On the Road Again!

Day 3 Saturday.  Wow. It's ironic that for years our European cousins have joked about England (they mean the UK) being rainy all the time, and yet at home it's warm, hot in some places, and dry. Here in Normandy apart from a brief period of sunshine it has been raining, sometimes heavy, and overcast. We didn't venture out until it was too late to collect our bread order. The epicerie is only open from 8am to 10am in the morning. We got there about 1030am. Buggeur. It started to brighten up around 11am so we decided to take a walk down to the beach and into the town again. This time I remembered to take the Sanyo camera with me. More on that later. The path down to the beach is very steep. Our old knees complaining on the way down. Whole body complaining on the way up! I took a few photos of the bunkers and gun emplacements that litter the area and of the National Guard Memorial. When will you see them..... Not for a while. When I plugged the memory card into my Motorola ...

Once we had finished breakfast at the Logis we packed the car where it had been parked overnight and set off down the street to the old town. Beaumont sur Sarthe At the entrance they have a wooden mock castle built over the road. I'll add some photos later as they are on the camera not phone. The new bridge and castle We had a look at the market and then went downwards hoping to find the old bridge over the river. Beaumont market Watches and Basket Weaving & Chair Repairs Old Bridge A new bridge carries current traffic across the Sarthe and it is hard to imagine how they managed before it was built. Once we had bought something for a picnic lunch we set off for the first Plus Beaux Village de France of this trip; Sainte Suzanne. St Rémy sur Sillé Once again TomTom did a good job and we arrived untroubled about 11am. It was a short walk from the parking into the village and plus beaux it is too. Photos to follow! Sainte Suzanne...

Now that the "big" Olympics weekend has passed, my attention can turn back to the holiday in a couple of weeks and start to look for places to visit on the drive down from Calais and the hotel near Disneyland Paris. Claire likes scenic places and gardens. I do to some extent, but also I like railways and war museums. So what could be better than a stop at Péronne. Scenic riverside town on the River Somme and a WW1 museum? Historial de la Grande Guerre I have also done a little tweak with the hotel for the final night in Rouen. Switching to a more central hotel. It is a few pounds more per night but much nearer the Cathesdral and the historic centre of town, has wifi and parking.  What more can you need? Okay, a bar? Check.  A restaurant? Check. Hotel Arts-et-Seine

Not a Plan B as such but simply a  review of where we are at with the trip planning.   I've had a look at the three main parts of the Normandy leg. The Chelles/Disney overnight is set in stone as I had to pay for the room up front; no refunds. It's only about €35 but I'm not made of money. I sometimes wish I was one of those travellers that simply packs a toothbrush, spare pants and a bank card and sets off into the big blue yonder.  I tried it once, being spontaneous, and we ended up looking for a hotel in rural Spain about tea time (4pm to those non-British) and ended up in the Parador in Avila. It was very nice and the restaurant was also top notch, but the wallet battering was eye watering. Okay, hotels always have towels and soap in their bathrooms, some even have bottles of stuff that you can swipe before you leave. Maybe a spare pair of pants and a spare pair of socks... wash one overnight and wear the others?  Seems okay but the rea...

I have spent a few hours working on the Normandy trip. At least the part that comes after the trip to Disneyland Paris. Disney was all done and dusted months ago with the hotel booked nearby for the Sunday night so we can be at the gates bright an early (or as early as we can). The hotel is an ETAP, soon to be rebranded as an Ibis.  It's cheap, has a loo and shower in the room and is less than £30 for the night. Lovely jubbly. Of course you have to sort out a breakfast. A batch of Tesco vouchers accounted for about 80% of the fare and I had to add some cash to confirm the booking.  As we have all day to get down to the hotel at Chelles, I booked a slightly later crossing to save us getting up too early. I'll start to look for places to stop on the way to make a 200 mile motorway run a little more interesting. Maybe we'll try to avoid the A26/A1 or A16 routes down towards Paris. Plan A To make the most of the 5-day crossing I needed to look at alternatives, ...

Bank Holiday Monday and it's time to pay the hotel and set off.   The trip I planned was to avoid the motorway and take the coast road as far as Honfleur. Due to a problem with the Garmin not charging on the bike it decided to die before we had really got to where we wanted  which included a crossing of the Greenwich Meridian. As we approached Houlgate I saw that 64000 miles was about to pop up on the odometer, and so I stopped for Claire to take a pic of me! From here it was on into Honfleur.  Parking up in the centre of the town where I saw a couple of other bikes. It was okay until we had to get away and I had to ride along the pavement and squeeze through the barrier at the end. We had a walk around the harbour and took a break in one of the cafes, sitting in the burning heat of the day. The harbour area is a mass of cafes, restaurants and gift shops.  With the Garmin not working and the deadline of the Shuttle ahead of us we reluctantly set off. ...

The plan had been to include Pegasus Bridge into the main beaches day but as it turned out it's a good job we didn't as Day 2 was pretty full. We had a late breakfast and we set off for the Bridge a little later that anticipated.  The new bridge was open and we had to wait in a long column of traffic waiting for it to close.  I have to admit to being a little underwhelmed by the place.  We parked alongside the Gondree cafe with a few other bikes The cafe was full of British tourists having lunch and we had a drink across the road before we decided to move on to Ouisterham. Pegasus Bridge , originally uploaded by Invicta Moto . Pegasus Bridge , originally uploaded by Invicta Moto . Read more here . The weather was a bit chilly and we had a walk through the village near the casino and had lunch! We always have lunch. We had a gentle ride back down to Caen and parked the bike up round the corner from the hotel and went in to change into civvies. Once dressed...

These are some additional photographs taken on the Normandy Trip. German bunker at Juno Beach Longues Battery Broken barrel at Longues Battery Destroyed gun at Longues The Sherman Tank looking out to sea above Arromanches Mulberry Harbour at Arromanches Beached section of the Mulberry Harbour. This was taken of me and the GS at Bernieres sur Mer by my lovely wife Claire.

Day 2 – The D-Day Beaches Saturday dawned bright and sunny and after breakfast we made sure the SatNav had the route in and we were off out of Caen. I have to admit that as the basis of the route I used a waypoints file that was posted on the BMW Club forum enhanced from the Major and Mrs Holt’s Pocket Handbook to the D-Day Landing Beaches. If anyone is interested I’ll post the file on the forum once I can get it off the unit, this is the one that I downloaded plus some places they didn’t get to! From Caen centre we headed out past the Castle and towards Ouistreham, better known to the British as a cross channel ferry port. Brittany Ferries run a service from Portsmouth. The first stop was just to the south of Colleville-Montgomery and a bunker, dedicated a national monument to the Suffolk Regiment that took this one codenamed “Hillman” and another just down the road codenamed “Morris”. Hillman was attacked on 6th June 1944 by the 1st Suffolk Regiment, supported by...

I checked the bike out the night before we were to leave. The tyres were perfect and I had to give her 250ml of 20w/50 to take it back to the full line in the sight glass. Then I checked and double checked the maps and routes were in the Garmin SatNav. On Friday morning all I had to do was load the Touratech Zega inner bags into the Touratech Zega panniers - German panniers for a German bike! We left home a little late for the Shuttle, but only 3 minutes! We checked in and were given the next train after our booking. A little bit annoyed but that’s the way the Shuttle does it. In front were loads of Harley’s on a trip across for the day. They went off onto the 0820 and we had to make do with the 0843. It left late. Superb. The 50 minute wait at Folkestone makes it as long as the ferry to make the crossing, except of course we have to sit on the floor and no coffee, unlike to ferry! Once on French soil it was evident that the hurricane that had been crossing the Atlantic had arrived...