Writing this morning from bed. Doesn’t look nice enough to sit out on the balcony though I haven’t been out to try it. THG reports the furniture might be a bit damp anyway. More rain forecast this morning for this side of the Cotentin peninsula but none around Utah beach which is this morning’s destination. Our last stop before life returns to normal, if there is such a thing as normal.
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Breakfast done by 9:15. Packed and ready to load up the Silver Bullet, However our fave fabric shop in Granville, Un peu de ci, Un peu de ca, doesn’t open until ten so we have a bit of chill time. Handily it is on the way to Carentan beyond which is the Dead Man’s Corner Museum and our second destination of the day.
Still chucking it down ere, off and on, so I am definitely not sat out on the balcony. It isn’t that the balcony gets wet. It’s the not quite sitting out on a balcony temperature that is the issue. I could put on my stripey long sleeved Breton shirt but it wouldn’t feel right without a beret.
We have had our last hotel breakfast for the trip. Our next accommodation is Camping la Baie des Veys campsite. You have to order bread and croissants in. Will see how it goze. Otherwise on Sunday we are stopping off at the Castle Hotel in Windsor for a meeting, believe it or not, en route home from Portsmouth ferry port. We might get fed there as it’ll be around 8:30 in the morning.
More when we get to the campsite, I daresay.
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Bit of excitement as we (tried to) left the hotel ce matin. The hotel is on a complicated one way street and lo an ambulance was blocking the road. A local car had the same issue but he reveresed up one of the one ways. I didn’t have enough local knowledge to do that so decided to go back to the hotel and sit it out. As I was making the manouvre the hotel receptionist rang and said something in French that i couldn’t understand as I was doinga three point turn on a narrow street so I just said I was on my way back and I’d speak ot her in a minute.
Turns out I hadn’t paid the bill! Doh. I’m used to express checkouts where you just drop the key off and skeedadle but that did not work here, apparentement. Chilled for a bit on a sofa in the lobby. The queue started to grow. After a while the ambulance had finished doing what it was doing and cleared off leaving the road clear for us. Our first destination was a fabric shop where THG had a few bits and bobs she wanted to purchayse and we then set the guidance computer to Carentan.
We had half a tank of fuel which was plenty to get us back to Portsmouth but decided we might as well fill up and stopped at an Eleclerc in Coutances. Worra mistake. There must have been 8 or 10 pumps but once you’d filled up you had to drive forward to pay at the kiosk. The pump was not usable until the person in front of you had paid and that person’s car had to filter into the kiosk lane competing/sharing the space with the other 9 pump users. Took us 15 – 20 frustrating mins to fill up but at least that’s out of the way. We now have enough fuel to get home.
Amusingly, despite tootling along at the speed limit, French cars did keep trying to overtake us. Of course it didn’t get them very far on the single carriageway main roads of Normandy as there were other cars in front of us tootling along at the same speeds. There was one car in particular with Swiss plates who we imagined was just ambling along enjoying the open skies. “Isn’t it great vizout mountains, and no flugelhorns, cowbells or yodelling to distract us”.
Made it to Carentan with 45 mins to spare before we were due to check in at Dead Man’s Corner Museum for the 1pm filum showing. THG sourced some lunch supplies at the Carrefour Express and I nipped to my regular cave des vins (Cave du Vert Bosquet) for some calvados and Normandy whisky.
The museum is fantastic if you are a fan of these things. Crammed with exhibits, a C47 flight simulator in a real C47 and loads of genuine WW2 memorabilia you could buy if you were that way inclined which I wasn’t. There was a briefing before the flight simulator. We were sat next to a mother who talked incessantly with her small daughter. We decided to get away from them for the actual simulator and sat in the empty three seats that would have been an obvious place for them to sit. Unfortunately the attendant made everyone move around to create space for them and we ended up sat next to them. Fortunately the simulator was too noisy for them to chat.
We are now checked in to Camping de Baie des Vayes and chillin with a small bottle of beer. Le soleil brillait and all is well. Our last night in France.
There is internet access onsite here but you have to be practically glued to a seat in the bar to get a decent wifi signal. Mobile connectivity is also a bit dodge. After all they didn’t have mobile phones on D Day (J Jour). We are only a couple of kilometres from Utah Beach ici. I can almost hear the tanks rolling by on their way to the front line.
We (I) have now done most of the WW2 sites I want to see, at least the 101st Airborne ones. I have a map of all the Easy Company sites of interest including where some of the parachutists landed and where some of the main action happened: Brecourt Manor & Carentan. If yer interested let me know and I’ll send a link.
The cows around here have suddenly started to get noisy. Must be milking time. After all, the area is famous for its butter and fromage. During WW2 the presence of cows in a field was considered to be a good thing as it was a sign that the field was not mined.
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Great evening as usual in Chez Roger. Old Rog really tests your tastea buds with the courses and the wine pairings are v innovative, if slightly small portions. The upstair s bit was not open today but we had a nice table in the window on the veranda bit looking out at the estuary. 5 Americans came in after us and left before us. Ditto the couple on the table behind us. Was very nice to see an old couple holding hands across the table. We were greeted in English, for some reason, but soon put them right.
Had a beer in the campsite bar before going to Rog’s. The only others in there were a family of four playing a card game. This is a great spot tbh, if you wanted to bring a family.