Letter from London: 1 of 2015

My dear family & friends

We’re in 2015 already – whatever happened to 1989? I am reminded of a T-shirt slogan from many years ago: “Stop the world – I want to get off.” Although my favourite T-shirt humour is still: “Fuck Google. Ask me.”

But that’s not why I started writing this. My point was rather to say that you can find the pictures of our short stay in France over xmas in the usual place here.

This is the link to the top directory to all my web albums, if you’re interested.

We had a really interesting few days. It was the first time we had taken the dogs with us on vacation in Europe, and we enjoyed their company. They haven’t expressed any opinion one way or the other as to their French sojourn, so far.

It also wasn’t really one of those “sit back and laze around holidays” because I am genetically pre-programmed to do and see as much as possible when going somewhere new. So we drove around quite a lot. Among my pictures you can see maps of where we went each day. I’ve got Google Location Reporting set to “On” on my mobile phone, so I can always see exactly where I’ve been. The maps in the album are essentially screenshots of that location history.

We had a bit of a disconcerting start to our time in France. Within five minutes of driving off the Eurotunnel train at Calais, we were considerably  surprised to see someone on the roof of a truck travelling at around 80km/h. My first thoughts were: “What is that dickhead doing on the roof of that truck?” He then proceeded to swing himself over the side of the trailer, and kick and slash his way through the tarpaulin on the side of the trailer. We did the most logical thing under such circumstances – slow down and take pictures (which you can find in the album.) The truck driver was desperately begging passing motorists to call the police. Which I dutifully did. Except the Emergency Services operator didn’t speak English, and I don’t speak French. We never did see how the episode ended.  Perhaps more importantly, I sent the pictures to the Daily Mail – but they didn’t seem terribly interested either (or maybe they weren’t interested in my suggestion that they pay me for the pictures.)

Instead of annotating our days, let me pick out a few experiences.

We really enjoyed the xmas market in Amiens (despite the persistent rain.) The stalls sported a wide range of interesting handicrafts and goods. The whole ambience was really festive. We bought saucisson and a cured ham, and I found an xmas present for Lucia – a sort of a pendant thingy used to secure a scarf around her neck.  I was struck by how different the Amiens market was compared to any of the xmas markets we’ve experienced in England which I find to be quite boring and over-commercialised. My neighbour David explained it to me like this: There is no real tradition of xmas markets in the UK and councils simply use them as a revenue earner, charging very high rents. The result is that the ambience is quite soulless, and goods on sale are just the usual over-priced tat.  It’s such a pity.

On xmas day we did some serious driving from our apartment in Le Tréport to Sword Beach near Ouistreham, where British and Canadian soldiers landed on D-Day 1944 – a round trip of 500km. I got to see the Pont de Normandie over the River Seine near Le Havre.  I’m a bit of a bridge nut, and this one falls into my all-time must-see bridges. It’s a cable-stayed, humpbacked bridge – a true feat of engineering, a marvel to behold and beautiful.I still want to go and gawp at the Millau Bridge.

Just over the bridge, one comes to the town of Hornfleur. If ever we get to do something like this again, this is where we’re staying (on the assumption that we’ll be able to afford it, of course.) It’s ancient, quaint and beautiful, set on a hill around a small fishing harbour. There are plenty of sandy beaches for long walks with the dogs, and the drive along the corniche to Trouville-sur-Mer is quite beautiful. I noticed that there were quite a few gîtes and other accommodation advertised along the road which all looked magically alluring (although, I suppose, that magic rather depends on price – it may turn out to be more like witchcraft.)

At the far end of our drive, we walked the dogs along Sword Beach which stretches five miles from Ouistreham in the east to Saint-Aubin-sur-Mer in the west. I found it quite hard to get my head around the fact that people had fought to the death over this lovely strip of sand 70 years ago. It really is just a fantastic beach – albeit one dotted with concrete machine gun bunkers.

Continuing on the theme of war, we also spent half a day exploring Dieppe which is just 28km from Le Tréport.  The history buffs among you will know that the Dieppe Raid in August 1942 was an unmitigated disaster – and it’s not difficult to see why. The town is surrounded by high chalk cliffs on either side of the Arques river – and those cliffs are dotted with the remains of concrete machine gun bunkers that made it easy for the Germans to defend the town. But on the flipside of that disaster, it taught the Allies that any invasion of France would require overwhelming force on ground that could not be easily defended. And so it was that the Allies landed 156 000 soldiers on the beaches of Normandy on 6 June 1944.

But my abiding memory of Dieppe is a little more prosaic. It was freezing on the morning we visited the town, with an icy wind blowing in off the Channel that hunted down any gaps in your clothing with malice. The first port of call was a cafe/bar/tabac on the waterfront for a warming cappuccino – dogs allowed. While my back was turned ordering our drinks at the bar, Lucia was busy wrapping her scarf around Edgar (alias: soft dog), and then she topped the look off with her knitted woollen cap. (See pictures.) Shortly afterwards a table of locals came and sat down next to us, happily taking note of Edgar’s jaunty look. But they really fell apart laughing when Lucia removed the hat and scarf – and dressed herself with them once again.  Now ... given their reaction, it struck me that they appeared to think that such a nattily dressed dog was normal. Umm ....

My final point of interest comes from our drive back to Calais on our way home. We chose a route which would take us up the coast to the mouth of the River Somme, before cutting back to the motorway – just for the hell of it. What we discovered was the town of Saint-Valéry-sur-Somme. It too is just lovely. It has a medieval town with a church and walls dating back over a thousand years, surrounded by a more modern (18th century) town running along the river at the mouth of the Somme.  It also looks like a place where I could spend a lot more time – a beautiful town, sandy beaches around the corner, and lots of interesting places relatively nearby. My point is – this is definitely something to consider if you’re looking for a place for a short stay break just across the channel.

And that was our xmas.

Happy New Year to you all
Love, light & peace
L