Bonjour/Hello to All,
We said goodbye to Spain and pottered over the border at some point, somewhere ??? Into France, and what better way to reward ourselves was to stop at our first Artisan Boulangerie and buy some delicious bread and a decadent chocolate slice for Terry’s afternoon tea. We welcome ourselves back to France. As you all know us so well, you know we are never incident free. Well !! Read on……but I cannot tell a lie, I have been incident free in the shower block department so far, mostly sort of, nothing to write home about!!
CARNAC: Back to visit Max, beautiful town and coastline.
and wonderful sunsets.
It’s Easter Sunday, we decide to go and watch the Sailing Regatta.Terry and Max head off on his motor bike and I start walking to lessen the distance and time before he’ll come back and pick me up. I’m walking, walking, walking nearly there, I’ve crested the hill and MON DIEU (BLOODY HELL)…. sitting in the gutter is Max. There is broken bits of bike and two Gendarme’s and NO Terry, and I can hear an Ambulance on its way. I am desperately trying not to panic, I get to Max he’s O.K. but in a lot of pain he tells me Terry was dropped off and he was coming back to get me. The car in front stopped to turn without indicating and the rest is history. It could of been a lot worse!!!!! It’s frightening how life can change in a matter of seconds. For Max, a couple of hours in hospital and home again with a broken rib and a script for painkillers. Not very pleasant to say the least but he is recovering well. A few glasses of Rosé helped to ease the pain.
Easter Monday is a public holiday of course, and H.H. ends up with a flat tyre from a leaking valve! Same place as we broke down before! Nothing can be done till Tuesday. There’s something odd about Carnac and, us H.H. always gets into strife and if it wasn’t for Max’s very good friends Christine & Vincent to help with the language barrier we would of been in more strife again. Maybe it has something to do with the STONES (druids) just down the road, some say they are better than Stonehenge, these can be seen throughout Brittany, or maybe it was just the full moon…...
CAMERET SUR MER: This area also had the dreaded stones, passing them, we walked the beach and headland and we saw a Helicopter working in the distance. We followed the noise and watched an EC145 and crew practicing there winch and rescue techniques. On the hill there is a local War Museum with massive anchors from wrecks and the unbelievable looking sea mines etc.
The coast is stunning.
After a few days of different campsites.
We end up at MONT SAINT MICHEL:
We hop on our bikes and ride to the Abbey founded in the year of 708, the church was built before the year one thousand. This is known as (Wonder of the West), this rocky islet rises to 80 metres in height, it,s a kilometre in circumference and linked to a bay by a bridge, with spring tides it becomes an island. The parish church began during the 11th century and completed in the 17th century, an extraordinary site to behold, so much history. (worth a google). And very busy!
SAINT MARIE DU MONT: Utah Beach, this is the site of one of the D Day landings, June 6th, 1944 WW11 on the Normandy Coast. The Museum is fantastic.
In the theatre we watched a 20 min film of the landings, there is also a genuine Martin B-26G Marauder bomber on display 1 of 6 survivors of the war. This is on loan from the U.S.
Thought I’d just throw this one in….I have developed a classification system for " On the road Mascara application”.
Long straight roads = 10/10 …... no worries
Winding road = bit messy
Uphill grade = interesting
Potholes = devastating effect/ poke your eye out
Going through villages = stop/start - need cotton buds
Round corners = tissues always needed
Roundabouts = this all depends if you make it out the other side going in the right direction. It wouldn’t pass the.."you look ok" test, a bit smeary?
ARROMANCHES: It feels almost not quite real, we are walking along the beach’s where one of the massive Air, Land & Sea battles of the Normandy landings took place. A massive artificial harbour was built by the Americans and portions remain today.
This is 71 years ago in a totally different world. We went to a Circular 360 degrees Cinema.The film is projected onto 9 very large screens and is a very emotional 19 minutes. It pays tribute to the soldiers of all nations and the 20,000 civilians killed in lower Normandy during this battle to liberate Western Europe. AS you know these landings were coded and there were 5 designated beaches. Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword. The Historical Normandy Coastline has so many Museums, Memorials and Military Cemeteries paying tribute to the fallen, so that these events can never be forgotten.
LE VAL YGOT: This commemorative World War II site is in the heart of the Eawy Forest and the complex was built in 1943 for the launching of the famous V1 flying bombs.
The launch ramp was extraordinary, it was pointed directly towards London. A lot of the original buildings are still standing. It was never operational as it was bombed the moment the English thought it was ready for use as intelligence had previously located it.
Along the way we stay at our first “French Passion”. These are like farm stays where the locals allow you to stay free of charge at their property. All sell various forms of produce, wines, cheese etc., which you may or may not buy. There’s no obligation. Our first one was a ”beauty”.
The owner was selling cider, eggs and free range chooks…the dead kind. He also had a miniature zoo and the location was fabulous.
View from our campsite
Moving right along and we are now at CORBIE: We are here for the Anzac Day dawn service, and to catch up with Max and his friends.
Stuart, a good friend of Max from his Qantas days, owns a fabulous canal boat named “Vagabond” and we are parked in a campsite right beside the canal.
Stuart, comes up with an excellent idea of going on a little evening cruise down the canal and we aptly call it a "Booze Cruise”.You couldn’t call it a sunset cruise, because that doesn’t happen till after 9.30pm.
Lots of laughs, good stories and of course drinks.
Anzac day arrives and we’re up at 3.30am.
It’s pouring with rain so we dressed accordingly and off we all trudge up to Villers-Bretonneux. Our bus was booked for 4.30am but this does not arrive, after a 40 minute walk to the site, we see organised chaos. The Gendarmerie are not letting the traffic up the road, so there is a ginormous back log of buses & cars all jammed up. On arrival we are given Poncho’s, programmes and Australian/French badges.
The Bugler was perfect.
The service very sombre, and the rain on the Somme continued on. There was well over 6,000 very wet, cold, and bedraggled people there.
Including “The Invisible Man”.
And this merry lot.
Susie, Terry, Max, (the invisible man) Stuart, Adrian and Peter
Terry continued on with the lads to another service, lunch, another memorial and onto see the crash site of the Red Baron.
Another memorial at Bullecourt and then back to the local Pub, called “Le Canberra”.
Then on the way walking home, looses his mobile phone on the way back to H.H. and moi. Now this is an ongoing saga, and it involves so many people and friends of friends (who speak french). Thanks again to Christine and Vincent and Michael Garside for trying to find the phone for us. I can safely say it was a nightmare. Finally after 10 days it was anonomously handed in but without our vital SIM CARD !!!!, The idiots had left their number on the phone so it ended up being a cyber war of words, swearing and accusations, via Google translate! They wiped our photos, aps and basically trashed it, besides the screen smashed………………………………… Anyway, we finally said goodbye to Corbie, and to friends old and new plus two enemies (phone wise). It’s a great town. Before we left I had a very Chic French haircut, mind you the guy that cut it was called Alexi but hey…Terry had a nagging tooth removed so all in all it was and eventful couple of weeks.
Thanks to Peter Forbes for the extra photos.
Well I think we’ll leave you all on that note and we are off to the Champagne region. We’ll talk to you all soon,
AU REVOIR till next time, love to all Susie, Terry and of course H.H. x x x
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