Omaha Beach, Amiens and Home

Portmans wanted to go to the Omaha beach museum (so did I) so we drove up to Omaha beach in driving rain...there is a little museum in every town oddly enough so working out which one we thought we were going to was quite tricky. Tipped down when were getting out of the car and all got pretty wet. M&M didnt want to go to the museum so they wandered down towards the beach in the rain...when we came out we found them holed up in a seafood restaurant finishing off some of the nicest mussels I have ever tasted. Note that there are no photos from this day...just too wet!

Headed back to the cottage and spent the afternoon tidying up and packing. Weather cleared up a little (of course) once we were back packing and cleaning.
Headed off early on Saturday - lost the key to the cottage about 5 mins before we left, so after frantic search decided to leave a note and 5 euros! Raining of course, but stopped at Honfleurs at the mouth of the Seine for coffee and petrol. A very pretty little port town, but very busy. From here we made a big push to Amiens where we spent the night. Amiens has an impressive cathedral with the head of John the Baptist, tastefully displayed on a gold plate. Apparently if was half inched from Byzantium by a French knight and brought back to Amiens. According to sources we could find on the web JtB had just 3 heads, all of which are held in churches and mosques!
Other than the heads, Amiens is an interesting town, wish we had longer to spend there. The bit along river is a bit like Venice or Amsterdam - lots of really old houses along canals. They have a very interesting botanic gardens which you can only see by boat, but we were too late to see it. More police per square inch than anywhere else we have been.
Dropping the car off in Lille on Sunday morning presented more than the expected difficulties, they have an extensive one way and pedestrian only system in the city centre which meant that even thought we knew where we wanted to go we couldnt actually get there! Eventually reduced to asking directions at a service station (not as easy as it sounds when the locals dont speak your language).
Uneventful trip back to Cambridge and a boring couple of days of rain for the Portmans as we started getting ready for the move this weekend. R is heading over to Prague at the end of September to go climbing with the Portmans, M is heading to US for a couple of weeks after the school holidays and we move on Saturday. Renee is visiting (just to help us move?) for a few days.

Falaise

An adventure to Falaise, which was southeast of where we were staying. Falaise was the birthplace of William the Conqueror and has a very impressive castle. The castle has two keeps, one of which was built for Eleanor of Aquitaine. The castle has been renovated with an audio visual display inside, which I liked, but R wasnt so keen on. He likes his ruins as ruins. The castle is really impressive, sits on a big rock near the river. Really huge walls, very naturally defended. The town was really lovely, lots of beautiful little streets. Another very warm day so back to the pool for more swimming!

And a rest day...

Too much activity is bad for you, so we had a day of rest. Well I did anyway, and the other adults went to Viller Bocage (home of good bread and excellent vegetables). We found all the people in Normandy really friendly and patient with letting us try our pretty poor French on them, even though it was quickly apparent they were all very fluent in English. But we had lots of fun (and unlike in Dordogne I didnt have to say 'Je suis Australienne' before anyone would talk to us). The kids and I hung out round the pool and the villa for the entire day, reading and playing. So here are some shots of the ambience! A note for anyone contemplating this type of excursion, the farmhouse we stayed in we chose from the web, but the final price we found on the owners website was about half of that we first saw on one of the agent service websites. Once you find your place its always worth searching for that place independently!

Granville

Having abandoned Mt St Michel as being incredibly crowded (as well as beautiful) and it being quite hot we nipped up the coast to Granville. Just on a whim, I had read somewhere it was supposed to be nice. It was certainly popular - took us ages to find a car park, but then of course we found the virtually empty one just down the road!! A walk around the point through the old part of town to the beautiful beach.... a lovely few hours in the warm water toasting ourselves. Trying not to disgrace ourselves by getting too sunburnt.




The tide goes in and out a long way here - see the Mt St Michel pictures below - and so as the afternoon wore on there was progressively less sand. We beat a retreat back up the hill through the wall and into the old town. Really beautiful old streets for wandering around. The old Norman church was fascinating, lots of bits and pieces regarding fishing, with one of the side altars containing a small fishing boat. It is a really heavy old building, with small windows, and these things must be very solid as often the churches were the only things that withstood the bombings. There were bunkers right behind the church - R thinks probably Napoleonic maybe a magazine. Lots of more modern bunkers right up on the point. Incredible views each way up and down the coast. Then back to the villa for an evening beer and more food!

The kids say....

The best thing about our trip to France was Mont St Michel according to the kids. We really liked the crowds, the spiral towers and looking at the little gardens as we were going up the stairs. We also liked the HUGE beach we could see. We saw a bicycle riding on the beach and he made tracks. His front wheel got stuck, and J thinks that might be where the quicksand was. Someone had drawn Mickey Mouse face in the sand and we could see it from the towers. They spelt it Mecky Muss.



