A little grey this morning but the sun was promised for later and we wanted to show Joanne and Tim a caravan site nearby where Joanne also visited when she was about twelve or so. It is also planned to visit another site between Caen and Bayeux which we had also considered for this trip and so off we went at the crack of dawn ,well nearly, but around ten thirty in the morning.
We headed out through Courmelles and on to Liseaux and followed the road to Pont Leveque (a place for great cheese) and then on to near Caen where we stopped for a coffee and a short break and then on to the Castelle Site just outside of Caen. This site was quite large and the Chateaux was not bad and figures prominently in the brochure but the site conditions were quite poor compared to where we are currentlystaying and we would never stay here as there were flies everywhere. We tore up the leaflet and went cross country through the small lanes to Arromanches Les Bains passing by small villages where there many little Hotels and Gites etc to cater for the high demand of visitors to the Northern beaches.
We arrived in the small town of Arromanches which is extremely touristic with its shops selling copy forces hats and similar right nest to the D Day Landing Museum which was also quite busy. There were bits of second world war hardware in the car park and also out in the sea and a very attractive little childrens roundabout , not sure what this is doing here but never mind. We wandered around the town and their were Brits and Americans everywhere and lots of tour buses and one saying “ Stop humiliating Pakistani women” why this should be on a coach in this place defeats me.
We had lunch in a small cafe and Joanne found an excellent ice cream shop and we all briefly tried a selection before heading for Bayeaux where we did a slow drive through but road works blocked us and so gave that up.
Joanne and Tim wanted to visit a large Hypermarket where they could buy some wine and presents for back home and so we stopped at the Cora Hypermarket which was very large indeed which sold just about everything you could imagine.
Back then to Camping Le Brevedent which was very busy with British tourists and very few if any other nationalities. We looked at a Eurocamp tent which we agreed was dreadful and then at their new Safari tent which was better and then finally at the small mobile homes which were cheap by jowl, as they say up north, and there was a couple sitting on their little wooden balcony surrounded by white metal walls of the other mobile homes, a prisoner would feel almost at home here.Uggh Not for us as we want the wide open spacesSo back to Cormelles and we wanted to see if there were a good restaurant which we could visit later in the day although by this time it was almost 5.45 pm we located what looked like a nice little place called La Relais du Normandy which was
due to open at 6.30, so we passed the time of day downing some beers in the fading sun whilst watching the home going traffic rush by before arriving for our meal.
The food was excellent and good value and we would certainly eat here again as it had a nice atmosphere with a few locals popping in to eat.
Then back to the site for a glass of Calvados (what else)before turning in. This was Joanne and Tim’s last night before leaving and we hoped they enjoyed it and also the camping experience but we do believe they will be back.
