LOST IN fRANCE (NEARLY)

After the last post, in the carpark at St Cecile beach where we rocked and rolled in the blustery, freezing wind, we made our way down the road a bit and booked in to a camping park in Etaples-sur-Mer, a large park but quiet, and spent a comfortable night there.  The next morning, Sunday 12^th May was Mothers’ Day back home and I received text messages from the family in Sydney which made my day.  Our first stop was just next door at the Etaples War Cemetery, where servicemen from all parts of the British Commonwealth are buried.  It was an emotional experience for us to see the thousands of gravestones in what is a beautifully maintained cemetery.

About sixteen kms down the road, we were blown away at Merlimont Beach before continuing on down the coast to St Valery-sur-Somme.  We drove into the town, hoping to park and spend some time rubber necking but…it is a town of narrow streets, some cobbled and there were huge markets in progress, hundreds of cars and even more people.  There was nowhere for Boris to rest while we went off being tourists so, after bumping along the cobbles and negotiating the crowds and the roads, we left, somewhat disappointed as we’d have liked to wander around the medieval city within the town.  Just a little further on we called into Cayeux-sur-Mer, another seaside town, which is no doubt very popular in summer.  It possesses a large pebbled beach and dozens of beach huts, plus a kiosk where we bought a bag of freshly cooked chips each and sat in the sunshine to eat them, protected from the gale force wind by the kiosk itself.  Another 12 kms down the road is Ault, different from the other coastal towns we’d visited in that it is hilly rather than flat, and has white cliffs!

A decision was made then to leave the coast and take the A28 autoroute inland to the outskirts of Rouen, following the river Seine for a short while, bypassing Evreux and heading west along “D” roads through small villages to our overnight stop at a farm in le Noyer-en-Ouche, such a lovely, lovely place with hundreds of apple trees, peaceful, quiet and there was no one else there.

Monday 13^th….my birthday and a perfect start to the day.  Gorgeous views, happy birthday  text messages from family and a lovely card with matching bookmark from Marion & Mike, a cup of tea in bed and then…..whoosh….the floor was flooded with water from the storage tank…clean water thankfully, not black water!  The next couple of hours were spent mopping (me) and investigating and fixing the problem (Mike) which was…the hot water hose from the flick mixer tap in the bathroom came off and consequently the water just spilled all over the floor.  It was quite tricky and there is a very small area available to work in but all is fine now.

After that little drama was sorted, we headed south then west, to Mont St Michel, passing through many towns and stopping at a few along the way, one being Ducey where we visited a boulangerie to by a couple of f.a. cream cakes and a loaf of bread, visited a chateau which was being renovated (not sure it was open to the public but we wandered through anyway) and walked around the narrow streets before finishing our day’s journey, booking into Camping Aux Pommiers for the night.  Mike took me to dinner at a nearby restaurant to celebrate my birthday and we fell into bed, exhausted after what was a long and tiring day.  Our next door neighbours here are a Kiwi couple who have given us quite a few helpful hints on motorhoming in Europe as they’re old hands at it and are living the dream. 

Today (Tues.14^th May) was the day I finally managed to do some washing before catching the bus to Mont St Michel where we climbed a zillion steps to and through the abbey. 

We wore ourselves out but it was worth it! We caught the local bus back to camp and had a few drinks with our KoneWone neighbours and had a BBQ for dinner. A great day. Of to St Marlo tomorrow and to investigate a few chateaux we have found on the map.