I had the week booked off for a camping trip and decided that as it was really early in the season and the further south I went the better chance I'd have for some warmer weather. I decided to hop over the English Channel and check out the D-Day landing beaches in Normandy. So I loaded up the Serow with a weeks worth of gear.
The trip down to Portsmouth took 4 1/2 hours. I stayed off the motorways and rode down through the Cotswolds, a trip I've done many times before. I used the Fosse way which is a Roman road for some of the journey. It's a fast and not very busy alternative to the main A roads. The weather was good all the way to the port, I arrived around 9pm for the 11pm sailing. The overnight ferry gets you into Le Havre at 8am ready for a full days riding. The port is on the eastern edge of the landing beaches so was an ideal choice.
I travelled west along the coast using the small roads to follow the beaches as I went getting the lay of the land as it were for the following days. I set up camp at the far western exteme of the beaches near a fishing village called Barfleur.
They set out from here in 1066 to invade England and put out poor old harold's eye...
Here's my set up, I'm amazed that the Serow carried all this here. Once again proving it's versitilty.
It was a decent site with a new shower block so I decided to stay for the whole 5 nights here. Somethings were very "French" how about some outside urinals!
But did they have to put them next to the kids play area!
Only in France, ha ha.
Here's a bit of British armour we left behind. It's a Churchill AVRE (Armoured Vehicle Royal Engineer) Not a fighting tank but the huge callibre gun was used for demolition of buildings and bunkers as the Engineers followed behind the front line. (Can you tell I used to be a Tankie in my Army days?)
This is a Bomber Command memorial in a town called Grand Camp Maisy.
On the outskirts of town on the main road is this memorial.
Next I visited Omaha beach. Outside the museum is a Sherman. I introduced him to Serow!
Inside the museum they had a landing craft. I can never get the image from saving private Ryan out of my head of the machinegun bullets hitting the ramp and then it lowering...
Here is the memorial on Omaha beach.
Looking west towards pointe du hoc where the rangers assulted the guns on top of the cliffs.
This is a modern sculpture on Omaha beach, not to my taste but the Words on the plaque ring true.
Here's me outside the Big Red One museum, unfortunately it was too early in the season for it to be open. I had family who served in the 1st Infantry.
Further down Omaha beach is this gun enplacement.
Friday I set out again to visit Arromanches which is east of Omaha and where the British landed on Gold beach. The remains of the huge "Mulbery" harbour can still be seen, well, they're hard to miss really!
There are a long line of them still at sea even after 64 years.
So far the weather had been very kind to me and if not exactly tropical it was pleasantly warm when the clouds cleared and the spring sun shone on me. Saturday started well and I ate breakfast outside my tent in shorts and a t-shirt, it didn't last though and the heavens opened. I put on my gear and headed south hoping for brighter skys. I got drown over the next few hours on my way to visit Le Mont St. Michel.
This Medieval Abbey sits on a rock surrounded by salt marsh. Treacherous at low tide and flooded at high tide. There is a causway to get there but even that floods at high tide. It's well worth reading the notice in the carpark!
The French have a love for motorcycles as almost everyone has had a 50cc scooter, which you can ride at 14 with no insurance or numberplate. This was born out with the priority they give bikes over the disabled on the carpark! ha ha.
When I arrived the rain stopped and slowly the skys cleared.
One thing I wasn't expecting when visiting the Abbey was the amount of blatant consumerism to relieve you of your Euro's. There is even a hotel.
I'm far to wise for all that (read tight) so I took a picnic. I found a lovely spot in a little secluded garden. I had fun feeding the local birds as well as myself.
The rest of the day remained fine, the sun even came out in the evening when I was back at the campsite, perfect, especially as I had a supply of Guinness to go with my chicken in blackbean sauce. my favourite. Helped a little by having 2lbs of strawberries for pudding! God bless my little belly.
Sunday was a bit of a washout. I suppose I should be glad it was fine whilst I had breakfast. I sat in the tent, listened to some tunes and chilled. Around 1pm the rain stopped and there was a bit of snow in the air but it looked like it was clearing up. I ventured out for a couple of hours. It was really cold though. I did find these bunkers before I headed back to my warm sleepingbag.
As you can see they had a pretty good view of the landing beaches.
Monday, my last full day, turned out to be the hottest yet so I"made hay". I went to Utah beach which is to the west of Omaha. There is plenty of american hardware lying around here.
And quite a few memorials to fallen comrades...
Next I went up to pointe du Hoc where the Rangers assulted the cliff top guns. These guns could fire on Utah and Omaha beaches so a concerted effort was made to silence them. The Rangers had to get up there and finish the job. Against all odds they achieved their objective.
The gun emplacements.
Tuesday and time to pack up ready for home. A few degrees of frost on the tent!
And the bike!
But the sun came out and dried everything up nicely and eventually I managed to get everything back onto the bike.
I had 4 hours before the ferry so I sauntered my way on some lovely little back roads. Mmm... when it got to an hour from departure I started to get worried I wasn't going to make it in time. Needless to say I arrived just in time and rode straight onto the boat!
Au revoir France.
I had a wonderful time, good camping, good food and some good weather. What more could you ask.
