Month: July 2022

Thursday 23rd June

We’re off to La Mer,, the sea.

En route to our first seaside destination, Trouville, we stopped at the village of Pont L’Eveque. Here there is a crossing over the River Toucques, which was destroyed by the allied bombing, during the second World War. My first visit was to the church, which looked very imposing from the bridge.

The church had very large buttresses, which reminded me of some of the large cathedrals I had seen in other parts of France. Inside the stained glass windows were most unusually soft, pastel colours and rather contemporary in design .

One street escaped the ravages of war and the street is a wonderful example of the old Normandy half timbered architecture.

As we had limited time in Pont L’Eveque, we were soon on the road again and heading for the Normandy coast and the town of Trouville. Across the bridge from this is Deauville, but as there was difficulty in taking the coach there, it was decided to make Trouville the drop off stop. We had the choice of eating a leisurely lunch here or a very early dinner in Honfleur. i chose the former and joined two other fellow travellers for a fish meal. We walked past the fresh fish stalls displaying fresh oysters and muscles. There was a nice restaurant across the road, so we took a table here and perused the menu. I decided to have the mussels as a starter. They are not something I would normally choose, but I knew they’d be good here, so I ordered mussels for starters in memory of my late husband, Brian, who adored them, and my French friend Francoise, who had lived in Cabourg, just a few miles away. She had cooked them for me. I had delicious Cod for main course.

After our lovely lunch we went our separate ways. I had intended to go across the bridge to Deauville, but realised there wasn’t enough time, so I headed back to the coach pick up point, I realised I had enough time to walk along the wooden pier to the light house.

To the right the beach stretches out into the distance.

Back on the coach we set off for Honfleur i’d been there once before with my friend Francoise. It is part of the Seine estuary and has a beautiful little basin, with the most wonderful, multi-coloured, historic houses. Some people were going exploring, but all I wanted to do was sit outside a bar/restaurant in the sun and soak up the atmosphere

To my right was a charming carousel

After enjoying my relaxing time I decided to find somewhere for a light meal and found a suitable place further down and was presented with a beautiful salad.

Another really lovely day in Normandy.

After my time spent in Giverny it was time to return to the coach and drive on to our next destination, a cider farm, called ”Le Verger de Giverny”. This was a surprise, organised for us by Justin, our tour guide. We were greeted by a very genial host and sat down to watch a video about the production of cider on the farm

Justin had told us that the business of attracting visitors had grown from a very small affair to a much larger enterprise. The video explained that three different types of apples were used and mixed together to give the distinctive flavour. These included the main medium tasting apple, a sweet apple, and a bitter apple, Most of the apple picking and sorting was done by robots, followed by the pressing. The cider was left to age in barrels, which also added to the flavour. Following the video we passed through a room with very large stainless steel vats holding huge quantities of cider. Following these the cider was aged in barrels, which also contributed to the flavour.

After the explanation on production we were directed to a different area, where there were tables and chairs and a very inviting looking piece of Normandy Apple Tart.

After taking our seats we were offered a variety of apple based drinks. The first of these was a plain apple juice, which I declined and instead accepted the cider, which was delicious. The third drink was the very strong ”Calvados”, which at 46% was not for the faint hearted . The apple tart was also delicious. You were able to buy direct from the producer, who also offered honey. I purchased three bottles of cider and a small tub of honey.

After our exciting and varied day it was back to Lisieux on the coach. We had a lovely view of the Seine, crossing the river at Vernon Chris had explained to us that people who lived in Lisieux were referred to as Lexiers A number of businesses start with Lex and the restaurant we ate at this evening was Lexus.. Looking out of my hotel room window I could see that the weather had changed and the night sky was very stormy with the beautiful lit church looking proud against the stormy sky. A dramatic end to a magnificent day