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08/05/18 – 11/05/18 – Le Ville Jehan,  Monteneuf, Brittany Yes, I know we are only a week in to our travels and already running for cover, but the weather in Dinard chilled us to the bone (Over dramatic I know) but it was bitter. What better place to take refuse than mum n dads place about 1.5 hours to the south. No sooner as we’d arrived, the sun was out again and we spent the afternoon in the garden sunbathing. The three of us got a shock when next doors giant dog (at least compared to Marley) turned up in the garden to say hello. Marley was scared and made some unsettling yelps but the owner turned up and took the dog back with him. The next few trips outside, ‘the dog’ kept escaping from garden – desperate to say hello to Marley, what choice did we have but to let him – Of course, he was fine – we were probably more worried than him. We took a couple of cycle tours of the local area. One to Monteneuf where we came across our first...

08/05/18 – Dinard, Brittany
We were confused on arrival as we had read about Dinan further inland, which was very different. The town is twinned with Newquay in UK and you could see why when we reached the beach. (Check out the google street view main image and have a look around!)
What started out as a sunny morning, the weather quickly changed. The wind picked up and was bitterly cold, perhaps marring our experience of the town a little. We had a walk around the market and the seafront, shared some frites (fries) and bought a baguette before heading back to the van.
Our original plan was to follow the coast around norther France, heading west and then south, but the forecast appeared gloomy for the foreseeable future, so it seemed a good opportunity to head to Dan’s parents place in Monteneuf, about 1.5 hours drive from where we currently were to take refuge for a few days.
 
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05/05/18 – Caen, Normandy
Arriving in Caen, we parked for free using one of the Moho carparks approx 2 KM outside of the town centre at the Memorial de Caen. We did try and take a look around the park Colline aux Oiseaux, however, they didn’t let dogs in, so we and made our way into town in the sunshine.
Caen reminded me of Paris in certain parts with the wide tree-lined boulevards and grand state buildings, but also the narrow cobbled street lined with bars and cafes with everyone squeezing into the sunshine not in the shadow of the adjacent buildings. I’m sure one could spend a long time exploring the many boutiques and independent shops, but as shopping isn’t really our thing, we opted to sit outside the Hotel de Ville and watch people arriving for what look like a very grand wedding.
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05/05/18 – Hérouvillette, Normandy
We stopped here for a free overnight (yes this is becoming boring) en-route to Caen after the disappointment of Cabourg.
Herouvillette is a pretty village with a tiny approx population of 1000. The aire is next to a duck pond with horses in the fields behind enough for about 8 Mohos – 4 on the hardstanding and 4 on the grass pitches. (GPS 49.2199571,-0.2447687,172)
Its a sleepy little village with not too much to see or do, the most interesting thing was an old communal laundry station on the other side of the road to the aire, so we had a quiet night both in terms of activity but also surrounding noise levels.
Feeling rested the next morning before leaving, we managed a bike ride  along the river with a much more chilled Marley…
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04/05/18 Cabourg, Normandy We arrived at Dives Sur Mer Aire de Camping around lunchtime after spending about half an hour trying to find it given they had shut the road leading to it (at least the road google maps was trying to take us down!). It was chocca around the perimeter, leaving only spaces in a strip in the middle of the aire. Being British, of course, we parked our van as far away as we could from the only other camper using the middle strip, only for them to move alongside us within about 5 minutes…..is this the way to do things we thought?….it seemed strange behaviour, but sure enough as the next van pulled in, it too parked right next to that one.. We had ran out of water, so decided to pay the €5 Charge to top-up and empty our waste water which of course meant moving the van, so we did our business only to find the guy that followed us had moved into where we parked….rather than re-park at the opposite end, we parked as close to him as we could without...

03/05/18 – Honfleur, Normandy

 onfleur is a pretty medieval port which was about 30 minutes walk from our aire. When we eventually arrived (See previous post about Marley and his bike basket) we spent just under a couple of hours walking quite slowly, circling the main tourist part of town around the harbour. The majority of streets all lead back to the port where there are numerous options to eat, catering for most tastes and budgets. I’m sure this place would be a beautiful in the evening for a meal or to have a few drinks.

There are lots of boutique shops and galleries alongside the regular touristy ones to explore if you are looking for something to buy. Given we aren’t the biggest of shoppers at the best of times, it’s probably why we felt we made it around the town so quickly.

Lorraine also found  €20 on the floor – enough to pay for lunch somewhere 🙂

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