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DBK
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Many thanks, I've read a couple of his earlier books and enjoyed them.
Two Go Back in Time
- Thread starter DBK
- Start date
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Another geocaching day and we have added a few more smiley faces to the map. 
We have done all the caches near the campsite now except for those which need a boat to reach. The pale blue smileys with the frown are DNFs or "Did not find" which are either because we simply did not find them (doh!) or they have been found by a non-geocacher or Muggle and removed. Some of the caches here are in very public places so the chances of them being muggled are high.
We eventually wandered up the coast and ate our packed lunch sitting on exactly the same rocks as we sat on yesterday - creatures of habit that we are.
In the second photo in the post above there is a mound with a big rock on it. This is on the outskirts of Tregastel and our lunch spot was below it. The GR footpath goes over the mound and these are the views from the top.
I don't think you can beat this part of Brittany - with the caveat "when it is warm and sunny" as it was today.
There are a couple of shellfish outlets near the campsite and I bought a kilo of moules this afternoon which I am going to cook with a rosé wine as we don't have any white. I'm sure it will be fine.
We have done all the caches near the campsite now except for those which need a boat to reach.
The pale blue smileys with the frown are DNFs or "Did not find" which are either because we simply did not find them (doh!) or they have been found by a non-geocacher or Muggle and removed. Some of the caches here are in very public places so the chances of them being muggled are high.We eventually wandered up the coast and ate our packed lunch sitting on exactly the same rocks as we sat on yesterday - creatures of habit that we are.
In the second photo in the post above there is a mound with a big rock on it. This is on the outskirts of Tregastel and our lunch spot was below it. The GR footpath goes over the mound and these are the views from the top.
I don't think you can beat this part of Brittany - with the caveat "when it is warm and sunny" as it was today.
There are a couple of shellfish outlets near the campsite and I bought a kilo of moules this afternoon which I am going to cook with a rosé wine as we don't have any white. I'm sure it will be fine.
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DBK
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We survived my "moules à la vin rosé" last night so today we were able to continue the trip without any detours to the nearest hospital.
And a wet drive it was with on and off showers most of the morning. It took us a couple of hours, including a shopping trip to the LeClerc in Lannion to reach a free aire just east of St Brieuc or "St Briefcase" as the predictive text wanted to rename it. Which wouldn't be entirely inappropriate given there was a place called St Samson near our last place.
The weather cheered up for the afternoon so we went for a short circular walk from the aire (CC11698) and knocked off a couple of geocaches (yes, I know, yawn boring etc.) although it should have been three but for the nettles and brambles obstructing the path to the third and me in shorts.
The coast here is very different and looks much more like the English Channel which of course it is. The water looks a bit cloudy and the bay below the aire is wide and shallow. We watched from the coastal footpath as the tide came in and you could easily see the water flowing over the muddy sand. On a spring tide it probably comes in at a fast trot!
We returned to the aire through the village where I spotted (hard to miss really as it was parked beside the road) a gleaming sidecar combination.
The badges said "Mash" which meant nothing to me but they are a French company from what I can see.
A 400cc single and presumably a bike made by someone else they have added their badges to. Any extra info from M/C experts welcome. I suspect they don't make a RH drive version.
The small public car park below the aire has a couple of interesting features (yes, really!) which I haven't seen before.
Firstly a book exchange library. Sadly not in the aire itself as an aire with a library really would be a first.
And this container for rubbish collected off the beach. It is actively used, two blokes tipped some rubbish into it while I was there.
Mrs DBK made some sloe gin this afternoon with the sloes we collected a couple of days ago and which we froze. We have enough sloes (and gin) for a second bottle but we need to buy another 1.5 litre bottle of water first to make it in.
We will move off east again tomorrow and probably stop the other side of St Malo. I am wrestling with myself over visiting (or not) Mont St Michel which on our current rate of progress we will stumble over on Sunday. I can't think of a worse day of the week to visit it.
If we visit it....
And a wet drive it was with on and off showers most of the morning. It took us a couple of hours, including a shopping trip to the LeClerc in Lannion to reach a free aire just east of St Brieuc or "St Briefcase" as the predictive text wanted to rename it. Which wouldn't be entirely inappropriate given there was a place called St Samson near our last place.
The weather cheered up for the afternoon so we went for a short circular walk from the aire (CC11698) and knocked off a couple of geocaches (yes, I know, yawn boring etc.) although it should have been three but for the nettles and brambles obstructing the path to the third and me in shorts.
The coast here is very different and looks much more like the English Channel which of course it is. The water looks a bit cloudy and the bay below the aire is wide and shallow. We watched from the coastal footpath as the tide came in and you could easily see the water flowing over the muddy sand. On a spring tide it probably comes in at a fast trot!
We returned to the aire through the village where I spotted (hard to miss really as it was parked beside the road
) a gleaming sidecar combination.The badges said "Mash" which meant nothing to me but they are a French company from what I can see.
A 400cc single and presumably a bike made by someone else they have added their badges to. Any extra info from M/C experts welcome. I suspect they don't make a RH drive version.
The small public car park below the aire has a couple of interesting features (yes, really!) which I haven't seen before.
Firstly a book exchange library. Sadly not in the aire itself as an aire with a library really would be a first.
And this container for rubbish collected off the beach. It is actively used, two blokes tipped some rubbish into it while I was there.
Mrs DBK made some sloe gin this afternoon with the sloes we collected a couple of days ago and which we froze. We have enough sloes (and gin
) for a second bottle but we need to buy another 1.5 litre bottle of water first to make it in.We will move off east again tomorrow and probably stop the other side of St Malo. I am wrestling with myself over visiting (or not) Mont St Michel which on our current rate of progress we will stumble over on Sunday. I can't think of a worse day of the week to visit it.
