France 24

Leaving Portsmouth on the overnight ferry to Caen, it seemed that camper vans were loaded onto the ship last, despite us arriving in good time.

As we sat on the dock for about 2 hours, 10 minutes before the sailing time we boarded, 4th vehicle from last, as we were getting out of the van the stern doors were closing.

Aboard the dutch built ship (Mont St Michel) with a 800 car berth for a max of 2,200 people we climbed the stairs from deck 5 up to deck 9 in search of our cabin for the overnight crossing ... it became clear that Brittany Ferries are not that bothered with directional signage as finding the cabin was initially a little trickier than anticipated.

The warm day had leant itself to a pleasant evening, so Jo and I went out on deck to watch Portmouth depart behind us, in the naval port a couple of aircraft carriers were quietly docked, before passing the illuminated Spinaker Tower.

As it was a night sail, the restaurants were closing by the time we wandered by, so it was off to the bar for a quick one... staying a little longer than anticipated to watch the amusing karaoke participants try to engage a tired crowd.

Soon back to the cabin for a snooze before being woken at 04.30 by melodic harp music piped into the cabin... subtle at first, then a little more volume - to wake the comatose, this wake up was a little more preferable to the abrupt french announcements that followed shortly afterwards.

Showered and changed a quick coffee and we were back down the stairs to Tassie, it was engines quickly on, happily we found that we would be one of the first off the boat.

Promptly through passport control with passports stamped, we were out onto the french roads within 20 minutes of getting back into the van.

It was still only 6.30am, so we opted to leisurely head towards the general direction of our camp site of the next 2 nights.

The earliest check in was from 12.00, we had a few hours to potter, time for a supermarket trip and find some local places of interest to explore.

Our drive to Vierville-Sur-Mer from the port of Ouistreham (Caen) took us through Bayeux (made more famous by the 70m tapestry depicting William [Duke of Normandy] conquering England in 1066), we then headed back towards the coast.

Stopping at the beach at Arromanches, we came across an aire at the top of a hill overlooking Gold Beach (NB Aire - a place for campervans to stay overnight at a relatively modest cost - sometimes free).

Our parking spot overlooked the beach towards the Channel, it was busy with campers, most who had likely stayed overnight for 11 euros.

The parking aire was also right next to the first of the memorial sites we would visit, at Gold Beach (the main UK landing site, and where memorials recognising some of the British contributions were located, in regards the allied forces effort (Operation Overlord) which took place from 6th June 1944, more commonly known as the D Day Landings.

As we arrived at the aire a little white van had just turned up, quickly a queue developed, the fresh baguette van was here. So off I went - picking up a long french loaf and a croissant and it was back to Tassie to put the kettle on.

After breakfast a wander around the memorial seemed apt, it houses a 360 degree cinema and visitor centre, and also home to the 'D Day 75 Garden', which at the heart was a design of a D Day veteran, 97 year old Bill Pendell MM, looking back at himself as a 22 year old landing on the beach 75 years earlier.

It was a powerful image of pride and sadness.

It was also not hard to recognise that the area had many poignant reflections of the events 80 years ago, all commemorated with great dignity around the Normandy area, memorials and museums very well cared for, all telling their story of contributions to the liberation of France.

It was time to move on and as we drove through many pretty villages, each one looked like a typical scene from the BBC sitcom Allo Allo.

Various shapes of buildings in yellow limestone, flint, and window shutters, many gardens with pear and chestnut trees. The only thing missing was people.. they were all very quiet as no one seemed to be around.

Heading to the campsite (Flowers - Omaha Beach) we would catch up with Jill, a friend and fellow Vantage van owner, who had arrived at camp the day before, again to see 'Standing with Giants'.

As is customary, Jill, Jo and I commenced with a welcome drink or 3, a rather nice chilled rose aptly called Piscine, over a catch up (we last met up in Inverness in June) before we all took off on a cycle ride along the vast sandy Omaha Beach (one of the American landing beaches), Jill on her Trek e-Road bike, Jo and I on our e-Bromptons.

As we set off.... it was fairly sedately, perhaps as we had drunk some afternoon wine in the sunshine!

The cycle ride followed the beach along the coastline, stopping off at a few of the well tended memorials, all different, all sharing their story of a significant date in history.

With sporadic cycle signage along the route, we came across a point that had 2 options: a fairly brisk hill or a possible coastal path, we opted to take the path, but quickly found it was impossible to cycle due to the sand dune we had pottered into.

