Welcome to my final post of 2024! It’s been a great year travelling, starting off slowly with our wedding in March, followed by our first trip to Barcelona and Andorra the day after in April. Next up was a trip to the Algarve with my Mum for a dire Wales football draw with Gibraltar. The big one was undoubtedly our fabulous honeymoon to South America in August, although my solo trip to Montenegro and Dubrovnik in September was very enjoyable.
This trip was different as I’d be driving in another country. I did drive from Prague to Amsterdam way back in 2013 but that’s a distant memory.
The purpose of the trip was to visit Mont St Michel, a small island of the northern coast of France I had wanted to visit for a few years now. Once this was an option, we were able to plan around it, and whistle stop tours of Bayeux, Rennes and Caen made up our itinerary.
Getting around
I usually detail all of the public transport options here, but the car was an obvious luxury, and an absolute necessity for our itinerary. We caught the ferry from Portsmouth to Caen. This not only saved us 2 hours by not driving to Dover for the ferry or Eurotunnel, but also 2 or 3 hours on the French side getting to Bayeux for day 1. This did mean the ferry was overnight rather than a few hours, however it did save us from probably forking out two additional hotel stays.
The roads in France were good. It took some getting used to driving on the right hand side, especially the roundabouts and the km/miles conversion, but nothing that should put you off. There is a chance I caught caught by the sole speed camera and an incoming €59 fine, although at the moment I’m confident the flash was for the car going the other direction at some pace! Worth noting that parking was surprisingly cheap.
Costs
We didn’t get much change from £900 for the whole trip, which was quite a bit more than we expected.
The big cost was the ferry at £380 return for a car, two passengers and a £40 cabin each way. Diesel was around the same as the UK, so another £150.
We tried to save a little on hotels. Mont St Michel’s hotel Vert was £90 including breakfast and parking… This was a great location and the cheapest in the small area. Rennes was £65 including breakfast and free parking. Caen £50 all in.
We cut back on food and drink, taking a load of drinks in the car and mostly takeaways for food.
Not forgetting the £25 expense on a car kit to adhere to French law. Not so fun fact: If you drive in France it is mandatory that you have a hi-viz jacket, warning triangle, UK car sticker and headlight deflectors where necessary. We didn’t see another car with the deflectors. Maybe newer cars can be changed somewhere on the dashboard to point them in the correct direction but I couldn’t be arsed to investigate.
I don’t want to waste another paragraph on this, but I noticed a lot of sets stated you also need a fire extinguisher, first aid kit and other nonsense, but the RAC and Eurotunnel websites stated just those four.
What we didn’t do…
To be honest we had a full four days, with keeping time aside to relax (it was a holiday like) so I’m not disappointed in missing anything obvious. Had we had more time and preparation, perhaps a deeper investigation of the coastline and war beaches would have been really interesting.
When in Rennes, a friend suggested visiting Nantes but was a bit further out the way. The beauty of the trip, apart from one 120 minute drive, was that the place hopping commutes were limited to just 20-60 minutes.
It’s also “only” (Kay’s words) a 4 hour drive to Disneyland from Caen. So fill your boots with the endless possibilities.
Itinerary
Day One – Bayeux and bits
Obviously the ferry ride went alright. Paint me Jack… Time to drive on the wrong i.e. right side of the road for the first time in 11 years, and with an automobile I’m actually responsible for.
Straight off the bat outside of the port I blindly rocked up 80kmh at the first unexpected roundabout. I’d like to think the presence of headlights would have stopped me had there been some, but yeah, first learning curve eight minutes in.
Luckily for us and the population of France we weren’t on the motorway long as we turned off to head to our first stop, as it was around 7:30am and nearby Bayeux attractions opened at 10am.
After driving through a few miles of country lanes, it was strange to see a massive area for 10+ coach spaces and 100+ cars. However, as said area notified us that we couldn’t park until 9am, we continued and parked on a verge right by the sight we wanted to see.
Our stop was Longues-sur-Mer Battery. Here were quote “huge, preserved WWII gun installations, built by the Germans to defend France from sea invasion.” The battery is the only one in Normandy to retain several of its original guns.
