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Today was my third day in France and looking out of the tent, the weather was a heavy, damp mist which looked like it was going to get worse as the day went on. Wet weather gear was put on and off I went on the road to Cherbourg. The journey was nearly 100-kms so with the weather threatening to get worse I headed up to the motorway to get the journey over with fast. I stopped at a road end that fed the motorway. Cars passing the end of the road seemed to slow down. I joined the road to head to the motorway and as I caught other cars up they too seemed to pull over to the right and slow down so I could pass them, I found this very courteous but soon I found out why. As I was slowly catching a large van up, a motorcyclist stepped into the road and beckoned the van driver to the side of the road. The motorcyclist was a Gendarme, a French motorcycle policeman. The gendarme’s bike was the same colour and the same style as mine.

Soon I arrived at Cherbourg and I found the underwater exhibition that I’d come to see. It told of strange creatures that lived in very deep water and how they generated light to lure their pray. The were also exhibits of Deep Submergible Vehicles (DSV’s) and how these had developed and gradually gone deeper and deeper. There was an open shallow pool with fish called Stingrays in it. These Stingrays were used to humans and would come to the edge of the pool on top of the water and let people pet them. I stroked one and found they felt rough and sharp if I stroked them forwards but just lumpy and smooth if I stroked them backwards, they really seemed to enjoy it. It was a pity I wasn’t allowed to take pictures.

The next part of the exhibition was a tour around “Le Redoutable”, France’s first nuclear submarine. I went into the sub through a doorway that had been cut into the stern where I could see all the steering gear and the gearboxes. Moving forward I could see the steam turbine that drove the gearboxes and the air purification units. Further forward were 16 vertical chambers with pipes and gauges connected to them, these were the nuclear missile launching chambers. The next section of the sub was a massive empty section where the nuclear reactor was once housed. When Le Redoutable was decommissioned, this whole section of the sub was cut away and replaced with a new section with a single walkway through the middle. After I passed through this section I came to the officers’ quarters and mess, then on to the control deck with its periscopes and steering controls before coming to the crews quarters, galley and mess rooms. Here a section of floor had been replaced by glass panels that looked down to the sub’s surgery and hospital on the lower deck. The final section of the sub was the forward torpedo room where the loading hatch for the torpedoes also doubled as an emergency escape hatch. There were also torpedoes in various stages of deployment and an open torpedo tube which showed the ram that pushed them out to sea when firing. I now left the sub through a doorway that had been cut in the side of the hull through one of the ballast tanks that can be flooded or drained to adjust the subs buoyancy and trim when out at sea. Leaving the exhibition I headed for some lunch before returning to the bike to continue my travels.

After lunch I was back on the bike heading for a small town of Barfleur which was a small fishing port with not too much to see so I continued on to St. Vaast la Hougue, another fishing port but with a large harbour and marina. I stopped for a while to have a look around this town which was very pretty before heading south along the coast road to the museum at Utah beach where the Americans landed during the D-Day landings. After a look around I had a small snack before taking a scenic ride back to Arromanches and my final night in France.

Back in Arromanches I got a quick shower and headed down into the town, because I’d had that last snack at Utah beach I wasn’t quite ready for my supper so had a wander around before finally going to my favourite café but instead of sitting down outside as I usually did I went into the bar for an aperitif or two before eating. Soon I became hungry and sat down outside again for a meal. Eating a bit later than normal gave me chance to try and chat with the locals, one had heard my message tone on my mobile and asked me to Bluetooth it to him, soon everyone wanted it. After a very pleasant meal and a few more drinks I headed back to the campsite and a good night’s sleep.

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