France Spring 2017

Start: Wednesday 31^st May

Instead of our usual start in the gridlock of the A14 morning rush hour, we decided to leave after lunch. Now it’s the gridlock of the A14 early afternoon. However, at Cambridge it cleared and we beat our booked 6:20 pm tunnel slot by an hour and were offered an earlier crossing that we were pleased to accept. Europe is + one hour, so at 8:00 pm we arrived at the overnight campsite near Boulogne.

It’s not too far to our destination in Normandy the following day, a campsite in the village of Creully near Bayeux. The village, a small town really, is built in creamy/grey limestone typical of the area around Caen that the Normans also imported into England to build some of their finest castles and cathedrals. More to the point, Creully has two bakeries, so we’re looking forward to some delicious croissants and baguettes.

The campsite is green and spacious, but it does rather look like we’ve camped on someone’s front lawn.

Walking from the campsite into Creully is through a pretty wooded glade, which is also a fitness course. This accounts for the structures in the photo.

Some of the fitness equipment bears closer scrutiny as it is top of the range kit of high quality. And not even slightly vandalised.

Creully has a castle, as well as the two bakeries. The village was liberated on D Day itself, 6^th June 1944, and that same day the BBC set up a radio station in the castle to report  on-the-spot  progress of the Allied advance. The castle dates from the 12^th century and looks in keeping with the BBC’s status.

Unwittingly, we’ve arrived only a few days before the D Day anniversary. It’s the 73^rd anniversary, not a milestone one, so we weren’t expecting much in the way of commemoration events. Wrong! It seems the anniversary is big-time every year and is well supported by re-enactment groups. We’ve a chap driving around the campsite in a WW2 jeep for instance.

All the towns and villages along the D Day landing coast seem to have a programme of festivities- swing dances, parades, memorabilia events, fireworks, parachute drops etc. These last for about 3 weeks spanning 6^th June, the actual invasion day.  But more about that in the next time.