Calm here in the Bay of Mont St Michel. Not quite comfortable sitting out on the balcony temperature without a light sweater yet. Unfortunately, and in my wisdom, I haven’t brought such a sweater on the trip and have under these circumstances been wearing my flowery linen jacket which unfortunately is starting to see some wear and tear. This particular jacket gets compliments all over the world. I recall wearing it on the boardwalk in Santa Cruz some years ago when an ageing hippy came walking towards me. He stopped, shook me firmly by the hand, and said cool threads man, cool threads. Ditto some bloke in a Range Rover at the hotel in La Rochelle. Our Peugeot 208 (the Silver Bullet) was blocking the exit to the hotel courtyard and he was having to wait whilst the valet parked another car before moving ours. Great jacket, he said.
Although I am slowly moving away from flowery shirts as they wear out, and the thinner silk ones are already doing this, this jacket is too good to not have one. Arranging another trip to Shanghai just to have one made is not on the cards but at some stage I will have to consider my options.
The other news this morning is that we were going to visit the Dior Museum but are now probably not. Turns out you have to book and there are no spaces left today. Availability starts at 12.30 tomorrow which doesn’t work for us. We want to be on our way to the Dead Man’s Corner museum by then. It’s only a small gaff so looks like they restrict numbers. You can rock up on spec but the website says there can be queues of up to an hour and tbh I ain’t that bothered about looking at women’s dresses.
Did make me think about DMC and I have now bought advanced tix for the 12.45 entry. We have the 45 min filum at 1pm and the 15 min C47 simulator at 2pm. They have the same plane used in the Band of Brothers. Shud be gud. Our campsite is just down the road at the edge of the estuary. This trip we will have gone from farmhouse in 75 acres with our own pool to 5 star hotel to 4 star hotel to 3 stars and then a campsite 🙂 It’s the only place we could stay within walking distance of Chez Roger on le Grand Vey, Utah Beach. We have paid for 2 nights as that is the min stay but it is still a lot cheaper than any of our other accommodations. Dead Man’s Corner will take us to fourish at which time we can check in to the campsite and use the pool before getting ready for Rog.
Down at breakfast we sat at a table in the window. It wasn’t the table I had my eye on but as I was filling up with freshly squeezed orange juice a family of three alighted on it. No problemo I thought. I’ll take the one next to it. Then the dad proceeded to drag my second option table to join it with the first and so bagsed the best and second best spots. Nothing much in it tbh. We were happy with ours. I had some grapefruit, cafe au lait and some breakfast breads with four squeezed oranges.
Said family has now appeared on the terrace below our balcony. The kid has a thick comic book that he’s been working his way through fair play. I’d guess he is around four. His dad is playing with his phone.
We have three full days of the holiday left. Today and tomorrow are sorted and the ferry doesn’t leave until 23:00 on Saturday so we have all day to play with. We’ve done most of the good ww2 spots at least once (with DMC being the exception) so will have a think. There is the obligatory visit to Carrefour before getting on the boat. Need to stock up on various local delicacies. The serious stuff will have to be sourced from artisanal shops somewhere en route in Normandy. Camembert etc. need to see if I can buy a bottle of Le Breuil (comme les éditions Single Cask ou Finition Palo Cortado/Calvados).
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Bit of a walk up to the high town this am taking in a bit of the Atlantic wall, the lighthouse, church of Notre Dame, the Grand Porte with drawbridge, a caff called BAR la Rafale (cafe au lait and a mint tea) and then a walk around the sea walls until we descended past some more Atlantic wall fortifications to buy sandwiches for a picnic lunch which we took sitting on the prom looking out to sea. The Geermans had blown up a lot of the fortifications before retreating.
Now back in my usual seat on the balcony having some R&R from the R&R. Out to Restaurant du Port ce soir.
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Spectac thunderstorms far out to sea in the Bay of Mont St Michel. The very dark sky is touching the sea at the horizon and is being lit up occasionally as the lightning strikes. An occasional lighthouse flashes. Ya don’t want to be out in that weather. Oddly it is very calm here in Granville. No wind. We had a great dinner in Restaurant du Port (or simlar). Best foie gras I’ve ever had fair play. Walked home and had a digestif in the bar around the corner from the hotel. Bar Tender. Very gay manager/owner chatted with a couple of guys who I assumed were pals. I asked if they sold the tshirts as merch but negative. Would have regretted it in the morning anyway. Had a double calvados. Nowt special but hey… We are in Normandy. Even the sea in front of the hotel is dark. No swimming ce soir.
No sound from the storm. The lightning is probably too far away. Never seen such a dark sky as this. I guess it might get nearer but I’ll probs be asleep.