If we visit it....
We survived my "moules à la vin rosé" last night so today we were able to continue the trip without any detours to the nearest hospital.
And a wet drive it was with on and off showers most of the morning. It took us a couple of hours, including a shopping trip to the LeClerc in Lannion to reach a free aire just east of St Brieuc or "St Briefcase" as the predictive text wanted to rename it. Which wouldn't be entirely inappropriate given there was a place called St Samson near our last place.
View attachment 253750
The weather cheered up for the afternoon so we went for a short circular walk from the aire (CC11698) and knocked off a couple of geocaches (yes, I know, yawn boring etc.) although it should have been three but for the nettles and brambles obstructing the path to the third and me in shorts.
The coast here is very different and looks much more like the English Channel which of course it is. The water looks a bit cloudy and the bay below the aire is wide and shallow. We watched from the coastal footpath as the tide came in and you could easily see the water flowing over the muddy sand. On a spring tide it probably comes in at a fast trot!
View attachment 253752
We returned to the aire through the village where I spotted (hard to miss really as it was parked beside the road
View attachment 253753
The badges said "Mash" which meant nothing to me but they are a French company from what I can see.
A 400cc single and presumably a bike made by someone else they have added their badges to. Any extra info from M/C experts welcome. I suspect they don't make a RH drive version.
The small public car park below the aire has a couple of interesting features (yes, really!) which I haven't seen before.
Firstly a book exchange library. Sadly not in the aire itself as an aire with a library really would be a first.
View attachment 253758
And this container for rubbish collected off the beach. It is actively used, two blokes tipped some rubbish into it while I was there.
View attachment 253759
Mrs DBK made some sloe gin this afternoon with the sloes we collected a couple of days ago and which we froze. We have enough sloes (and gin
We will move off east again tomorrow and probably stop the other side of St Malo. I am wrestling with myself over visiting (or not) Mont St Michel which on our current rate of progress we will stumble over on Sunday. I can't think of a worse day of the week to visit it.
If we visit it....
I'm a bit miffed about your sloe gin 'cos I didn't manage to collect any. We saw loads when we were cycling and not prepared to collect and none when we went out prepared!
However, I've not given up hope of collecting some in the UK
jollyrodger
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Lovely pics , enjoy your travels
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There will be some I'm sure in the UK, probably more the further north you go.
Flatlander
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The China connection makes sense, they seem competitively priced for what they are.As I understand things, the engine is a 400cc version of the old Honda XBR engine made in China. They do some other nice bikes as well, a nice looking café racer, as well as a Vespa lookalike for the mentally insane amongst us!
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Mussels were today's theme.
We are now at the eastern edge of Brittany at the Camping Car Parks site at Le Vivier Sur Mer which must be a former municipal site. It is remarkably busy with most of the 40 pitches with EHU taken and quite a few of the non-electric pitches also in use. For €10 a night it isn't a bad place and has, by all reports*, an excellent seafood restaurant a ten minute walk along the earth sea wall.
The bay here is a major mussel and oyster producer and there are some very strange craft involved in tending to the crop.
These are a couple of floating trailers with outboard motors on the back. Presumably the tractor tows them into the water until they can float.
This is a more conventional boat though like the others with a hefty 150 bhp outboard on the back..
This is the high tech end. Hydraulically powered wheels which lift up out of the water. We also saw a modern equivalent of a DUKW but too far away for a photo.
The sea food restaurant has a shop attached where we bought a kilo of mussels for just €4 which seems remarkably cheap - it was €5.50 at the last place.
So this seems a good opportunity to describe the making of "Moules à la Camping Car".
Tip your kilo of mussels in the sink and clean and sort them. Any gaping open which don't close if you tap them should be discarded. I also throw out any with damaged/cracked shells even if they look healthy.
You need to remove any beards, which are the fine threads they make to anchor themselves. The main tuft of the beard looks like this.
You just have to pull it off with your fingers and scrape off any beard threads sticking to the outside of the shell. You are supposed to scrape off any barnicles but I don't always.
Now finely chop some shallots. I used three of the banana sort. This is more than most recipes call for. You could get away with only one I think and the MH might smell better afterwards than ours does at the moment.
Fry them very gently in olive oil or butter. I put the lid on for a while so they also steam a bit. Towards the end I added a generous squirt of garlic paste from a tube. Fresh garlic would be better and if using it I would add it finely chopped or crushed also towards the end of sweating the shallots as I find it burns too easily when added at the same time as the shallots.
Then add a glassful of dry white wine. You don't need any more as a lot liquid will come out of the mussels. Drink any surplus.
When the onion, garlic and wine are just coming to the boil tip in the mussels.
Then put on the lid!
After about 7 minutes I shook in a good shake of dried parsley. If using fresh add it later. Give the dish a good shake (holding the lid on!) once or twice during the cooking.
How long you cook them for is a matter of judgement. The books say when they are all open but I give them about ten minutes of gentle boiling to be on the safe side. I still carry the scars from earlier marine indiscretions.
Serve and enjoy and at €2 a head for the main ingredient why shouldn't you.
We like to eat it with garlic bread which Mrs DBK does in the oven.
* OK, just the Dutchman from the next pitch but that was the only report so it counts as all reports.
We are now at the eastern edge of Brittany at the Camping Car Parks site at Le Vivier Sur Mer which must be a former municipal site. It is remarkably busy with most of the 40 pitches with EHU taken and quite a few of the non-electric pitches also in use. For €10 a night it isn't a bad place and has, by all reports*, an excellent seafood restaurant a ten minute walk along the earth sea wall.
