Normandy, France (January 2024)
I was warned. In France many attractions and museums close during January and the weather would likely be cold and gloomy. However timing our visit in the first week of January was our only option. It was also probably the last time our family would all travel together, as Brandon was now 19 years old. I hesitated when booking but as my research informed me there would be enough open attractions for us to visit over our 3 days in Normandy, I decided we would go for it.
Getting to Normandy from the UK
I’d booked the overnight car ferry crossing from Portsmouth, England to Caen, France for our family of four as foot passengers. Even though we already had a rental car for the length of our stay in England, the T’s and C’s on UK rentals don’t allow taking the car to Europe. We could have ignored the rules and taken the risk but would have voided all insurance. Stakes that high and me being risk averse, I wasn’t about to break that rule. I used the YourParkingSpace app to book parking at the Portsmouth Ferry terminal while we were abroad. It cost us £52 for 4 days – not cheap but not extortionate either – worth it for the convenience of undercover parking close to the terminal. Being the first time I used this app, I was apprehensive at first but found it easy to work out, with clear instructions. The only problem encountered was when Steve put the wrong ferry port into the car’s GPS! (Portsmouth has more than one ferry port it seems). Once we found the right port we drove straight into the well-signposted car park, found plenty of spaces to choose from, parked up, got our luggage out (hand luggage only) and walked the very short distance to the terminal (less than 2 minutes), passing all the cars waiting in queues to board. Nice and early, as I always made sure of, we checked in, got our boarding tickets and cabin keys and sat down in the nearby seating to wait to be called to board.
The terminal at Portsmouth International Port is fairly basic and sparse, with only a few fellow passengers around, not surprising for this time of year. There’s only one shop on the ground floor selling snacks and magazines, and I saw a sign for a cafe somewhere on the second storey.
We had about 40 minutes to wait, and as it was 9.20pm and we’d already had dinner, I opted to buy a drink and some sweets to pass the time. As I was browsing the small selection of books I found a Normandy Guide so picked that up too, thinking it might come in handy. Even though I’d done some research online, it was nice to do a bit more research the old fashioned way plus I thought it would make a nice souvenir. Around 10:00 pm they indicated the gates we would be opening for boarding so we lined up. Once opened, we showed our passports, then passed through security, which consisted of x-ray machines for luggage and the occasional pat down. A shuttle bus was waiting for us which drove us to the ferry, then we walked up the ramps to board, showing our tickets a couple more times in the process.
As soon as we were on board we went to the bar area which was on the same deck as our 4-berth cabin that I’d booked. How handy. The cabins weren’t quite ready, as cleaners were still preparing them, so we grabbed a couple of beers at the bar while we waited. Then, still in the dock, once the cabins were accessible, Cordy and I left Steve and Brandon with their second pint while we excitedly went to find our cabin, to drop our luggage there. I’d booked an internal 4-berth cabin, thinking no need to spend the extra on a window when it would be dark and we’d be sleeping. At first when we entered I thought there was a mistake. There was a couch and one single bed. Then I realised the couch pulls out into a bed and two more beds pulled down from the ceiling. Relieved, I left Cordy there to settle in while I re-joined Steve and Brandon at the bar to finish my cider that I’d left with them.
Soon we set sail, a bit later than our scheduled departure time of 11:00pm and we all went to our cabin to get our heads down for the night. The walls were pretty thin and some people were talking loudly in an adjacent cabin – nothing a few bangs on the wall couldn’t fix. The sea sickness tablets I’d taken did their job making me drowsy. It was still a bit breezy after the previous days storms, which had me concerned the crossing would be rough. As I drifted off to sleep and the waves rocked the ferry, I wondered if I might have felt sick had I not taken the tablets.
