Blogs from Dieppe, Upper Normandy, France, Europe - page 2

Oh dear. Just discovered that according to our last blog, from June 28th, we are still wandering round France heading homewards but never quite getting there. I am happy to report we did make it home after a one night stop at our favourite aire at Le Crotoy (where we had a prime seaview spot so were extremely happy). We even managed to get to England via the Chunnel between closures because of migrants and then ferry worker fires. Once home we’ve had a very pleasant 2 months of English summer including a 3 day camping trip in Stratford with sister Liz and cousin Denise, as we’ve done now for the last 3 years. We’ve seen all our children (5) and grandchildren (11 including Bob’s 2 greats). We’ve enjoyed our newly worked back garden which ... read more

Okay- its history test time! How many of you know why the French city of Dieppe is so important to Canadians (I will give you a hint - it has to do with World War II)? Okay, times up! It was the site of the first Allied invasion of France almost 2 years before the Normandy invasion. Never heard of it? Well, neither had we before we arrived here after a very quiet passage from Fecamp. Dieppe was the site of what was called the Dieppe Raid. On August 19, 1942, 6,000 soldiers embarked from southern England made up of 5,000 Canadians, 50 American Rangers, 20 Free French soldiers and almost 1,000 British. The objective was to test the ability of allied forces to seize a harbor intact. Some considered this a critical step in the ... read more

Starting with a quick heads up before getting into everything. While I love that people are reading what I have to say, I’m actually more so writing everything as a way to retain the wonderful memories I’m living. So if it ever seems as if I’m ranting on about things that are either uninteresting, strange, unrelated, please just bare with me or skip a bit (it won’t hurt my feelings (unless you’re related to me!) In other words, this post is long. Enjoy! The last time I wrote something I was being rapidly propelled across the French countryside in a T.G.V (Train à grand vitesse (a.k.a really fast train (the French are known for acronyms, not creativity))) on my way back to Dieppe from a weekend in Paris. Well I’m still traveling, though this time by ... read more

Hey everyone! Been a couple weeks since I last posted something so I thought I’d drop a quick word. Life has been pretty easy going here. We’ve kind of been finding out where we stand in the family and getting to know everyone better. At first we had a harder time talking to Laure, the mom, because she’s not quite as charismatic as Guillaume is, but seeing as how we only see Guillaume on the weekends and we’re always with Laure, that has quickly changed. So much so that we actually meet her for her lunch break once a week and grab a bite to eat! As for the rest of the family, we’re getting along great with everyone, though we’ve had some discipline issues with Zoé. She just doesn’t quite understand what no means and ... read more

As much as I ended-up loving France, I mean Normandy, on this trip, there is one aspect of travel where the French fail miserably against their Germand and English competitors: breakfast. The French breakfasts were very good when we chose to have them but whereas the Brits and Krauts offer breakfast as part of the hotel or B&B price, the French choose to tack on the cost as an extra. 8 Euro per person for breakfast quickly adds up to $40 just for breakfast for our group of four. I guess you actually get your money's worth because the few times we did buy the breakfasts we were served big baguettes, croissants, jams, fresh Normandy butter, cheese, meats, cereal, coffee, tea, hot chocolate, fruit and yoghurt at our table, but for me breakfast is the least ... read more