The bay here is a major mussel and oyster producer and there are some very strange craft involved in tending to the crop.
These are a couple of floating trailers with outboard motors on the back. Presumably the tractor tows them into the water until they can float.
This is a more conventional boat though like the others with a hefty 150 bhp outboard on the back..
This is the high tech end. Hydraulically powered wheels which lift up out of the water. We also saw a modern equivalent of a DUKW but too far away for a photo.
The sea food restaurant has a shop attached where we bought a kilo of mussels for just €4 which seems remarkably cheap - it was €5.50 at the last place.
So this seems a good opportunity to describe the making of "Moules à la Camping Car".
Tip your kilo of mussels in the sink and clean and sort them. Any gaping open which don't close if you tap them should be discarded. I also throw out any with damaged/cracked shells even if they look healthy.
You need to remove any beards, which are the fine threads they make to anchor themselves. The main tuft of the beard looks like this.
You just have to pull it off with your fingers and scrape off any beard threads sticking to the outside of the shell. You are supposed to scrape off any barnicles but I don't always.
Now finely chop some shallots. I used three of the banana sort. This is more than most recipes call for. You could get away with only one I think and the MH might smell better afterwards than ours does at the moment.
Fry them very gently in olive oil or butter. I put the lid on for a while so they also steam a bit. Towards the end I added a generous squirt of garlic paste from a tube. Fresh garlic would be better and if using it I would add it finely chopped or crushed also towards the end of sweating the shallots as I find it burns too easily when added at the same time as the shallots.
Then add a glassful of dry white wine. You don't need any more as a lot liquid will come out of the mussels. Drink any surplus.
When the onion, garlic and wine are just coming to the boil tip in the mussels.
Then put on the lid!
After about 7 minutes I shook in a good shake of dried parsley. If using fresh add it later. Give the dish a good shake (holding the lid on!) once or twice during the cooking.
How long you cook them for is a matter of judgement. The books say when they are all open but I give them about ten minutes of gentle boiling to be on the safe side. I still carry the scars from earlier marine indiscretions.
Serve and enjoy and at €2 a head for the main ingredient why shouldn't you.
We like to eat it with garlic bread which Mrs DBK does in the oven.
* OK, just the Dutchman from the next pitch but that was the only report so it counts as all reports.
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DBK
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We started today's drive by passing all the signs to Mont St Michel and instead went to Avranches and the Jardin des Plantes from where there is supposed to be the best view of the Mont from land. Which is no doubt true though it is some distance away but they do provide a couple of telescopes!
The air was hazy and not great for photography.
And with a bit of magnification.
The centre of Avranches has an aire just below the Jardin des Plantes but the centre of the town has a 3.5t weight limit which was fine for us but the aire could be approached from the north, which is the way we left but the reports of the aire are a bit mixed so use it at your own discretion.
The Jardin des Plantes is no Westonbirt Arboretum but it was free to enter and there was parking outside for us.
The date this man died on is significant. I misread the inscription at first, thinking it said he "died a saint" but it says he died at Saint Lo, a town inland from Avranches.
I'm not sure if the message from this sculpture is "If you play with snakes you will lose your head".
The church opposite the gardens was impressive.
Leaving Avranches we drove north for Lessay where there is a highly rated aire but sadly we never reached the town! We hit the first queue nearly two kilometres short of the town but we were able to turn around and tried approaching it from the west - to hit another queue about the same distance from it. Later in the day I learned from Google a three day agricultural show, the Fair St Croix, was being held at it attracts 350,000 visitors!
So instead we drove on further north to an aire close to the sea at Siouville-Hague (CC 176). Sadly not free but €5.60 isn't extortionate. We are now close to the top of the Cotentine Peninsula as it is correctly termed although I think most folk know it as the Cherburg Peninsula.
The beach bans dogs until 15 September which is a little too far off for us to wait so we walked in the lanes inland from the aire.
There were some nice holiday homes/gites.
And just for @jumartoo some more sloes and particularly large and juicy blackberries.
Tomorrow we hope to start the first part of the going back in time theme, going back to 6 June 1944.
The air was hazy and not great for photography.
And with a bit of magnification.
The centre of Avranches has an aire just below the Jardin des Plantes but the centre of the town has a 3.5t weight limit which was fine for us but the aire could be approached from the north, which is the way we left but the reports of the aire are a bit mixed so use it at your own discretion.
The Jardin des Plantes is no Westonbirt Arboretum but it was free to enter and there was parking outside for us.
The date this man died on is significant. I misread the inscription at first, thinking it said he "died a saint" but it says he died at Saint Lo, a town inland from Avranches.
I'm not sure if the message from this sculpture is "If you play with snakes you will lose your head".
The church opposite the gardens was impressive.
Leaving Avranches we drove north for Lessay where there is a highly rated aire but sadly we never reached the town! We hit the first queue nearly two kilometres short of the town but we were able to turn around and tried approaching it from the west - to hit another queue about the same distance from it. Later in the day I learned from Google a three day agricultural show, the Fair St Croix, was being held at it attracts 350,000 visitors!
So instead we drove on further north to an aire close to the sea at Siouville-Hague (CC 176). Sadly not free but €5.60 isn't extortionate. We are now close to the top of the Cotentine Peninsula as it is correctly termed although I think most folk know it as the Cherburg Peninsula.
The beach bans dogs until 15 September which is a little too far off for us to wait so we walked in the lanes inland from the aire.
There were some nice holiday homes/gites.
And just for @jumartoo some more sloes and particularly large and juicy blackberries.
Tomorrow we hope to start the first part of the going back in time theme, going back to 6 June 1944.