Many return readers will note I don’t tend to bother with religious buildings, museums or history in general. However, in this neck of the woods pretty much all of the above were unavoidable. And I loved the experience.
If any historians are reading please note that my posts are not much more than a diary for my own benefit. I’m usually a cider loving football fan from Wales.
It quickly hit us that these machines were not only an unfamiliar attraction in itself, but were used as a weapon during WW2 to actually kill people. Certain they did.
The area contained a few of these stations. We saw three of four, being way too scared in limited daylight to explore the narrow passageways behind the turrets, before returning to the car for our short 30 minute journey to the surprisingly small town of Bayeux.
Now THIS is a fun fact. The last time I visited the Bayeux Tapestry was on exactly 2nd July 2000. Chrissy an innocent 12 year old. I remember the day vividly as later on that evening France won the Euro 2000 final with a David Trezeguet golden goal.
Nos-fucking-talgia.
Perhaps due to this incredible moment in time, I had ABSOLUTELY NO RECOLLECTION of what the Bayeux Tapestry building looked like, and my old age, obviously. After the fourth change of direction we finally reached the magnificent building, which in fairness looked similar to other building in the beautiful town. Tickets were bought. Museum go.
I have probably touched upon the fact I try to avoid museums, art and religious stuff on my travels, if not already here on every other blog, but if you’re in the area = visit the Bayeux Tapestry.
The Tapestry i.e. the bit of cloth you see, depicts 1066 and William the Conqueror… ummm… conquering England.
My aforementioned new found loves of this trip, including museums, will stop at history lessons. So find that out for yourself. I’m gonna focus on the amazing feat that a SEVENTY odd meter bit of cloth made it into this museum being about, give or take a THOUSAND years old. That’s a bit impressive ain’t it?
Honestly, I would not have had a clue what what was going on had it not been for the free audio guide breaking up each scene on the display. Lasting about 30 minutes, it was a perfect walk and listen overview of the tapestry for me personally.
As buzzing as I could be at 11am on a misty 27th December having been up since 5 and driving the wrong way since 6am, I couldn’t help but notice how wonderful the small town of Bayeux was. I guess coachloads come and go just for the Tapestry, but as we wanted to get every cent from the parking arrangement headed to the impressive Bayeux Cathedral and a walk around the streets. I also lost my cigarette lighter that needed replacing. So two birds one stone…
Back at the car to our next stop was only a five minute drive and free parking available at the Museum of the Battle of Normandy. Whilst we didn’t go in to this museum, the tanks outside themselves were somewhat an attraction (if you’re in to that sort of thing) but more importantly it was only a two-minute walk up the boulevard to the Bayeux War Cemetery.
There was little actual WW2 combat in Bayeux, although it was the first French town of importance to be liberated. Bayeux War Cemetery is the largest Commonwealth cemetery of the Second World War in France and contains burials brought in from the surrounding districts and from hospitals that were located nearby.
The site contains 4,144 Commonwealth burials of the Second World War. At the time of writing Google Maps label this as the British cemetery but this is not correct. There are also over 500 war graves of other nationalities, the majority German.
I wasn’t really sure what to do with photographing the cemetery and more so popping them on a sub-par blog, so I decided just to take one each to perhaps show the scale of sacrifice.
Across the road from the graveyard is the Bayeux Memorial, to remember the 1,800+ Commonwealth Soldiers who are know to have died but have no known grave.
From Bayeux we drove 25 minutes to the Normandy American Cemetery just off the Channel. I did find this very contrasting. It has a huge carpark before going through the entrance with toilets, site map and a small museum. It feels strange to compare but it did have that Theme Park feel with the entrance, multiple trails and ‘attractions’. A feeling the American’s doubled up the site as a celebration of victory alongside remembering the fallen.
We took a path that ran above the famous Omaha beach. We didn’t see anyone on the beach walking the dog etc. It was eerily vacant. Perhaps visiting the beach is prohibited I don’t know. In any case it was impossible to imagine the warfare 60 years prior.
A map overlooking the beach was educational, especially for me who had/has little knowledge on the subject.
Whatever route you chose you would no doubt enter the huge area with the graves. Thousands upon thousands of crosses with the odd Star of David gravestones dotted throughout.
In total, 9,389 people are buried here.
