Le Richelieu Le Havre

... 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 ...

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.

... we are all lined up on the river bank with our tables and chairs. Most of the barbecuing is over and we all have drinks to hand. The German father and his three young daughters have climbed out of the river. A few hundred yards to either side of us are the towns illuminated bridges. 21.08.09 Went back to the Internet Cafe we used yesterday and uploaded a bit more blog. Internet access has proved more difficult this time. It must vary as to which part of France one is ...

... 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

Today is May 1st and it is a special banking holiday in France. That means that almost everything is shutdown and an "I'll be back after the holiday" sign was put out on the country of France. It is like Labor Day in the United States but with most of the shops closed for the holiday. To add to this Harriet had a TIA episode last night. A TIA episode means that she had a mini stroke but there is no apparent lasting effect from the episode. Last night when we went to Dinner, Harriet ...

I estimate this is actually day5 of our trip, and day 65 of the whole experience (that includes days we saved our Cash)...But technically it is day 1 of our adventure, the SUMMERLOVE TOUR OF EUROPE, 2007 We've made it on to the train for Paris, a big achievement in itself considering finding a 3-day park ...