Back to Normandy

It was Sunday morning and it was raining - we really were heading north, opting to get back up to the Normandy beach area for a final potter around before our Monday night ferry.

Choosing the scenic route from the cider farm, we wound our way through lots of little pretty villages, keeping away from the autoroutes, where we came across the pretty village of Rânes, and a stop off at the local boulangerie for the regular supplies.

By mid afternoon, we had arrived at the Scottish Canadian campsite by Sword Beach for the evening, however on inspection of the facilities, they were experiencing some plumbing challenges so we decided to upsticks and head back to Flowers - the first site we had stayed at when we arrived, particularly as many other sites in northern France had closed for the season.

Half an hour later we were back at the Flowers site at Omaha Beach, and took a walk to the Musée D-Day Omaha at Vierville-Sur-Mer just on our doorstep.

It was an extensive private collection, by a local chap who had amassed thousands of pieces of memorabilia and turned it into a fascinating museum, telling the story of the occupation and liberation.

His collection included an "Enigma" decoding machine, which some may recognised from the Alan Turing story from the film "The Imitation Game" which thanks to AT and others, the war was reduced by at least 2 years.

Our last day in France...

Having been at the British Normandy Memorial when the "Standing with Giants" memorial was on display, we popped into see the site as the 6ft silhouette statues had now been taken back to England.

This time the memorial seemed less emotional, the only statutes left were the two nurses in the middle of the wild flower meadow, where just a few weeks previously 1,473 other silhouette had once stood heads bowed.

It was time to move on and since being in the south of France I had been keen to get a set of Pétanque boules, so a detour to a huge Decathlon in Caen was made.

A great selection could be found... .. hand sizes measures, choices of weight, a purchase made... I will be searching places to play on my return.

Whilst on the south of France the sand and wind, as well as the miles travelled had taken away Tassie's smart look, so a visit to a car wash with gantry (to do the roof) was called for... there's a business opportunity to open in the UK.

Looking great - we headed off to our final Normandy memorial stop of the trip - Pegasus Bridge.

Originally known as Bénouville Bridge after the local village the bridge crossed the Caen Canal at, is devoted to the 6th British Airborne Division efforts on the night of 5th to 6th June 1944.

The bridge was renamed after the paratrooper emblem on the soldiers uniform of a flying horse the Pegasus.

The first airborne liberations took place here, as airmen from the glider division set foot on Norman soil, a replica glider as well as the old bridge on display.

The museum is worth a visit, if you do go, prepare to spend a minimum of 90 minutes... there is so much fascinating history to take in.

Before long was time to head towards the ferry port at Ouistreham, just to the north of Caen town.

The ferry check in was quick and easy, Tassie was duly inspected by the authorities - especially the "en suite" facilities - incase of any stowaways on board.

Whilst in the queue to board, a lots of police sirens and cars were whizzing about, a solid guess may suggest than an unlucky chancer was foiled when taking his / her chances on a free trip to the UK.

Same drill as last time... all cars on before camper vans and the like, Tassie was to get a sea view this time, as did we from our cabin from deck 9.

 A quick wander around to the ship's bar, the evening's entertainment was an acoustic guitar set by a chap called Jamie, one drink later it was back to the cabin for a few hours sleep, we would be docking in Portsmouth 5 hours later.Leer más