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Last edited:
We started today's drive by passing all the signs to Mont St Michel and instead went to Avranches and the Jardin des Plantes from where there is supposed to be the best view of the Mont from land. Which is no doubt true though it is some distance away but they do provide a couple of telescopes!
The air was hazy and not great for photography.
View attachment 254251
And with a bit of magnification.
View attachment 254253
The centre of Avranches has an aire just below the Jardin des Plantes but the centre of the town has a 3.5t weight limit which was fine for us but the aire could be approached from the north, which is the way we left but the reports of the aire are a bit mixed so use it at your own discretion.
The Jardin des Plantes is no Westonbirt Arboretum but it was free to enter and there was parking outside for us.
View attachment 254254
The date this man died on is significant. I misread the inscription at first, thinking it said he "died a saint" but it says he died at Saint Lo, a town inland from Avranches.
View attachment 254256
I'm not sure if the message from this sculpture is "If you play with snakes you will lose your head".
View attachment 254259
The church opposite the gardens was impressive.
View attachment 254258
Leaving Avranches we drove north for Lessay where there is a highly rated aire but sadly we never reached the town! We hit the first queue nearly two kilometres short of the town but we were able to turn around and tried approaching it from the west - to hit another queue about the same distance from it. Later in the day I learned from Google a three day agricultural show, the Fair St Croix, was being held at it attracts 350,000 visitors!
So instead we drove on further north to an aire close to the sea at Siouville-Hague (CC 176). Sadly not free but €5.60 isn't extortionate. We are now close to the top of the Cotentine Peninsula as it is correctly termed although I think most folk know it as the Cherburg Peninsula.
View attachment 254267
The beach bans dogs until 15 September which is a little too far off for us to wait so we walked in the lanes inland from the aire.
There were some nice holiday homes/gites.
View attachment 254268
View attachment 254269
And just for @jumartoo some more sloes and particularly large and juicy blackberries.
View attachment 254270
Tomorrow we hope to start the first part of the going back in time theme, going back to 6 June 1944.
And I still haven't got any!
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DBK
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Having done a bit more reading I've discovered Allied bombers deliberately flattened Saint Lô on the night of 6 June to hamper the movement of German reinforcements. Warnings to the locals were either not received or not taken seriously. 
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DBK
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My original plan was to drive up to the north west corner of the Cotentin Peninsula, there is an aire on the Nez de Jobourg which has grand views of sunsets and seabirds but instead, because we have so many places we want to visit on this trip and the year is getting on, we headed south east to Sainte Mère Eglise.
In an earlier post I mentioned we were going back to 6th June 1944 but I was wrong, because it was on the night of 5th/6th of June paratroopers from the 82nd US Airborne Division landed around Sainte Mère Eglise. The plan was for the 101st US Airborne Division to land further east between the town and Utah beach but the troops were not always dropped where they were supposed to be and formed ad hoc units as they began to group in the fields around the town. The drop was a pretty nasty affair. Some drowned in the marshes, others landed on German positions and were killed almost immediately. According to Antony Beevor, whose book on the D Day landings I'm reading, this night saw the most pitiless fighting of the entire war on the Western front.
Gradually the troops began to form their proper units but at one point a US general who had found 30 men, four of which were colonels quipped in Churchillian style "never have so few been commanded by so many".
The outcome of the landings was ultimately successful. Sainte Mère Eglise became the first French town to be liberated and as the main force arrived by sea from the beach they went on to strike north and take Cherbourg and the march on Berlin began.
The Airbourn Museum in the town is where we headed after parking in the aire (CC 28112) a short walk away where you can park for 8 hours for just €2 or overnight for €10 as we are going to do. The ticket issuing machine is worth watching as the €10 ticket is for 23 hours but you can have "une jour" for an eyewatering €35! I am really not sure what that is all about.
But on to the museum.
There are four main buildings and we spent a couple of hours here but you could spend a lot longer. It really is packed with things to see.
A number of the troops arrived by glider and their losses were very high. One unfortunate group of gliders landed in a minefield and others crashed on landing.
There is a full-sized reconstruction of a glider which you can walk through.
The interior is quite realistic, with full sized mannequins - or dummies, but that doesn't seem the right word in this case.
The building called Operation Neptune I found the most impressive. You enter one of the aircraft used by the paratroopers.
But this is no silent exhibit. The air is filled with the roar of the engines, it is dark with flashes of light from the anti-aircraft fire. Looking out of a window you can see troops jumping from other aircraft.
It was only recently I discovered why these aircraft have black and white bands painted on them. It wasn't for camouflage of course, it was an attempt to stop our own troops shooting them down by mistake but wasn't an entirely successful scheme. One fighter pilot who survived being shot down by "friendly fire" spent the next two hours swearing continuously.
Some of the sets are impressive. Here is Eisenhower depicted in front of a full sized and I think real C-47 the day before D Day meeting the troops.
The other side of the aircraft above.
There were lots of other things to see and here are just a sample.
These full-sized sets are static but full of sound effects and flashes of light.
There were lots of cabinets with interesting stuff.
The last room of the last building is a cinema with a good film with an English commentary about the events of 6th June and their aftermath. It is well worth watching it from start to end as we did.
The aire we are staying on is next to an area used as one of three temporary cemeteries where the dead were buried. The cemeteries were decommissioned in 1948 and the dead either repatriated or buried in one of the main WW2 cemeteries. Three thousand were buried until then a few hundred yards from where I am sitting.
On to Utah beach tomorrow.
And no smiley face to finish tonight.
