Thursday 19th

Awoke starving and craving for that first croissant which we were aiming to buy at Auchen in Spycker which is very near Dunkerque (A16 exit 25). All went well and had to resist buying our planned horde of Leffe as we didn’t want to fill our Heidi as we had planned to sleep in her each night. As usual, our thoughts were that if we weren’t looking for a campsite each night we could extend our driving time until we were ready for evening meal and sleeping. Well, we bought three family sized boxes of croissants, hoping this would last us until we shopped again on Saturday - the night before our return.

Off we went, replenished with pain au chocolat and choc milk, towards our first port of call. Gareth noticed that we were very near the museum, le Blockhaus at Eperlecques, which housed the workings and inmates for manufacture of the V rockets. What a dreary place and the photos could not be ‘livened’ up on our return. The only nice thing that happened, was that at our picnic table a ginger tom befriended us! He was a fine figure of a man/cat and quite often rolled over to prove it!!! He ate all our leftovers and we had to throw away any bits that we thought might be inedible to him. We left him ‘cooking’ in the sun and as we drove off, he was charming two old biddies, who opened their picnic for him to share. Le Blockhaus was a nasty bit of concrete with nasty history to go with it - le Coupole is a finer museum.

On our way again in blazing sunshine - again saw signs for interesting things in the way of life-sized metal archers advertising the village of Azincourt!! Could that be the French version of Agincourt I enquire of Gareth. ‘Lets have a look’ we both decide and I turned Heidi round to take the turning we had just passed to find a wonderful village and museum with history to go with it. Worth a stop!! Everything was well planned and organised to even supplying you with a walkable plan of the battle site. Have to admit we drove round the battle site and just made for the table plan and memorial as we were keen to get off again.

Found a lovely designated picnic site on the A176 (has also another road number for it beware) to have evening dinner and well protected stop-off for sleeping the night. This was very well hidden from the road and situated just before the town of Caen. I was secretly hoping that this could be our rest stop again on our way back tomorrow!

Friday 20th

Early start to get to le Mont Saint Michel and we arrived yet again in blazing sun with no shade anywhere. The parking was well thought out, but boy, we did not expect such crowds!!! We were stupid enough to think that we would be the only people there on a week day, but we were pushed through the gates of the town and ushered up the cobbled streets which led to the monastery. We gallantly walked up these cobbled streets, strung each side with hot tourists taking the obligatory photo shots of the wife and hordes of shops selling ‘donkey shite’ which is Gareth’s and my term for that ‘snowstorm’, plastic ‘eiffel tower’ and painted plates and all the other toot that abounds at these touristy spots. I was under the impression that the Mont would be ‘holy’ and therefore serene and quiet. No such luck and as we arrived at the Abbey we just did not want to pay that extra entrance fee just to be jostled about some more. We sought the quiet way back down and took some nice photos of St.Michel (slaying a dragon?) at his shrine in a very quiet church. This was calm, cool and serene.

I must admit that the sight of le Mont from across the bay at the car park is stupendous! It took Gareth a little time to get the angle right to cut out the cars that were parked.

Off we went and noticed all the local signs for Calvados - the town and the drink. Have to look into that.

Gareth had the Normandie beaches planned for our next stop and we made for the town of Arramanches where we drove down to park by one of the landing bridges and then walked across the wet sand to look at the rusting hulks of the floating harbour. All was serene and quiet, just as it should be and just a couple of photos were taken to remember this.

On the way back towards Dunkerque now and seeing what could be visited and we spy the town of Bayeux and its Tapisserie Museum, so we headed for that. We often go off at a tangent and why not? We saw a chateau to visit and the name was Chateau Fontaine Henry - as we pulled up outside the now locked gates, a fellow Landrover driver waved two fingers at us?! Was this a friendly wave? Yes, we worked out that two of his fingers were taped together with white tape, but this did look odd as he cast them out of the Laro window in a salute to us. The castle was quite a way down the drive to see properly and we made our way down another narrow lane in the opposite way.

The Bayeux Tapisserie was wonderful, but we found that due to the nature of the soundtrack on the headset, we were hurried round the glass case that held it. Each number on the tapestry held a different scene and story to go with and you were expected to move along with the commentary. This was quite fast and before you knew it, you were out on the street again with absolutely no re-admission. The film show that we watched in the French language due to the time of day, gave me a few winks of sleep and thought that the soft snoring would give an ‘edge’ to the short film.

This little visit did give us the chance to sleep yet again in our ‘favourite’ picnic spot, all safe and sound from rushing traffic.

Saturday 21st

Our last full day on French soil and we were to make the most of it and get back to Dunkerque for our Master Shop tonight before Auchan closed at 21.45.

Gareth had something ‘planned’ I could tell - he wouldn’t give me a town to head for, but just instructed me at each junction, which way to turn, I did guess in the end that it was ‘Pont de l’Arches’ a town that we had driven through at great speed during the last holiday in France. We found it to be a medieval town with lots to see, but we could not find the sights!!! We traipsed round looking for the viewpoint that should have given us sight of the bridges and the mergance of two great French rivers, the Seine and the Eure, but it was not until we actually drove out from the town that we saw anything and as we were part of that scene, being on the bridge, it was impossible to appreciate it.

Had time to see another castle ‘Chateau Vascoeuil’ which was very picturesque, but the supermarche was calling us and we set off again, We needed to fill up with gazole and stopped off at a Hypermarche by the name of Intermarche where they promised they were also open on Sunday (Bloody Hell, what is France coming to?) and although we were destined for Auchan at Dunkerque, we could not resist a peep at the goods on sale. Oh merci: Leffe with free glasses, the promised Calvados with free playing cards, and a new bier Ch’ti (or shitty to me and Gareth) with free glasses. An Aladdin's cave and not to be missed!!! so a few bottles and glasses heavier we meandered off to Dunkerque and our Master Shop. Cheese, more cheese, more croissants, coconut puddings, more bier and just a few packets of Carambar (you must try these natty little toffee delicacies) I think we remembered everything? Just a little French book for a favourite Neice who loves stories!

We headed to the port side and found that the lorry park was a dangerous place to be! In the past we had felt safe huddled amongst the ‘kings of the road’ but there are so many now going from Dunkerque that I feel dangerously overshadowed by them and we had to find another camp for Heidi that night. Gareth offered to walk across the lorry park and find somewhere else and he came up with a nice sheltered spot right outside the booking office of Norfolk Line (who we are always booked with). I felt like I was trespassing, but was amazed at how quickly it filled up with camper vans and cars from all over Europe, looking to go out on the first ferry on Sunday morning. I felt happy and safe here and it would have been lovely except for the rain that fell that night and I had to put my mobile phone alarm on for the first time this holiday and get up at the crack of dawn. 04.45 to be precise......

Sunday 22nd

We had a very quiet crossing back and all the drivers said they had had bad weather in Europe. Didn’t ask where they had been to, as we were all right with our sun every day! Wonder what the weather was like in Kent??? Would soon find out and after two hours, arrived in a very miserable England. I wondered who of prominence had died? This usually happens when we leave Blighty, but I found no revealing headlines in the newspapers. We found out that a lot of England was under water and that included the War & Peace Show where they all had a muddy time getting out and off home.

I realised now what all the foreigners were viewing on the television monitors inside the boat. They were wondering if the news would behold if the part of Britain they were planning to visit was under water!

Arrived home in good time and Barry my son was there with Poly to welcome us!!

I can’t wait for my next jaunt abroad and will probably write a few lines about it again for this website!!