Crossing the Channel took 7.5 hours, long enough to get some sleep. I think I was the only one that slept reasonably well, although I still felt tired the next morning. Apparently there was some snoring going on in our cabin but as I’m not a light sleeper and was drowsy from the travel sickness tablet, I slept through until Cordy’s alarm went off at some ungodly hour. I think it was 4:30 am but couldn’t be sure due to the confusion with the hour time difference. We couldn’t work out if we were on France time or still on UK time. We were told the ferry stays on UK/GMT but weren’t too sure if our Apple devices had automatically updated. At around 6.00am GMT some chimes rang out followed by an announcement to alert all the passengers we were getting ready to dock and the cafe was open for breakfast. At first I thought the chimes sound was Cordy’s alarm again and I started to protest, before realising it was the ferry’s PA system. We all got up and ready, then I took Cordy to the cafeteria to grab some coffees and hot chocolates, plus I bought two choc au pain for Brandon and Cordy – their first introduction to French cuisine. Then we gathered our things together ready to disembark at 7:30am French time.
There are several gateways to Normandy by ferry. The shortest, 5 or so hour crossing to Cherbourg from Poole was closed over winter. I have travelled that route in the past and its dreadful overnight, not long enough to get a decent amount of sleep, so you’re left feeling wrecked when you dock. However its handy for a daytime crossing especially since we are usually staying in Poole. Portsmouth is only an hour away from Poole by car and there are a few destination options from there. One option is to St Malo, which is further south in France in the Brittany region, and a longer crossing, around 12 hours. Le Havre is another option, and the closest crossing to Paris, which is 2 hours away by car. Our choice was to go to Caen, as this was close to the D-Day sites we wanted to visit in Normandy. Brandon and Cordy had taken a recent interest in history and were excited about visiting this area.
The car ferry actually docks in Ouistreham, about a 20 minute drive from Caen. I read on the Brittany Ferries website there was a bus that went into Caen town from the ferry port for foot passengers but it said sometimes it doesn’t start until much later than our 7.30am arrival time plus I couldn’t be certain if it was actually operating in January. Once we were off the ferry, though customs and inside the terminal, we looked around and it was like a ghost town. I got a number for taxis from the check in desk and called a taxi, thankfully communicating well with the English speaking man on the other end of the phone. We had a lovely taxi driver and although his English wasn’t very good he gave us some good tips of places to visit around Normandy. The taxi cost around 37 Euros (A$64) and delivered us to the Hertz car rental office just near the main train station, in the town centre.
Travelling around Normandy
In my opinion a car is best way to get around Normandy. While there is a good train system through the main towns, if you want to see the D-Day sites your best options are to take an organised coach tour or to drive yourself by car.
I discovered that car rental options in Caen are limited. In fact I think Hertz was the only option that came up for me. We picked up a nice little Renault Megane, large enough for the 4 of us with hand luggage, small enough to find parking easy and reasonably priced. I was the designated driver and being a fair few years since I’d driven on the Continent in a left hand drive manual, at first I was rusty and found it a bit awkward. I couldn’t understand why I kept stalling, only to figure out I was pulling away in 3rd gear not 1st – much to everyone’s amusement.
Caen attractions – Day 1
Caen was our base for 3 nights. I’d found a lovely 3 bedroom apartment on Booking.com in a nice area of town but as usual, we couldn’t check in until 3pm. I had planned a few things to keep us busy until then. First we wanted to find somewhere for some breakfast. On google maps it looked like there were some cafes near the Castle and since that was on my list of sites to visit that day, we headed in that direction.
I found some parking near the top of the castle entrance and three of us set off on foot in search of a cafe for somewhere to eat, while Cordy decided to stay in the car and catch up on some sleep. It took us a while to find anything open, even though it was a Friday morning at 10am. We walked quite far downhill but everything seemed to be shut.
Finally we found a tapas bar and went inside, astounded to find a man sat at the bar drinking beer that early. We ordered some hot drinks, two croque monsieurs and a croque madam. The man who took our order was friendly enough, although spoke virtually no English. He called out to his wife in the back room, presumably asking her to cook our breakfast and she seemed a bit put out. As he started making our drinks, all of a sudden the power went out. There was a bit of a kerfuffle but after some fiddling with the fuse box near our table, the power came back on and our breakfast and drinks arrived not long after. We were pretty hungry so inhaled our breakfast, which fortunately was quite nice. Steve then paid and having been gone for almost an hour we headed back to the car by the entrance of the castle, to collect Cordy.
