2008, Day Sixteen, Fécamp

Day sixteen16th June.

We only had a short journey today to meet up with Mick and Brenda and as they would not be arriving until late, we had most of the day for shopping and sightseeing. All started well again, took a wrong turn on the way to the supermarket and ended up at the back of a factory.

Phoned Mick & Bren to see what beer they wanted and then stocked up for the next two days, epically with meat for barbecuing. The Hyper U we used, unbelievably had an electric pylon outside the main entrance and I don't mean the car park, I mean the front door.

Next took another wrong turn and had to do a U turn to get back on the right road for a visit to Honfleur, on our way to Fécamp. Took the D62 to the coast and the D513 to Honfleur where we stopped on the outskirts for a look round and view of the Pont de Normandie. We then drove into Honfleur on the D34 and D580, to check out the Aire, another one in a good position but very crowed.

 

Next we headed to the viewing point at the bridge itself, to take some photos and have lunch, we used the D580 onto the A29 and over the bridge to the viewing stop, in-between the two big bridges.

From the viewing point to the bridge is quite a long walk, so I used the zoom for the shots of the bridges. We then had our sandwiches before moving on.

We continued on the A29 to the D10 back towards the coast, at Goderville this changed to the D925 all the way to Fécamp. Although we knew on the map where the campsite was (and had it programmed into the GPS) it was not that easy to find and even the signpost indicating the site was pointing at both roads at a Y junction. As we knew we were very close, I sent Dot to go and look along the road we thought most likely and we were right.

FECAMP

Camping Domaine de Reneville

Chemin de Nesmond - 76400 Fécamp

Web Site

Checked in and asked for a pitch big enough for the motorhome and Mick and Bren's tent, the computer was down in reception but the over helpful warden directed to a pitch right at the top of the site, furthest from reception and the only working toilets. This municipal site is high up on the side of a cliff, not on top, on the side, the plots are small and in terraces, on a very narrow winding road that snakes through and up the site. Our pitch was big though and had a magnificent view over the town and sea. The toilets and washing facilities were barley adequate, and the cafe that should be there was not open (now on their website it says only open July and August). The path down to the toilet block was very steep, very uneven and not maintained (not safe in my opinion), there was toilets closer to us but they were out of order.

The next campsite we were to visit did bus trips to Paris but these must be booked in advance, I had attempted to do this from home but way asked to phone back on this day to book. So I rang them only to be informed that it would be ok just to pop into reception when we got there and there was no need to phone a booking.

Then phoned Mick to see how far away he was and he reckoned they were still about an hour away, so we would wait for them to arrive before starting the BBQ for tea.

A German motorhome parked next to us and asked if we were getting reception on our satellite, I said that I wasn't but before I could qualify my statement by telling him I hadn't tried yet, they moved on to another pitch even higher up the cliff. He was in a hurry to get set up to watch the football, I moved my dish slightly and we also had reception. He was lucky happy German, Germany beat Austria 1 - 0.

About an hour after the call to Mick, I walked down to reception and phoned Mick again to see if he was close, his new estimate for arrival was two hours???. He has been heading away from the coast, he made a mistake programming his GPS. Now this new ETA is very close to the time the site gaits close for the night, anyway to cut the long story short, they arrived in time but very late and Mick was shattered from diving all day and most of yesterday.

Just time to put up the tent while I made the supper, I did half the meat we had bought on the morning and saved the other half for tomorrow. After supper we settled in for a few beers and enjoyed the fantastic views and sunset.