Camping Le Brevedant

You know I love camping and could quite happily live in my tent all summer long! One of the things I like is the challenge of feeding four hungry mouths without the aid of a fridge or any other fancy kitchen equipment - in fact just my little 2 ring, 1 grill stove (note the invisible mending of the broken knob with "gaffer" tape!). My family reckon I should write a Camp Cook Book. This offering consisted of :
Diced "Saucisson" type sausage bought from one of the many great markets. This type of sausage doesn't need a fridge so its ideal for campers.
Onions, peppers, garlic, sliced cooked potatoes, tomatoes - all fried in olive oil.
When cooked, I added an egg each on top and continued cooking until they were set, then added some torn basil leaves.

We chose our campsite from the "Cool Camping in France" book, cross referencing using www.ukcampsites.co.uk (a bit of a misnomer as they do feature french ones too) just to check the feedback from previous campers (its always been pretty accurate). "Camping Le Brevedant" was spot on for us. The site is a former hunting lodge from the 1700's and has been owned by the same family for hundreds of years. Madame Bony who owns the site invited us all into her salon in the lodge on Sunday evening to hear her stories about growing up here, and the German occupation of the lodge and how the family ran out of money and how turning the site into a campsite meant that they kept the property in the family. Her son Raphael helps her run it now. He is a bit of a hippy and has a very laid back style - which we liked very much. He is very much into music and campers were invited to play their instruments in the bar in the lodge throughout the week - which added to the relaxed atmosphere.

The site is not perfect - it has one or too problems, but fortunately none of these affected us. We had a great pitch - just the swimming pool between us and the house on one side, and the lake on the other. We took our holiday tent with us this time - affectionately known as "the millennium dome" as it has a large circular living area with capsule bedrooms off this - another great end of season bargain. It had been £600 but we got it for £100 and have had plenty of use out of it. Its great for longer spells camping as it has plenty of room for table and chairs etc if it rains and a long tunnel where I can do the cooking.

One of the reasons for choosing this site was that it had a few amenities for entertaining a 15 year old boy - one of these being the (green) lake where you could fish or take the canoes out for a paddle.

However after his white water rafting holiday with school last year, a calm lake didn't appeal to him. But Hiawatha and Mini Haha found the experience very calming - no whinging kids in earshot!

Deauville and Trouville

Deauville and Trouville have been on my "list" every since a french lesson when I was 13 years old and Miss Greaves made it sound so glamorous. So whilst we were in the vicinity, we had to call in. I was a little disappointed, but they were worth a visit.

Deauville was nicer than Trouville, but they both had very grand displays of "faded glory". I bet they were splendid in their heyday!

Deauville caters very much to the rich Parisian set - all the shops were designer and very smart.

The old Boardwalks are well maintained - you can see the dancing queen in her appropriate french blue and white stripey top!

The hotels and casino's were really busy.

They had a fantastic display of photographs along the boardwalk displaying pictures of all the stars who holidayed in Deauville in the 1920's and 1930's. Now I know that they seem to have no "health & safety" rules in France, but I was so glad that Josephine Baker was not still around with her leopard!!!

I also loved the hundreds of movie stars names outside of the bathing huts. It was one of those places that I would love to step back in time and just soak up the glamour.

Honfleur

I knew that Honfleur was pretty as I had once tried to do an impossible jigsaw featuring the town, but in real life it was really really pretty. So good in fact that we visited twice - which is why some photos have grey skies, and the others blue.

I loved the restaurants - ready for the lunchtime rush. I still find it amazing how everything - except the restaurants - close between noon and 2.30(ish) so that everyone can eat a civilised meal together. And I still find it amazing how full every restaurant gets at lunchtime.

In Honfleur there is something to see down every alley way. Very Harry Potterish!

There are lots of narrow, twisty, winding streets.

And restaurants, with galleries and shops up to seven stories high around the harbour.

With pretty window boxes at almost every window.

And plenty of yachts bobbing around in the harbour. The town is on the estuary of the river Seine.

A really beautiful town. My photos don't do it justice - so look out for the jigsaw!!

A Rotherham Tart

Now why doesn't that conjur up the same image as "A NormandyTart"?


Inspired by the wonderful apple tarts that we have consumed in Calvados country, and delighted to find my own apple tree bearing so much fruit, I decided to cook up a treat.

Put the oven on at 200 degrees Celcius and pop a baking sheet in.

Peel and cut into chunks around 1 kg of apples

Pop 100g of butter and 150g sugar into a frying pan and cook apples in here into they are staring to get fluffy. You can add a splash of Calvados at this stage if you like.