In an earlier post I mentioned we were going back to 6th June 1944 but I was wrong, because it was on the night of 5th/6th of June paratroopers from the 82nd US Airborne Division landed around Sainte Mère Eglise. The plan was for the 101st US Airborne Division to land further east between the town and Utah beach but the troops were not always dropped where they were supposed to be and formed ad hoc units as they began to group in the fields around the town. The drop was a pretty nasty affair. Some drowned in the marshes, others landed on German positions and were killed almost immediately. According to Antony Beevor, whose book on the D Day landings I'm reading, this night saw the most pitiless fighting of the entire war on the Western front.
Gradually the troops began to form their proper units but at one point a US general who had found 30 men, four of which were colonels quipped in Churchillian style "never have so few been commanded by so many".
The outcome of the landings was ultimately successful. Sainte Mère Eglise became the first French town to be liberated and as the main force arrived by sea from the beach they went on to strike north and take Cherbourg and the march on Berlin began.
The Airbourn Museum in the town is where we headed after parking in the aire (CC 28112) a short walk away where you can park for 8 hours for just €2 or overnight for €10 as we are going to do. The ticket issuing machine is worth watching as the €10 ticket is for 23 hours but you can have "une jour" for an eyewatering €35! I am really not sure what that is all about.
But on to the museum.
There are four main buildings and we spent a couple of hours here but you could spend a lot longer. It really is packed with things to see.
A number of the troops arrived by glider and their losses were very high. One unfortunate group of gliders landed in a minefield and others crashed on landing.
There is a full-sized reconstruction of a glider which you can walk through.
The interior is quite realistic, with full sized mannequins - or dummies, but that doesn't seem the right word in this case.
The building called Operation Neptune I found the most impressive. You enter one of the aircraft used by the paratroopers.
But this is no silent exhibit. The air is filled with the roar of the engines, it is dark with flashes of light from the anti-aircraft fire. Looking out of a window you can see troops jumping from other aircraft.
It was only recently I discovered why these aircraft have black and white bands painted on them. It wasn't for camouflage of course, it was an attempt to stop our own troops shooting them down by mistake but wasn't an entirely successful scheme. One fighter pilot who survived being shot down by "friendly fire" spent the next two hours swearing continuously.
Some of the sets are impressive. Here is Eisenhower depicted in front of a full sized and I think real C-47 the day before D Day meeting the troops.
The other side of the aircraft above.
There were lots of other things to see and here are just a sample.
These full-sized sets are static but full of sound effects and flashes of light.
There were lots of cabinets with interesting stuff.
The last room of the last building is a cinema with a good film with an English commentary about the events of 6th June and their aftermath. It is well worth watching it from start to end as we did.
The aire we are staying on is next to an area used as one of three temporary cemeteries where the dead were buried. The cemeteries were decommissioned in 1948 and the dead either repatriated or buried in one of the main WW2 cemeteries. Three thousand were buried until then a few hundred yards from where I am sitting.
On to Utah beach tomorrow.
And no smiley face to finish tonight.
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jollyrodger
LIFE MEMBER
And is the guy still hanging about on the church tower 
OP
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DBK
LIFE MEMBER
Many thanks - I forgot about him!And is the guy still hanging about on the church tower
His name was Steel (or Steele, I can't remember) and spent two hours pretending to be dead while being deafened by the church bells which were ringing the alarm. He was taken prisoner but escaped to fight on.
Others taken prisoner also had interesting stories to tell.
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scousebird
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jollyrodger
LIFE MEMBER
A good series you have most likely watched
And good reading
And good reading
Yes we are here and Rob is doing the museum tomorrow if his back holds out!
We are on the campsite which was the old municipal site not far from the aire!
In fact we cycled through the aire and saw a navy PVC van was that yours John?
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DBK
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Not yet but that is the direction we are heading, having started from Roscoff. Thanks for the recommendation though!
We are about to turn in but delighted to say hello tomorrow. We are in the aire near the campsite.
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DBK
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Thank you.
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OP
DBK
LIFE MEMBER
Today we went to...
Except the beach itself was just a narrow strip of sand as it was high tide and a Spring tide too.
Utah Beach was where the US suffered heavy casualties. The commander wanted to attack in darkness but was told to rely on bombers destroying the defences first and to attack at the same time of 06:30 as at the other beaches.
The bombers dropped 13,000 bombs and not one hit the beach defences. Most of the amphibious tanks were disembarked a mile off-shore and most sank.
The German machine gunners held their fire until the last minute, making some think the bombers had done their stuff. When the landing craft dropped their ramps the machine gunners opened up at the now open door.
Some units were virtually wiped out.
With tide covering the scene of this carnage we visited the nearby museum which was more interesting than I expected. I thought it would be similar to the one at Ste Mère Eglise and though some of the exhibits were similar - uniforms and weapons etc there was much which was new and linked to the beach landing.
However, the B-26 Marauder was perhaps the most impressive.
The corroded engine at the front is from one which crashed. A photo of the nine strong crew was interesting. The aircraft has a rear gunner, two side gunners and a turret on the top so that accounts for four men. I guess the other five were bomb aimer, engineer, navigator, co-pilot and the pilot.
We also visited the LeClerc Memorial to the French division. The vehicle in the front looked sufficiently odd I thought it must be French, a Renault perhaps, but it is a Ford.
After lunch we visited the US cemetery near Colleville Sur Mer. Nearly ten thousand are buried here and a seperate memorial within the cemetary records another 1500 who have no known grave.
Security was tight getting into the visitors' centre with X-rayed bags and metal detectors. Inside it was immaculately kept.
With row upon row of graves.
We are staying tonight on the top of the cliff at Longues Sur Mer (CC 27418) which is free though without services of any sort but it has a good view of the Mulberry Harbour a little way up the coast at Arromanches les Bains which we will visit tomorrow.
