We’re going to have a quiet day today. No driving, maybe a walk, just some downtime.
It’s a glorious morning, so we sat outside The Van after yet another breakfast of croissants and pain du chocolats (oops) washed down with a cuppa, soaking up the warm sunshine. Somehow we frittered the morning away without really doing anything which actually was very nice. We decided, about lunchtime, to go for a walk on the beach, some 20 minutes walk away as The Pup deserved a beach after being so cruelly denied yesterday. She’s a fantastic travelling companion, sleeping on her mat when we’re driving and no hassle. She was overdue a big reward.
So we set off down the road that runs down the side of our campsite and followed it until we came to a gravel car park. We passed the roofless St Simeon Church sat forlornly in a field and wondered if it was a casualty of the Landings (the information board didn’t say) We walked through the car park and forked left down a gravelly track through woodland and dappled sunshine. We popped out between two little houses which overlooked the English Channel and onto a little clifftop – we spent a couple of minutes looking for a suitable path that led us onto the beach and then we unleashed The Pup.
https://www.normandybunkers.com/omaha-beach/chapel-saint-simeon
One of the great things about owning a dog is being part of their sheer delight on running free on a big wide open beach with the sea crashing in. She had the biggest grin on her face as she gambolled around so happily. This was Omaha Beach, again one of the 1944 D-Day beaches along this coastline. It was absolutely stunning – soft golden sand as far as the eye could see – and with the sun shining, it looked fabulous.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omaha_Beach
We took our shoes and socks off and followed The Pup into the shallow surf and sauntered along. We walked past a large sports complex with sand yachts sitting on the sand and spotting a small village in the distance, decided to walk there hoping there would be a cafe for a late lunch. It seemed to take ages to get there, but finally we walked up the slipway and found ourselves on the busy seafront of Saint Laurent sur Mer, dominated by a large stone monument (Monument Signal d’Omaha Beach) and a steel sculpture (Les Braves) embedded in the sand, dedicated to the fallen D-Day soldiers. Set back were about four or five large coaches disgorging many tourists who made an immediate beeline to these two structures. We just wanted something to eat and headed to The D-Day House restaurant where we sat outside under a parasol and tortured the waiting staff with our French.
The Pup sunk two bowls of water before collapsing on the sun drenched grass to recharge while we did our own sinking of a pint and two rather large burgers and fries. Suitably replenished, we joined the hordes of coach tourists to admire the two sculptures and heard a lot of American accents – Omaha was the responsibility of the Americans as part of the D-Day Landings. We didn’t linger long as Saint Laurent is just a quiet village by the sea and we had a long walk back – we had walked over 3.5km to get here. So we wandered back down onto the beach trying to imagine being a soldier landing here on this open expanse of sand ,where now people wandered leisurely, enjoying the late afternoon sun. We had a lot to thank them for.
The Pup was running out of steam, walking rather running madly, ignoring the seabirds. We found our little gap to get us back up to our little track and walked steadily back. The Pup sunk another two bowls of water and scoffed her dinner, before retiring on our bed in the back of the Van. We enjoyed the early evening sun until it started getting chilly and we headed indoors for a light tea. We had walked over 7.5kms, The Pup probably double that including being chased by a greyhound – no wonder she was sound asleep. We wouldn’t be far behind.
Tomorrow, we have a few places to check out around here, so back in the Van. It looks like another hot day too.
