Today's crops - wheat and windmills.

Saturday 4^th June

Today we left Honfleur and the area of the D Day landings and headed towards the Somme. We had no real plans for stops along the way so we had some nice surprises in store.

We have seen windmills all along our travels especially coming across the northern coast. Don't know why we don't have them all over Australia.

We first stopped in a little village on the coast called Veules-les-Roses. We knew nothing about this town but figured it was a nice distance to travel before morning tea. Arriving in the sleepy village we followed a man along the middle of the road with his 2 kids on pushbikes - memories. It turned out we weren’t the only tourists in town - there were 2 tour buses. This was an artisans village though there didn’t appear to be much open this morning. The 2 tour buses and 2 RVs did create a small traffic jam at the main junction in town.

Obviously usually a very quiet country town.

There were quite a number of lovely house signs in the village.

And some lovely houses

The traffic jam - these 2 RVs and 2 tour buses behind us.

Next place along the coast was Dieppe. We had a drive through the main city and then found a church on the hill overlooking the town and from where we could get some good photos. We were trying to stay off the main highways so that we could actually see some of the countryside and it makes for a much more pleasant and less pressure drive.

A castle above the town of Dieppe. Dieppe is one of the major ferry ports to the UK.

These cliffs fell right to the beach in Dieppe.

The entrance gate to Dieppe.

From the church on the hill above Dieppe you can see the RV parking - I think this was actually where they free camped.

The yacht harbour at Dieppe.

The sun came out - just for a brief show.

This was the church perched high above Dieppe and is dedicated to the mariners.

Mosaic on a wall near the church...

...and this sculpture nearby caught my eye.

Lunch stop was in the town of Abbeville. Again we knew nothing about this town so it was again a bit of a surprise. We arrived in town about 1.30 in search of lunch and the town seemed to be dead. Not many shops open and virtually no one in the streets. We found a bakery where we had a lovely lunch – quiche and Rob had a savoury ham, mushroom and béchamel crepe. We also had a couple of mini savoury bites – and a Paris Brest and coffee. Finishing lunch after 2, and leaving the bakery we found that the streets had come alive – everything had been shut for lunch.

This town had 2 lovely churches. The first, St Vulfran’s, originally dated back to the 10^th century but has had a couple of rebuilds. It was bombed in 1940 and was burned and almost completely collapsed, but has since been rebuilt. The second, Church of the Holy Sepulchre, originally dated back to the 11^th century, but the church now standing was built in the 15^th century. This church has 30 stained glass windows which were commissioned in 1980s and created by Alfred Manessier.

St Vulfran’s church in the main street of Abbeville.

This is one of the commissioned works in Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

And this is a picture of the 7 pieces that make up a work titled ' the happiness of Easter'.

Our drive onwards towards Amiens loosely followed the Somme which was full to the brim and flowing fast.  We are now in Glisy (near Amiens) and have returned to the Quick(ie) Palace.

 

We found this old windmill not far out of Abbeviille - don't remember what year, but behind the windmill was a long line of new windmills.

We have been seeing a lot of poppies in the past week - this was a beautiful looking grouping.

No Dora - overruled. Keep left at fork she said and this was the track. We might have given it a go if it didn't run right alongside the river Somme which was full to overflowing.

This old canal boat appeared to be abandoned on the river.

Weather a la Melbourne

Friday 3^rd June

We have spent a really lovely day in Honfleur. This place is just like you see in brochures and postcards and every building and house seems to be worthy of a picture. We started the day at the tourist centre and found that the town had a Petit Train so that was the first thing we did for the day. The train wound its way through the narrow streets – surely this can’t be 2 way? – and up into the hills above the town. Up in the hills there was the church of Notre Dame de Grace founded by Richard II and rebuilt in the early 1600s. The train stopped here for us to look at the church and then hear the lovely tune played by the bells. Some fabulous views back over the town but no opportunity for good photos.

For Shepparton folk - this cow was in the tourist information centre.

