A lovely day – having given into jeans a couple of days ago the shorts are back out! We started the day with a lovely stroll along the beach, only a few other dog walkers and a couple of joggers about so plenty of beach to go around….

Our one and only stop today was to a little village called Dragey where there was plenty of parking right down by the beach, so from here we enjoyed a lovely long walk along the beach…

Firstly we headed eastwards to the next village to see what beaches St Jean-le-Thomas had to offer…

And then back on ourselves to catch our first glimpse of Mont St Michel….

After a nice sit and cup of coffee in the sunshine we made our way back to the van and travelled inland and back out again to the small village of Beauvoir where we are booked into an Aire ready for our walk to Mont St Michel tomorrow.

Oh and we might just have stopped at the Mont St Michel biscuit shop on the way – where else would you find a biscuit shop?

Thoughts of the day:

• These Aires are brilliant because you can book up to 24 hours within the overnight fee – so on this one I have book 4pm until 4pm tomorrow which gives us plenty of time to walk down to the Mont in the morning without having to rush back and also saves £20 car parking fees!
• The land around here appears to be very sandy but clearly good for growing maize and leeks!

Today’s stats:

• Miles driven – 37
• Miles walked – 8
• Beaches – 2
• Aire – £15.58
• Biscuits – £3.45

A much better day today, not quite full sunshine but a definite brightness and sunny afternoon. A full on beach day for us today so we set off bright and early and travelled the short distance to our first stop at Coudeville just a mile south….

The tide is still quite high and as our next beach is only a mile or so further south we didn’t linger – we got a little caught up with some road closures and so it actually took us a bit longer to get to our next stop – Bréville-sur-Mer…

Rather than negotiate our way around the town of Granville we have decided to walk along the beach from here passing Plage Donville-les-Bains with its lone water walker and moody skies….

At the end of Donville beach is Plage de la Pointe de Lude best viewed from above as we clamber up the steep hill to Granville…

From here also we get a view across to the port of Granville which sits on a rocky peninsula…

Two more beaches are waiting for us in Granville – either side of the peninsula, to the east is Plage de Plat Gousset and after meandering through the narrow and busy streets we found Plage du Heral on the west side…

Time for us to return to the can and head a little further south to St Pair-sur-Mer….

And our final stop for the day at the Camping Car Park Aire in Carolles. As the sun has come out properly we took a short break and headed down to the sea again (only a few hundred yards) walking along Plage de Carolles north as far as Plage de Jullouville before calling it a day…

Note the rather genteel houses overlooking the beach – we haven’t seen them for a while…

Thoughts of the day:

• A lovely mostly beach walking day is so good for my soul
• Driving through the countryside today and the local farmers are lifting leeks – the smell of onions always reminds me of driving around the Wash area of Lincolnshire
• These small Aires are not the most attractive sites but they do seem to be in fab locations, generally only a few hundred metres from the beach and at about £13 per night inc electric- I’m sure I shall be very glad of them when the winter sets in

Today’s stats:

• Miles driven – 25
• Miles walked – 10
• Beaches – 10
• Aire – £13.85

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!

No more rain overnight and this morning it is cloudy and breezy but with plenty of sunshine around as we head off to our first beach – Plage de Creances…

The parking situation here was a bit unclear – appearing to ban all motorhome parking night and day, though the village itself looked pretty shuttered up and with very few signs of life but we didn’t want to push our luck and stay too long. Our next stop was a little further south at Plage d’Anneville-sur-Mer where a memorial to the Resistance provided ample parking for us to take a wander along the beach…

The beach at Gouville-sur-Mer with the tide having receded quite a bit gave us a lovely long stretch of firm sand to walk along and a suitable turning point as we arrived at Gonneville Beach to the south….

Our last stop of the day was the large village of Avon-Coutainville, still a lot of second homes particularly along the beautiful, wide promenade but at least signs of life and a busy village square providing a central hub for shops and bars (mostly open) with plenty of people enjoying the late afternoon sunshine here and strolling along the promenade…

We too enjoyed a stroll along the promenade to the end at the Plage de la Pointe de Agon where we sat awhile watching a group of children having a blast Kite-carting on the beach….

Thoughts of the day:

• Plenty of evidence of an active passion for water sports here in France
• It seems that some communities embrace Campervans whilst a few seem to do their utmost to avoid them – makes me feel a bit like Marmite!
• Not sure how much longer I can continue in sandals and shorts – the breeze is definitely getting chillier

Today’s stats:

• Miles driven – 22
• Miles walked – 8.5
• Beaches – 6
• Aire – £9.28

A bit of a showery day today so we have decided to stay put, catch up on some domestic chores and generally just take a break – sometimes you just need a day to soak up what you are experiencing and today is one on those. We did venture out between showers in the afternoon to take a walk along Plage de St Germain-sur-Ay away from the dark clouds….

We walked as far as Plage de Denneville…

Before heading back at a fair old pace as those clouds don’t look like they are going to take any prisoners. We took a short cut through the village which mostly appears to be shuttered up second homes with very little sign of life but look at that sky….

It did spit spot but that rain must have fallen elsewhere.

Thoughts of the day:

• A lot of these small coastal villages appear to be quite new and largely made up of smallish functional type houses (second homes) not like those beautiful intricate mansions typical of the villages further east.
• The skies here are quite amazing and somehow very big?

Today’s stats:

• Miles driven – 0
• Miles walked – 4
• Beaches – 2
• Aire – £12.55