the Tourist Office adjacent to the cathedral. |
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| Dol-de-Brettagne - Half timbered buildings on the main street; elsewhere stone was used. |