Parking was easy, but there was lots of traffic already by the relatively early morning we arrived!! You had to park in the bit the tide wouldnt come in on - we were there at dead low tide.

Bayeux Tapestry and the beach!

Today was a public holiday, which turned out to be really good because there were no crowds at the Bayeux tapestry, or maybe there just arent crowds there anyway. This is the photo of the museum building. The tapestry was fantastic, an incredible thing to see in real life. Even the kids were impressed. One trick was that only by a quick read of the brochure did we realise that the tapestry was at the END of the museum tour - and we didnt think the kids would last the total museum, so only did the tapestry. Really good exhibit, they provide a audio tour which works well, which the kids liked. Little M was very impressed with Queen Mathilde - which turned out to be a recurring theme later in the week. We saw the horse with an arrow in it (a Dun gee - terrible family joke propogated by DD).

After that we wandered over the the Bayeux church, which was amazing, and the Assumption Day service was in full swing so we couldnt explore fully.

Went on from Bayeux to Arromanche, saw the remains of the false harbour. When you see the sea wall there you wonder how they managed to get anything up those walls. There are lots of bits and pieces left around the beachside from the war years. R was in his element looking at old cannons, tanks, and barricades. The beach itself was lovely, kids thought it was fantastic. A lot to recommend it as a day out! Next time I want to stay in the room with the turret! The kids had icecreams and as you can see the weather was beautiful. A nice drive back through the countryside and fresh blackberries with meringue for tea. A hard life.

The long drive...

signposted and straightforward until you hit the DIVERSION - TRAVAUX...we only had to reverse back up a slip road once before we got onto the autoroute in the right direction. Around here if you get on the wrong road you end up in the wrong country! But pretty easy nonetheless (we didnt end up divorced so it cant be too bad).


Went to the Australian memorial at Villers Bretonneux and then on to Normandy. We discovered why the cottage was empty for this week...big French holiday this weekend and huge traffic jams, no one who knows any better was going to France this weekend. Enormous traffic jams crossing the Seine and in Normandy around Caen.
All worth it once we found the cottage beautiful old stone farmhouse (really creaky stairs) in the middle of nowhere. Had cats and a pool so the kids were happy.
Sunday was a rest day and we walked to the local village for croissants and had a quiet day.

Across the channel (1)

First adventure was to get across the channel - having carefully shopped around for all the best deals we were almost sunk when National Rail wanted to charge us 186 pounds for the Cambridge-London tickets - more than it cost us to get to France!! But after missing a few trains we found the right combination and got it to a mere snip at 80 pounds return (for 7 of us thats not so bad - scarey right). Survived that OK, then after a pleasant Eurostar crossing complete with English sporting louts in our carriage who demolished at least 4 bottles of whisky and umpteem beer cans on the crossing we arrived at Lille. Very easy car pick up and then found our hotel - R even managed to ask for directions at the local hardware store to find it. The hotel decor was excellent! Note madam reclining on the best lounges we have ever seen. We really want some for our next decorating drive. But it was a great hotel for families as the rooms were centred around a courtyard with bar where the adults could sit while the children were sleeping. Great arrangment and of course quite a few families there as a result.

London in summer

Big M has been doing numerous trips to London this trip to get a visa organised for a forthcoming trip to the US. On Monday little M came too and was very well behaved - we had lunch in a restaurant, bought some 'stuff' on Oxford St and then came home. So on Thursday J and little M both decided to come. We picked up our documents then went to Kensington Gardens to go to the Lady Diana playground. Of course we got lost and took the very long way round the gardens - big M was a bit concerned we were off the beaten path when semi-naked men in pairs kept scattering out of the long grass in front of us, hurriedly reclothing!! The kids didnt seem to notice at all. Or thought this was quite usual behaviour for a London park I guess. We got to the playground which really was quite fun - very overpopulated with nannies and darlings when we arrived, and gradual change of shift to parents and children later in the day. There was a huge pirate ship which J thought was wonderful. And a storytelling session. Of course little M stubbed her toe and had to be bandaided in the first aid centre, which she thought was wonderful (best ever Mum). Then we had to make the decision to beat rush hour or not, and they opted to stay. So we went for a paddle boat ride on the Serpentine, only half hour as otherwise main paddler (big M) might expire. Of course the world nearly ended when J lost his hat in the water (Ben gave me that hat - I cant lose it!), but big and little M performed a miraculous hat resuce using superior boating skills. All very funny for big M, but very serious for J who said afterwards 'you and M were really good - but I was a bit hopeless wasnt I' nough said! Then home again on the late train and straight to bed - still tired!! Meanwhile R went to see the illuminated manuscripts currently on display in the Fitzwilliam Museum, fantastic by all accounts. There are a number of books currently unbound for restoration that are on display. We are packing for Normandy this weekend, and big M is off to Netherlands first to see a colleague. Then when we get back we move to the new (larger) house.