Trouville

The move from the last site to this was not straightforward. We had chosen a site that had good reviews in Villers-sur-Mer. It was my drive and a fair bit was on very narrow and single track roads ,so I was relieved when we got to the site, only to read “complet” at the entrance. We quickly stuck the nearest aire in the sat nav and I did a 6 point turn, (remember we are 7.5 meters long). More narrow roads, then a road with a 3.5t limit so I took my only option while John looked for an alternative route. Then another 3.5t ,and after more narrow roads to avoid that restricted road, we gave up on that site. There must have been a way to it with a 4t van but we didn’t find it. A third aire was reached with no further difficulty. It had lots of space, but then it was inland, not on the coast. The aire is new, in an orchard and it was/is a big processing plant with massive farm buildings. The orchard is 70 hectares (130 football pitches). Linda who runs the place was very chatty and inexperienced. The site had been open 6 days. She has had things built wrong, or at least not as you normally get. The black waste is a hole in the ground, but to get your van to the grey waste you have to be careful to miss the black waste. The clean water is scattered around the site, so you have to fill up clean in a different place to where you empty the grey. The water for the toilet cleaning isn’t marked as such and you have to walk across rough land to turn the tap on. It’s a converted car park and the spots are car length, motorhomes tend not to be. She gives everyone two spots so lots of room to get out the table and chairs. However I think once she has worked things out and made a few changes (she already has them planned) I think it will be a great aire, much better than most. Linda is, as I said, very chatty, but she also offered to drive us to the town to save us cycling, and wanted to loan us her wifi as the mobile data was poor. She gets full marks for trying.

We cycled along the coast one day covering the following towns: –

Trouville – a nice tourist town on the mouth of the river, we had a curry here and John as attacked by a seagull while eating a sandwich.

Deauville, on the other side of the river, has a stunning sea front, lots of things for all the family, swimming pools, bars restaurants, beach huts, beach shops, crazy golf, you have the idea, and a nice, big sandy beach. On the second day we cycled to the far end of the beach and had a day enjoying the sun and reading. I must say I really liked Deauville, it was very busy for a reason. I’d come back here.

Benerville-sur-Mer/ Blonville-sur-Mer and Villers-sur-Mer seaside places, sandy/rocky beach and less commercial.

Houlgate – was very windy, we climbed the hill from Villers and could feel the wind increasing as we dropped down the other side. Mind you I think Houlgate was happy because the next day they had a wind festival of some kind. We considered going but decided it would cost money and wasn’t our thing.

We have been in France for 4 weeks. 3 of those weeks have had a national holiday in them, Easter, May 1st and liberation day. This means schools have been out, and the sun has been out the whole time with unseasonal temperatures . I’ve loved the temperatures but hadn’t expected aires and towns to be so busy.