Onto Cherbourg

Saturday 13th June 2009 My 60th birthday we awoke to clear blue skies and warm sunshine lots of cards and emails, text messages and phone calls Barney and Rod picked some sweet Williams!!!!!! Enjoyed a walk and a couple of swims, really very hot. Bindy and Tony arrived, such good friends coming all this way for a special Birthday! and it was so good to see them. Good steaks for dinner, local bubbly and wine, talked the evening away, still outside as so warm - a super day - thank you all !



Sunday 14th June 2009 Awoke to slightly dull skies. After a leisurely breakfast and more chattering about our trip and theirs in the Antipodes we strolled into Courtures for a beer or two. In the square behind us were all the locals - they were roasting a whole pig- smelled good!
Walking back, Barney found a couple of watering holes one of which was good and muddy- he got a shower when we got back! Very hot and sunny, bread and cheese lunch then walked to the Local Caves Troglodytes where the Artist Richard Rak has an exhibition. His main theme appears to be Utopia and he appears to create his art around recycling and the baggage that we leave behind. Egyptian hieroglyphic creations are in material and wood and are truly fantastic. All displayed within the caves (it was so cool). The Penguins were the highlight!! Not forgetting the Tea Schooner and all those hand made Tea Bags!!!!!
Swimming again to cool off then dinner at the Campsite restaurant where Boss man Eric enjoyed discussing Monty Python and The Life of Brian!!!! Coffee and nightcap and the end of another good, day!!

Monday 15th June 2009 Bindy and Tony left us after breakfast heading up to Chartres, they will catch the ferry home on Tuesday. It has been a brilliant weekend!
Small supermarket shopping and packing up for us as tomorrow we head north planning to spend our last week near the Normandy beaches- dull early on but soon became warm again.


Tuesday 16th June 2009 We said a fond farewell to Montsabert getting underway by 9.25am Usual stops for coffee and lunch all was going well we had hoped to stopped overnight again at Argentan but when we enquired no spaces available so we had decided to head straight to L’Anse du Brick which is on the Normandy coast and not far from Cherbourg.
However at 2.55pm we had a blow out on the Caravan off side (Right) - lots of rubber and burning rubber and an awful noise! However Rod managed to bring the whole unit to a halt we were on a dual carriageway so out came our triangles and on when the fluorescent jackets. Gill walked to the nearest Orange emergency phone and although the operator did not speak much English managed to convey our predicament. Within 25minutes the highway agency arrived - 2 trucks and set up cones and large flashing lights around us followed by the garage breakdown truck - he had however forgotten to bring a big jack, fortunately he and Rod managed with wooden blocks and using the car jack and caravan steadies to lift the van and change to the spare- the side wall of the caravan has been damaged and the wheel arch cover totally ripped off however the motor mover appears to work OK. Once the wheel had been changed we followed the tow truck back to his base in Montebourg Just outside Valognes and settled up - well Euro Assist did so we were once again on our way and it could have been so much worse arrived at Camping L’Anse du Brick at 5pm and sorted out Bar B Q and early night!! We have the Cuckoo again

---

---