Dawn, Cotentin Peninsula, Normandy. I’ve just woken up and come out onto the balcony. The coastline is shrouded in mist and it is very very easy to imagine it is the morning of D Day, or J Jour as they call it around here. Weather is going to be much nicer than in 1944.
The allies didn’t land here, they landed on the other side of the peninsula but the parachute divisions did fly over this side, a little further up the coast. On Friday we are off to Utah Beach, an 80 minute drive, but in 1944 it would only have taken minutes by air before the C47 transports started to drop their human payloads. I’m a bit of a WW2 nerd. Hardly surprising for someone born 16 years after the end of the war and whose childhood included comics filled with tales of commando raids and other such warlike activities. There was also Roy of the Rovers, the Beano and the Dandy so it wasn’t all blood and guts, though the Beano in those days was far less politically correct than it is now. Is it still going even?
One person has appeared on the prom. Brought my binocs out with me but there really isn’t anything to see. No boats, no fishermen, no swimmers. It’s all happening on the other side of the headland.
This gaff is called the Mercure Granville Le Grand Large. Hotels in France are named “Le Grand Large” because the phrase translates poetically to “the open sea” or “the great wide horizon,” highlighting an expansive ocean view. I googled it. The hotel does have a fantastic vista over the Bay of Mont St Michel and would have been an interesting place to watch the airborne troops fly over in the distance, sky lighting up with flak and tracer. Doubt it had been built in ww2. 1993. I just looked it up.
It’s notionally the best hotel in Granville. Not sure Granville can support a particularly “good” hotel. Thissun is fine. The views from the balcony are good and it has an (very tight spaces) underground car park which is one of the things I look for in hotels in town centres. A car park, not necessarily underground. Rooms are quite small and the balcony you can just about fit on. Also their beer supplies were v limited. Not complaining, just noting. Lots of Christian Dior decor around the hotel. The lad was born in Granville in 1905.
Gonna be 27 degrees here this pm and we are gonna go swimming,in the sea! The hotel has lift access to the prom. There is a sea water open air pool within stone skimming distance. THGs idea but one has to be supportive one’s chosen life partner innit. She has also entered the Lincoln 10k which I won’t be doing but I will be there to support her.
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09:44 and there is movement. A speed boat surfs its way north, there are swimmers and a helicopter has just flown over. I count 6 walkers on the prom, 3 people in the outdoor seawater pool and one just climbing down the steps into the sea.
This morning whilst lying in bed we booked a show in London. It was conveniently in the same street as our hotel in September. Family lunch. It is a Wednesday but it feels like a Saturday. We are also probably ready to go home but leave on Saturday on a 23:00 or similar boat. Friday night, which is the actual 18th birthday of philosopherontap, is a biggie as we are dining at Chez Roger, one of our fave restaurants. They only offer a 5 course menu surprise but you can add oysters and upgrade to lobster. You do get asked if you have any allergies but that’s yer only choice. Chez Rog is a couple of miles along the coast road from Utah Beach and the building would likely have been there in 1944. Not the restaurant though. Couldn’t get the ingredients and it would probably have been filled with German soldiers. Not the convivial gaff it is these days. They close for the winter but I got in touch through their facebook page which also serves as their website.
Today we are exploring Granville.
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I have just discovered something. Instead of elevator muzak they have some quite good jazz. Fair play. Discovered it upon our return from swimming in the salt water of the Bay of Mont St Michel. We are now going to have showers before heading out on the town. Living the dream.