Hotel Vent d'Ouest Le Havre

This last weekend my program's group traveled to Normandy and Brittany. It was a very cool trip! On Saturday we drove from Paris to Caen, Normandy. We visited the Memorial de Caen, which is a museum/memorial from WWII. Caen was a city during WWII that was occupied by the Germans, and it was a major victory when the Allies were able to seize it. After Caen, we drove on to Omaha Beach to the American ...

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.

... The gear box was in need of some TLC. Kim came back to find me covered in grease and waste deep in Scooby. I am certainly learning my way around a car engine.
A quick pit stop via McDonalds for free internet to upload our blog and photos and then onto Ouistreham code name Sword Beach - the first of the D-Day beaches.

Onwards to Etretat for our first overnight stay in an Aires de service. These are overnight parking areas for campers and moterhomes and supply fresh water, electricity and waste dumping facilities. All at a rock bottom price. This one was 5 Euro for the parking a and extra 2 euro for the water and electirc hookup.
Town has spectacular cliffs beautiful old building full of character.

... 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

... lateness of our return. This couple with the fact that we would be encountering rain during the day gave us thought to our activities for the day. We decided to not venture out into the port that we had just visited two days prior. Instead we would rest up for the last leg of our world cruise. We will be on a more port intensity cruise with only two sea days for the entire cruise. We were asked before the cruise how we were going to ...

... killed just 7 hours after the accident. Then it was on to the Normandy Beaches and the American Cemetery. The French maintain 160 acres on perpetual loan to the US for casualties of World War II. The first official overseas visit by every Secretary Of State is to this cemetery. Out of 9,387 soldiers buried here, only 900 are actual casualties from this location, Omaha Beach. After the war, the town changed ...

... After back at the YH where I met Guiseppe and also a Neo-Zelandese who talk way too fast for me. Now some sleep under the noise of the thunder and its lightning! Peace memorial: D-Day = 50 000 men / 1500 tanks / 2500 ATV / 3000 canons / 10500 other cars German army involved at the moment: -206 russian divisions -22 italian divisions -50 France-Benelux -18 Danemark-Norway -24 Balkans