14th June 2009

I realised we needed to go food shopping and it was Sunday so we got up about eight, didn't bother with showers and left to find the supermarket. We found loads but they were all closed.  We knew some opened until 12 noon but we didn't find any.  We stopped at a Carrefour that had people around but they were just in the entrance mall bit as there was only a bread stall, a tabac and a café open.  We got some bread, a baton- and then we realised we didn't have any butter!
 We stopped at a MacDonald's for lunch and to use their WiFi and collect emails.  Paul had loads and I only had a few junk mails, then we drove to the next campsite.  We drove through Bayeux, Arromanches and other towns, which are all on the Normandy Landing Beaches, and we stopped in a campsite at St Aubin, which was where the Canadians landed on D-Day. There is a cemetery at Bayeux which has lots of young British soldiers buried in it and a museum that I wanted to go and visit, but I decided I’d be too upset, so we just drove past.  The graves are all well looked after with their white crosses, and each one has a vase of flowers on.  So at least they are being cared for in death, bless them all.

Yelloh Cote De Nacre Campsite

 This campsite is part of the French chain Yelloh.  Their campsites are very ‘holiday camp’ orientated but certainly okay out of season. The pitches are a decent size but the loos are more typically French and not very clean.  We decided to go for a walk into the town if I could walk that far as I'm still having problems with the insect bites on my ankle, but I managed it okay. The beach had really soft sand so we took our shoes off and walked along it, the first time we've done that since we left home!  We stayed on the beach to the War Memorials for the Canadians who lost their lives in the D-Day landings.  We walked back through the town and stopped at the ‘8 au Huit’ shop and bought some bits and pieces. We needed a carrier bag and the shop charged us €0.15 for it!
We got back to the van and spent some time talking to a young Dutch couple on the pitch opposite, who are really nice.  She’s reading a Rosamund Pilcher book so I recommended Erica James' ‘Precious Time’ and ‘The Holiday’ to her and  also ‘The Time Traveler’s Wife’.  We think she'll like those.  They didn't know that MacDonald's did free WiFi, so they've gone to look for one.  They're into ‘World of Warcraft’ like Davina used to be.  A new couple have arrived beside us on a Pan European motorbike so we spent some time talking to them about bikes, and now Paul is cooking our dinner, sausages and eggs mmm!  I've said he should write in here too so we get his perspective on things as well as mine.
Oh! I almost forgot, on the way here we got caught up in a huge bike rally with thousands of French bikers.  We found out it was a charity ride for some heart foundation, so in France bikers do a lot of things for charity too.

Bikers Charity Ride-out