I am back at the Normandy coast settling in before the early start to board the ferry home tomorrow. It has been a gentle day through the rolling Normandy countryside after leaving La Sarthe, which is named for it’s river which I seemed to cross every 10 km! I decided to lunch in what I remembered was a brilliant place at Courseilles-sur-Mer but was surprised how up-market it had become from my memory of about 20 years ago. That is because it was not the same place. The original, it was a Logis, is at the bottom of the next street and is now a dowdy pub, so I ended up in the right place for an excellent meal looking out across the beach. This is very much D-Day country with Courseilles at the end of Sword Beach. I went along a little to Juno Beach which was the landing ground mainly for the Canadians and where a cross of Lorraine indicates the approximate spot where General de Gaulle landed on 14 June 1944 to declare that he had personally defeated the Nazis and liberated la Belle France. He might have had a little help mind you. One of the things on the departmental roads, although this is changing, is that they often go through small villages which can be interesting and it is amazing how many villages of 10s of houses still manage to have a large church like Montmerrei in Normandy where the picture at the end was taken. I note that more and more these villages and small towns are getting cute little bypasses, because as it says in the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, when asked why, “Well they’ve got to be built haven’t they?”. Anyway enough of this nonsense here are some snaps from today with the headline the cross of Lorraine at Juno Beach. A brisk wind has arrived at the coast, enough to require a light jacket for the first time in over 2 weeks. There follows a few from Courseilles and then I’ll finish with the church I mentioned.

For orientation there is an outline map is here.