Portsmouth
We left Portsmouth at 8 am on a showery morning and set sail for the land of baguettes, wine and other lovely eatables (as well as many non edible delights).
Bye Bye Jeremy
Steaming out past Portsmouth naval dockyard, if you look carefully you can see Jeremy Corbyn, on that warship, waving goodbye to us. He was taking a few snaps in preparation for sticking a couple of old destroyers on to eBay ….. don’t think he’ll get much for that rather scabby ship in the foreground.
Brittany Ferries is French owned and a bit different to the Dover Calais ferry….I had braised guinea fowl and olives for lunch…yummy, while Nia chomped through a rack of lamb in Thyme sauce.
Only on a French Ferry.
This is another on-board entertainment we have not seen before on a cross channel ferry. Sadly we docked at 3 pm so couldn’t attend, not that a few glasses of vino would have helped navigate Mavis off the ship.
Pause during after lunch constitutional around the deck.
Mary Rose
I went to a very good talk on the Mary Rose which passed an hour or so, given by one of the curators. For those not around in Henry VIII’s time, the Mary Rose was a tudor warship which tipped over and sank in Portsmouth harbour whilst fighting those naughty French matelots. I bet a cry of ‘Bravo!’ went up. But I digress.
What are these?
The nerd count on the ferry was low and only a small audience watched the talk. There were sadly no suggestions when we were asked what these artefacts were…we were too polite.
Sword Beach
We arrived in Caen at 3pm, sailing in past Sword beach, the easternmost extent of the Normandy landings.
About to drive off.
Here we are parked at the sharp end of the boat, as Nia, an experienced mariner who ought to know better, irritatingly describes it, about to drive off into France.
Pont Romaine
We drove down to Camping Pont Romaine, which is a campsite to the east of Le Mans, for the first night. The picture above is the Roman Bridge hinted at in the campsites name. It crosses the Sarthe, a tributary of the Loire, to the village of Yvré-L’Évêque. And there is no way we are going to be able to pronounce that until we have had a glass or two of vin rouge.
Maison et voiture rouge
This is a pretty house we passed on the walk to the village (Sorry Liz…I know mon français est execrable).
Run out of rubbish to spout now…time to explore Yvré-L’Évêque.
Rambling about Europe with the Kray Twins (Colin and Penny).
Travels with Mavis 
You two must really dislike Cumbria! Have a good trip. Let’s try and meet up when back. Alan
No..we love Cumbria…but it does rain on us a bit…
Agree we must meet up soon.
Hi, lovely to see you’re on the road again. We are still in Germany following the Dusseldorf show, working out if we can afford to change Mr Bumble for a Concorde! Are you pleased with yours?
Returning to the UK at the end of the month as we have flights and a motorhome booked in Australia for October, have to put the children before the dog sometimes!
Happy travels,
Gill, Colin & Millie
Wow…Australia sounds great…are you going to blog it?
Yes, we love the Concorde. In fact I did a review for MMM which will be published shortly and is very positive…its in a queue but has been earmarked an issue.
Best Wishes
Peter, Nia and the Krays
We really need to travel via Brittany Ferries. Looks good xx
Love that maison rouge with its voiture rouge picture!! 😉 oh and by the way, Brittany ferries is a Breton company, .. we in Brittany are breton before even thinking of being French… enjoy your French tour xoxo