Bretteville 13 August : Le Vallee de Beaubigny 14 August

 We visited Barfleur today, rated one of France's prettiest ports.

looks a nightmare to clean the windows

He looks like a giant note the goatee apparently on holiday it is too hard to shave a whole chin

the life boat hangar

Barfleur beach

Then we drove through the countryside to our stop for the night , it was meant to be a camp but they didnt open for an hour so we went to the local beach carpark where another small van was staying and decided to stop there. I spoke to the french lady in the van she was planning to move away but as we were there as well she stayed the night.

It was a nice sandy beach , people were swimming, the keen exercise types, It was raining off and on so you had to be keen.

The sea was just down the boat ramp ( and the stone building was loos and a shower all clean and well suplied oh and free )

Bretteville beach

look how high the doors in the wall further down the photo are the tide must come in a long was, we only saw low tides

the forts at Cherbourg, the big one at the end was used as a prison, what a dreadful place to be stuck.

The next morning ( the 14th) dawned rainy and misty. First we went to visit Port Levy and a lighthouse and had a nice walk along the coast between the two places.

looks a lot like Scotland

the walls a curved inwards rather than round

We drove through Cherbourg and up to the top of the peninsular. The area is renowned for the rough seas and big waves. Sadly we got sea fog and mist so could hardly see a thing.  driving was a bit of an issue as well. We stopped at a national trust property and visited a photography display and had a cuppa and cake. 

the friand at the front was divine

The garden had a lot of NZ type plants , Punga, pittosporum, ferns, flaxes it was really quite odd to see them altogether in a french garden.

I could be in NZ

Gourdy on the Cap De la Hague

the one view we got of the lighthouse, it is used in photos and calendars as the waves crash over it

After a walk about and some driving in thick fog we got to tonight's stop at La Vallee de Beaubigny, it is a farmers tennis court turned into a camper stop.  It was wet and foggy so we were glad to get herre. 

 I hear we would have to go into quarantine if we go back to the Uk now so as we have nowhere to do that we might as well stay here for  bit longer.  We had planned to be in France for another month or so anyway , maybe things will settle down a bit.

this was how close to Jersey our stop was