A bit gloomy out there today and the odd spit spot of rain but nothing too concerning. For a bit of a change our first port of call was the ‘city’ of Coutances to take a look at the Cathedral as recommended by our guide book by Robbie Roams. Had it been a nicer day we probably wouldn’t have bothered but….

Now to be fair it was a beautiful cathedral – was it worth the hassle of finding somewhere to park? In my opinion – no. Still we went, we saw, we left and drove the short distance to Hauteville-sur-Mer. Firstly we took a walk along Plage de Montmartin-sur-Mer to satisfy our souls….

And then along the Plage de Hauteville-sur-Mer, completely mesmerised by the power walking in the sea going on – is that a thing? Clearly it is here – they were fair striding along the beach in the water to above waist height and I guess the resistance would make it quite a workout….

We carried on beyond our water walkers to the deserted Plage de la Cale Sud at the end of the village before turning back and leaving the water babes still hard at it, and moving on to our final destination for today, St Martin de Brehal where we found the village motorhome Aire and settled ourselves in as it started to drizzle.

A little later as the drizzle had passed we wandered down to the seafront and walked along Plage de St Martin de Brehal and beyond onto Plage de la Vanlee enjoying the early evening glow and watching the distant activities on the now submerging under the incoming tide, mussel or oyster (or both) fields, before calling it a day and wandering back through the mainly shuttered up village.

Thoughts of the day:

• This mornings foray into Coutances was a subtle reminder of why I prefer to stick to the coast!
• The sleepy hollow village has come to life – there must be a hundred cars now jammed into the main carpark next to the Aire – a quick look on Apple Maps shows a music hall just a bit further down from the Aire – shall I regret this seemingly out of the way park up? No regrets they all left in an orderly fashion with the minimum of fuss just after 11.

Today’s stats:

• Miles driven – 33
• Miles walked – 6.5
• Beaches – 5
• Aire – should have been about £6 but nobody came round to collect!