Normandy
13th August 1999
After the eclipse, we felt a sense of
anti-climax. We had always intended not to have any fixed plans, but the
eclipse had constrained us and the weather had given us some anxiety, since we had
invested a lot of effort to see the eclipse. In a sense, only now could we
begin to relax. On our trip to Amiens, Kate had spotted our first Cyber Cafe
near the University and we had a go at reading our e-mail. The cafe had not a
clue and took a long time to log on, reading cryptic instructions scribbled on paper.
Once in, however, it was a 64 Kb line and they were happy for us to put our
disk in. However, having ftp'd the files to a site, we found that only the
directories were visible. That said, it is the best public access we have
found so far, so we ought to give it a plug. It is on the left on the D210 as
you enter Amiens from the south, just past the University and has a sign that says 'Cyber
Cafe'.
Our own site is, sadly, inaccessible unless we
dial in directly to the ISP, so for the moment we are relying upon 'snail mail' diskettes
and an obliging daughter. We still have a lot to learn about using the
internet on the move. Incidentally, on this page we have reduced the size of
the pictures as, added together, they were taking up a lot of space and when we do
eventually find a way of transmitting them, we need to keep the size down.
The site at Loeuilly may have been a delight if
the weather had been hot and dry, but the wet weather that had besieged us made it a bit
depressing. We understood from the radio that August in England was heading
for the record books as the wettest ever and this must also have been the case in northern
France. Since we arrived, we had not had a full 24-hour period without rain
and, on many occasions, heavy rain.
When, on Thursday night, we found our awning
had dried out, we decided to leave the next day and, on Friday the 13th, we moved to the
Municipal Campsite at Bayeux. This is a remarkably good site - on the ring
road, opposite a supermarket, next to a swimming pool and in walking distance of the town.
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Bayeux is, of course, famous for its
tapestry, but is also one of the best preserved towns in the area, having been fortunate
to escape damage in the recent wars. Its cathedral is remarkable and can be
seen as you approach the town from all directions. We found the tourist office,
which also contained an internet terminal. This however turned out to be very
slow, twice the price of the previous one and had its disk disabled. We never
did find how to generate an @ sign on the AZERTY keyboard and left it in
disgust. Another supposed internet access was advertised in a shop, but
they were on holiday 'til the end of August. Bayeux also had an internet
cafe, but this is not open until 9 in the evening and charges a fortune for
drinks.
14th August
On Saturday, we explored Bayeux which was packed with tourists so we
decided to return to camp and got caught out in a cloudburst from which we sheltered in a
telephone box, watching the waters in an adjacent gutter rising almost to inundate us.
On Sunday, we indulged our addiction for Formula 1 before taking a
trip to Arromanches to see the famous Mulberry Harbour. Below left you can see
two of the concrete breakwaters that were towed out and sunk. A superb museum
includes film of the harbour and the landings and a model - a tiny piece of which is shown
in the middle below - showing the floating roadways. Some of the concrete
pontoons for the roadways are still on the beach and are in amazingly good condition.
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| On Monday we visited the Bayeux Tapestry, which is very
interesting if a somewhat drawn out experience. We - and it seemed a thousand
others - were corralled through seemingly endless explanations of the why's and
wherefore's before we finally got to see the actual tapestry. It is, however,
every bit as amazing as the guide books say and possibly the most important artefact
in Europe. It does make one realise that school history often misses the
point - we were not invaded by the French and William would no doubt have been offended at
the suggestion that he was French. In reality, at that time England and
Normandy were most likely populated by people of similar origins and certainly run
by nobility that shared a common ancestry. Needless to say, one doesn't get video of
the tapestry but I guess most people have seen it. 17th August
After the tapestry, we visited the lace museum the following morning and
then returned to more recent war themes and the picture above right is Pegasus
Bridge, which looks remarkably like it did on D-Day, when it was captured. |
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| Wednesday morning was wet again, so we drove to Caen and
visited the Castle, shown above left, where we ate our sarnies near the Jardin des
Simples, which is a recreation of a mediaeval herb garden, and answered a question of
identification of the plant that is infesting our front lawn. We can't
remember the name right now, but we now know what to look for in the book. There is
also an interesting museum in the castle which, by good fortune, was free on Wednesdays
and opened just as it began to rain. Thinking how clever we had been to
dodge the rain, we set off to see a bit more of Caen. We walked in
splendid sunshine to the Abbaye aux Hommes, above middle, and went round its remarkable
interior which includes the tomb of William - the Conqueror or Bastard dependant upon your
point of view. In fact only one thigh bone is left after various desecrations.
As we stepped out the skies opened. Thinking
our waterproofs were up to the job, we decided to walk back to our car regardless.
However, we were drenched. Rain
has become a much more determinant factor in our lives, as has the cost of
things. At home there are always so many things to do that the rain rarely
makes one hang around and we never get really wet. Cost of museums and bars
doesn't usually worry us at home, as we so rarely have the opportunity to indulge
them. However, we could easily spend several times the cost of a campsite each
day in museums, bars and cafes.
19th August
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| Undaunted by the previous day's soaking, we set off for
Omaha Beach and found a long, wide beach which the Americans had managed to take after
fierce fighting. Looking at the bunkers and gun positions, it was hard to
imagine that the whole of the coast of France could have been so defended. We
then went to Point du Hoc, which we probably all remember from the film as being the
hardest part of the D-Day invasion. Just a bit of it is shown above left, but no
amount of pictures can convey how intensely fortified it was. One is bound to
wonder if the US Rangers knew what they were taking on and why it wasn't effectively
bombed first. We returned and rounded off our D-Day day with a trip to the
museum dedicated to this subject in Bayeux. One of our guide books was a bit
dismissive of its emphasis on hardware, but it is in fact comprehensive and contains many
letters, newspapers, orders and other exhibits that convey the human aspects.
We rated it very high. The next day, Friday, we went on a circular tour first
to St. Lô, where just about the only thing left from before the second war was a bit of
the prison gate (right, above), to which is attached a sad tale. |
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| We had a specific objective in mind, to look at a
'maison à restorer' at a place called Pont D'Ouilly. The view from the 'pont'
is shown above left. The village was very attractive, nestling in the hills of
the area they call 'Suisse Normandy'. The picture in the middle, above, is the
view from close to the property we looked at. As it happens, it was sold, but
would have needed an awful lot of work doing to it. Our final stop was at
Falaise, William's birthplace, where we had a look at the fine castle shown right above.
You have to pay to go into the Castle itself, so we didn't bother as it was
late in the day. There is, however, a most interesting chart of the monarch's
of England and France, showing their relationships. 21st August
Having spent just over one week in Bayeux, we decided we had seen enough of
Normandy for a while and moved off for Brittany. Being a Saturday, the
traffic was very heavy and we found ourselves in a long queue where the motorway ran out
just before Avranches. This was a severe test of the cooling system, as it was
hot and we were running the air conditioner, but it took it in its stride. |
Last updated: 18/03/01