Holiday 2001

France - Normandy and Brittany

Normandy

As we had to move to our new house after this summer, we went for a short camping trip to Normandy and Britanny in France. First we visited Rouen, the city where they burned Joan of Arc at the Vieux Marche. The spot is marked with a cross and they constructed a modern church in the middle of the old market. Another famous spot in town is the cathedral which was damaged very badly during the war.

A few trips in the surroundings of Rouen took us to the spectacular Pont de Brotonne and to Etretat and Fecamp at the coast. In Fecamp we visited the attractive Palais Benedictine where the Benedictine liqueur is made and one can smell all the 27 herbs needed to give the liqueur its taste. After we moved to Omaha beach we visited the city of Bayeux to see the famous Bayeux tapestry, picturing the battle of Hastings in 1066.

A visit to Normandy means a visit to the invasion beaches of the second world war. Camping at Omaha beach, most historic places are nearby. In Arromanches-les-Bains one finds the remainings of the so called 'Port Winston', the invasion harbor. We visited some musea but didn't take any pictures. The only pictures were maded at the impressive place called 'Pointe du Hoc', the high cliffs where US Rangers tried to eliminate the German artillery battery. Here nothing changed since the days of june 1944, a landscape of bomb craters and shattered German bunkers.

Watch the Normandy picture map.

Brittany

Leaving Normandy we spend our last days at the south of Brittany, at the atlantic coast. What took us there were te famous megaliths in the surroundings of Carnac, the Megalithes du Morbihan. Thousends of menhirs arranged in lines bear witness to ancient times. 'How and why did they do it' seems to be the major question, visiting the aligned stones of Kermario and Menec, various so called dolmens and Locmariaquer, the place of Le Grand Menhir and La Table des Marchand.

Watch the Brittany picture map.

henk@vanlingen.net

July, 2001