On the ferry.
In July 2023, Daddy (Simon), Mummy (Kim), Owen, Auntie Kate, Sadie, Nana (Mary) and Grandad (Bern) went on holiday to Normandy, France to relax, spend time together and explore the D-Day beaches and other cultural sites of the area.
Travel day - Sadie has stayed over night with us. Daddy and Owen up at 07:30, but Sadie already up and Nana been up since 5. Owen joins Sadie in the lounge with a big smile.
Grandad, Nana, Auntie Kate and Sadie set off at 09:30 with caravan in tow. Daddy, Mummy and Owen depart at 10:30.
Ferry is the 'Normandie' by Brittany Ferries from Portsmouth to Caen/Ouistreham taking 5 hours 45 minutes setting out at 14:45. Good setup with lifts from car decks to the upper decks. Floor 7 has the salons, cinemas, duty-free shop and most of the cabins. Floor 8 has restaurants. Floor 9 has the bar, diner and kids play room. Very smooth crossing although most of us had taken Stugeron.
Owen barely stops moving for the first couple of hours. Daddy takes him to do lots of walking up and down steps, watch some entertainment in the bar (dancing game on the nintendo switch) and then into the kids play room. The other children in there are a bit too old for Owen and a little boisterous with it. He copes ok though.
Nana sleeps lots (she needs to catch up after not sleeping much in nights leading up to the trip). Auntie Kate sleeps on the floor (she's been to a party the night before). Grandad goes outside to look at boats. Sadie makes elaborate, multi-coloured bracelets for her friends.
Owen does sleep after being pushed around in the pushchair for an hour by Mummy and Auntie Kate.
Takes us an hour to get through passport control after getting off the ferry. One of the last off as we were one of the first on. Then an hour drive from the ferry port to the campsite. A horrible drive for Daddy and Grandad. Dark, on the wrong side of the road and driving rain. Really hard to see the markings to keep us in lane. Caravan and crew get there before us. We are shown to the cabin by a buggy. Kate and Sadie already inside.
The cabin is great. Lots of room and very cosy. Auntie Kate and Sadie take the double room with en-suite. Daddy sleeps with Owen in room with single bed and cot. Mummy sleeps in twin room (Daddy will spend most of the week in this room). Nana and Grandad on a pitch a bit of a distance away. Nice pitch though and good shower block close by.
Late start as all tired and catching up on sleep.
Drive to supermarket down the road in Port en Bessin for Daddy, Mummy and Auntie Kate. Big and had everything we wanted including swimming trunks for Daddy (who had only brought shorts which were banned). Lunch of pâté, bread, cheese, and salmon salad.
Owen for a swim with Daddy, Auntie Kate and Sadie. He enjoyed it, but it was busy and a little cold compared to English indoor baby swimming pools. He liked the steps, but a bit too distracted by all the other people to swim lots.
Evening meal of beef bourguignon and haricot vert cooked by Auntie Kate. Surprisingly nice considering it was from a tin. But how did we forget to buy ice creams! Chocolate and cakes instead.
To Bayeux this morning as the weather was not great. To the Museé memorial de la Bataille de Normandie. Dual tickets bought for the tapestry. 14 Euros each. Great museum on the 4 months of battle rather than concentrating on the landings. A 25 minute film watched near the start which was great. Owen stayed still eating rice cakes, mostly on Daddy's knee watching the film. A moving film with Nana most upset. Daddy mostly then running around after Owen (who was on reins). Lots of ramps, steps and touching wheels.
Out to the cemetery and monument opposite. Mummy glad she went to that. The bit she really wanted to see. Lots of reading gravestones. A reminder that some were as young as 19. Very uniform layout with no priority for rank. Beautifully maintained. A wonderful, respectful memorial. But, buildings are creeping closer in the surrounding fields.
Owen had a splash around in the baby pool with Grandad, Sadie and Auntie Kate. A brilliant addition for kids around Owen's age. Slides the big hit. There were lots of water cannons that didn't bother Owen much at all. Lots of sitting, splashing and wading, provided more good fun. Sadie onto the bigger slides, but Owen needed warming up and a nap.
Evening meal at the restaurant. Grandad - Spare ribs. Sadie - Burger. Mummy - Chicken burger. Auntie Kate - Shrimp and salmon salad. Nana - bowl of chips. Daddy - steak. Owen a bit of everything. A bit disappointing. Burger and muscles obviously their speciality with everything else a bit weak. Live music was playing in the adjoining room and was distracting, but turned out the be the only time we witnessed the evening activities provided by the campsite.
