Advertisement
Published: August 16th 2008
After a rather bumpy but otherwise uneventful ferry across the channel, Clancy once again hit French soil at Calais. It was mid afternoon and after a quick reintroduction to driving on the right, we managed to get a little lost getting through Calais and were on our way. That night we made it as far South as Cap-Griz-Nez and found a nice little local camp ground on the coast next to an old German gun emplacement.
After here we headed South and inland to the historic Somme region, the home of the Western front during WW1. Here we visited the Canadian/Newfoundland war memorial complete with the preserved trenches in the surrounding fields, as they were as the war ended. We continued down to Villers-Brettenaux visiting the Australian War memorial just outside town and the touching museum in town. The town still appears to be grateful to the Australian soldiers who fought to save the village from German occupation over 90 years ago. Aussie paraphernalia was everywhere.
From here we couldn't resist the temptation to detour slightly to the tiny town of Camembert, of course famous for its cheese. We continued back toward the coast into Normandy stopping
Not a bad view out our window
Free stop overlooking Mont St Michel
the night in Luc-ser-Mer, a touristy village on the coast.
On route we had stopped in Caen to visit the enormous Peace Memorial museum. An amazing historical and political museum of all the wars since the Great War. Spent several hours being overloaded with information, personal accounts and emotional pieces of the tragedy of war.
Continuing south along the Norman coast we visited several of the D-Day beaches, now so peaceful it is hard to imagine what it was like back then. There are even remnants of the temporary 'Mulberry harbours' built specifically for the allies to unload supplies.
We ventured inland to the city of Bayeux, most famous for its very impressive tapestry depicting the Norman invasion of England in 1066. A nice conclusion to our visit to Battle in England before we left. The tapestry is almost 90m long and close to a thousand years old.
The city itslef was very pretty as well.
After Bayeux we continued our war history tour by visiting the frighteningly real American war cemetery near Omaha beach, the site of the most Carnage in the D-Day landings. Now a beautifl tourist beach.
Spent the night at an amazing
parking spot overlooking the impressive Mont St Michel. We drove out to it the next day, the fortress like abbey situated on an almost island surronded by water at the 9m high tide. After exploring the island with its little streets and tourist shops etc we escaped just as it was becoming ridiculously busy.
We arrived in St Malo at the edge of Brittany for a late lunch of the local dish of mussels. After dmolishing a huge bowl each we finished exploring the again very touristy but lovely walled city of St Malo we hit the road inland.
Got as far as a rest stop near St Calais in the Loire valley, the highlight of our journey a blow past the Le Mans 24 hour racing circuit with the obligatory photo from the window as there was an event on and the place was packed.
The amazing Chateux Chombard was our next stop, an extravagant palace built on a large Royal hunting grounds, inspired by Francois I. After several hours exploring the countless rooms and the interesting double helix staircase reputedly designed by Leonardo.
We spent the night in a cheap camp ground right on the
Loire river near the village of charge.
In the morning we dropped into the lovely village of Amboise, checking out the large chateux in town and the residence of Leonardo in his final years. We continued through to the cute village of Loches, wandering here for a bit before making it to an amazing free spot right on the river in Cognac which even provided free power! Next day we did a tour of Hennessy's Cognac house, learning about the process and tasting the produce at the end of course. We were amazed at the history of the drink, the age and qauntity of their reserves. We opted to not buy the 6000euro bottle this time and continued to the charming and famous wine village of St Emilion in the Bordeaux region.
A beautiful village we wandered into town and tasted the local vino at a local cellar who gave us a great lesson on the local wines. We couldn't resist making a purchase after tasting such delectable wines, especially after drinking cheap nasty stuff on our tight budget!
We free camped the night with many others in the car park here and got up early to
spend the morning riding around the scenic valleys filled with all the vineyards. As the day got hotter we headed back and decided to keep moving finding a nice campground outside of the city of Bordeaux.
The next day we explored Bordeaux, a pleasant city where we decided to indulge in some French cuisine and wine at lunch before exploring the city further.
As time is running out before Fay's arrival in Porto we had to keep moving and so drove to the very glitzy beach town of Biarritz the following day to enjoy some sun , sand and surf. Feeling very white, we spent the afternoon on the beach relaxing.
Tomorrow we leave France, for now anyway.....
Advertisement
Tot: 0.352s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 20; qc: 96; dbt: 0.1044s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.3mb
