Friday 26th November – Wednesday 1st December

Husband has been to Spain recently, but I have not left these shores since my nightmare return from Spain in March 2020. So, to be going to France now – even without the motorhome – is amazing!!

Friday 26th November

We are all set with our two jabs, plus our boosters loaded on the UK NHS app; this info then scanned into Eurotunnel’s API system; the French TousAntiCovid app downloaded and set up with our UK jab information; the locator form ready to submit before the homeward leg and our PCRs ordered for a paid-for test within 2 days of our return. Easy!! 🤦🏻‍♀️

Today to Folkestone for an overnight so that we can catch an early Eurotunnel.

We had a pleasant couple of hours strolling around the renovated Folkestone Harbour Arm area – the old Folkestone Harbour station and adjoining pier (used in earlier times for the boat-train to France) have been restored and now contain cafés, bars, restaurants, shops & markets. Very few open in the Winter but definitely a good use of the old harbour station. https://folkestoneharbourarm.co.uk/

Our usual Premier Inn was full so we are staying in the Holiday Inn Express, which was actually very good. https://www.ihg.com/holidayinnexpress/hotels/gb/en/folkestone/lyxfx/hoteldetail?cm_mmc=GoogleMaps-_-EX-_-GB-_-LYXFX

We had a very average dinner out at The Brickfield pub (near the aforementioned Premier Inn) – maybe a shortage of staff, maybe too few staff who wanted to serve customers. I had to stand at the kitchen door to get some service!

Saturday 27th November

We’re at the Eurotunnel Terminal – it’s a bit bleak/rainy!

The journey from Calais to our destination in Normandy should take around 4 hours, without a stop. The weather, however, had other ideas ……. gusting winds, rain, hail and, yes, snow!! At the same time the Omicron variant had begun to take hold. These two things were making me worry that we were doing the wrong thing.

We made a stop at Aire de la Baie de Somme https://www.sanef.com/en/node/530068 – an unusual motorway services – a large, modern glass structure with a nature reserve attached. This was our first experience with current French rules – you can go into the services, with a mask, to go to the loo and the small shop, but you can only go into the café by presenting your TousAntiCovid app (also know as your Pass Sanitaire) showing you are double-jabbed. Interestingly, there was a much higher level of mask compliance than in the UK.

At the Pont de Normandie https://www.bridgeinfo.net/bridge/index.php?ID=68 was a sign saying – Vent Fort Prudence – Strong Wind Caution!! When my brother and I drove through France to Spain in 2020 the signs said ‘Vente Souffle Violent’, so this’ll just be a bit breezy then!

We arrived at our hotel – La Ferme de la Rançonnière – Hotel & Restaurant in Crepon https://www.ranconniere.fr/en/ to a lovely, warm welcome. Our TousAntiCovid app was swiped/approved and we were allowed to stay! The buildings form a square round a courtyard and the rooms are accessed through various wooden doors and stairways on all sides. The hotel is listed by the Logis group as ‘Cosy’ and the restaurant as ‘Gourmand’. It was all really lovely and to be highly recommended.

Dinner was indeed ‘Gourmand’!! Today is Saturday, the restaurant is closed Sunday & Monday, so we only have two opportunities to dine-in.

Sunday 28th November

This morning a trip to the Bayeux Museum to see the Bayeux Tapestry. The visit has been on one of my (many) lists of things to see, but I wasn’t expecting the enormity and detail of the work – it was amazing. Also, being Winter, there weren’t many people, so I imagine we had a more up-close visit than is possible in peak Summer. The very informative audio guide automatically moves you along at a gentle speed, pointing out interesting elements, but also drawing your attention to the funny bits too. You can see below what I thought was the extent of the tapestry but, no, it gently curves at the end of the room and the same length again comes down the other side. Amazing! https://www.bayeuxmuseum.com/en/

Late morning, a visit to Arromanches-le-Bain to see the remains of the Mulberry Harbour and a whole education about the concept, the delivery by sea and the harbour in action.

There were very few cafés and restaurants open and it was rather bracing to wander around looking for exactly the right thing, but we lucked out when choosing the 2 star Hotel de Normandie which is right on the front; typically French tables and chairs and amazing seafood. https://www.arromancheshotelnormandie.com/restaurant-arromanches-normandy Husband had mussels; I may have had an omlette – but a devine French omlette with salad & frites!! The staff gave amazing service; attentive, fast and never a wasted journey to the kitchen. They could teach The Brickfield pub in Folkestone a thing or two!!

