Normandy

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

Monday 29th September 2025 – Mont St Michel to Hirel….

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A very cold and misty start to our day, as we started the 3 mile walk, a very pleasant riverside walkway, to visit Mont St Michel, so much so that we had to layer up and the Mont wasn’t visible until we were nearly at the causeway….

By the time we got there though it was full sunshine and very warm and incredibly busy…

So much so that the tiny narrow streets were full of visitors – it reminded me of the Alley in Harry Potter – and poor Tilly was totally overwhelmed and needed carrying! I knew we would not be able to visit the main castle on the top (not dog friendly) so instead of battling our way around the crowded shops and bars we took advantage of the low tide and wandered around the outside of the Mont, marvelling at the amazing architecture and engineering feat of its construction before making our way back against the flow of the crowds still arriving…

We were very hot and bothered by the time we got back so took a moment to rehydrate and change – the shorts are back! Before setting off to our first beach in Brittany – Plage de Cherrueix….

Not really a sandy beach more crunching our way over millions of broken shells on what I think is really salt marshes or meadows, like much of the surrounding land – we watched awhile at the children hurtling around on Kite carts….

Our last stop of the day was a couple of miles along the coast at a Camping Car Park Aire in Hirel where, after parking up we went for a late afternoon stroll across the salt meadow to the shoreline (though a long way from the sea) and enjoyed watching a couple of horses and carts galloping along and further along another Kite Carting session going on….

Thoughts of the day:

  • You wouldn’t really want to spend the day on one of these beaches but they are ideal for walking on at low tide – probably a bit messy / impassible at high tide or after a wet spell.
  • I wonder if there is ever a quiet time to visit Mont St Michel?
  • Surprisingly these salt meadows seem to be quite fertile as there are fields and fields of vegetables being grown and sold locally

Today’s stats:

  • Miles driven – 19
  • Miles walked – 10
  • Beaches – 2
  • Aire – £11.38 with EHU