The Mulberry Harbour was one of two, the other was destroyed almost immediately by a severe storm but this one was in a more sheltered spot and survived. It allowed larger ships to unload cargo directly.
The aire here is busy, we got the last of two spots left arriving mid-afternoon.
One vehicle here is interesting.
A Ford F550 with a custom made top. Interesting registration number too.
The owners are Bruce and Laurie Heimbigner who have recently arrived and intend to spend three months in Europe then cross over to Morroco and spend the next couple of years in Africa. They can be found on Facebook under "Livingstone Journal" apparently. Nice couple.
Except the beach itself was just a narrow strip of sand as it was high tide and a Spring tide too.
Utah Beach was where the US suffered heavy casualties. The commander wanted to attack in darkness but was told to rely on bombers destroying the defences first and to attack at the same time of 06:30 as at the other beaches.
The bombers dropped 13,000 bombs and not one hit the beach defences. Most of the amphibious tanks were disembarked a mile off-shore and most sank.
The German machine gunners held their fire until the last minute, making some think the bombers had done their stuff. When the landing craft dropped their ramps the machine gunners opened up at the now open door.
Some units were virtually wiped out.
With tide covering the scene of this carnage we visited the nearby museum which was more interesting than I expected. I thought it would be similar to the one at Ste Mère Eglise and though some of the exhibits were similar - uniforms and weapons etc there was much which was new and linked to the beach landing.
However, the B-26 Marauder was perhaps the most impressive.
The corroded engine at the front is from one which crashed. A photo of the nine strong crew was interesting. The aircraft has a rear gunner, two side gunners and a turret on the top so that accounts for four men. I guess the other five were bomb aimer, engineer, navigator, co-pilot and the pilot.
We also visited the LeClerc Memorial to the French division. The vehicle in the front looked sufficiently odd I thought it must be French, a Renault perhaps, but it is a Ford.
After lunch we visited the US cemetery near Colleville Sur Mer. Nearly ten thousand are buried here and a seperate memorial within the cemetary records another 1500 who have no known grave.
Security was tight getting into the visitors' centre with X-rayed bags and metal detectors. Inside it was immaculately kept.
With row upon row of graves.
We are staying tonight on the top of the cliff at Longues Sur Mer (CC 27418) which is free though without services of any sort but it has a good view of the Mulberry Harbour a little way up the coast at Arromanches les Bains which we will visit tomorrow.
The Mulberry Harbour was one of two, the other was destroyed almost immediately by a severe storm but this one was in a more sheltered spot and survived. It allowed larger ships to unload cargo directly.
The aire here is busy, we got the last of two spots left arriving mid-afternoon.
One vehicle here is interesting.
A Ford F550 with a custom made top. Interesting registration number too.
The owners are Bruce and Laurie Heimbigner who have recently arrived and intend to spend three months in Europe then cross over to Morroco and spend the next couple of years in Africa. They can be found on Facebook under "Livingstone Journal" apparently. Nice couple.
OP
OP
DBK
LIFE MEMBER
The aire tonight with the new moon setting. Ten minutes earlier and the sky was much pinker and the moon higher - but I didn't have my camera with me at the time. By the time I went back to the van and grabbed the kit the moment was almost over.
OP
OP
DBK
LIFE MEMBER
The Facebook link to the US couple is:
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OP
OP
DBK
LIFE MEMBER
After a very quiet night on the clifftop at Longues sur Mer we drove just a few hundred yards inland to the German gun batteries. These are situated on the western end of the stretch of coastline containing the Gold, Juno and Sword landing beaches and posed a significant threat to the D Day operation. Allied bombers failed to destroy them so HMS Ajax and Argonaut kept up a constant shelling throughout the day. The guns were eventually captured the next day.
There are four guns, one of which was badly damaged but the other three are almost intact and uniquely these are the only such emplacements still with their guns.
Virtually invisible from the gun position is the command post from where they could observe the fall of shot and adjust the guns. You can find it by walking west on the coastal path from the aire.
There are things to visit in Arromanches but we had already seen the Mulberry Harbour so we didn't linger here other than an abortive attempt to get water at the Municipal aire - the service point was broken. So we stopped next in Bayeaux which is famous for its tapestry. I have seen the tapestry before although it was so long ago it was relatively new at the time, but we came here for the British Military Cemetery.
The cemetery is on the south west side of the town and we approached from the north east. To reach it we drove around the ring road which amazingly follows the path of the ring road first constructed by the Allies to get around the narrow Medieval streets in the centre of the town.
There is a marked area for MH parking beside the museum opposite the cemetery.
The museum was interesting because it had a lot about the German forces as well as the Allies. There were a lot of photographs and written descriptions to read but there were more conventional exhibits as well.
These are a few views of the cemetery.
The headstone in the bottom left is a different shape because it would be for someone from a different country. We saw Polish, Czech, Italian and intriguingly even Soviet headstones. There are also nearly 500 German graves but I didn't know this until after we left so we didn't see them.
The site is about half the size of the US cemetery at Utah Beach but still has nearly 5,000 graves.
As we have seen at a Commonwealth War Graves cemetery on Crete, some graves are grouped. These three are Royal Dragoon Guards and I'm guessing were the crew of the same tank. The dates of their deaths are the same day.
We saw the same thing with two RAF men, again presumably crew of the same aircraft.
We have stopped tonight at the aire at Courseulles sur Mer (CC 60963) which is a lot better than the miserable grading of 5.3 it has suggests. From the aire paths lead to the coast where you can walk on the coastal footpath behind Juno Beach.
