1998 Truttemer le Grand

Sat 1998-08-29 {16210}
To gite near Truttemer-le-Grande in France. The MX-5 was packed to the limit, with bags & food. \theta drove to the tunnel (07h40..10h00 approx), queue to pay, then have to go to terminal and wait for "U" to be called. On the booked train (11h12), and out onto the A16 at 13h French time. \phi drove in France, via Abbeville, Rouen, Caen, Vire, to gite right out in the country at about N48/48/43 W0/49/42, arr about 17h15. Just one stop for packed lunch and one for fuel. After unpacking, for a short walk (nothing accessible on foot) and a drive (impressing the locals with an MX-5 with the top down). Route all motorway or dual-carriageway except for the last bit around Vire, which has priorite a droit roundabouts. Tolls 1L on Dartford bridge, 40FF to Rouen, 24FF and 15FF to Caen. Excellent Bouygues coverage (visible as F20 on network search), but neither of our phones will connect; long BTCC call to Orange 159. With the fall of the franc relative to the pound, French petrol is about the same price as ours.
Sun 1998-08-30 {16211}
To Vire, more petrol, then walk about the town, looking at the old remains of the castle and walls, buy bread and get maps. Then to Lac de la Dathee, to eat lunch sitting in the shade, then a short walk by the lake and a look at the dam that keeps it there. By then it's very hot, so back to the gite to read outside in the shade. From the morning, roaming started to work. Various oddities. I could call mine from \theta's only by using the Flextel number, though SMS worked OK, and VM requires calling 0973 100123, then entering your own number plus #, then *. Doing this, found a VM from Orange saying to try again now. Cash from EC card OK. Vire a pleasant town, and quite a few shops open on Sun morn, esp confectioners, bakers, butchers, fishmongers and the like. Shops on several streets radiating from a central star. Food we brought out has lasted, and we have located the supermarket for tomorrow. Shop with a sticker along the top of the window: "We welcome our liberators", with the flags of the Allies. A French "picnic" lunch in the woods by the lake, with about twenty of them at a long table, surrounded by an army of cool boxes.
Mon 1998-08-31 {16212}
Bank holiday in UK. First to the supermarket on the Vire by-pass for food, wine, beer and the local cider, and back to the cottage to unload. Then out to Bayeux, to see the tapestry. Bigger than I imagined it (about 70m), but otherwise just like the pictures, except less colourful; it has probably faded over the past 1000 years or so. Then on to the coast, by now getting hot, though the sun was often hazy. Followed the coast road from Arromanches to Graye-sur-Mare, by the Juno beach memorial. This, just W of the town, is where Dad came ashore; where we were standing was N49/20/07 W0/28/16. Bouygues had 5 bars here, and called Dad from the spot. \theta paddled, then lunch on the dunes watching the tide come in. After lunch, on a tour of some of the towns and villages mentioned in the Battery memoir: Douvres-la-Delivrande, Fontaine-Henry & le Fresne-Camilly. Douvres is a small town, with a nice church: pictures of this and of the main street. Could see very little of F-H, but took some pictures of the church in le F-C. Cross-country home from there, and eve in. A little rain eve. Test lost to Sri Lanka (198kHz is excellent on the car radio). A high proportion of cars here are GB, a few NL; I've seen only one D.
Tue 1998-09-01 {16213}
A cat set the car alarm off during the night. [Sun: there is a red telephone box (with France Telecom phone) and a red GR post box in Vire - a present from twin town Totnes.] To the zoo at Jurques. We were the first to arrive, and had the place to ourselves for a couple of hours. Set out as a 3km rambling walk, showing the animals in varied settings. Some good, but others not, eg chimpanzees looked very restricted. Then followed signs for a viaduct over the valley of the Souleurve, which turned out to be five stone piers remaining from a very high railway viaduct, no deck. On the far side, a small causeway had been built out to the second pier, then a cantilever platform out over the river for bungee jumping. Lunch here. I walked down to the bottom of the valley. Then a little drive around, post cards in Truttemer, and afternoon reading - though the sun then came out again. R at Psion for 1 year. Picked up BBC R4 on 92.5MHz.
