Advertisement
Published: September 27th 2010
Dinan Valley
The lovely views over the river valley and port of DinanJAC- Just another church
1* - worth a look
2* - Good Times
3* - Unmissable
+ - emphasis on the rating
Let me start our coverage of the North Western areas of France we visited by talking about Roundabouts on the road.
The French do a pretty darn good job decorating them, as we drove throughout France we saw many cool roundabouts; many have fountains in them others have sculpture, it's often a nice touch that adds just a little extra to the charm of the traveling in France.
We started our arrival into the 'North West' area of France in Dinan, a pretty town perched on a hill over a beautiful river valley. As it was evening we decided on dinner out at the fine Dinan 'Terrace Cafe' which had a picturesque setting by the riverfront, good English speaking staff and menu, and food we fancied; a good start!
The next day for breakfast we headed to the lovely Dinan port (2*) where Alicia swore viciously when she realised she'd bought yoghurt instead of milk for our cereal (not the first time it's happened this trip, darn languages). Eventually Alicia found some UHT
milk and had a bowl of cereal, Nick can't stand UHT and refused it. After enjoying the port we wandered a little around the main town in Dinan which has quite wonderful views over the port and river valley from the 'Jardin Anglais' (2*) then had some ice cream from a very well stocked ice cream shop and set off.
We moved onto one of the major French tourist attractions we've been looking forward to: Mont St Michel (3*). We were relieved to arrive in the area with fine weather and have good views over the farm land and river leading to the mount. MSM is basically a fortified town on a rocky spit of land surrounded by sea when the tide is in with an Abbey perched impressively and precariously of the steep rocky hill.
We drove into the carpark at Mont St Michel which was surprisingly along the spit of land that leads out to the Mont (doesn't this get flooded?!). The views were very good, it's stunning from the outside and pretty clouds added to the sight. It continues to be lovely as you walk around and up to the isle to view the mount, the
Mount St Michel from inland
Looking along the river leading out to the sea and MSM abbey, and walled town too.
Sadly we found the Abbey interior to be all fairly bland and unmemorable, the arched buttressing of the structure was interesting but not super charming. There were some decent views out of the windows and terraces from within the Abbey around the sea and countryside, but overall the Abbey interiors didn't make us sing and dance with joy. After consideration we awarded 3* for the exterior and 1* for the interior.
The next stop on our agenda for the Northwest was the city of Caen, where we based ourselves in a fair apartment to hit all the main sights in the Normandy region.
We woke up the next day and after some fruit and lovely Patisseries from a little market town we eventually made it to the town of Etretat and it's stunning cliff coastline (3*).
Art lovers take heed: This cliff arch shows up in a lot of art we've seen since, including in an episode of the tv show the West Wing; it's very famous and recognisable.
We parked up at the best lookout and after taking in the views of the astonishing main national arch and cliffs across the bay
we walked a little of the coast to see another small natural arch and some decent cliff views then had lunch on the grass with beautiful views of the town and fabulous natural arch; it's a remarkable spot.
In the coast town of Honfleur (2*), we walked the town and enjoyed the charming buildings around the harbour, watched a chap painting the scene and got some nice photos. Honfleur has built a large rectangular harbour very protected from the sea with only a long narrow channel leading out to the ocean, so the harbour and the pretty buildings around seem entirely separate and disconnected from the sea.
Our next day was a major day of sight seeing; first we set out to Bayeux and after the 1* JAC Cathedral we saw the magnificent Bayeux Tapestry (3*). For those not in the know this is a 1,000 year old tapestry depicting the lead up to and Battle of Hastings in 1066 in England; one of the most decisive battles in all human history since it lead to William the Conqueror after his victory becoming King of England and where would the history of most countries in the world be
if you changed English history 1,000 years ago!?
The Tapestry was astonishingly good and the audioguide commentary was excellent, Nick was very amused at the propaganda depicted in the Tapestry. It showed Harold II of England was generally a decent chap, but an oath-breaker and thus justified William's invasion. The museum movie acknowledged that the tapestry could be viewed as Norman propaganda. It was intriguing to see how the 'winners' depicted that period of history.
The museum also had some anecdotes about how lucky the tapestry has survived almost 1,000 years including stories of the church it was housed in burning down twice!! Also of the Tapestry being used as a tarpaulin to cover a wagon during the French Revolution before some bright spark salvaged it!!
We loved the tapestry, loved the museum, and loved the history, couldn't recommend it enough to anyone who likes history.
Next was some more recent history, specifically WWII and the 'Museum of the Battle of Normandy' in Bayeux (2*+). It was a good WWII museum explaining D-day and the first few months of Allied operations in Normandy. The movie in particular was excellent and explained it all well with lots of good 'on
Cliffs of Etretat
The fabulous natural arch on the cliffs of Etretat location' WWII footage.
Nick was intrigued by a few of the things he learned including: That the British and Canadians ended up going toe to toe with the bulk of the German armoured response whilst the Americans in the west part of Normandy had less fierce opposition but much worse terrain (the Bocage & Hedgerows).
Eventually with huge air superiority and pressure from the British forces in the east pinning down the majority of the German armour the US under Bradley smashed through and they managed to punch a hole in the German line and breakout of the pocket and push the Allied lines further West and South. Hitler stupidly demanded a counter-attack that cost the Germans badly and the Allies then had the Germans on the run and were able to seriously push on in all directions.
The reason the above was so interesting to me was that it gave context on who had being doing what amongst the allies.
I never realised the Brits and Canadians were primarily going toe-to-toe with the best of the German armoured divisions whilst the Americans had a little more freedom of movement and therefore the people of a lot
of French towns of the area would have perceived it was the Americans freeing them and giving them liberty (slightly unfair since the other allies were in it too!!).
