Residence La Fregate 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.

... looking the canal. 09.09.09 Saint-Pol-de-Leon N48.40'49" W3.58'58" The Aire closed 31st August. Parked up near the town centre. 10.09.09 Roscoff Laber N48.42'44" W3.59'56" Sea Breezes! Also, Radio 4 on Longwave. 11.09.09 Rostrenen N48.14'00" W3.19'09" We're meeting up with friends John and Jackie on the 13th.. 12.09.09 Pontivy N48.04'28" W2.57'48" Parked by the canal 20 metres frm the campsite we stayed at with the kids 20 years ago. 13.09.09 Rostrenen again. Went ...

We started this morning planning to visit Honfleur and spend a couple of days here as it is so beautiful. But today it rains, so today it loses!
As the battery is flat too, we simply cast off and drove south west.
On the way out of Cite Europe where we took on some diesel we say a couple of hitchers, and as we were feeling in good spirits we picked them up.
They were quite chatty but after a while we were ...

TomTom is great, expect when you don't have the maps for the country you're in!
We have the full european DVD but loading all the maps onto the phone was one item that did not make it onto my big list of jobs to do before we left.
I still have the DVD with my but no DVD drive!
We have been navigating with googlemaps since ...

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

I've settled into my quirky studio apartment in Caen. It really is quite an amazing place. The apartments are a two-mile walk from the main center of Caen which is actually a cute town with tons of brasseries, cafes, and stores. It's a university town speckled with a Chateau and cathedral (I'll include more information about those later on...well, when I learn about what they are at least). For me, the town has been a means to get warmer ...

On the next day we arrived in Le Havre, a French seaport at the Channel. Le Havre was destroyed during World War II. It has been rebuilt in concrete. If you like that... We decided for a trip to Fecamp and Etretat, a little further north. During the trip on the bus, our French guide wouldn't stop talking. French! The most famous ...