A Day Meandering and Musing

It was a cold,wet Tuesday morning, as I packed up and set off from Merville, as yesterdays sunshine had all but disappeared. As I travelled back towards Caen, the driving rain, and wild wind deterred me from stopping anywhere, apart from a convenient McDonalds, where I could make contact.

I continued making my way along the Normandy coast, for Grandcamp Maisy,http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grandcamp-Maisy it always make me imagine it’s an American name, although French ! I did have a look around the French countryside, whilst waiting for the campsite lunch hour (of 2 1/2 hours), and then I was able to get on to Camping Joncal,http://www.campingdujoncal.com/  immediately next to the harbour, and adjoining the beach and sea, although because of the wind I couldn’t stay on one of the sea side pitches which were available, and settled for one in the middle of the site, with all round protection.

By this time, the middle of the afternoon, the sun had come out again, and although there was still a fierce wind blowing I set off riding for Pont D’Hoc http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointe_du_Hoc famous and celebrated American war memorial – about 4 miles away. Passing a rather grand and imposing silver coloured lady - a statue for World Peace http://peace.statue.free.fr/html/statue_gb.htm  - as I rode along

I had previously been in the exhibition area, and so reversed my route along the coast, and then going across some tracks to the cliff edge, where I could get some good views of the actual cliffs that were climbed by the American ranger force on D Day ,and also answering a question I had been pondering recently….what does happen to all those shells from shellfish eaten in such vast quantities…???- they throw them back down the cliffs !

So, as I traversed back along the top of the cliffs, with occasional forays down onto the beach, I saw on the blue dappled sea an MSC Cruise liner, wondering whether they knew what they were travelling along ,framed between 2 beach obstacles placed to deter the Allies from landing.

The sun was still shining as I got back to the campsite, so…the first BBQ of my trip (although not the first of the year), and in the evening sunshine had a real feast of a meal…just in time, as the heavens opened as I had just finished cooking …that was closeand as I pondered whether this would be the closest I would come to a cruise ship….another Bonne Nuit !