Chateau de Caen looked beautiful from the outside but as soon as we walked inside the entrance we disappointingly discovered the place looked like a construction site. I hadn’t done much research, all I knew was there was an old castle. And I love castles! As we walked around the fenced off rubble, we discovered there were several buildings around the site, with a couple of small museums – and which were open! We found a sign explaining the castle was undergoing a major transformation, to celebrate its 1000th anniversary in 2025. A master plan adopted in 2017 set out at 20 year roadmap of actions for restoration and enhancement over 9 phases. They’d only done one phase so far and the current Phase B involved removing a car parking lot from the centre of the castle to create an urban park of 4 hectares.
We spent an hour or so walking around, stopping in one of the museums which had old artifacts from French history in the area. Then we found a beautiful old Anglo Church, which was small but had lovely stained glass windows. Before leaving, Brandon and I climbed up a hill to peer over a wall to see the views.
Next stop was the Caen Memorial WWII Museum which my research had told me would be open. I’m so glad because we discovered this really was an excellent place to visit. It was quite large and we all thoroughly enjoyed wandering the exhibits, learning about the different aspects of WWII. There was so much history to read about, it was very thought provoking. We stayed about 3 hours, only leaving because we were quite tired from our short night sleep on the ferry and our feet were hurting from all the walking and standing.
It starting raining as we left the museum and drove to our apartment. Through Booking.com I’d found a three bedroom apartment close to the town centre on Rue de Bayeux, which was reasonably priced. We had a bit of trouble finding a parking space on the street and also with the lock box getting the key, but as we entered and explored the rooms we breathed a sigh of relief. It was a gorgeous apartment, tastefully furnished and decorated, with a TV in every bedroom as well as the lounge area. The kitchen was fully kitted out and even had a Nespresso machine like the one we have at home. The only downside was the on street parking, subject to availability. There was a little supermarket across the road, a few doors down, which was also very convenient. As we were all so tired and it was still raining we grabbed a few things from the supermarket, deciding to cook ourselves something easy for dinner and stay in for the evening watching Netflix with snacks. The bottle of wine Steve chose was so lovely I had to go back and get another one! We slept well that night!
D-Day sites – Day 2
We planned to get up early but didn’t quite manage it. After waking around 8.30am we had some coffee from the Nespresso machine and ‘Pain au Chocolate’ that I’d bought in the supermarket the evening before. We didn’t leave the apartment until almost 11am.
First stop on my plan for the day was Pegasus Bridge. We input this destination into the GPS and this took us across the current, new Bridge, which we later discovered was built in 1994. As we kept driving, trying to work out where to stop or turn around, we accidentally stumbled upon the original bridge built in 1934 which we could see from the road at the Pegasus Memorial Museum at nearby Ranville. We drove into the car park across the road but as we contemplated getting out to take a closer look it started raining again. We sat there a few minutes and looked up the Museum details to learn, not surprisingly, it was closed. Then I read out loud some of the information about this historical location from Wikipedia. We learnt this Bridge was pivotal to the success of the Allied invasion of Normandy in the second World War. On 6 June 1944 members of D Company, 2nd (Airborne) Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, a glider-borne force who were part of the 6th Airborne Division successfully captured the Bridge during Operation Tonga in the opening minutes of the Allied invasion of Normandy. Under the command of Major John Howard, D Company was to land six Airspeed Horsa gliders close by the Pegasus Bridge, and also “Horsa Bridge”, a few hundred yards to the east, over the Orne River. They were to take both bridges intact and hold them until relieved by the main British invasion forces. The objective of this mission was to prevent German armour from crossing the bridges and attacking the eastern flank of the landings at Sword Beach. Five of the gliders landed as close as 47 yards from their objectives just past midnight. They poured out of their battered gliders, completely surprising the German defenders, and took the bridges within 10 minutes. They lost two men in the process, one of which drowned when his glider (the 6th) landed in a nearby pond. This successful mission was an important role in limiting the effectiveness of a German counter-attack in the aftermath of the Normandy invasion.
