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

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

Sunday 28th September2025 – St Jean-le-Thomas to Mont St Michel…

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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