Blog 1.34 - Days 50 & 51

November 10th and 11th

And so, the last leg of the journey (on mainland Europe at least) (oh, and but for a 5km or so dash from our free Aire to the ferry port on Saturday morning) beckoned on Armistice Day. The preceding day, though, we watched the Aire at Cap Frehel thin out remarkably after it being at capacity for the race, as the nearby free Aire also appeared to be.Come Thursday morning we set off east along the Brittany coast, and with a brief glimpse of the Mont Saint Michel looming high against la Manche, we moved into Normandy, and eventually parking up at Ambrières les Vallées. This was yet another Camping Car-Park Aire, set against the river and a backdrop of trees on the steep far bank.

It's a lovely peaceful spot, and we, somewhat surprisingly, appeared to have it all to ourselves - until three more vans arrived quite late on, and well after dark.There were no issues though, and it's  yet another CC-P Aire we can thoroughly recommend. As we can the town itself, which is mainly set high above the river on the opposite bank, and boasts a good array of shops, bars, and other businesses.

It's a properly steep walk up from the lower town to the main centre, but worth it - especially for the huge apparently disused house that dominates, and set us dreaming!

'Our' House

It's not for sale though, even if we could afford it, yet on viewing the estate agent's window there are some serious bargains to be had - by British house value standards. If only we were a bit younger...

The next morning, Armistice Day, meant we needed to head north to position ourselves for the ferry, and as we did so we encountered more evidence of what the day means to the French people. We'd aimed for the CC-P Aire at Lion-sur-Mer, without too much confidence of getting on it due to the commemoration activities and the proximity of the ferry port. And we were correct. It was full. Moving on to nearby Hermanville-sur-Mer then, and the Aire there had quite a few spaces, and as a bonus, it's free.

Parked up, we walked down to 'Sword' beach, the main thrust point of the British part of the D Day landing forces, and it also proved to be that of Polish and Dutch forces too.

You live and learn.

Being Armistice Day, which is a holiday in these parts, nothing much was open and we'd about given up on lunch when we spied the one and only restaurant trading. It was too tempting, and even though their lunch service had ostensibly finished, they kindly took us in and offered us a very limited choice of grub. Judging by the fact that every table appeared to have been used for lunch, I reckon we were quite lucky - and decided to be boringly British, ordering Fish & Chips and Steak and Chips, followed by the rather more Gallic Tarte Tatin. I won't say it was the best I've ever eaten, but, as we were hungry, it was very, very welcome. Back to the van, and the Aire was by this time filling rapidly, and we were quite pleased we'd turned up relatively early. As it happens, the van that has just pulled in next to us are from England, and had also come up from Spain - in rather less time than us, having left Peñiscola, south of the Ebro Delta early this morning. Rather them than me! Coffee now, and maybe later a bit of toast. We are both too full to do anything more than that justice, and then it's time to settle down for the evening in readiness for an early start for Ouistreham and the ferry tomorrow.

Mileage so far: 3358