There is a lot of work going on along the seafront in Arromanches as they are building a new, modern Musée du Débarquement/D-Day Museum next door to the existing one, which has been there since 1954. https://www.musee-arromanches.fr/accueil/index.php?lang=uk I believe the new museum will open in 2023. In the meantime, we enjoyed a visit around the current space and, yes, it’s a little tired but enormous windows look out over the remnants of the Mulberry Harbour and it still tells an amazing story.

Dinner out this evening in Courseulles-sur-Mur at Le Cremaillere https://www.la-cremaillere.com. Sunday night and really buzzing with people.

Monday 29th November

Today to the recently completed and newly opened – on 6th June 2021 – British Normandy Memorial https://www.britishnormandymemorial.org in Ver-sur-Mer, positioned above Gold Beach. Definitely a ‘best bit’ for me.

From the website: ‘The British Normandy Memorial records the names of the 22,442 servicemen and women under British command who fell on D-Day and during the Battle of Normandy in the summer of 1944. This includes people from more than 30 different countries. Inscribed in stone, their names have never, until now, been brought together. The site also includes a French Memorial, dedicated to the memory of French civilians who died during this time.’

Such a beautiful, tranquil place. The detail, the layout and the craftsmanship put into the creation of the memorial are truly wonderful. A must for anyone to visit.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) took on the horticultural maintenance of the site from October and they were planting lots more trees while we were there. I can’t wait to go back and see the memorial again as the trees change the landscape. The website mentions an education centre in the future, which would be a great addition.

Another typical French brasserie lunch in Port-en-Bessin-Huppain at Les Pieds dans L’eau (The Feet in Water) https://en.normandie-tourisme.fr/restaurants/les-pieds-dans-leau-2/ – again rammed with people but amazing service and great food.

A few seconds after leaving the restaurant, Husband realised he had lost his glasses. We looked in every pocket and his rucksack; I went back into the restaurant – nothing. We decided to return to the car in case they were there but, that can’t be as how would he have read the menu?! And then a thunderbolt strikes him …….. checkout the hat in the first photo …….. the glasses were on his head, underneath the hat. Doh!

Having had an enormous lunch, we decided on a ‘room picnic’ for this evening so purchased some pleasant bits and bobs and, of course, some wine from a Carrefour Hypermarche in Bayeux. Not sure if it’s some sort of Covid plan, but the store was absolutely freezing; they obviously don’t want you to hang around. They also had a TousAntiCovid scanning point at the door; does that mean you can’t shop there without being jabbed? Surely not.

Our evening entertainment was watching 4 back-to-back episodes of Vigil (a BBC drama set on a submarine). Definitely a binge watch!

Tuesday 30th November

Our last full day and a trip to the Caen Mémorial Museum. An enormous building containing a D-Day Landings and Battle of Normandy exhibition, a 360 degree cinema presentation and several other exhibitions. It was a really interesting visit but I only seem to have taken one photo and that’s of the outside of the building – not very informative!

Our late afternoon was spent trying to complete the UK Locator Form and Eurotunnel’s API for our return journey. A lesson would be to print out your vaccination/other information, it’s so much easier to just photograph a piece of paper than to try and upload everything in the right format from the same mobile device. Also it took a while to realise that Husband’s booster jab was not sufficiently far enough away from the date of travel so didn’t count; we had to revert to the second jab info. Form fillling – aaaarrrrgghhh!

A scrumptious dinner in our hotel this evening – amazing food and lovely, friendly staff.

Wednesday 1st December

While we have been away, the Covid rules have tightened because of the Omicron variant. Good job we had booked a PCR and not just a lateral flow as the PCR is, once more, a requirement and one must isolate until the results are received.

We decide to leave straight after breakfast and attempt to get home, take our PCR tests, get them in the post the same day and thereby save a day of isolation! We are the only folk in the hotel overnight so our breakfast is being served in our room. Once the last croissant had been devoured we were on the road while it was still dark.

Eurotunnel let us on an earlier train …….. they are only using half the train and there are probably only 50 cars making the journey. We manage to get home by 2.55pm and the PCR tests done and in the post by 3.15pm. Receipt was acknowledged the following morning and, thankfully, the negative results came the same evening, so we were released from isolation after only one day.

I was so happy to go back to France, although it was during odd times and it really was very, very very cold! TheTousAntiCovid app / Pass Sanitaire worked well. Very different to here, it was required everywhere; at a café, restaurant or museum you weren’t even getting in the door without it being zapped.

I can’t wait to go back ‘properly’ when everything is open and there is less of a pandemic!!