Quick trip to the games room upstairs. Arcade games, table tennis and pool table. Before back for Skyjo. Owen late to bed.
Much sunnier this morning. Pool not open until 11, so early swim not an option. Auntie Kate, Nana and Grandad went for a walk, east along, almost coastal, path past barley fields and donkeys. Sadie to mini-club. Crafted a pottery toadstool house. Made friends with some Irish girls, Lily and Chloe.
Nana, Grandad, Mummy, Daddy and Owen went to US cemetery at Colleville. As Daddy remembered mostly, compared to the last visit decades earlier. Huge. Very different feel from the British cemetery. Designed for very large crowds, and we were baffled as to why to start with, but the car park was really filling up by the time we left. It is the most visited war cemetery in the world. It has a good visitor centre, which was basically a museum of the D-Day landings from an American point of view. The cemetery is vast with white crosses (and the odd Jewish star). A large monument with a bronze statue and maps of the invasion overlooks the whole vista. We had a good walk around and look down onto Omaha beach.
Back for lunch of baguettes, etc.
Sadie spent some time playing with Lily and Chloe.
Mummy read her book. Last of a trilogy she was determined to finish by the end of the trip. Daddy slept. Then we went for a walk around the campsite.
Meal of salad, eggs and potatoes.
Had the option to go to the circus, but avoided it mainly due to moral issues with how animals are kept. Owen was taken to see the donkey, llama and dogs. Sadie and Auntie Kate went swimming instead.
Sadie at mini-club. Waterpolo (a change to the schedule as it was wet). Scored lots of goals and saved lots too.
Nana, Grandad, Mummy, Daddy and Owen drove to Arromanches. 360° cinema. OK. Good footage of first 100 days of the battle. No commentary really. Grandad stayed out playing with Owen as we were advised it may be too loud for him.
Walk down to the Museé Débarquement, but long queue so gave up. Arromanches is where one of the two temporary Mulberry harbours was set up to dock supplies during the battle. There was still some of the parts dotted around the bay which was good to see. Daddy trekked back up the very steep hill to retrieve car so everyone else can be picked up and ferried home.
A stop on the way back, at the bunkers or Longues-sur-Mer. Guns still in 2 of 4 of them. Daddy glad to see them. You get a feeling of what it was like to be a German in the conflict and get an understanding of what the invading troops had to face. Owen enjoyed time on Daddy's shoulders.
Back via supermarket. We were so late back that Auntie Kate was getting worried.
Sleep in afternoon as raining.
Sadie did escape room at mini-club then to Bayeux with Auntie Kate and Grandad.
Nana looking for 100 euro note she "hid" in the van. Didn't manage to find it.
Evening meal of chunky chicken, cauliflower and sweetcorn. Finished the day with a game of occupations (with 'French' and 'war' categories), chocolate and wine.
Owen started the day with a swim (well mostly slide) with Grandad.
Walk down to Port en Bessin for all of us. A lovely port town. Lunch at restaurant on the harbourside. Moules for Grandad and Daddy. Fish and chips for Mummy and Nana. Burger for Sadie. Seafood mix for Auntie Kate. Super.
Owen got his head stuck in barriers crossing the river when walking with Grandad! It traumatised Grandad much more than Owen.
Walk back to the campsite up the steep hill. We stop at the memorial to those that liberated this town and a bunker left over from the German occupation. Owen fell asleep in pushchair.
Another swim for Owen with Daddy. Jumping in, sliding and lots of steps.
Meal of bread and cheese. Quick game of boy-girl. Owen had a long game of ball with Sadie on the deck.
Out to Bayeux to tapestry for all. Daddy eventually found parking close by. The map had been a bit misleading, but should have listened to Grandad who had found free parking not much further away.
A great audio guide accompanied the tapestry. You walk along with it explaining every scene and pointing out anything you should really focus on. Owen a little noisy in pushchair but good enough. They had asked whether he wanted an audio-guide. I think they misunderstood how young he was!
Upstairs was an exhibition explaining the history, construction and preservation of the tapestry. No chance of Owen sitting still through the provided film, and Mummy was exhausted so only others watched that.
Found a neat little restaurant nearby, next to the cathedral where we could sit outside. Croque monsieur for some. Crepes for others. Great.
Into the cathedral for look. Impressive.
Onto Gold Beach memorial. Constructed in 2021. Nana had seen it on the news at that time, so it was on her list places we must visit. Very big. Suited for lots of coaches. Unfortunately we were a little underwhelmed by it.
To Gold Beach to fill up Sadie's bottle of sand. Owen paddled in a stream.
