2008, Day Seventeen, Fécamp

Day seventeen17th June

The reason for our stay in Fécamp was so we could visit the white cliffs at Étretat, so Dot made a picnic and we all set of in Mick's car. The GPS as usual, took us the long way but we arrived without a problem and even though it was very busy, we got parked by the sea front in the centre of town. The cliffs are spectacular but the tide was in so we couldn't walk round the famous arch.

Had a walk along the beach as far as we could and even went part way up the cliff to take photos and then walked back to the sea front in town for our picnic. While we were eating we noticed two inflatable's with dogs pulling them, apparently there are some sort of sea rescue team (they have been on TV in the UK since we got back).

After lunch, as we had seen the cliffs and none of us were bothered about looking round the town, we went back to the car and moved on to small town of Yport, on the way back to Fécamp.

Yport was a lovely little town, like a smaller Étretat, only it look like any rock formation they may have had have collapsed. We did have a walk along the pebbly beach, it is a nice place for a walk but there wasn't much there, so we moved on to Fécamp.

Back home in Fécamp, we parked up at the campsite and walked down the cliff, the path was not too steep and it brings you out at south end of the promenade. The prom was very colourful and busy so we had a nice slow walk along in the sun towards the pier. At the far end of the promenade, at the mouth of the river Valmont and close to the pier was the Aire, it was good for visiting the town but looked very unorganized.

Nice walk in a nice town but it did get a bit cold in the wind on the sea front, and the opportunity for good photos dropped when the sun went in and a bit of fret rolled in from the sea. So we moved inland, along the river away from the front and eventually we retired to a bar, to warm up, with beer (SAS Pils) and red wine.

By the time we had a couple of drinks, the sun was shining again so we got some fresh bread for tonight's BBQ and made our way back up the cliff. The clime up to the campsite, wasn't too bad but we did take our time though, we had, had a busy day.

That night we barbequed the other half of the meat and had several more beers watching another beautiful sunset over the sea.

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.