Thankfully as we had not gone too far, as we were met with a couple of fellow cyclists coming back towards us - having saw them disappear down the track minutes earlier.

The message from the advance party returning was clear - "Non - no way" a quick turn around found us retracing our steps back along the track, the hill was the only option if we wanted to continue!

Jill and I went up the hill (la la la) ... where at the top more information about D Day was discovered.

It turned out that we had climbed the first road to be liberated by the US forces into France and a temporary airstrip known as L'Aerodrome A21C had been quickly installed as an emergency landing strip.

Initially the air strip helped transport casualties to England, amazingly it was operational by the evening of 9th June, nowadays it is back to a farmers field.

Back down the hill we went ... stopping at a large impressive sculpture in the sand known as "The Braves".

The Braves are large silver shards in 3 sections standing up from the sand, representing The Wings of Hope Rise, Freedom, and The Wings of Fraternity.

Signage asks you not to walk within 3m of the sculptures as a mark of respect, it was nice to see that it was very much being observed by those spending time there.

Back to camp 12km later, it was dinner and a lovely outside evening chatting and partaking in a few more drinks before darkness descended and waving Jill off to her van....not before we had made plans to visit the British Normandy Memorial the next day.

Having had a late night and very early morning on the ferry, needed sleep was caught up on, so it was a slower than normal start to the day.

Soon we were off back to Arromanches, to the British Normandy the art installation "Standing With Giants" called "For Your Tomorrows" was located, a main purpose for visiting the Normandy beaches and wider region.

80 years on from D Day "Standing With Giants" depicts 1,475 silhouetted sculptures by a british artist, Dan Barton.

The 6ft silhouettes installed for the 80th anniversary to represent the number of british people who died on the first day of the landings at Gold Beach.

Wandering around the statues in the wild meadow in which they stood, each head bowed, it was intense and moving in equal measure.

Army, navy and air personnel were all represented, including 2 female nurses who were aboard a hospital ship that was hit in the bay, as well as members of the local french resistance, the sheer size in such a historical setting was quite something to comprehend.

In the bay near the shoreline remains of the concrete Mulberry landing structures can still be clearly seen, despite many years of weather erosion, as well as the previous attempts at destruction during the conflict.

The memorial art installation ended in France on 31 Aug, finishing on the same day 80 years previously, noting when Operation Overlord could be deemed a success, as the area to the south of the Seine had then been liberated.

The silhouettes will be returned back home, where they will be displayed at Stowe Gardens (National Trust} in Buckinghamshire, from 1st October - 11 November.... very much worth a visit if you can.

The permanent British Normandy Memorial opened on 6 June 2021 (77th Anniversary) was also very touching, as it honoured the 22,442 British who had lost their life in the Battle for Normandy.

After a long walk around reading the many plaques and taking in just a fraction of the the enormity of past events, it was incredibly moving, it would have been easy to spend many more hours there.

Catching up with Jill in the Winston Churchill exhibition, as she had arrived a bit earlier than us, we spend a some taking in more of the memorial, coffee and cake then beckoned before saying our goodbyes, Jill was moving on to another camp area and we were staying at the same site for another night.

It's quite possible both vans may cross paths again in our travels in France...

Jo and I then headed off to the American Cemetery, a significantly larger memorial overlooking Omaha Beach, despite it being much busier than the British memorial, a quiet respect was shown by the large tourist groups.

Even when the last post was sounded by a bugle, as we were about to leave (at 17.00), the US flag was lowered in ceremonial fashion, many of the patriot tourists in quiet watchful attendance.

Sight of the rows and rows of 9,388 small white marble headstones also represented a small sense of the US sacrifice, where it included the names of 4 women, I set of twins and 45 sets of brothers.

Having not considered previously visiting this area, we are both glad we did, the way in which the french have embraced the history of the liberation with the numerous memorials, plaques, museums, displays is quite something.

Visiting a number of the historical sites covering the 15 miles of beach housing the 5 tactical landing beaches (code names Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno & Sword), the story of the day and following weeks has been very well represented, with grace and dignity for generations to come, a place very much worth visiting.

From the american memorial site it was fairly close to our campsite, soon it was back to camp for dinner and an evening of chilling before deciding our next move.

After checking the changeable weather - we weighed up various options... it was decided let's go south to find the sunshine.

The following morning we would be off to Rennes, the capital of Brittany.Read more