Day 1 20th June 2022
Whitegate near Northwich, Cheshire to Liseux in Nomandy, France
After an absence of four years since I last visited France I am on my way again. In the past I would have never considered a coach trip, but now that I am on my own the prospect has become much moe appealing, and when I saw the itinerary for this trip I was sold Thus I was up at 5am to be ready to drive to meet the coach at 7am outside the home of my former French conversation teacher, who had organised the trip. We are travelling all the way with a company called Lakeside and our first driver, Paul regaled us with his “Fronglaise,” which was rather entertaining.
After stops at Norton Caines, where we changed drivers to Chris, an equally happy chappy, Cherwell, where we picked up co tour guide, Justin, and Chevely, for some lunch to eat en route we arrived at Portsmouth at 1.15pm ready for our crossing to Caen, or more strictly speaking, Ouistreham After COVID passes checks and passports, which ran very smoothly, we were waved through to board our 14.45 crossing. As I was with a group we were allocated a room, but it was way too lovely a day to stay in there and we soon found the outside deck and were treated to beautiful views of Portsmouth harbour as we departed.
After a crossing of over five hours we arrived at Ouistreham where there were delays waiting for a shuttle bus, which we shared with a group of very excited school children, followed by immigration, we boarded our Lakeside coach and drove for another hour to Lisieux, where we are staying at the Grand Hotel de l’Esperance for five nights We were greeted by a very welcoming patron and after retrieving my suitcase I made my way to my room on the fifth floor, typically French with a lovely bathroom A very long but happy day.
