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FR26 - Day 3 and Day 4

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With Day 3 consisting of the drive to Cabourg from Le Tréport that was consumed with visiting four different supermarkets, one purely for diesel, there's not much to report. We did stop for lunch on the west side of the Seine after conquering the Pont de Tancarville. The toll for Class 2 vehicles was €3.70 and our Emovis tag dealt with it. After we ate, healthy salad bowl, we took a walk to get a view of the bridge. I took the Canon. There was a problem with the memory card and all the photos were knackered. Luckily, Claire had her phone with her and took this one. We ended up at Cabourg around 3pm. The aire by the Hippodrome on Search4Sites says space for six vans. It was ram packed with nine vans. Too much of a fire risk! Also,  I do like to be able to open my door.... We continued to the other park up at the Carrefour Market car park. Also free plus the benefit of another supermarket very close ...
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Pegasus Bridge

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After the visit to the Merville Battery, the drive a few miles to Pegasus Bridge should have been short and quick. Today, some bridges were closed and so the satnav took us almost into Caen and then northwards along the Orne.  If I had thought about it we could have parked in the Café Gondrée car-park. Instead, we went into the road where the Memorial is situated.  It's  closed.  We parked up along the road and walked back.  We had lunch in the Café. It's around forty years ago since I went there and had a drink from the café itself.  Claire and I along with Reggie came a few years back in Molly the Elddis.  Coming over the other bridge took off our clean water drain tap from under the van. As we walked back to the van I got a couple of pictures over the fence. Signage says they are intending to have the works completed by June 2027.
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Merville Battery

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After leaving the Carrefour Market at Cabourg the first destination was the former German WW2 battery at Merville. It was part of the Atlantic Wall. Maybe better historians,  that I could ever be, explain why it was built basically from Norway to Spain.  If the Nazis had built "the thousand year Reich", why in around a decade build defences? We arrived and found the dedicated motorhome parking. It's free to park. The battery museum comprises of the four casement where they housed the guns.  The battery was there to defend the Orne estuary. It needed to be taken out before the D-Day landing on Sword Beach. The story of what happened is one of endurance and bravery. Easily on a par with the capture of the "Pegasus Bridge" over the Orne.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Merville_Gun_Battery Also on display is a Douglas DC3. This one was recovered from Bosnia Herzogovina and restored. https://www.batterie-merville.com/en/the-museum/c-47-the-snafu-special/ Ea...
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FR26 - Day 2

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The plan for day 2 was a gentle run along the coast to Eu, then across a river to Normandy.  And to a France Passion aire at an auberge. Things changed.  We got to Le Tréport and found that for day parking at campervan seens frowned upon. They do provide two camping car park ups on the top of the cliffs.  We chose one of them. In the end after coughing up €8.50 to park we decided to stay. For an overnight it's very good. I cancelled the reservation at the Auberge.  When we arrived it said there were 12 free pitches.  We were lucky as there was one near the end of a row, and the guy in front was leaving.  We shifted forward. No one in front. We set off for the funicular down to the town. It's free with four cars constantly on the move.  Going down... We walked along the seafront past the casino and along the harbour. The restaurants were doing a great trade. Barely any not full. We had ...
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FR26 - First Day Part Two

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It was around 2pm when we got to Cayeux-sur-Mer and the Camping-Car Park aire. We had a coffee and then togged up to walk along the seafront to the town centre. It's not far and we saw people had begun to dismantle the beach huts that line the boardwalk along the seafront. We stopped for a crepe before walking back. Then had a quiet night. Watched a few YouTubes.
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FR26 - The First Day

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We were up bright (or not!!) early to get ready for the exhausting 8 mile drive from home to Eurotunnel.  Five twenty a.m. is way to early to be up and loading the final things into the van for a "no later than 6.15am" departure.  Our Shuttle train was due to depart at 7.46pm. To ensure we were there in time for check-in that closes an hour before departure, we were away dead on 6.15am. With a short queue for the check-ins we were parked up in the "long vehicle" by the closing time for our train. Check-in was more exciting due to the number of Ferrari and Lambo supercars queuing to get through. The noise.... We had coffee with us from the Tassimo in the kitchen, but bought some croissants. It was relatively painless getting through the two border and passport controls. They barely looked at Claire's Irish passport. Mine got a little more scrutiny. Eventually we loaded the train. It left a scandalous 2 minutes late!! Once on the French side we were soon on the A1...
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FR26 - Off Soon...

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The first post of the trip. Start mileage. We filled the diesel last weekend before the prices shot up this week. It's crazy that locally diesel is today £2.019 a litre. It was £1.959 on Sunday.  I stuck the magneic UK plate on the back doors along with the Remembrance plates. Whilst we are away i expect we'll visit some D-Day sites.
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