The museum also covered the allied troop commitment it was intriguing to see how many infantry and armour divisions each country had put in, USA had half-again as much as the Brits, kudos to America for making such a major commitment to winning the war in Europe.
Also great stuff to discover was about France thwarting the allies in establishing AMGOT (Allied Military Government for Occupied Territories) due to Charles de Gaul's leadership. Essentially if not for CDG and his movement and the French resistance the Allies would have put their own AMGOT government in place in France and at least temporarily had a lot of influence and control in French affairs
Instead CDG managed to unite and rally France to take control of their own country again and get it back on it's feet under French-only control. I'll be reading a CDG biography first chance I get - the scope of what he achieved for France cannot be underestimated!
I was amazed that there was basically a battle of
Harbourfront Honfleur
The charming harbour area of Honfleur political strategy going on between the Allies and the French under CDG to seize control of France once the Germans were out!
Later in the day we stopped in at the American Cemetery near Omaha Beach (2* equivalent). It was very serious and somber and contains almost 10,000 graves. It was a vast site and took almost 10 mins to walk from car to graves, a sign says 'No Boisterous behaviour' which we found amusing and absurd; you shouldn't need to tell people how to behave at a war cemetery!
There was moving vast fields of graves mostly crosses and the odd star of David, many with 'unknown' for the names. Time was against us and we had to move but we were impressed by the scale and respect of the place.
After leaving the cemetery Alicia was promptly pulled over for speeding by male French police at bottom of small town hill; doing 64km in 50km zone, we defended ourselves with our lack of English speaking and the fact we thought it was 70km. The result was we were told to be careful and off we go.... lucky Alicia was dressed in scanty summer clothes methinks!
Next stop was Arromanches the beach village where the Allies built a tremendous temporary harbour to get all their stuff ashore during D-day and the subsequent campaign in Normandy.
Anyone trying to comprehend the Allies plans to invade Nazi occupied Europe needs to understand the Allies needed to get their tanks, fuel, supplies, troops, ambulances, chocolate, jeeps, and other useful stuff ashore hence the need for a harbour... and since the Nazis weren't going to give up a proper harbour town without a huge fight the Allies promptly built their own, an amazing undertaking of construction and planning.
In Arromanches the remnants of the harbour breakwater wall could still be seen out in the bay 2km off shore and close to shore a few remnants of the docks the allies built. In the Museum Du Debarquement (2*+) was some fabulous models showing the floating harbour and docks the allies had built and explained the breakwater wall they'd built (basically you need a harbour to be calm so you build a wall in the sea with whatever you can in this case sunken ships and giant water-filled concrete blocks, and then everything inside that barrier is protected from the
Bayeux Tapestry
One of the many scenes on the tapestry; this one depicting the Battle of Hastings wild ocean). The museum had wonderful models and a movie that was excellent and explained the planning, challenges, and building and success of the harbour wonderfully well. Alicia was a bit bored until the film which she agreed was intriguing.
Lastly to Longues-Sur-Mer (2*) gun battery to see preserved concrete gun bunkers still with their original fixed 150mm guns in place. This was an example of what the Germans had built in their 'Atlantic Wall' to stop the Allies invading occupied Europe and it was great to see a defensive sight pretty much 'as it would have been'.
After a long and very successful day of many, many D-day sights our next day began with the Abbey Aux Hommes in Caen to see the tomb of William the Conqueror. It was an empty cathedral nicely designed inside but no decent decoration (we love glitzy decoration). The Tomb was relatively Spartan and uninteresting, JAC. A shame.
Nick feels one of the most significant historical figures ever should have a little something more; prestige, glamour, etc.
A long drive then took us to the Giverny Gardens (2*) of Monet fame. A lot of the best stuff Monet painted was
Bomb Craters from D-Day
Nick stands in a big bomber crater at Point du Hoc near Omaha Beach inspired in these gardens. Here we had a pleasant lunch in the shade of a bamboo grove by a clear stream, then sat on bench across the atypical Monet scene over the Waterlilly pond to the bridge in the distance. Very pleasant gardens, lovely flowers. We walked the gardens for an hour or so taking in the pretty grounds and great flowers; not hard to see how Monet got inspired!
We are now looking forward to the Musee D'Orsay in Paris to see a lot of his best work.
Our last sight of note was the excellent 'Chateau de Vaux-le-Vicomte' (3*), we paid a fortune but found the history fascinating, interiors on par with many other chateaus and palaces, and fine views of very pretty huge cultivated grounds and gardens.
The lower rooms had animated dummies wearing the period outfit telling the story in French which was a nice touch.
The story was basically that the chap who'd built the Chateau and wonderful grounds earned the displeasure of the young and petty King Louis 14th. Louis's jealousy over the fabulous palace led him to have the chap arrested, tried with dodgy evidence, then overrule the courts 'banishment' ruling and
Omaha Beach Cemetery
The moving American cemetery with graves as far as the eye can see insisted on life imprisonment for him. Who knew Louis 14th was so petty?!
It was a really fine Chateau with pretty gardens, wonderful flowers and garden designs and the excellent history added to our interest and involvement.
This concluded the broad designation of NW France stuff we did, next up is NE with the Champagne region, Nick turning 30, and the excellent Alsace.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.261s; Tpl: 0.018s; cc: 10; qc: 30; dbt: 0.1735s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Benn
non-member comment
Honfleur
Really glad that you posted these photos, as we went to this town on a road trip and I have since clean forgot what it was called, and have often wondered about it. It looked familiar in the photos, and comparing it to my photos the buildings all match up, so great to once again know the name!