Walk in the New Forest

Despite the terrible weather forecast there was blue sky and sunshine here on Friday morning. Sue and I went out to check half the ramble I am leading next week.
Here are some photos I took near to Smugglers Road car park.

France - September 2006

On the 1st September Sue and I set off for France with the caravan. This was the first time we had used Brittany Ferries - Poole to Cherbourg - we enjoyed our trip and would recommend them. Our first caravan site was only 5 miles from Cherbourg so our first days travelling totalled about 20 miles.
Below is a photo of Barfleur a picturesque fishing port close to Cherbourg. I'm sure it would look better on a sunny day.




















This year we wanted to continue our tour of the D-Day beaches. Here I am at Utah Beach where the Americans came ashore.
We went around the museum and I was very impressed with the diaoramas which showed the assault on the beaches. I hadn't realised that many of the American parachutists drowned, as they landed, in the marshes which the Germans had flooded.























Here is Sue at the entrance to the museum in Ste-Mere-Eglise. The parachutist hanging from the spire can just be seen.




















The parachutist on D-Day was stuck on the spire for 2 hours and played dead because there was a German sniper using the spire as a vantage point.

Dinan and The Rance

Our third caravan site was close to Dinan, not to be confused with Dinard. It was here that we met up with David and Carol Wordsworth. Our first outing was to Dinan. A very old town with ramparts that tower above the River Rance.





As you all know the Rance Estuary has one of the largest tidal ranges in the world. The French have built a barrage to harness the power of the tides to produce electricity. Here are the locks that allow access to the sea for small boats. The second photo is of the turbine hall within the barrage.

Plancoet and Carnac

Carol and Sue can be seen here in the local park at Plancoet. It was a pretty village, but there was not and awful lot there.

Peacock Butterfly (Inachis io)

The small town of Carnac in southern Brittany is world-famous for the long rows of standing stones stretching over a mile or so in a north-easterly direction to the north of the town.

St. Nazaire - WWII submarine pens

In the New Forest there is a building called the submarine pens. It is here during 1942 a concrete structure was built so that the Tallboy Bomb, 10,000lbs, could be tested to see what effect it had on a strong structure. After the test a couple of corners had been knocked off and the structure still stands today as do the pens in St. Nazaire.

A photo of the pens with 2 U-boats

The pens today

These pens took 2 years to build. The walls are 3.5 metres thick, the roof slabs are 4 metres thick. The whole structure is 301 metres long, 130 metres wide and 18 metres high. 480,000 cubic metres of concrete was used. That's got to be quite a few tons.

The roof - this was built in such a way that if a bomb hit the destructive power would be dispersed.

Fortified lock seen from the top of the submarine pens.

There are 14 pens in all.

Stuart's Birthday Bash

Most people arrived at St Hilaire-de-Riez on the same day as us. Trish and Colin arrived a couple of days later. They had been stalking us across France, but never managed to catch up.

Carol kindly cooked bacon buttees for everyone on the 26th.

Colin with his bacon buttee breakfast.

Everyone gathering for bubbly and cake in the afternoon. The caravan was decorated while Sue and I were out buying the cake in the morning.

Cutting the cake - it was rather hot so it had to be eaten quickly. The apple tart lasted a bit longer, but not much. The bubbly was courtesy of Maggie and Andy who were still in UK, thanks to them.

In the evening we had a meal out at the campsite restaurant.

Sybil and Stuart

Sue and Glyn

Holiday Ending

Trompe L'Oeil - this we found in the back streets of les Sables-d'Olonne. It covered the whole side of the house and went around the corner!

An explanation - Trompe L'Oeil...the name given to the style of painting
which achieves the sense of being three dimensional. In other words the
painted object is suppose to "trick" the viewer into believing the object
is actually real. From the french word Trompe L'Oeil,
pronounced "trum ploy" its meaning translates "to deceive the eye",
literally "to trick the eye" or "to fool the eye".

On our return to Cherbourg we stayed at Haliotis where we had stayed the year before. We had another visit to Mont-Saint-Michel, but didn't go in.

A view of Cherbourg from the Barfleur. Our car and caravan can be seen in the bottom left hand corner.

The raiding party didn't materialise.

Throughout the holiday there was a photo competition going on. The competition winners will be announced in November along with all the photos.