The inner 'eclus' at Honfleur. The umbrellas are all restaurants along the harbour.

Notre-Dame de Grace - 1600s.

These bells had a lovely clear sound when they played at 11am

The train then wended its way back down the hills through lovely garden areas and past some beautiful and interesting homes and finally back to the port area.

They have a beautiful carousel in the harbour area.

A cruise ship was in town today and we saw a lot of tour buses so their were a lot of tourists in every street, We heard a few English and American accents but they seemed to be mostly European tourists. Morning tea time and we found a lovely tea salon. We were joined for morning tea by a lady and her terrier dog who sat on the chair opposite her at the table. Yes – she even fed it, and she buttered the bread first and he also had some cheese. We snuck a photo – and look at the lovely china in the windows behind the dog.

Not the best photo - its hard to sneak photos sometimes.

This was the entrance we went through into the tea salon - there was a second entrance around the corner and in that window were all the delicious looking pastries and cakes. We didn't even know they were there so Rob had a scone and I just had the cup of tea.

We visited another church, the church of St Catherine, built in the 15^th and 16^th Century. This church was built by shipwrights and is the largest wooden church with a separate bell tower in France.

A real labour of love - just loved all the timber.

The inside was pretty spectacular.

More wandering of the lovely old streets and a little shopping led us to lunchtime. We enjoyed another lovely meal. I don’t drink very much coffee at home, the occasional cappuccino, but have got used to drinking their espresso and am actually enjoying the flavour.

The nougat shop.

Some gluten free jubes for Claire.

A couple of interesting looking buildings. Love all the timber work.

This shop had some really interesting and original jewellery. We made a small donation to the education of his children. One other shop we visited and we were talking about the weather in Honfleur. It has the same reputation as Melbourne; 4 seasons in 1 day. They have a saying. If you can't see Le Havre, it is raining; if you can see Le Havre, it is going to rain. 

Our last experience for the day was a short boat cruise. We lined up with a couple of tour groups – most would have been in their late 70s or 80s. We were told by the ticket lady that we should board before the groups. It turned out to be a real push and shove affair – these 80 yr olds can certainly hold their own in a scrum – and that is the ladies we are talking about. Today was very cold and got colder as we sat on the boat. At one stage the sun came out and the French were really excited about it. The boat cruise was a disappointment – we were assured that the commentary would be in English but all we got was a sheet to read, and it seems that the real focus of the cruise was just the bridge from Honfleur to Le Havre which at one time was the largest cable type bridge in the world, and it was aerodynamically shaped to stop the effect of the wind.

The boat cruise seemed to be all about the bridge. Shame we didn't get a verbal commentary as he seemed to be talking all the time so I am sure we missed out on quite a few pieces of information.

Laundry done tonight at the supermarket and all ready to move on tomorrow.

Ancient and not so ancient battles

Thursday 2^nd June

The main focus for today was to visit the Bayeux Tapestry again. When we were here 2 years ago I felt that the audio guide rushed you through a bit too fast and I really wanted to see more. We had no trouble finding the location for the tapestry (Dora knows it all – well almost all) and conveniently someone left their parking spot just around the corner. It was meter parking so we paid for 3 hours figuring that was tons of time – but forgetting that from 12 to 2 parking is free. So we had parking paid up till 3.30.

The tapestry was just as stunning as I remembered from the first time. This time the audio seemed to be a lot slower and I did get time to absorb the story, and look at the individual elements and the stitching.

From there we went to visit the cathedral. Last time we were in Bayeux it was raining (today also) and we just looked at the outside of the church. This time we went inside and afterwards we wandered the streets behind the church. We found a small lace atelier (studio) and went inside and watched some ladies doing bobbin lace. Lace making of any sort always fascinates me – I just don’t see how they can read and follow the pattern with so many different bobbins to work with. They had a beautiful black lace shawl for sale - only 40,000 euros and estimated 10,000 hours of work! Most of what they had for sale there seemed to be priced at 4 euro per hour. Just as well we do craft stuff for love, not money.