Wed 1998-09-02 {16214}
Rain overnight and during the day. To St Pierre sur Dives, where there is a cheese museum. This was small and static, but only 15FF each. The town itself was more interesting, with an old market hall, and big market place with a open urinal that just hides the parts that matter. Bought an APS film here, in a camera shop, but it seems to be generally available. Also bread and apple tarts bought here. Then back to a very pretty little bridge town, Pont-d'Ouilly. Quick walk around and photos here, then lunch in a restaurant (55FF fixed, the cheapest menu, and very good). On the way out, bought petrol here at a garage cum bicycle shop. Then back in the gloom to the gite to watch the rain. Mercredi soir, so put out the rubbish. Bouygues is inconsistent - sometimes you can get the orange number to ring if it's not in call, sometimes get busy or tritone if it's in call - when switched off get voicemail reliably. Thunderstorm.
Thu 1998-09-03 {16215}
Rain overnight, today wind, sun, rain, but never cold. To Mont St Michel, walking from the car park up to the entrance to the Abbey, then around the ramparts. \theta balked at all the steps up into the Abbey. A wide mix of nationalities here, popular, despite being out of season. You drive up along the causeway, then walk the last bit up to the walls, then a long, narrow ramp up with shops and cafes crammed in on both sides. The buildings are built up seemingly at random, and all different shapes and textures, so that every turn of the walkways reveals a new picture. Took lots of pix here. Saw Konica APS film on sale. It was sunny but very windy on the causeway, but mostly hot and sunny out of the wind on the island. At low tide, the whole huge bay of Mont St Michel is sandy, over an area about 20km wide by 6km; at high tide the sea comes rushing in. Signs indicate whether the car park will be flooded then - today they said cars will be safe all day. From there, drove along the coast of the Cherbourg peninsular, stopping at a roadside viewpoint near Champeaux for a picnic lunch (bread from Truttemer-le-G today), from where M St M could be seen across the bay, though not clearly as the air was hazy. Then to the port of Granville, a fishing port, and also where the Channel Island ferries dock. Look around here, then home. Bouygues generally good today. Rang the local rep for the booking agency, as we have not seen the real owner yet, and wanted to warn them that we will leave early on Saturday. The rep had a respectable English accent. Lots of pix on the 1-use Fuji on the drive home. After the rain last night, the car's driver's seat was quite damp his morning, but a day's top-down soon dried it out.
Fri 1998-09-04 {16216}
Rain to start. To the supermarket, for remaining food and some more beer, and wine and cider to take home. Petrol at the supermarket, just over 6FF per litre, not the cheapest we've seen, but cheap for 98 super unleaded. Standard 95 sans plomb has been down to 5.8FF. Gazole is about 4.6FF. The supermarket petrol station was tiny and you paid through a hatch, not on the same scale as at our supermarkets. Then to Vire, much more crowded of course than on Sunday, but it was still raining, and \theta's legs were not up to much walking after yesterday, so home before lunch. Today, the driver's seat was dry, but the passenger's side was wet. Despite the rain, it's still warm; locals could be seen in shorts and waterproofs. Going out for a walk, met the landlord, who was outside waiting for a delivery. He was on 'oliday on a cruise around Spain, and it was 'ot. Leave "la clef dans la porte". Then \phi for a longer walk, dodging the rain. The farm buildings are old, crumbling and irregular, stone built and much patched with corrugated iron, tho' the houses are well kept. Fields are often tiny, and it's not clear whether these are real commercial farms.
Sat 1998-09-05 {16217}
Return. Up at 6h (CET), in the dark, with the air damp and a wind. Pack, and start off about 06h45, by which time it was starting to rain. It struggled to get light, we were picking our way with the white lines almost invisible in the wet, and our headlamps emasculated. After it got light, the rain got intermittently much worse - torrential at times. \phi drove to about 140km short of the tunnel, and \theta from there. At the tunnel we were offered an earlier crossing, "F", but then that disappeared from the screens; leaving the terminal at the appointed time for that crossing we actually got on the earlier one, "E", at 11h42 CET, right at the back in a high vehicle wagon. Lunch while in the train. Got home about 13h30 BST (just under 8h, it think it's about 560km round trip for 360km crow route). 3 APS and a 35mm processed in Boots. From the 1-shot non-magnetics APS: if the APS frame is held reading right, with the index holes below and bar-code top left, P has an exposed mark at top right, C has that and another mark to the left of it, H has no marks. \theta collected the cats. Later, when we came back with the photos, they were waiting together on the front step. Orange phone, left on automatic, just lost F20 as we went into the tunnel, and acquired Orange when we came out. Strange - it's now only 11 hours since we left the cottage, but already it seems remote, as if we left days ago. Eurotunnel has big signs accepting the end of intra-EC duty-free next year.