The weather just told us it is going to be 13 degrees in Perth tomorrow – really?? Today we woke to clear blue skies and although it was brisk to begin with it was shirt sleeve weather for most of the day. We had another yummy breakfast this morning as it was included in our room tariff and this time we scored a window seat overlooking the beach. Ate our fill and then went and played with the most overexcited silky terrier outside while we took photos of the hotel and packed the car. Absolutely cute little dog who kept dashing from one of us to the other with his green squeaky frog – almost tempted to smuggle him into the car. We drove to Pegasus Bridge and made it there just as a bus load of tourists turned up but luckily they headed straight for the souvenir shop and didn’t spoil our views/photos of the bridge. Went over the Museum and saw the ‘real’ bridge in the garden but didn’t bother going in to the museum proper. Decided that we had pretty much ‘ticked the box’ on the whole D-day thing so we headed inland to the very pretty town of Beauvron-en-Auge –one of the ‘hundred loveliest villages in France’. It is filled with 17th and 18th century half timbered houses and a lovely market square and combined with colourful flowers in window sills and gardens it was very picturesque. Unfortunately we had to share it with about 3 bus loads of tourists who all seemed to be Japanese. It was a challenge to take photos without 3 or 4 of them posing in front of things but we did manage and then wandered off onto some side streets while they bought their required crepe and bottle of calvados and disappeared again. We took the Route de Cidre recommended by the tourist office lady and drove through some very pretty countryside filled with apple orchards, chateaux and racehorses (the Pays d’Auge is strewn with famous stud farms). Just a pity that Larry couldn’t really take his eyes off the narrow and winding roads as cars kept hurtling around blind bends at him.
Still fairly early so we thought we would head towards the Chateau of William the Conqueror which according to my map book was sitting right between where we were and our destination of Honfleur. Kevin got us there but it looked very uninviting with big barred gates and we found out later that it is only open to the public in July and August. Continued to Honfleur and arrived about 12.30pm. Made our way to our motel hoping to check in early but the gates were barred there too so we made our way back to the centre of Honfleur to have some lunch. An absolutely beautiful warm, sunny day so it wasn’t any hardship at all to choose an alfresco table on the edge of the old harbour and have a galette and a cider (we we had just done the cider route!). Lots of people also seemed to think there wasn’t a better place to be alive and were also enjoying food, sunshine and good company. About 2pm we headed back to Motel les Bleuets and the gates were miraculously open so we spent a couple of hours relaxing and doing some ‘paperwork’ on the computer, working out our route for our big day of travelling tomorrow etc. Got a message from Margaret via our blog reminding us of our sightseeing obligations in Honfleur so headed back down into town about 4pm.
Caught the little train up the Cote de Grace to the little church of St Catherine and a lookout over Honfleur and all the way over to Le Havre and the Pont du Normandie which we will head over tomorrow. I read somewhere that its span is as long as the Champs Elysees so it is pretty impressive. When the little train got back into Honfleur it was stopped as the drawbridge to the old harbour was up to let out a whole lot of yachts going out for a race so we jumped off the train rather than sit in it for 5 minutes (it was pretty packed so not that comfy) and headed off through the winding streets of Honfleur. We HAD to stop at the Jeff de Bruges chocolate shop and buy a little packet of 7 YUMMY chocolates for about 4 euro but worth every bite and we justified it by calling it dessert for the dinner we would have a bit later. Wandered through the streets and popped in and out of shops until we decided to just have early dinner and head back to the motel figuring a spa or sauna might be in order. It remained a clear and still evening so we sat alfresco out on the old harbour again and I had the required moules and frites and a glass of Pastis to celebrate our last evening in France (for now!) Were a little concerned about the fact the police, fire brigade and ambulance turned up on the other side of the harbour and saw them all rush down to the jetty alongside the boats. It appeared that someone had stepped off the walkway above and gone into the water and were needing medical attention – they were eventually carried off on a stretcher and with a drip attached. Most of the waiters from the different restaurants came out to see what was going on but I can’t believe it is an uncommon event as there are so many tourists walking right near the edge (of course being France there is no barrier) and looking at the amazing scenery/taking photos and not looking where they are going.
We have got back to the Motel to find the spa/sauna is closed to I get to write this while Larry has his traditional snooze along to the sound of furiously typing fingers. I might get him to take a turn at blogging tomorrow. :O
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