Seas The Day

Yes, I really was that scared! The legend of King Arthur, is it just that? A legend?  We went to go and try and find out for ourselves.  We haven’t heard of King Arthur here in France until this trip out, but our destination was supposed to be where he and his wife, Queen Guinevere, met their end.    This week we went to Fosse Arthour which boarders the departments of Manche and Orne.  It is set between a geological fault, called “cluse” and is a summit of sandstone ridges. Today, there is a narrow and 70m deep gorge dug in a rocky bar with loads of large fallen boulders down their sides.  The cliffs are made of Armorican sandstone, which is one of the hardest rocks in the primary era, which is why this place has been so well preserved.  This is also a mythological area which is home to bedroom chambers in caves of the rock for both the King Arthur and Queen Guinevere.  We had read it was impossible to enter the caves...

    Sunset over our Marina   T he Netherlands, we’re back! This time we’re not here to sail but to explore and get a few little jobs done on the boat.   Since we bought Albatros last year, Matt has been dyeing to get his teeth sunk into rewiring the electrics cupboard.  This trip was his chance to do just that! The cupboard was such a mess with extensions of cable all shoved together in a tangle of wire.  Now it’s all nice and neat and we can clearly see what does what. Before - behind the electric cupboard After - so much neater! After a day on the boat in windy conditions we thought it best to go and see what the area around us had to offer.  We’ve never had the chance to go to the north island near us.  There’s always been too much to do and we’ve ran out of time, but this week we got the chance.   There’s quite a lot to see and do on the island of Goeree –  Overflakkee  but not many towns or villages. ...

One of the few remaining WW2 bunkers in this area Y ou cant live in Normandy without some history of World War Two.   This week, we went to part of the Atlantic Wall just outside of Bayeux. We’re both very interested in this history of the war and Normandy as we now live here, we plan to make our way around the coast to see as much of the memorials and remains as possible. This is our first stop. The Battery at Longues-Sur-Mer is the only one in France where the posts have their original guns, there are 3 remaining and 1 that has collapsed. Of the three one is almost totally in tact, it is rusted and decaying but you can still walk around the guns and walk in the footsteps of the soldiers that were trying to maintain the capture of France. The other two hit home a little more. The doors of the gun houses have been forced open and the other has a lot of bullet holes caused by the British Army.   One of 3 remaining original canons in the whole country These guns were capa...

Château de Fougères W oohoo, adventure time. We love this time of week where we get to go out into the big wide world and explore a new area of France we haven’t seen before. This week, we went to Foug è res in Brittany. I haven’t been to many places in France, but so far Brittany is definitely my favourite. We started in a small car park at the bottom of the hill, our plan was to walk around the town and back down to the car. We walked through the old town, which, as does much of Brittany, has amazing half timbered houses which are now a line of restaurants. This part of town has a lovely little river running through it which was ancient tanneries back in the day. We then walked through the public gardens, which weren't great this time of year, but I' sure in the summer they are beautiful, and up the steep hill to our first point of our tour. Elise Saint - Leonard. I love a good look around a church, and this was no exception, so in I went! Eglise Saint - Leonard Th...

La Petit Cascade - Mortain N o, not those kind of falls but waterfalls. Before we went to the falls, we thought it was about time we explored t he medieval town of Domfront. We have always been a bit put off by Domfront, having only ever driven through it on the way to somewhere else so our first impressions were a bit drab. The parts we've driven though have always been very built up and residential. This is defiantly not the case. Domfront is a beautiful old medieval town with Château ruins and an astonishing church.  Ruins of the Château of Domfront As we are exploring these places in winter, they are sometimes a bit of a ghost town, but Domfront will be a busy bustling little  town as soon as there are tourists.  We wondered around trying to find our usual coffee but we struggled to find anywhere open. Only a posh looking bistro serving lunch. Nevertheless, we had a look around the Château , which was a huge area. The Château was built in 1051 and was s...

  Ch â teau de Gratot today B ack at the beginning of the year, our adventures took us to the surrounding area of Coutances, Normandy. After a bit of googling, we found an old ruin called the Ch â teau de Gratot that we knew we had to check out. Its only a 5 minute drive out of Coutances itself and is so easy to find from the town center. This building dates back to the 13th century although it has been added to over the years and some of the ruin date back to the 18th century.  Partial ruins of the  Ch â teau, but the main house was still in tact It has a fascinating story about a Lord who lived in the house and a fairy, its said the fairy seduced the Lord of Gratot. One day when he came home from hunting in the house's grounds, he heard a fairy singing to him from the fountain. We couldn't find the fountain but apparently this fountain is the spring from which the water of the moat comes. The fairy seduced him and married him on one condtion... He was never allo...