Awaycation Autumn 2023 - France

Day 3

Saturday.  Wow. It's ironic that for years our European cousins have joked about England (the mean the UK) being rainy all the time, and yet at home it's warm, hot in some places, and dry.

Here in Normandy apart from a brief period of sunshine it has been raining, sometimes heavy, and overcast.

We didn't venture out until it was too late to collect our bread order. The epicerie is only open from 8am to 10am in the morning. We got there about 1030am. Buggeur.

It started to brighten up around 11am so we decided to take a walk down to the beach and into the town again. This time I remembered to take the Sanyo camera with me. More on that later.

The path down to the beach is very steep. Our old knees complaining on the way down. Whole body complaining on the way up!

I took a few photos of the bunkers and gun emplacements that litter the area and of the National Guard Memorial. When will you see them.....

Not for a while. When I plugged the memory card into my Motorola G50 it reduced to read without formatting the card! 

We stopped at the kiosk that was closed yesterday and had lunch. A cheeseburger 🍔 and chips washed down with Diet Coke.

It was very nice and the burger was real mince not like a McDonald's burger at all.

Then the walk back. The sky was filled with hang-gliders taking advantage of the cliffs and the thermals created. 

The grass pitches are still very muddy and wet. It was supposed to be warm and sunny all day. By mid afternoon the greyness has returned plus a strong onshore breeze blew up.  This did nothing for drying the wet grass!

At least the site appears to have a workforce that can push and pull vans off the pitches. We saw a couple that needed both human and tractor power to get moving!

I am hoping we get some decent weather tomorrow to at least dry our pitch out. I am not looking forward to battling to get off this pitch on Monday morning.

Tomorrow is Sunday. The forecast is better.... But of course, the forecasters may as well close there eyes and choose what they think the weather will be with a stab in the dark with a finger!

Awaycation Autumn 2023 - Day 1 & 2

I started this blog for day 1 at Formerie and saved it as a draft. Sadly, it didn't save and so I have to start again.

Day 1

We were up around 0615 to finish the last minute packing of the van, breakfast, and get Reggie ready to leave.

We had to be at Dover to check-in about an hour before departure. So that would be 0905.  To make sure there were no surprises at the French Passport Controls we aimed to leave at 0800. 

We were on the way well before that and arrived at Dover Eastern Docks at 0820. The queues were quite reasonable and moved quickly. 

We had plenty of time for Reggie to do his thing and then we loaded.

The pet lounge was far busier than last time. But apart from a few freeloaders that were turfed out by the attendant. What is it that these people don't understand about signs saying "Pet Lounge- Customers Only"?

Once in France we unloaded and headed to Auchan to get supplies and to walk across to Picard for Reggie's "Dogador" raw food.

We opted for 5 kgs to last him the whole holiday.

Then to fill with diesel. The price is about comparable with UK.

Then we were off to the first overnight stop at Formerie. It's a Camping-Car Park Aire. At €11.30 a night it's good value. Hard surface and includes electric hookup.

The weather was terrible. Drizzle and at times pouring rain.

We eventually arrived about 1700. Filled the water and then picked our pitch.

The machine showed 2/6 spaces were remaining available. All four were British vans. 

It continued to rain all night.

Day 2

We had a lie in. It was drizzling when I took Reggie for his morning toilet. We had bought croissants and pan au chocolate in Auchan. These were breakfast.

As the van was showing a quarter tank used I checked the fuel app and it showed a much cheaper Intermarché just off the toll free A28. We did that. Bought some bread for lunch.

As time was getting away, despite not wanting to spend on tolls we stayed on the A13 to Caen. 

Arriving at Flower Camping Omaha Beach at just after 1600. We were quickly checked in and set up.

It's ironic that we have a sea view over the D-Day beach and we are surrounded by Germans....

Once we found the WiFi isn't free and 8s costly, plus despite deciding to spend €12 we couldn't actually sign up. There wasn't enough signal in the ten minutes of wifi they give you to cough up! Perhaps a warning how crap it was going to be?

We had a walk down to the beach and walked along the sand to a small bar for a beer. 

The walk back was a little knackering.

Dinner in tonight again. Pasta Bolognese.