Pour into a flan tin, or pie plate and top with ready rolled puff pastry.

Pop in over for around 20-25mins




Voila!!! Just add ceam, creme fraiche or custard and imagine you are in France.

Bon Apetite! xxxx

Well kept secrets

The seaside towns of Cabourg, Dives Sur Mer, and Houlgate on the Normandy coast must be the best kept secrets in France. It would appear that this is where Parisian families like to spend time in August. The beaches are vast when the tide goes out and the resorts themselves are very smart - much nicer than Deauville and Trouville down the road.








Cabourg is built around the very grand "Grand Hotel". It was a favourite of Marcel Proust, and they had someone dressed as him promenading around. I wasn't allowed to take a photo of him as the dancing queen thought it might just be someone "strange" and she was highly embarrassed!

They have some wonderful little shops here too. I disappeared into a fantastic sewing shop for ages. The young man was sent to find me. He declared it the wierdest shop ever because apparantly everybody in there looked like me!!

It would also seem the the french like to catch their starters before heading off home of an evening. Everyone was after what looked like cockles. Millions were being harvested - the dancing queen wondered how the cockle population would survive!

Dives Sur Mer was between Cabourg and Houlgate and it is from here that William the Conqueror set out to invade Britain. However the harbour looks nothing like it did it Williams day, the Marina was very swish with lots of fancy moored yachts.

Houlgate was my favourite though - it was so very well kept and sweet.

They call it the Belle Epoque town and the casinos, hotels....

Sea front apartments................

and villas were all very huge, amazing and very very well kept and used.

The young man and I spent and afternoon fossil hunting in the cliffs here too. He is really interested in Geography and has just been on a visit with school to our own eroding coastline in Yorkshire - so he was able to tell me all about cliff erosion and "boulder clay". I learned a lot from him! We found some great little finds in the boulder clay too.

No wonder the french have kept these special little places to themselves.

D-Day 6th June 1944

Being as it was hubby's 50th birthday earlier in the year, we had said that he could choose this years holiday destination, and it came as no surprise to any of us when he said that he would like to visit the landing beaches in Normandy. He is a bit of a World War 2 boff and he had always wanted to visit here since he was young. On the day that we did the American sector, the weather was very grey and mizzly (but strangely warm) and we all thought that it fitted the solemn mood. Our first port of call was St Mere Eglise. An American Parachute had accidentally been snagged on the church spire and he played dead for 2 hours before the Germans cut him down. I was relieved to read that he survived the war. They still hang a dummy on the church to commemorate this.

The stained glass window in the church depicts the importance of the ParachuteRegiment in the liberation of the village.

We then moved on to Utah Beach. Its hard to imagine what this would have looked like on the morning of the 6th June 1944 when the allies landed - and also the days after once the beaches had been secured and the tanks and jeeps began rolling in.

I thought that the kids would be bored, but they asked so many questions - all of which Dad answered in much detail.

Next stop was La Pointe du Hoc.

I was fascinated by the work being carried out to save the cliffs which are crumbling into the sea,

But the boys were more interested in exploring the Batteries and holes across the whole site. At this place, the Allies had to climb the cliffs once they had landed on the beach.

The area around here is littered with old bits of equipment like this landing craft. Hubby had us jumping in and out of the car to explore every piece!

We then went to Omaha Beach which was also massive. This temporary sculpture has been here at least 3 years longer than they intended it to be. It lights up blue in the evening. I bet it looks spectacular.

At the bottom end of Omaha Beach, lies the huge American Cemetery. It was around 5pm when we got here and I expected it to be fairly empty - the car park was packed! The sun came out too at this point. It is set in the most beautiful of settings (its the one featured at the start and finish of "Saving Private Ryan").

Nothing prepares you for the sight of 9387 graves - stretching as far as the (very watery) eye can see. It knocks you sideways. I couldn't help think of all the mothers who never got to see the final resting place of their sons. Hubby read me lots of facts and figures about the place, but the one that stuck was that their were 42 sets of brothers laid to rest here.

There are only 4 that have the "Medal of Honour" . I was amazed to find one, and a famous one at that too. He is buried with his brother by his side. His brother is the only one in the cemetery from the first world war.

The mosaic on the chapel ceiling was beautiful.

Finally, it was off to Arromanche for refreshments!! Here you could see the remains of the magnificent Mulberry Harbour that was built by the Allies to land tanks etc. So much of it is still intact.

It was a very special day for hubby as he had held a dream to visit for so long, but we all thought it was one of the most interesting and moving days out we had ever had.