Les Hauts De Clair Vallon Houlgate

... there. It was beautiful, haunting, and eerie to see the sight of where the troupes landed on D-Day. When I was in the museum, I was listening to an interactive audio recording of soldier’s experiences from D-Day, and the first button I happened to push was of a soldier from Mt. Vernon, IL! What a small world. To climb down to the actual beach part of Omaha Beach took awhile. It’s ...

Next stop were we stepping back in time even further...to 1066 to be exact and the battle of Hastings which is deplicated on a 70 m piece of embroidded cloth known as the Bayeux taperstry. On entry to the tapestry you are given an audio guide which provides a running commentry on what is ...

Arrived at Ouistreham just before dark and found an Aire de Service right on the beach and this time it was free! The downside was it was right next to the ferry terminal and the 6am ferry to Portmouth the next day was kill the tranquilo the next morning. Kim's Maison du Scooby cooked up a storm. Pork fajitas on rice - delicious. I gave it 5 stars.

... and not wanting to feed five of us, we regretted the company as we did not want to stop.
We dropped them off at the entrace to another motorway and wished them on their way. We promptly stopped for lunch and a coffee!
Another experience ticked off our list at least.
As things were going well we carried onto through to Noirmoutier to our latest "Aires" in the centre of Noirmoutier at 7 euros per night

... which works to a point but when you're paying two pound per Mb it get expensive. In the great scheme of things its not much when your running a 7 ton bus but its still stupid and it does not re-route if (when)you take a good turning.
On the way to Noirmoutier, it attempted to take us over the "alternative" crossing at high tide!!

The first night was spent in a nice stop on the edge of the old port in Calais.
I've been here before when i did some sailing in my youth so i know it well.
It seemed safe enough as there must have been 50 motorhomes but there was a broken window overnight for someone!
We moved onto honfleur and found a nice stop 2Km from honfleur which was free and had a large football/basketball court for jake to play in

... as the red itself - an orangey colour which denotes it's age. The same year and Malani and I. ( I bought this wine bout 2 years ago). Earlier we had walked up the street and in a typically French small street I visited a deli and purchased a nice block of cheese. So I cut up some French cheese, let the wine breath as long as I could bear; unfortunately I didn't have decanter material with me, alas it was as per ...

... cars drive by as well as a lot of the press on motorcycles. They had a team of kids ride through the start first. Then at 10:45 the race actually started and it went by pretty quick. They were all past us in about 10 seconds. It was on cobblestones there though, and you could see their arms and faces vibrating. It didn't look like much fun. Afterwards we wandered around a bit and we said our goodbyes. Jason and I got on the train ...

This morning after a quick breakfast I headed for Normandy. I had two visits to make in this green and fertile region. I stopped for lunch at the town of Les Andelys which is right on the Seine. It is famous for the ruined castle overlooking the town and the river. The Château Gaillard was constructed on the orders of King Ric*************heart. We often think of Richard being an English king, which of course he was, but he was also Duke of Normandy ...

... and learned the story of Theodore Roosevelt Jr. How he was the oldest soldier, at 57, to step ashore that day. He deduced by seeing a red-roofed house out of its expected position, that they had landed in the wrong location and prevented a large number of troops from landing in hostile areas. Utah Beach was the most successful of the 5 beaches that day, only 30 casualties and 7 dead out of tens of thousands of men that landed that day. This was no ...