The central point of the perfectly symmetrical layout features a chapel, with what I can only assume the front end featuring an infinity pool, a semi-circular memorial with a statue titled “The Spirit of American Youth Rising from the Waves”. The alcoves contain maps and a considerable amount of text further informing the viewer of the history.
Behind the memorial was an arching garden called the “Garden of the Missing”, and similar to the one we seen in Bayeux contained the names of fallen soldiers with no grave. 1,557 of them.
After that enjoyable but very sombre walk we aimed to get to our next destination before early December nightfall. We just missed that target but arrived safely in – let’s call it the land part of Mont St Michel – after 110 minutes on the road.
Our hotel was great for the £80 or so we paid. It is located in a kinda gated village with hotels and restaurants, which means you can drive through the barrier instead of park in the tourist and day-tripper car parks. For £80 we had a decent breakfast and located right outside a bus stop that would take us to the summit of the island if we didn’t fancy the 30 minute walk.
Day Two – Mont St Michel
We got the bus. Perhaps the most disappointing park of the trip are the unsatisfactory photo’s I took here. The bleak weather didn’t help but I really should have taken more.
Only a fun fact can make up for this. The castle in the Disney movie Tangled is based on this place. Short but incredibly insightful I am sure you’ll agree.
Inside the walls you could be mistaken for thinking you were wandering through Hogsmeade, an area in Harry Potter. The abbey at the top also looked extremely Hogwarts-y.
It was some incline to the castle, but the number of visitors, gift shops, cafe’s and restaurants made this less painstaking. Saying that, I REALLY wouldn’t fancy coming here in summer with 3x 4x the tourists.
Entrance to the Abbey was very reasonable at 11€. Avid readers will remember my last trip to Dubrovnik put me in a position to consider paying a tragic €35 just to walk a path around the city walls! Bollocks to that. This was much better value.
The map included with the self-guided tour explained the many rooms within the Abbey and their purpose. There wasn’t anything that particularly stood out to write about, but that wasn’t to say it wasn’t worthwhile and recommended if you go.
I will mention the gift shop oddly. They has such a nice pillowcase we contemplated paying 60 bloody Euros for it! Months later I can’t decide if leaving it was the correct call.
On the whole it is a must-do. If one went to Paris they’d simply HAVE to chuck themselves up the Eiffel Tower, and if you’re anywhere near here you should visit. In my opinion anyway. If you were wondering how a bus managed to take us to an island. Here you go:
D’you know what…. I recall this playing on my mind at the time (writing this bit nearly 2 months after visiting)… given the age and buildings of the commune, I wonder how far it is from a Wonder of the World?
Unfortunately I tend to use Christ the Redeemer statue in Brazil as a comparison. Yes it’s huge and on top of a mountain, but it is *only* a statue. They’ve even managed to construct lifts escalators up there to get people to the site lads… In my opinion this remarkable small hump gives it a run for its money. Apologies in advance Jesus…
How contracting two pictures can be; above and below!
After the free shuttle bus back to the car, stop three being Rennes was only an hour away. Even though we had takeaways for the trip so far we still spent a few quid on food, so where else but IKEA?!?!
So cultured. I would be lying if I stated I just had the one hotdog to accompany some fries and an ice cream, but at least we didn’t leave the store with the usual picture frames, sandwich bags and at a Billy bookcase!
IKEA was on the outskirts of the city as was our digs for the night. Fortunately so too was the local football stadium! Rennes are quite a bit team in the French league but hardly get a look in after Paris Saint Germain, Marseille and Monaco.
It looked like a lovely stadium although the views inside were not that generous!
Our hotel tonight was a very cheap “B&B Hotel” which is a chain. I can’t think of another unmanned hotel I’ve stayed at. Whilst this wasn’t scary or an issue, it was only unmanned between 6pm and 8am, can you really not employ one person?!? The room was mega cheap but fuck sake pay someone. Corporate greed.
Day Three – Rennes and Vitré Castle
We didn’t get murdered and we were pleased to see a human being arranging the ample breakfast buffet for us. Continental but with bacon and sausage. Can’t complain.
Fuelled for what was intended to be a full day in Rennes city centre we walked 10 minutes to the metro station and headed in.
