Honfleur & Bayeux
On our journey to Honfleur we experienced the first “Peage a Flux Libra” – free flow toll roads, no booths, no tickets & no payment machines. You have to log on to their website to find out how much you owe & pay it within 72 hours – or else! We set an alarm for the following day, as the details can take 24 hours to register. Our overnight spot was in a suburb of Honfleur, which was a 2 mile walk to get there, fortunately an easy walk! The CCP wasn’t the best as it was under a motorway bridge. The alternative would have been the aire in Honfleur, which looked rammed with vehicles. We chose Honfleur as G had been here years ago & wanted to revisit. Now we love a good browse & nose in the shops, but it really was tat central. Really hot & busy too. We walked down to the outer harbour to look at the Port de Normandie & Le Havre beyond, which looked particularly ugly & industrial looking. Feeling slightly deflated by our day, we wandered back, both saying that we were glad we’d only booked 1 night there.
Up early & on the road as we were hoping to stay at an aire in Bayeux, as we’ve found out that the Europeans like getting up & on the road early. No problem! We arrived & there were a lot of free spaces, the parking was free during the day & only 5.50 Euro’s from 6pm until 8am. No services apart from bins/recycling. First up the tapestry museum, however when we got there the queue was about an hour & a half to get in. We waited & eventually got in. It was packed, the queue to view the tapestry moved slowly, so the audio guide was out of alignment to the place on the tapestry. It was great to see it though, we missed it last year & vowed to come back. No photo’s allowed in the museum. We purchased a dual ticket that also gave us entry to the Battle of Normandy museum too, so that was on the list for the afternoon. We wrongly assumed that Bayeux wouldn’t be worth seeing. It was. We had a great day, the architecture on the cathedral was jaw dropping, it looked like a film set! So the rest of the day went like this, found a patisserie for a pavement picnic. However our eclairs were boxed up to take away, very posh! We then walked around the cathedral & discovered that there was a sound & light show that evening. So that was straight on our list! A late night for us. Walked over to the museum & spent a couple of hours in there. Across the road from the museum was the war cemetery with 4,648 graves. G found the cemetery log & wrote a note in there (as he always does) & we found the graves with extra information plaques. Detailing the lives/families of those buried in the plot. In this cemetery there were only 7 of them. As we we were going out that evening, we popped back for a siesta & food. The light show was billed to start at Nightfall & we had to google what that meant! Apparently it is usually 20 minutes after the sunset, so by our reckoning it should have started around 21.45. Found a bar that sold draught Guinness, so sat & enjoyed a drink whilst people watching. That said it was 18 Euros for the pint & a glass of wine. Sound & light show didn’t start until gone 22.00, it was lovely though. Lots of primary colour moving projections on to the cathedral. Tired out we wandered back. Bayeux certainly lifted our spirits & glad we decided to visit.
