Belgian kautta Ranskaan / Through Belgium to France

The Brewery

I have seen now something from Belgium too. Since Belgium is known from its great beers, I was brought to see a brewery. In Belgium are still today hundreds of brewerys and most of them are very local. You can find beers brewed in monasteries, beers brewed in farms or middle of a city, beers with cherries, mangos, bananas etc, so you can find almost all kind of combinations over there!

Veurne - village in Belgium

Coast in Belgium

Belgium is known from french fries too, if you thought that the French people invented them, no no, you are all wrong! So I needed to taste the original “pommes frites” from Belgium, very tasty and so greasy.
I saw the coast of Belgium, kilometer after kilometer sand beaches. My family found already years ago this picturesque small village called Veurne near coast and they wanted to see it back. Small town square surrounded with small bars and few shops. Behind the square was a very old church to see. We were walking around and had one of my boss favorite beers on a terrace, how refreshing, cheers! Proost! Salut! Kippis!

Arrived in France, hmmmm, very tasty :)

Cayeux-Sur-Mer and the message in the bottle!

On the left picture you can see this same cross on the top of the rocks very small

After seen a little of Belgium we started to drive towards France. We were passing Calais and felt a bit sad to not have the possibility to go in England. To bring a dog there is almost impossible… Well we have to go there back one time! Our first night we were spending in a small village, Cayeux-Sur-Mer, straight next to a sea as the name is telling. There was a place which was meant only for campers to use free of charge. No facilities, but view could have almost not been better (this place we found because we got a tip, thanks Piet!). In the village were big rocks, probably 100 meter high. We walked top of the rocks and enjoyed the scenery. My boss found “ a message in the bottle “ there. It was done in a champagne bottle and we gave a closer look to it. Message was obviously made by a young girl from England. She was telling in this note in French that her name was Lucy and that she was on holiday in France. There was also a drawing from her family on it. Behind the message was their phone number and number was telling that they came from England. Pity that there was no email address or mobile number that we could have sent just a message that the bottle was found!

Beatiful Entretat at day and night

Next stop and night to stay, was in village called Entretat. There were already more tourists to see. In the center was a nice boulevard to walk, beautiful old buildings, terraces to sit outside. And once again, high rocks! We slept next to police station in a parking place, so felt very much safe :). In Entretat we saw this chap from Portugal with his bicycle. He left from Portugal in 2003 and has been cycling all over since then, even in Finland! (And hey (!) to our Norwegian friends, you have still a lot to catch, this mate was really crazy!)

Normandy, the D-Day 6 June 1944

First house which got free from the Germans

One of the D-Day beaches

St. Mere-Eglise, see the American parashooter!

Next morning we continued to Normandy. We wanted to see things from the Second World War, landing places from the D-Day 6 June 1944. Natural starting point for a tour around the sights and memorials is this first French house which was liberated. We saw some monuments too. Weather was bad, non-stop rain. We were staying first time a night in camping called Canadian Scottish. Stepped in and asked if they could speak English (thought so because of the name!), but no, only French which meant that boss needed to practice her French. Manage to book the place, got electricity to load stuff and shower was very welcome too!
We stayed 4 days in Normandy and it was impressive. Very touching was to see those thousands of graves from the American soldiers. This place brings you quiet. We visited airborne museum in St. Mere-Eglise, Omaha beach were was one of the biggest battles, Longues-Sur-Mer battlefield and many other interesting places trough all along Normandy.

Hey, looks like me! A French cider cup, how nice!

Mont-Saint-Michel

View up from Mont-St.Michel

Special regards to our beer supplier in Mook, hahahaaa :)!

We bought cider from a cidrerie, Normandy is known from its cider production and there are many small local producers. They produce also Calvados and fresh apple juice. Our last night we stayed in Mont-Saint-Michel. I have never seen so many campers in one place! We arrived there already in good time that we could visit the place in peace. It is such a beautiful place, but as you can imagine, it is very crowded in august. Campers were allowed to stay in their parking spot over night, so did we!

We continued direction Bretagne and had few nights over there near beach. Huge difference comparing the weather in Normandy or Bretagne, even they are so close each other! Normandy was around 20 c and Bretagne 30 c and sunny, even hot! In Bretagne we took easy few days on camping, not doing too much of anything.

At the moment we are staying in a parking place in west coast of France, near Royan and tomorrow we head direction Bordeaux. Someone told me that there might be some good wine producers...

This place had a cool name :)