The path east takes you to Bernières sur Mer where the main Canadian force landed. As at Omaha beach the German machine gunners held fire until the ramps of the landing craft were dropped. The bloodshed claimed many lives but the Canadians with British units achieved their objectives.
This pillbox (below) is interesting as it faces away from the sea and could fire as troops passed it or sideways along the beach - enfiladed fire for the technically minded.
Next year will be the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Normandy.
There are four guns, one of which was badly damaged but the other three are almost intact and uniquely these are the only such emplacements still with their guns.
Virtually invisible from the gun position is the command post from where they could observe the fall of shot and adjust the guns. You can find it by walking west on the coastal path from the aire.
There are things to visit in Arromanches but we had already seen the Mulberry Harbour so we didn't linger here other than an abortive attempt to get water at the Municipal aire - the service point was broken. So we stopped next in Bayeaux which is famous for its tapestry. I have seen the tapestry before although it was so long ago it was relatively new at the time, but we came here for the British Military Cemetery.
The cemetery is on the south west side of the town and we approached from the north east. To reach it we drove around the ring road which amazingly follows the path of the ring road first constructed by the Allies to get around the narrow Medieval streets in the centre of the town.
There is a marked area for MH parking beside the museum opposite the cemetery.
The museum was interesting because it had a lot about the German forces as well as the Allies. There were a lot of photographs and written descriptions to read but there were more conventional exhibits as well.
These are a few views of the cemetery.
The headstone in the bottom left is a different shape because it would be for someone from a different country. We saw Polish, Czech, Italian and intriguingly even Soviet headstones. There are also nearly 500 German graves but I didn't know this until after we left so we didn't see them.
The site is about half the size of the US cemetery at Utah Beach but still has nearly 5,000 graves.
As we have seen at a Commonwealth War Graves cemetery on Crete, some graves are grouped. These three are Royal Dragoon Guards and I'm guessing were the crew of the same tank. The dates of their deaths are the same day.
We saw the same thing with two RAF men, again presumably crew of the same aircraft.
We have stopped tonight at the aire at Courseulles sur Mer (CC 60963) which is a lot better than the miserable grading of 5.3 it has suggests.
From the aire paths lead to the coast where you can walk on the coastal footpath behind Juno Beach.The path east takes you to Bernières sur Mer where the main Canadian force landed. As at Omaha beach the German machine gunners held fire until the ramps of the landing craft were dropped. The bloodshed claimed many lives but the Canadians with British units achieved their objectives.
This pillbox (below) is interesting as it faces away from the sea and could fire as troops passed it or sideways along the beach - enfiladed fire for the technically minded.
Next year will be the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Normandy.
OP
OP
DBK
LIFE MEMBER
Today we drove from Courseulles sur Mer (on the left of the map below) to the biggest aire we have ever seen at Honfleur or Honf(blue blob)r as it appears below.
We didn't drive far at first, stopping after a couple of kilometres to go shopping at the Intermarché supermarket in Bernières sur Mer where I also topped up with fuel at €1.45 (±£1.32) a litre. Mrs DBK's shopping included a packet of Brussel sprouts
. I shall report back in a day or so on what she plans to do with them and the day afterwards on the after effects.
We tried to drive east as close to the coast as we could, which worked at times but one-way systems thwarted us at times.
Our route took us past Juno and Sword beaches and there are a number of memorials with fluttering flags dotted along this stretch of coast.
We turned inland at Ouistreham, which is the port for the Caen ferry to Portsmouth. It may have only been coincidence but all the traffic lights in Ouistreham were flashing amber, not stop or go, red or green.
There were several dozen migrants to be seen. Mostly, I've read, from Sudan.
Our objective, to use but hopefully not demean a military term, was the Pegasus Memorial. In the map below you can see the road crossing two waterways east of Bénouville. The first is the Caen canal and the second the River Orne.
There is a museum between the canal and the river which we visited and found it the most interesting and well organised of the museums we have seen so far.
These two bridges were the objective of D Company of the 2nd Battalion of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry who left the UK in six Horsa gliders an hour or so before midnight on the 5th June, 1944.
Unlike many airborne missions this one worked almost perfectly. One glider landing so close to their objective the nose of the glider slid into the defensive wire around the bridge. The two bridges were relatively lightly defended but the attackers had the huge advantage of surprise. Sadly they were not taken without loss. Lt Den Brotheridge led his plattoon across the bridge but was fatally wounded. We learned today his daughter, who was born a few months later, visits all the reunions of the surviving veterans.
But take the bridges they did, the group assigned to take the bridge over the Orne did so without firing a shot. This led one officer to quip he was enjoying the exercise so far but wondered where the umpires were.
The Germans launched a counter attack which was repulsed. The defenders of the bridges were reinforced by Royal Marines who had landed on the coast and subsequently by the 7th Battalion of the Parachute Regiment commanded by the wonderfully named Lt Col Pine-Coffin known, I hope affectionately by his men, as "Wooden box".
The original bridge, now known as the Pegasus Bridge still exists at the museum.
There are bullet holes in it as witness to the conflict.
The museum has an informative and free tour which we joined. It starts in the cinema with a guide giving an overview of the operation before showing a film.
We then visited the bridge and the full-sized replica of a Horsa glider.
The guide was good and had lots of annecdotes from the veterans who visit. It was a good visit. However, motorhome parking is rudimentary and we saw one migrant floating about which might put off some. They arrived after the Calais jungle was closed and are mostly fed by local people.
But not all of the operations of 5/6 June 1944 went well. The attack on the nearby Merville battery was a bloody affair. Six hundred paratroopers were dropped but only 150 and with most of their kit lost reached the objective. The rest were scattered in all directions, many drowning in the marshes. But the survivors pressed on and took the batteries. Only 65 of the original 150 attackers were left standing at the end.