I read that many of the soldiers killed in the actions of June 1944 are buried in the war cemetery at Ranville. As the rain wasn’t easing we agreed we should drive on to Ranville war cemetery 5 minutes up the road. Still raining, everyone else elected to stay in the car while I jumped out to take a closer look. There was nobody around and I couldn’t work out if the cemetery was closed so I just stood near the entrance and had a respectful look from the gate.
We headed back towards the old Pegasus Bridge again and as the rain had now stopped we took this opportunity to park up and walk along the adjacent road to take a closer look over the fence at the museum. As well as the bridge, we could also see a glider and tank. It would have been nice to go inside the museum.
Sword Beach was our next stop. Sword, commonly known as Sword Beach, was the code name given to one of the five main landing areas along the Normandy coast during the initial assault phase, Operation Neptune, of Operation Overlord. This was the easternmost landing site of the invasion and the responsibility of the British Army. We parked up at Colleville-Montgomery to explore the area, and found a memorial to Piper Bill Millin, who piped the commandos ashore.
Back in the car and on our way again, we had a bit of a scare with the car at this point. We thought we heard a funny noise from the back of the car so pulled over to check, discovering what looked like a nail in the back right tyre. Panic set in and we decided to drive to the nearest village to find a garage and take a closer look. Thank goodness for Google maps telling us where the nearest garage was! We found one, which was closed of course, but at least it had an air station so we could check the tyre pressure. It seemed the tyres were all fine, none needing any air. This was confirmed by the car’s onboard computer tyre check initialisation. Relieved, we got back onto our route and continued on our journey, thankfully without any further issues.
By now we were hungry and I wanted to find a cafe in a french village for lunch. However, I was out-voted and we ended up sampling a French McDonalds. It was quite a different menu to our Aussie Maccas and actually wasn’t too bad. It was quite fun sitting the restaurant, experiencing Maccas with other French families.
Next we headed to Juno Beach near Graye-sur-Mer. We parked the car and went for a wander, stumbling upon ‘Cosy’s Pillbox’ les Combats (bunker) where fierce fighting took place on 6th June 1944 as this location was captured by the Canadians.
We walked further, exploring the bunkers, reading the memorials and came across a tank beside the footpath which Brandon was particularly interested in.
Over the sand dunes on the beach side, we found the ‘Croix de Lorraine’, an 18m high monument facing the sea. We read that this was erected to commemorate the turning point during the Normandy campaign and the return of General de Gaulle to French soil on 14th June, 1944 after he’d spent the past 4 years across the Channel.
We jumped back in the car and then drove slightly inland to the nearby British Normandy Memorial. Rain had unfortunately returned again and it was bitterly cold. I was hoping it might ease, as it had been on and off all day, so got out of the car and did the 8 minute walk to the memorial with Brandon and Cordy, while Steve stayed in the car to give his planta fasciitis a little break from all the walking.
Along the winding footpath, we read the plaques outlining the D-Day events: the beginning of Operation Overlord, where Allied troops from GB, Canada, USA and even Australia assisted, opening the way to the liberation of France and Western Europe. At the memorial itself, the list of fallen soldiers was tragically long.
Mulberry Harbours was our next destination. These were temporary portable harbours developed by the British to facilitate fast offloading of cargo onto the beaches. I parked up at Asnelles, near Golds Beach and hopped out to take a look at Mulberry B, temporarily distracted by nearby windsurfers heading out to catch a few waves.
We then drove a bit further up the road towards Arromanches-les-Bains, parking at Plage Golds Beach. The sun was getting lower and peering through the clouds, and some rainbows had appeared offshore. It made for a very picturesque setting and added to the mood. There were a few more memorials and sculptures along this walk. A few more people were out and about too. Seems we weren’t the only visitors to the area in January.
Then we moved on to Batteries de Longues, after driving through Arromanches but deciding not to stop as the D-Day museum there was closed. We also took an unplanned detour through a farmers land. In our defence we were following the GPS and hadn’t seen the ‘private road’ / no entry sign until we got to the other side. At least it saved us some time!