Fun fact. potentially three!… When the Metro opened in 2002. Rennes was the smallest city in the world to have a metro network. In 2008 it was succeeded by Lausanne in Switzerland. However in 2022 it was and is the smallest with two lines.
Eat that, Francis Bourgeois!
I was amazed how quiet the city centre was. It was indeed a Sunday just after Christmas, but I would still expect to see a lot of residents walking around and most shops open. We walked from the central train station (Gare metro stop) over the Canal d’Ille-et-Rance to where we thought the tourism hot spots would be.
After a quick stop at the Brittany Court of Appeal building with a very festive but closed yard out front, we heading in the direction of Saint Pierre Cathedral. Retracing my steps I see we missed a large square containing the Rennes Opera building that would have been worth a small detour, but we did enjoy the quirky buildings on our route.
The Cathedral stood dominant in a small square. Again it was strange being the only tourists around at this time and the building itself didn’t seem overly welcoming to visitors.
At this point we were both concerned about where our next toilet break would be. With the place like a ghost town and multiple cafe’s and restaurants either not open yet or closed for the day, decided to walk back towards the train station where at least there were more identifiable buildings that were likely to be open. We ended up going in to a cinema right outside our next stop which was the library, where I read we could get a really good viewpoint across the city.
Unfortunately the building that houses the Rennes Library and Museum of Brittany was closed, as was pretty much everywhere apart from whatever films they had on in the cinema… in French.
Admitting defeat, we agreed there was little pointing hanging around and as I was looking at the best route to Caen, we noticed a place called Vitré that would only slightly be out of our way. Mikayla took very little convincing and within the hour we were back at the hotel and on the road for a bit of spontaneity!
After a 40 minute drive and a nearby McDonald’s lunch we parked up outside Vitré castle, at the cost of EIGHT UK PENCE for three hours.
It was very quiet here too. Must be the time of year. But there must be other lunatics like us who were doing similar? I don’t think I thought of Harry Potter as much when I visited the bloody studios, but the streets leading up to the castle very much resembled Hogsmeade. It was a shame nowhere was open, and didn’t look as they had been open for some time. I bet it’s bloody heaving in the summer, mind.
Arriving in the open, the castle looked very grandiose, even if the empty carousel did feel a bit post-apocalyptic (I was getting early stages The Last of Us vibes).
It was nice to bump in to another human being at the ticket office and happily paid €7 each to enter.
There were a few other people and groups dotted about, which was nice, as I was starting to think we were bring a bit convenient visiting! The castle itself had impressive walls with a number of towers and rooms you could enter displaying exhibits and what life was like back then.
Hang on I don’t even know when ‘back then’ even was…. *finds brochure I brought home*
I’m so pleased of my forethought to keep the brochure guide thingy, I’m just going to write out what’s in there…
“In the mid 11th century, Robert the 1st baron decided to build Vitré castle on its present site, at the top of a promontory forming a natural defence. His successors continued to enlarge, decorate and adapt the fortress as defence architecture developed, until the mid 17th century, when it was abandoned. It was then converted into a prison. The fortress is a remarkable vestige of the tumultuous (fucking hell you can tell these aren’t my words…) history of the Breton border marchlands.“
There ya go. Nothing much about any battles of blood spill sadly by the looks…
Vitre castle was a pleasant visit considering Rennes was a bit of a let-down (our fault not theirs). Who doesn’t love a castle? It also meant we were closer to our next destination.
That was about it for today. Our two hour drive leaving Brittany to return to Normandy, specifically Caen went quickly as I was listening to the football commentary back home. I did think there was a 90% chance we got flashed by the only bloody speed camera we noticed, but writing this section three months later I think we’ve gotten away with it, touch wood.
By the time we settled in to our hotel on the outskirts of Caen, I watched the remainder of Newport losing for the millionth time in the season, and had an early night after grabbing a takeaway.
Day Four – Caen
To save a bit of messing around and to have a bit more freedom should Caen centre be as quiet as Rennes the previous day, we decided to drive rather than catch the bus and parked in walking distance of the main sights we wanted to see.
