We leave Cabourg on Thursday morning as its raining heavily and we need to move on. As much as we love places we stay, its nice to move on and see other countryside and spots.
Here in France Scot wants to see the centre of the country and I just love to be near the seaside as i think it is the best part. I hate living away from the sea anytime really. We will get to do both as there will be enough weeks before we need to leave.
We head south of Caen and i have marked up a small village La Ferte Mace in the midst of greenery. The app we use tells me there is free power, water and toilet dump etc. So we head away and eventually come across the village. It looks to be just a normal town carpark and although there are facilities, it isnt a place i would like to park for the night and we wouldnt get our van hooked up to the power there. We still decide to stop as we havent had our coffee for the day yet and we need a break. We walk down the street and come across a little English tearoom. Normally we wouldnt stop at these but i want a good sized coffee not the tiny cup the French serve up. The French also dont often have anything to eat with coffee so these people have scones and cake. We have a lovely cup of coffee, a scone and quiche and head back to the van.
We always have to be careful in small places like this as you can get caught driving down tiny village streets and find you almost cant fit which nearly happens here. Scot gets lost navigating and i have to drive where i think its ok which turn out to be small one way streets, but its ok we make it out unscathed and head off. I have found a place near here that has a proper Aire to stop at. This place is La Ferriere Aux Etangs. The aire is right by a small lake and it is really peaceful.
Since arriving in France we have noticed how amazingly clean and well kept the country is. England is full of rubbish on the sides of roads where people deliberately dump it – called fly tipping. It is so sad really that the country is like this and it seems that councils just cant afford to get rid of the rubbish. After working for a company that looks after the cleanliness of roads and highways i know that very little is done to keep the place tidy. It isnt like that everywhere but most of the places we have been it is quite bad.
Anyway, this little place is quite lovely and we spend 4euro to power the van and fill it with water and then park up. The Aire is free to stay unless you want power or water. There are a couple of others here and it is a quiet night. Scot goes for a evening walk around the little lake and sees some ducklings and what we believe is an otter. In the morning the sun is out again and after a walk around the small village, a coffee and our staple baguette, we pack up and head off. As we are driving out of the green belt we come across a small medieval village called Domfront where there are also castle ruins. Scot hasnt quite got the hang of driving on the other side of the road as we have to turn left and he ends up on tbe wrong side, then drives over the medium strip only to try and go down the wrong way on the other side. Its not so bad if its quiet, but when you have traffic approaching you its a bit unnerving. People look at us like we are crazy until they see the GB plates and then must think dumb British…..lol. thats if they dont see the kiwi sticker on the back.
The castle remains are lovely and beautifully maintained. This was built in the 10th century and the walls are so thick its amazing. Not a lot is standing, but it is good to see. The medieval village has a lot of tudor style buildings that look like they come from around the 13th century. It is delightful to look around. The church in the village is quite unusual as it had glass that is only blue and yellow in its windows. On the front it looks like it is almost inlaid with coloured bottles but i guess it is just coloured glass. We would stop for a bit longer but our van is parked on the side of a roadway not near anything and we always get concerned about it. There are storm clouds all around and we get a few downpours as we travel towards the coast.
Initially we were heading towards St Caste le Guildo where we have been before, but i change my mind and decide to go somewhere different. We end up driving down a long esplanade towards Cancale and here the tide is out a long long way like it gets at Mont st Michel as we are on the same bay. I imagine this place in about 6 weeks will be chaotic, glad we wont be here then. We arrive at the aire in Cancale and park up. This place is not free and we guess it is because it gets so busy here that they can charge what they like. Its 10euro a night which is quite expensive for an aire and includes nothing. We take a walk down along the waterfront and find a very cute town indeed. There are lots of restaurants here and it appears to be a huge oyster location. We walk to the far end of the esplanade where the oyster beds are and there are oyster sellers selling fresh oysters by the dozen. Scot gets a dozen and polishes them off. I only like cooked oysters so give it a miss. We decide that perhaps tomorrow night we might shout ourselves a meal out as you can get a plat de jour for 16€ which is the menu of the day consisting of 3, usually smaller than normal, courses.
We head back for the evening. The next morning a lot of vans head off, so we walk into the top of the village where there are a few shops to have a coffee. We have a bad habit of getting out of the van a bit late only to find shops almost closing due to lunchtime. Anyway, we walk around, buy our baguette and then head back to have it at the van. When we get back a few french have gathered and look like they are discussing how some of us have parked. The parks here arent long enough for our van so we had to park across 2 spaces but there are heaps of others so we dont see what their problem is. We dont show any interest as we havent done anything wrong. Later in the afternoon we head back along to the top village for me to make some purchases and then we head down to the waterfront where we try to choose a restaurant. It is always difficult as you never know what you will get. We choose one and go in. In hindsight i should have got my tablet out and looked at reviews first….damnation that i didnt.
Anyway, i get suspicious when my main comes out and its 5 tiny sardines with 2 small blobs of old potato that is hard on the outside like its been sitting a long time, or it has been microwaved. Scots moules are so tiny, i will be surprised if he feels full at the end as well. My crepe comes out at the end and has definitely been microwaved as some is so hard you cannot cut it and the rest is rubbery. No point complaining as i cant speak enough French to do that but i tell the ignorant woman there it was terrible. There is no tip from us and they dont even bother to say goodbye which they have to others leaving. I guess you live and learn, reviews are a good thing and when i look everyone else has had a dreadful meal too. Should have checked. Out of a possible 25 restaurants i picked the only 2 star shitty one, how bad is that! Next time there will be no next time, as we will eat in.
Back to the van and its all quiet except when i get woken up by some distant yahooing that stops before long. In the morning we head off and we want to see St Malo which means driving around the coastal road. There are so many motorhomes around it isnt a wonder people get sick of them. The Brittany coastline is stunning though and people want to stay along it. We come across a few people parked up 5 minutes from Cancale so we stop to look. There is a wonderful walking track right along the clifftops around the whole coast here. The coastline is stunning as the day is brilliant sunshine. Tbere are scuba divers or snorkellers down in the water that although looks lovely and clear, also looks cold. I am trying to pick up the amount i am walking now that my foot should be mostly healed so we do a little walk along the track before heading back. We keep driving and come across lots of little campsites, aires and beaches well before we even get to St Malo. We end up stopping and decide to head back to an aire near the beach. We feel the need to walk in the sand and salt water and if the weather holds a swim. This aire is good value, 7€ which includes power.
