Author: freedombird

Saturday 6th December 2025 – Hermanville and Colleville-Montgomery….

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A few showers but mostly dry with a bit of sunshine here and there for our last full day in France – where has the time gone?

We spent a fair bit of the day getting ourselves sorted for the trip tomorrow – you will not believe how difficult it was to find out where to stick the headlight deflectors onto the van for tomorrow’s early start in the dark – still not sure they are right but we are only 15 minutes from the Ferry Terminal and at half six in the morning hopefully not too much oncoming traffic!

We took a walk out around lunchtime, through Hermanville and its huge church….

Popping in to pay our respects at the British War Cemetery here…

Down to the beach…..

And northwards along the beach to watch the windsurfing at Plage de Colleville-Montgomery for a while…

Before heading back to the van via a last visit to a Boulangerie for a wee while and settling down for an early night.

Thoughts of the day:

  • 90 days is really not long enough to explore a place properly – I certainly underestimated the amount of time it would take to cover the West coast and we really haven’t stopped travelling since we’ve been here.
  • France is super campervan friendly and is by far the easiest country I have travelled around.

Today’s stats:

  • Miles driven – 0
  • Miles walked – 5
  • Beaches – 2
  • Aire – £13.30

Friday 5th December 2025 – St Laurent-sur-Mer and Normandy American Memorial….

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A cold and windy day but dry until about 3pm so we will take that.

A trip to the Vet this morning for Tilly to have her tapeworm tablet before returning to the UK – she of course was a complete wimp through her check up and couldn’t get out of there fast enough once done but that is now sorted and we are all set for our ferry crossing on Sunday.

Afterwards we drove to Omaha Beach for a cold walk along the beach, starting at the southern end of the beach – Plage de St Laurent-sur-Mer….

Making our way along the beach to the Omaha Beach Memorial….

We then drove to the Normandy American Memorial and Cemetery where we were able to get aerial views along the whole length of Omaha Beach – to the south…..

And to the North….

Whilst here I popped Tilly back in the van and had a quick mooch around the immaculate memorial and cemetery (not dog friendly)….

There are some 9400 white marble crosses for every soldier lost….

Within the memorial are these interesting depictions of the activity of the various services during the Battle of Normandy….

At this point the weather took a decided turn for the worst as it started to rain so we took the slow coastal road back to our Aire (having decided to stay another night in Hermanville) to settle down for the evening.

Thoughts of the day:

  • It does make me chuckle when I see a sign at a pedestrian crossing saying how many people can cross at a time – sometimes it’s 3 and sometimes it is 9 – who is counting?
  • I have found driving in France an unexpected pleasure the roads are generally good and traffic quite limited and unhurried – I was absolutely dreading it.

Today’s stats –

  • Miles driven – 80
  • Miles walked – 5
  • Beaches – 2
  • Aire – £13.40

Thursday 4th December 2025 – Hermanville-sur-Mer….

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A few showers around and a little chilly but still some beautiful sunshine around which we will take. A little bit of a lazy day for us today but we did get out for a reasonable walk around lunch time from the village down to the sea. A little contrast between a typical village Villa and a beach Villa….

Both rather grand and huge – probably not worth looking in the Estate Agent’s window 🤣

We wandered southwards along this glorious sandy beach (Sword Beach) – Plage de Hermanville-sur-Mer….

To the beach at Lion-sur-Mer….

And back, just making it back to the van as the rain set in – perfect timing.

Today’s stats:

  • Miles driven – 0
  • Miles walked – 6
  • Beaches – 2
  • Groceries – £13.74
  • Aire – £13.40

Wednesday 3rd December 2025 – British Normandy Memorial, Arromanches and Hermanville-sur-Mer…

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A cold and slightly frosty start to the day with the odd shower here and there. We were soon on our way to our first stop on the day back up on the Normandy coast to visit the British Normandy Memorial.

I mainly wanted to see the ‘Standing with Giants’ exhibit with 1475 large silhouettes of service men and women, not realising that this exhibit has moved on and is now in Portsmouth! Though a few other silhouettes are permanent features….

However it was an amazing and somewhat humbling experience to visit this beautiful memorial and see the names of the almost 22.5k service men and women under British Command, who lost there lives during the D-Day landings and ensuing Battle of Normandy….

I was lucky enough to have the place almost to myself and wander around in awe….

All 22.5k names and ages are inscribed on the columns as you walk around – most sadly in their late teens or early twenties – can we even begin to imagine what life would be like now if they hadn’t given their lives?

It is such a stunning afternoon and we have a little time on our hands so I drove down into nearby Arromanches-les-Bains, where I remembered that last time when passing through we had been unable to find parking and had had to make do with viewing from above and comfortably found somewhere to park up the van whilst we wandered down for a stroll on the beaches (Code named Gold Beach during the D-Day landings), firstly along the southern end -Plage de la Breche…..

And then the main Plage de Arromanches and the remains of Mulburry Harbour….

Gold beach extends north as far as Courseulles-sur-Mer and is the beach that mostly British Troops landed on during D-Day.

From here we drove a few miles north to Ouistreham, calling in at a vets to make an appointment for Tilly to have a Tapeworm tablet on Friday, which is a requirement for re-entry into the UK and needs to be administered by a vet and her Animal Health Certificate updating within 5 days and a minimum of 24 hours before arriving into the UK. We took the opportunity for another quick walk along Plage de Riva Bella (Sword Beach) in the last of the late afternoon sun….

Before heading to our Aire for the night, slightly inland at Hermanville-sur-Mer, an Aire that we have stayed on before.

Thoughts of the day:

  • I think I may have said this before but it is really heartwarming to see this memorials so well respected and cared for.

Today’s stats:

  • Miles driven – 65
  • Miles walked – 4
  • Beaches – 3
  • Aire – £13.39
  • Car park – £3.09

Tuesday 2nd December 2025 – Le Pouliguen and La Baule-Escoublac….

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A beautiful sunny day mostly but the odd seriously heavy shower appearing from nowhere.

We started the day with a walk along the other side of the river to the little village of Le Pouliguen (really now just an extension of La Baule-Escoublac) and it’s rather fine white sandy beach – Plage du Nau….

We then retraced our steps and crossing the river back to La Baule-Escoublac to pay a brief visit to Plage de Benoît and Plage de la Baule to capture them with the tide a bit further out and in the sunshine – well worth it…

Today the beach is covered in a fine layer of small seashells and the water is much calmer – the difference a day makes!

After this lovely morning walk, we packed up the van and set off to get the bulk of the drive, towards Caen, done. It was an easy drive being mostly across rural France by dual carriageway, with the only busy spot as we drove around Rennes.

Thoughts of the day:

  • There are lots of clumps of mistletoe in many of the trees, something we’ve noticed when driving inland – not good news for the trees apparently.
  • It is hard to believe that this journey is nearly over – will we return?

Today’s stats:

  • Miles driven – 178
  • Miles walked – 3.5
  • Aire – £10.44 EHU
  • Fuel – £85.34