The commander of the force attacking the Merville batteries, Terence Otway, appears briefly in the film we saw in the museum. He lived to a ripe age and was by any standards a character.
We are now staying for the night at an aire which apparently can take around 250+ MHs and it is remarkably popular being close to full already, all paying €11 a night. A nice revenue stream for Honfleur.
Honfleur is worth visiting but it is very busy with visitors. A small number arrive by MH the rest mostly by sea or river from what I can see. This is the mouth of the Seine and huge river cruisers and in the distance large liners were moored. Their passengers all head for the same place we did.
The "Vieux Bassin" or "Old Sink" as I called it, is the inner harbour which is surrounded by old buildings.
And all the ship passengers.
But it is still an interesting place.
We didn't drive far at first, stopping after a couple of kilometres to go shopping at the Intermarché supermarket in Bernières sur Mer where I also topped up with fuel at €1.45 (±£1.32) a litre. Mrs DBK's shopping included a packet of Brussel sprouts
. I shall report back in a day or so on what she plans to do with them and the day afterwards on the after effects. We tried to drive east as close to the coast as we could, which worked at times but one-way systems thwarted us at times.
Our route took us past Juno and Sword beaches and there are a number of memorials with fluttering flags dotted along this stretch of coast.
We turned inland at Ouistreham, which is the port for the Caen ferry to Portsmouth. It may have only been coincidence but all the traffic lights in Ouistreham were flashing amber, not stop or go, red or green.
There were several dozen migrants to be seen. Mostly, I've read, from Sudan.
Our objective, to use but hopefully not demean a military term, was the Pegasus Memorial. In the map below you can see the road crossing two waterways east of Bénouville. The first is the Caen canal and the second the River Orne.
There is a museum between the canal and the river which we visited and found it the most interesting and well organised of the museums we have seen so far.
These two bridges were the objective of D Company of the 2nd Battalion of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry who left the UK in six Horsa gliders an hour or so before midnight on the 5th June, 1944.
Unlike many airborne missions this one worked almost perfectly. One glider landing so close to their objective the nose of the glider slid into the defensive wire around the bridge. The two bridges were relatively lightly defended but the attackers had the huge advantage of surprise. Sadly they were not taken without loss. Lt Den Brotheridge led his plattoon across the bridge but was fatally wounded. We learned today his daughter, who was born a few months later, visits all the reunions of the surviving veterans.
But take the bridges they did, the group assigned to take the bridge over the Orne did so without firing a shot. This led one officer to quip he was enjoying the exercise so far but wondered where the umpires were.
The Germans launched a counter attack which was repulsed. The defenders of the bridges were reinforced by Royal Marines who had landed on the coast and subsequently by the 7th Battalion of the Parachute Regiment commanded by the wonderfully named Lt Col Pine-Coffin known, I hope affectionately by his men, as "Wooden box".
The original bridge, now known as the Pegasus Bridge still exists at the museum.
There are bullet holes in it as witness to the conflict.
The museum has an informative and free tour which we joined. It starts in the cinema with a guide giving an overview of the operation before showing a film.
We then visited the bridge and the full-sized replica of a Horsa glider.
The guide was good and had lots of annecdotes from the veterans who visit. It was a good visit. However, motorhome parking is rudimentary and we saw one migrant floating about which might put off some. They arrived after the Calais jungle was closed and are mostly fed by local people.
But not all of the operations of 5/6 June 1944 went well. The attack on the nearby Merville battery was a bloody affair. Six hundred paratroopers were dropped but only 150 and with most of their kit lost reached the objective. The rest were scattered in all directions, many drowning in the marshes. But the survivors pressed on and took the batteries. Only 65 of the original 150 attackers were left standing at the end.
The commander of the force attacking the Merville batteries, Terence Otway, appears briefly in the film we saw in the museum. He lived to a ripe age and was by any standards a character.
We are now staying for the night at an aire which apparently can take around 250+ MHs and it is remarkably popular being close to full already, all paying €11 a night. A nice revenue stream for Honfleur.
Honfleur is worth visiting but it is very busy with visitors. A small number arrive by MH the rest mostly by sea or river from what I can see. This is the mouth of the Seine and huge river cruisers and in the distance large liners were moored. Their passengers all head for the same place we did.
The "Vieux Bassin" or "Old Sink" as I called it, is the inner harbour which is surrounded by old buildings.
And all the ship passengers.
But it is still an interesting place.
Last edited:
OP
OP
DBK
LIFE MEMBER
In the image above of the Vieux Bassin there is an odd looking yacht in the distance.
I didn't recognise the flag on her stern but the website www.langskip.com reveals all. She was made in Iceland but what it is doing now is a mystery. The website hasn't been updated for several years.
I took another view of the aire on my phone yesterday evening while walking Charlie.
Just visible in the background might be the cables supporting the 2km long Pont de Normandie which crosses the Seine. We will go over it today on our way towards the WW1 sites.
I didn't recognise the flag on her stern but the website www.langskip.com reveals all. She was made in Iceland but what it is doing now is a mystery. The website hasn't been updated for several years.
I took another view of the aire on my phone yesterday evening while walking Charlie.
Just visible in the background might be the cables supporting the 2km long Pont de Normandie which crosses the Seine. We will go over it today on our way towards the WW1 sites.
Lenny HB
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If not already on your list...we went to the comingworldremeberme land art exibition near ypres yesterday.
Quite a powerfull visulisation of the numbers.
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Alcoceber or Bust! Autumn Awaycation 2024
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