Next Stop, Powell's Homeland...

 After leaving Pointe du Hoc on Friday, we had intended to drive across to Utah Beach, but due to a mix up with parking (vehicles higher than 2.2 metres no longer allowed!), we ended up missing it.  Tired from an emotional few days, we made our way to the nearest free stopover at Saint Sauveur le Vicomte.

It’s just as well it was free as it turned out to be right by a main road and the local moped boy racer population had set up camp by the bus stop, a mere 100 metres or so from Dora, in a bid to compare ‘bikes’ and take part in time laps around the town hall!  Thankfully they were harmless enough and the rain saw them off at a reasonable hour.

After showers and topping up on the free water the next day, we were on the road again, heading back to the coast after our inland stay on Friday.

We reached Brehal early on Saturday afternoon.  Despite the tourist information website saying it was free, a sign near the aire clearly said otherwise, although the €4 fee was hardly breaking the bank.  We took Powell off for a wander to see what we could see.  A lot of beach is what we saw.  It seemed there’s an oyster farm or two around these parts and not a lot else, oh, there are also stables; we saw two horses being galloped down the beach; they really are amazing creatures!  Later on in the evening, a beach walk in the opposite direction revealed a street with a couple of bars, a brasserie, pizzeria and a supermarket, plus a couple of obligatory boulangers, a staple in any French town!  What we failed to find, however, was somewhere to pay the overnight fee and as no one came to collect any money from us, we had ended up with a free stopover.

This morning, we were up with the larks due to the clocks changing last night.  As we needed to get some laundry done, we left Brehal before our luck ran out and moved to an actually free stopover in Avranches.  On arrival, we parked up on a very sloped aire and took our washing to a very expensive launderette.  While we were there, Pete nipped off to find some snacks and came back with some very expensive, but wonderfully tasty quiche.  Having decided that Avranches is OK, but not worth staying and that we couldn’t actually get level enough anyway, we left after our laundry was done, lighter pocketed but cleaner clothed.

We are now in what was supposed to be our stopover for tomorrow night; Ardrevon.  At just over €10, it’s the most expensive place we’ve stayed at, but we’re about 4km from Mont St Michel, which explains the price. Mont St Michel is our intended destination tomorrow morning after a day of ‘house’ work and blog updating today.  Pete has already had some Mont St Michel beer so it’s looking good already and we’ve only seen it from a distance!  I think this will be our last stopover in Normandy as we are teetering on the edge of Brittany, the land of beautiful dogs and towns starting with Pl…!!



NB: After a painfully slow photo uploading session, I have decided to delay uploading ny more pics until we get to somewhere with a decent signal.  It may be a while...