Mercure Pont L'Eveque Deauville

... steep to get down to the shore, it’s hard to imagine how difficult the soldiers had it. Seeing the sight at Omaha Beach really made me feel proud to be an American. After the beach, we drove onward to Saint-Malo, which is on the coast, and is a walled city. We stayed at a cute little hotel, similar to a B&B and had dinner at a nice restaurant, too bad I ordered my steak too rare…

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 of course washed down with a few glasses of rose!

Next morning we went for a run through the village and along the beach. It was a glorious morning! Afterwards Kim went to have another potter through the village, take some photos and buy groceries while I was able to have my long awaited fiddle with Scooby ...

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.

... had helped themselves to what looked like a 2 litre jug of red, dispensed from a multi-gallon wine box affair at the end of the room. After another visit or two to the starters bar (we could go as many times as we wished) our main courses arrived, three of us having steak and chips and John thin-sliced pork in a mustard sauce. A truly memorable meal for an incredibly low 10.50eu per head. Oh to live in that village!. 15.09.09 Quintin N48.24'01" W2.54'58" Heavy rain ...

... 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

... and there was a whole strip of wooden houses and buildings. There is a large clock above one of the streets that only has the hour hand and it shows a new picture on the bottom for each day of the week. Rouen also has the spot where Joan of Arc was burned to death as a 19 year old girl. there is a tall cross set up there to mark the spot. We had about an hour ...

... the American d-day tour she went on.She didn't get to do the Brittish one, apparently their weren't enough numbers, just like the Canadian one. The girls have already a been out, but decide to join us anyway. Turns out I was wrong about Tammara she isn't so boring after all.... she bought me a drink. The American Girls weren't so bad either, a couple of them really made me laugh. Cameron's an Author working on his third book, it's mainly memoirs that he does,one is about ...