The cathedral at Bayeux.

This was on the roof of one of the domed sections of the roof.

There were lots of different stone carvings high up on the walls.

We had a fabulous formule lunch at a restaurant here. Rob had fish with beurre blanc sauce and I had pork ribs with honey sauce, then dessert was rhubarb crumble. Yummo.

Looking along the street from our lunch place in Bayeux. Just behind us was a cake shop with hundreds of yummy looking cakes and chocolates in the windows - we moved on quickly.

We headed on towards Honfleur via the coastal roads which took us to some of the notable sites during the D Day landings – Juno Beach and the Pegasus bridge. All along the coastal towns we drove through there are lots of flags flying - French, British, Canandian, American. It is the anniversary of D Day on 6th June and a lot of events are planned in the area. It is 72nd anniversary so not what you'd call a special number, so I wonder if they do this every year. We have been hearing a lot of British and American accents in the area, and there are a lot of cars from GB here as well. 

Juno beach - 2nd beach from the east of the D Day landings. There is a large Canadian memorial here.

Army dog - like the camo?

This chateau overlooks the Pegasus bridge.

The Pegasus bridge -  as part of the D Day offensive a unit of Glider infantry was to land, take the bridges intact and hold them until relieved. This was successful and played an important role following the Normandy invasion.

Now we are in Honfleur for 2 nights. We have been into the city for dinner and a bit of a drive around – looks fabulous so keen to explore tomorrow.

Honfleur - just a taste for now.

Moo Moo Guernsey cow

Wednesday 1^st June

It was an early start to the day as we needed to be at the port to check in for the ferry ‘no later than 1 hour before departure’. We followed a huge queue of traffic headed to the port – surely they are not all going to Guernsey. Turned out that there was an electricity plant just beyond the port and that’s where they were all headed. We arrived at the port at 7.10 for our 8.30 departure and there was not a soul in sight making us wonder whether we were really at the right place. So we waited – and waited – and at 7.29 someone arrived and unlocked the doors. Thankfully by then we were not alone and knew we were where we were supposed to be.

The weather was pretty foul but the trip over was not too bad. I took a travel sickness tablet which was a bad move as it wiped me out for the day and all I wanted to do was sleep. Arriving in Guernsey we were greeted by UK immigration. Talking weather the guy told us it had been ‘rubbish weather’ the past 2 days. (Think rubbish – roobish as in oo in book).

First look at Guernsey - very low tide

We had tried to get in touch with the verger of the church we were going to for viewing the parish records of Rob’s Mum’s family, but hadn’t got onto her before leaving in the morning. Our first stop was the tourist bureau and when we asked them for directions to the church they said Susan had rung earlier in the morning and left a message for us to meet her at the church at 10.30.

St Sampson's church where some of the family records are held.

No family graves to be found - but apparently some years ago part of the cemetery slipped into the quarry next door. The inscriptions on a lot of the older headstones are illegible.

And we got to go up in the organ loft and have a look at the organ.

Rob was happy he was able to find a record of some of his Mum’s family in the records which is what he wanted to see. Susan gave us a bit of history about the church. After finishing there we took the bus that went around the island to have a bit more of a look at Guernsey. There was a cruise ship in town so the bus was crowded and not very comfortable.

2nd up from the bottom shows the baptism of Pierre LeMaitre on 5th April 1731. At least 5 or 6 greats - grandfather.

This cross is the only pre-reformation piece that the church still possesses.

The visiting cruise ship - we think mostly American tourists.

The car ferry from St Malo. Some of the people we met at the hillclimb were due back on this ferry but we didn't go to the port.

We visited the Guernsey Tapestries which is a series of 10 tapestries, each done by a different parish on the island, and each telling the story of a 100 year period. They were pretty impressive and beautifully done. Sadly we weren’t able to take photos.

I found these pictures online with google. If you google the Guernsey Tapestries you will find out more about them.

The trip back to France was uneventful – we are pretty special though as we had our passports stamped and no one else did.