The German artillery battery at Longues-sur-Mer consisted of four 150mm guns in concrete bunkers, and one 120mm gun. Not the most powerful in Normandy, but one of the best located to oppose the landings of 6 June 1944 positioned on a 60 meter high cliff, directly opposite the Allied fleet and right between Omaha and Gold landing beaches. This led to a protracted duel with the Allied fleet, forcing some of the vessels to retreat in order to avoid being hit. However, the five guns of the battery were gradually silenced, and British troops landed at Gold Beach taking over the position on 7 June, capturing the survivors of the garrison of 180 men.
There were more memorials and plaques to read as we walked along in the damp and grey conditions. It was hard to imagine the drama and devastation occuring back in June 1944 on the ground we were now standing. Being winter it was incredibly quiet, with hardly anybody around and it was bitterly cold and wet with the odd howl from the windy conditions. It was a somber mood all round. Except for the few minutes when Brandon slipped over in the mud, then proceeded to get cross, kicking the grassy mound. He was fortunately unhurt but was covered in mud and grass. We all couldn’t help laughing which made him even crankier.
The sun was setting and darkness was approaching so as Brandon was now uncomfortably wet and muddy we decided to cut short our day and head back to Caen via Bayeux.
Bayeux is famous for the Bayeux Tapestry which was made to commemorate events in the Norman conquest of England in 1066. I really wanted to stop to have a look around the town and Tapestry Museum but unfortunately the museum was closed in January too. If it had been open, I’d have made more effort to leave earlier that day to make sure we got there in time. Aside from hearing about the museum, I’d read in my Normandy guidebook it was a pretty, medieval town with cobbled streets and a beautiful Norman-Gothic Cathedral. I also read somewhere it was largely unharmed during WWII as the Germans had already left there by the time the Allies arrived thus was no point in bombing. This was certainly confirmed when we drove through the old town, admiring the architecture with its twinkle lights decorating the shops lining the streets. I wanted to stop and explore but we couldn’t see anywhere to park. Probably just as well remembering Brandon’s muddy state. Plus my idea of checking out the cathedral was quickly written off when I saw a very long line of people queuing down the street to get inside. At least I managed to pause long enough while slowly driving past so we could take a couple of photos of the cathedral and nearby stately building, before driving back to Caen for the night.
That evening Steve and I went out to dinner, leaving Brandon and Cordy at the apartment where they chose to order in some French food by UberEats. We walked down the road towards the town centre and tried three different little restaurants only to be told they were fully booked and we’d needed a reservation. It was a Saturday night so maybe we should have expected this but I was beginning to get both annoyed and stressed. We ended up walking further down into the square (Pl. Saint-Sauveur) where we found a large restaurant/Brasserie called “Gustave” – it was very busy but had quite a few vacant tables. Relieved we wouldn’t go starving, we ordered and quite quickly and efficiently our red wine and food arrived. It was a delicious meal: I had beef with a truffle juice and yummy mash; Steve had squid and scallops in a nice pumpkin and potato mash. Afterwords I had creme brûlée compete with flames and Steve had lemon meringue. I would thoroughly recommend this place. We planned to return the next night only to find it was closed on Sundays.
Steve and I enjoyed the chilly stroll back to the apartment, thankful the rain had stayed away. It took slightly longer than it needed to be after Steve realised he’d left his hat behind in the restaurant and we went back for it. We didn’t mind though as we felt we needed the walk to alleviate our full stomachs. We spent the rest of the night watching Netflix movies with Cordy; Brandon had developed a stinker of a cold and went to bed early.
Le Mont St Michel – Day 3
Brandon’s cold had taken a turn for the worse overnight so he had a lie in while Steve and I went for a walk to find a French bakery and Cordy relaxed in the apartment. Not far down the road we found a small bakery selling an assortment of bread and pastries which looked amazing. We bought a selection and took them back to the apartment for breakfast.
