Normandy 2026

 Sunday 26th April  Goodbye to the lovely village of Le Tilleur.  After a few stops along the way to do some take-home shopping, zoom most of our home church service in the Carrefour carpark, stop again in a picnic area for lunch and then another for a cuppa before arriving at a Camping-Car Park in the village of Flocques, north of Dieppe.   Later our walk took us around the village on fairly new paths linking several small ponds between the farmland and new housing.   We've seen so many fields ploughed like this one in this area.  The soil is more like sand, very fine and dusty and it's been cut into straight troughs in lines.  We wonder what will be planted in there. I just love this style of house - very typical of Normandy. A memorial for peace. Another one of the ponds - the geocache was just underneath that wooden jetty! We've seen many unusual containers for book exchanges - this is a fun one along one of the paths. Well, this has to b...

Saturday 25th April  A beautiful day in Etretat today.  There don't seem to be any buses around these parts, so we needed to drive into Etretat even though it is just 3k away, because we were going to need the energy to walk once there.  Parking wasn't easy as all the carparks had height barriers, but we found the Aire de Camping-Cars a fair walk inland, but flat and walkable to the seafront.  It's a very scenic beach with the huge cliffs either side and arch formations into the sea.  The last building with scaffolding and covers was where we had lunch!  Lot of work going on outside and above, but the restaurant was lovely inside! This was a noticeboard along the prom. A Monet painting and explanation below. Food - in the Homard Bleu. Mine is chicken and John's is fish.  He also managed a cheese board after!  I had an ice cream later on. After that substatial lunch, we had the energy to climb the many steps up to the top of the cliff to the little...

 Thursday 23rd April  A last look at our view at Hermanville,  before setting off further north along the coast.  We've been over the Pont de Normandie many times, but it's always quite awe-inspiring as we approach and go over it. And so we arrived at Camping Abijune, 3k from the coast at Etretat.     A quiet afternoon in the sunshine. Friday 24th April  Today's walk was through some lovely countryside around the village of Le Tilleul.  We ate our picnic in their beautiful park, amongst the rhododendrums in full bloom. The strong sunshine must have caused this effect. Just across the road was the mairie, with it's cider press under an awning. We were occasionally seeing elderly/disabled people walking in small groups that seemed to be on an organised, maybe sponsored, walk.  Outside the church there were officials handing out drinks etc. then the walkers were going into the hotel opposite, we assume for food/comfort stop. After a look ar...

 Tuesday 21st April  Moving north this morning, we stopped to get some shopping at Super U on the outskirts of Caen, only to find that the car park was being dug up!  A small part of it was being used, but couldn't see a way into it and anyway there didn't look like space for the size of us!  So John successfully backed us out to the road and we found space in a layby not too far away.  And so we came to Hermanville-sur-Mer, part of the D-Day landing beach of SWORD.    Although where we are is close to the village, it was quite a walk to the sea, where were reminded of the great courage and the losses that took place here on 6 June 1944.   Both days we have been blown away with the fresh air!  These pictures of the beach make it look so calm, but it was very very blustery! Just to the right of centre of this picture, there is actually someone in the water! One of the sea-front houses. After all that wind, we retreated to the nearby cafe ...