Brittany
My first experience of France, was a family trip to Brittany in summer after finishing my a levels. Grateful to discover I had reasonably good sea legs on the ferry, I joined in with fascination as we discovered warm seas, stunning sights and scrummy crepes. I was particularly taken with the fortified island in Concarneau and the standing stones at Carnac. One of my takeaways, however, involved a British couple on the ferry home who declared their loathing of the French pancakes, calling them creepies. Nowt as queer as folk!
So with a toddler and a six-month-old, hubby and I ventured back to Brittany, staying in a fabulous gite with a pool table, which we returned to one year later. We were truly bitten by the explorer bug, but one of our excursions, seeking a place known as Merlin's Tomb in Paimpont forest, our trusty Volvo ended up in a ditch. Both being engineers, we returned To the site and borrowed enough logs (conveniently lying around), to lift the tyre out of a ditch. On returning them, we gave copious thanks to Merlin - it truly was a magical experience.
Normandy
We enjoyed our first trip, in October 2000, so much, we returned three more times in that decade. We also popped over to Caen in November 2017 for my daughter's birthday - she was working in Paris at the time. The big pulls for us were the Bayeux tapestry, the Normandy landing beaches, and the jewel in the crown: the Mont St Michel. There’s something truly magical about the narrow, cobbled streets which wend their way around the island up to the abbey of Saint Michael at the summit. It seems every square inch of the island is devoted to tourism, with wall-to-wall hotels, restaurants, cafes and souvenir shops. We returned there several times, the most recent included a two-night stay in La Mere Poulard to celebrate my 60th birthday.
That visit coincided with the 80th anniversary of the start WWII, so there were a stack of related events, around the patch.
The previous year (2018) was the 100th anniversary of end WWI, so I organised a trip for Dad and I to visit a bunch of salient sites, including a trip following the Somme for dozens of miles. We toured several war memorials and museums, including the Wellington tunnels at Arras – well worth a visit.
But even more memorable for me were the tunnels at Bouzincourt – we were lucky to get a private viewing and, without all the safety features, it was much closer to the experience the men would have had.
