We decided against Brittany after looking a the weather forecast. So we ended up in St. Emilion near Bordeaux an extra 200 mile south but worth it. The weather was warm and sunny in the 80’s.
We chose a site called La Brabanne from the Camping Cheques brochure. A first class site in every department.
This area is Famed for it’s wines, therefore, it was un-supprising to find the area is nothing but vineyards. the town is very old and quaint and everything is to do with wine. Wine tasting on every corner, some very posh indeed. 1 bottle of Chateau Laffite Rothschild selling at 1600 Euros. Ouch!
Now about this wine tasting. Nobody told me that the correct thing to do was spit it out, so as mine went down instead of out I always ended up with funny speech. Good job the site was within walking distance. Wine tasting and tours over the area doesn’t seem to have a lot to offer for a long holiday so after 5 days we decide to move on.

The choice was Royan and the site was Sequoia Park, Again a camping cheques site, once again another first class site but a lot bigger and a lot more multi-national, as we found out on football nights in the tv lounge.
The area is famous for oyster production and everywhere sells the ugly things. Try as I might I just couldn’t bring myself to try them even though they were drenched with lemon and a glass of white wine to help them down. Just the thought put me off. I’ll stick to the wine by itself. Very interesting industry though. It employs thousands. I heard that area was famous also for it’s beaches and this turned out to be true. Some so empty that we were the only ones on.
Because of the sea it also thrives on ’Fruits de Mer’. Every restaurant specialises in seafood. You can even choose live lobster from a display tank to be cooked for dinner the following evening, unfortunately at a price. I played safe and stuck to steak or lamb and mostly from ’a la barbecue’.

Unfortunately I suffered because of the sun. Why is it I discard socks for once a year and get my feet burnt, along with a few mozzie bites, it was quite painful.

What we did find on our travels in the area was several ’camping a la ferme’ the equivilant ot our cl’s. There are no license restrictions and some of them are quite superb. One even had a swimming pool and all for about £9 a night. We’ll be looking into this type of site for next year.

It was our intention to call back at Normandy and have a look at some of the D Day beaches so after a week we set off for Cherbourg to stay a a little site we found two years ago called La Galouette at a place called St. Vaast La Hogue. I don’t know why but you never see this site mentioned anywhere and yet it is a great little site on the edge of the town about 3-4 mins walk from the harbour and marina. Low and behold I again came face to face with the dreaded oysters. Is there no escape from these things anywhere in France ? :o)

Unfortunately the weather returned to being typically British and a sweater was called for.

As far as the WWII history goes, the area is absolutely flooded with it. A nice little touch was that all the houses where displaying the Union Jack and Stars and Stripes even though the celebrations were over. It is very evident however that the gratefulness of these people will never dimish.....
There are two excellent museums at Utah beach and St. Mere Elglise were busy giving lessons of D Day to young school children. Was it gimmicky, yes a little bit but also very moving as well.

Finally..... all good things come to an end and it was off for the 5am ferry on Sunday.... Oh well, we’ll start planning for next year.

Harry Burrows. CLIC. July 2004

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