After breakfast we left Brandon behind in the apartment to rest his cold, while the rest of us set off. A quick check of the tyres again, which were all fine, then we were on our way. We mainly took the motorway, following the GPS for our 2 hour scenic drive to Le Mont St Michel.
Just before we arrived at Le Mont St Michel, we stopped at the biscuit store. I was pleased it was still there, since our last visit nearly 30 years ago. We stocked up on treats to take back to England: biscuits, caramels and cakes, and even some calvados and whisky. After the shock of somehow spending 100 Euros, we set off again.
We arrived at Le Mont St Michel around 1:00pm, parked the car in one of their numerous car parks and caught the free shuttle bus to the Mont. The bus dropped its passengers on the bridge and we took the short 450m walk to the entrance.
We started to walk up the hill through the narrow lane towards the Abbey, stopping briefly along the way to browse the odd touristy store. Most of the restaurants, bars and stores were open and although there were quite a few people about it was tolerable. I admired the quaint French architecture as Cordy and I navigated up the cobbled stone lanes, climbing until my calves and quads burnt and we arrived at the entrance to the Abbey.
I saw a sign on the ticket booth saying it was free entry the first Sunday of the month. Score! We walked up more steps past the ticket office, went through the security scanner only to find out at that point we needed a ticket. Apparently even though it’s free entry you still need to get a ticket. I went back and got two tickets for Cordy and myself – halfway up the steps Steve had decided to go back down saying he was happy to wait there rather than climb all the steps.
Second time lucky, we entered and climbed the extra 150 steps through the Abbey on top of the 200 we’d already conquered. The history of the Abbey was well documented along the way, including all the different religious occupants over the centuries, since it was reportedly first built by monks in 966. We admired the pillars, naves, stained glass windows, ancient floors, cloisters and manicured gardens as we followed the directions through the Abbey.
And those views from the top were breathtaking! Once again, there were quite a few people there but it wasn’t overly busy. I can’t imagine how busy it must be in the summer, judging by all the car parks at the bottom, half of which were closed for winter. Plus in the heat with the sun beating down and reflecting off the stonework, it would be almost unbearable. The weather was lovely on this day, with some sunshine, quite different to the day before. The temperature was quite mild as we climbed back down the steps, to meet Steve again at the bottom.
We debated at this point about whether to stop here for lunch. We knew the restaurants would be touristy (and tourist prices), and although they looked busy, this didn’t mean they were worth it. There was a captive market. In the end we decided to move on, as we actually weren’t very hungry, still full from our breakfast of fresh breads and pastries.
While we had only spent a couple of hours there, we could have easily taken longer browsing through the Abbey if we weren’t mindful of Steve waiting for us. Also, I couldn’t help thinking if we’d been hungry it might have been nice to sit in one of the bars or restaurants to people watch or admire the views, even if it was touristy and pricey.
As we drove back to Caen, Steve and I agreed we were glad we visited but wouldn’t like to go back in summer. Since we last visited in 1996, it appears to have changed from being pretty and largely unspoilt to a commercialised tourist attraction. There were so many car parks (I read 4000 car spaces) plus new hotels have been built nearby. I simply can’t imagine how crowded it must get in the height of summer. It was busy enough on this day.
We drove back to Caen, experiencing volatile weather conditions – sunny one moment, sleet and thunderstorms the next – fortunately the latter occurring when I had stopped for cold drinks and snacks at a service station.
Our Sunday evening was spent in the apartment watching TV. Unfortunately any thoughts we’d had about going out for dinner had to be aborted as I started looking up nearby restaurants in walking distance only to find they were all closed on a Sunday night. We ended up ordering some food from UberEats. Around 8pm Steve and I headed out to return the car to Hertz, since we had a very early start the next morning to return back to England. We figured it would save us time and stress in the morning if we got an Uber or taxi from the apartment straight to the ferry terminal rather than driving through town to Hertz, fussing around getting luggage in and out or cars and potentially waiting for a Uber or taxi from there. We were in bed by 10pm after packing and tidying up the apartment ready for a quick departure the next morning, our alarms set for 5:30am.