Back home. Daddy cooked chicken with spiced créme fraîche with veg.
Sleeping queens card game before bed.
Daddy joins Auntie Kate and Grandad for an early swim. 30/40 lengths. Sadie playing with Amy, an English girl who, unfortunately, is going home at 11 that day.
Walk down to town for everyone for some lunch. Decided on La Rotunde restaurant. Close to the market for the harbor. Croque monsieur for Sadie and Nana. Fish and chips for Mummy and Grandad. Burger for Daddy. Fish in sauce with calamari rings for Auntie Kate. Good and impressively quick.
Walk back up the hill with Auntie Kate and Sadie being escorted into the bunker by Daddy. They had been too scared to go in alone before.
Daddy and Grandad drove to the local museum. It was laughably bad. Military equipment that sank during D-Day which had been salvaged in the 70s as part of a clean-up by the French government. Unfortunately not much had been done with the hunks of rusty metal since then. Very little of the typewriter and pritstick captions were in English. A film explaining how they had salvaged it was all in French so largely useless to us. Never mind.
Sadie, Daddy, Mummy and Owen went for a swim. Very good kicking and jumping/falling in to Daddy. Daddy took Owen on slow big slide.
Dinner of bread etc. inside. Had been a sunny day, but very windy.
Daddy had eventually read the rules to new game, 'Backpacker' so we played that. Sadie really enjoyed it. The gameplay could be a bit harsh for others taste.
Lots of rain. Grandad, Auntie Kate and Sadie went for a swim first thing.
Auntie Kate, Grandad and Daddy to Arromanches and the Museé du Débarquement on the Mulberry harbours. Very interesting. Audio guide very good with models and videos. Some of it a duplication of other museums but second half on the harbours construction, transportation and use, was very good.
Back for lunch indoors. Some napping. Games for most. Backpacker which Sadie won. Uno and Rummycub.
Swim for Owen, Mummy and Daddy. The 'family swim' Kim wanted.
Dinner in the campsite restaurant. Much better than the first time. Nana - Fish and chips. Grandad - Chicken curry. Sadie - Croque monsieur. Auntie Kate and Daddy - Burger. Back to the cabin to attempt to finish off the remaining ice creams and a final game of Skyjo. Sadie was doing fashion design drawings in a book throughout the evening. Very impressive.
Owen to bed at the same time as others = very late.
Up for a hour long swim in the pool for Owen, Daddy, Grandad, Auntie Kate and Sadie. Mummy watching. Lots of good kicking and jumping in. Cold outside, but braved the little slide then big slides with Daddy first, then Sadie.
Packing up took a while. Lunch of leftovers and fresh bread Auntie Kate had cycled to get. Allowed to stay as late as we wanted fortunately. Final bit of packing and then 5 of us drove off at 2pm. Nana very sad to see us go. They were booked into another campsite nearby to extend their holiday until the end of the week.
Easy drive (especially compared to the other direction). Onto the ferry. A different boat to before: 'Mont St. Michel'. The experience of the way out meant we were straight into the salon as before. Just as empty.
Sadie played Mario Carts on the Nintendo Switch in the bar. Auntie Kate, Daddy and Owen cheered her on.
Owen played in junior room. Very happy trying different toys with lots of others, roughly the same age.
Some food then Mummy, then Daddy, wheeled Owen around in his pushchair to get him to sleep.
Drive home pretty good. Most slept. Back to Hertford for all 5 just before midnight.
A wonderful family holiday. The weather could have been nicer to us, but we always planned on lots of cultural trips to museums, cemeteries and D-Day beaches, so the rain had little impact on those trips.
Owen had so much fun, but also developed so well with all the stimulation of people around (especially his cousin) and all the activities on the campsite.
The trips out were a pretty good mix. Some museums were great. Arromanches' Museé du Débarquement was the top tip, but Bayeux's Museé memorial de la Bataille de Normandie and the Bayeux tapestry also very highly recommended. A lot of the exhibits and trips to the cemeteries were very emotional. Especially good for Mummy to experience them as a historian, but lots for us all to learn and a good reminder of how thankful we must be for those that gave their lives for the freedom of us all.
The campsite was wonderful. As it was the first year this site was being used by Yelloh Village, it was surprisingly good, and the improvement works they have planned will only make it better. Again, we all would recommend Yelloh Village resorts highly. Having the 6 person cabin meant it was just about big enough for 7 of us during the day. It made the difference when it was wet to have room to eat inside and the covered outside terrace was amazing to use.
The best part of the holiday was being together. Thoroughly enjoyable chatting and playing with each other.