Returning to England
Our alarms went off as planned (no Home Alone moments for us this time) and we got ready to leave. I’d booked an Uber for 6.45am which turned up slightly early – a very nice Tesla. The journey to the ferry terminal only took 20 minutes, so we checked in early, got our tickets and waited to board.
We were early enough to grab a coffee from the cafe and Steve ordered some breakfast. He got a plateful of ham and cheese on a fresh baguette served with fried mushrooms and tomatoes. It was pleasantly unexpected and delicious (I know, as I tried some).
We boarded at around 8am. Even though this was a daytime crossing I had again booked a cabin, this time an outer one with a window so we would have somewhere to park our luggage and potentially see some views across the Channel. Cabins are cheaper on daytime crossings and this turned out to be a good decision as Brandon was still feeling the effects of his head cold and wanted to lie down away from other passengers – although there weren’t many passengers on board from what we could see. We left him in the cabin with our bags and the other three of us went to the bar area to sit and relax.
The ferry seemed almost empty, presumably because it was winter. A little while after we set sail I went for a wander, to explore. I fancied a hot chocolate so approached the only eating area open – the Self Service restaurant at the front of the ferry. Unfortunately I found out it had shut at 9.30am. There was nowhere else to buy food except vending machines selling crisps and drinks, so I bought a bottle of water. I wasn’t really hungry, just bored. We browsed the duty free shop, looked at our iphones for a short while (before realising maritime roaming rates were very expensive) and then when the bar opened at 11am we got some hot chocolates from there.
We still had more time to pass and I was feeling a bit tired from the travel sickness tablet combined with our early start that morning so I went to the cabin to join Brandon. He was asleep so I pulled down a top bunk and dozed in between looking out the window at the choppy seas.
After the 6 hour journey, which felt much longer, we docked at 1.30pm GMT. We disembarked, went through passport control at Portsmouth and then got stopped and questioned by Border Force. It was a bit scary at first as they were questioning us seriously about why we were there, where we resided, how we all knew each other, what we had been doing in France, how long we’d been there, how long we would be in England etc. However we had them laughing by the end of our interview. This was because Steve and I started bickering after they’d asked if we’d enjoyed Normandy and he’d responded negatively mentioning dog poo and french people. It was at that point I mentioned he was the stereotypical ‘whinging pom’ that Australians talked about and I apologised on his behalf for giving British people a bad name. They asked us if we knew the rules about what we were allowed to bring in (we confirmed yes) and they ended up not searching us. We exited the terminal and walked the quick 1 minute route back to our rental car in the carpark where we had left it. Then we drove back to Poole, experiencing some light snow along the way as the temperatures had dropped to around 0-3 degrees Celsius.
Overall it had been a great adventure. We’d learnt a lot of the D-Day history and seen quite a bit of France during our brief 3 day trip, but also had some sufficient downtime to relax as well. We all agreed it was the right decision to come at this time of year. However I was also left with a slight regret about the parts we hadn’t been able to visit. Fortunately, and purely coincidentally, just after our return to England, Steve and I learnt we will be returning in June. There is a EuroLambretta event on in France which we are attending and the group we are travelling with from England has organised a list of places to visit along our way – just happens to include some of the areas and museums we missed! I can’t wait!
My tips and regrets
- Caen is an excellent base to stay and to do day trips from. I regret we hadn’t spent more time exploring the town itself. It’s a lovely town, very pretty at night when old buildings are lit up. I managed to see the cathedral from the outside one night but would liked to have seen inside.
- We should have sacrificed our rest time and started our day earlier to ensure sufficient time to visit Bayeux, even though the museum wasn’t open.
- Avoid January if you can or expect a lot of places to be closed.
- Book restaurants in advance, especially if planning to visit a smaller one.
- It may be better to visit mid week through to Saturday. Sunday nights in winter are dead, with hardly any restaurants open so be prepared with other food options or you’ll have to get Uber Eats like we did.
- Avoid Le Mont St Michel in peak season and save some money by timing your visit to the Abbey on the first Sunday of the month.