Today was a rather pleasant day given the time of year (not as gloomy as the photo!) and after a short stroll through the gardens leading up to the Hotel de Ville we paid a few euro to enter. Just by looking at the magnificent state of the place, you can tell it has not been a hotel for some time and now houses the municipal Town Hall since 1965.
It was tricky to differentiate between what was the old hotel and what was the abbey as part of the museum walk included a yard that was mart of a monk monastery, once part of the abbey itself. The museum if I recall explained the effect WW2 had on the City and whilst I can’t remember exactly how many buildings were damaged by bombing, it was a lot. The museum also had an exhibition space that on the day housed loads of model ships! I love a model but surprisingly this didn’t take my fancy. If said boats were made of Lego I’d still be there now…
Next up was the adjacent Abbey of Saint-Étienne, more commonly know as the Abbaye-aux-Hommes. A very impressive structure and free to enter – once we found the door. The inside was impressive but you know I’m not too interested in that sort of stuff, so, to me, by far the coolest thing in here was the resting place of William the Conqueror who we learnt about at the Bayeux Tapestry.
Bill founded the abbey in 1063 and his tomb has gone through several disturbances and renovations since his burial in 1087. I am led to believe that under the 19th Century stone that is here today, only Bill’s thigh bone is in the tomb! Whilst I won’t admit to using Wikipedia as my main or reliable source of historical information I have since forgotten since the visit, I did chuckle at this excerpt…
“A further indignity occurred when the corpse was lowered into the tomb. The corpse was too large for the space, and when attendants forced the body into the tomb it burst, spreading a disgusting odour throughout the church.”
Lovely. When it’s my time just chuck me in the oven and scatter me somewhere nice yeah?
Following the abbey we walked around 25 minutes to Caen castle. The area looked (and may be) more of a Citadel that would have overlooked all other buildings back in the day, minus the odd church spire.
Again this was free entry, but there was a LOT of renovation work going on. A little chapel was closed and the erection of modern building housing museums didn’t really match up I thought. Now writing this section in April and looking on Google Maps, the renovation looks almost complete and nothing like my photo thankfully!
Also pertinent on the map is the castle keep towards the north of the walled area that would have been worth a look at. Unfortunately this was cordoned off during our visit, so after a quick lap of the outskirts we headed outside of the walls.
A stroll through one of the main shopping streets was a nice way to spend our last lunchtime. We didn’t have a plan for lunch yet so I was keen for a nibble of something. Ultimately though, I was so indecisive with too many options, I ended up with nothing!
Back in the car we had an epiphany and decided to hunt down a nearby Aldi or Lidl for lunch. We each had a sandwich, a pastry, cake and drink for something like six quid each and reflected that we should have done this for other mealtimes.
As fate would have it, smack bang in the middle of the drive to our final tour stop was a football ground – the home of Stade Malherbe Caen, or just Caen. A very decent stadium looking at it from the roadside. The team play in the second division in France and aren’t very good at the moment. This led me down a rabbit hole and I was amazed that Caen is only the 40th biggest commune in France given it’s history, location and sights.
Our final stop was the museum Memorial de Caen, tagged “Caen’s Centre for History & Peace, exploring WWII, the Normandy landings & the Cold War.” Parking was free and entrance was €20 each.
I have to be honest, I loved this museum visit. This is not like me. I probably learnt more about World War 2 in the couple of hours here than I knew beforehand. Quite a sombre end to our trip.
I was going to make a concentrated effort in going into detail about the experience, the reason for quite a few photo’s, but I don’t think I would do the place justice. I would however suggest you visit yourself if you ever find yourself getting to France using the port of Caen/Ouistreham.
Ooh, I mentioned that I could not recall the amount of damaged buildings in Caen during WW2, when we visited the Hotel de Ville this morning… I knew I made a note of it somewhere. 35%.
Pardon me for adding such a boring photo, but it had to be included. This was taken from a short film as part of the exhibit showing the extremity of the fighting on the D-Day beaches. I felt this really poignant as kind of a round circle for the trip, after visiting the batteries early on our first morning.
We still had a little bonus after exiting the main museum into the mezzanine area. There is also an underground bunker that you can visit under the museum.
Although this has of course gone under a significant amount of renovation and refurbishment, this spot was in fact a command post of the German general Wilhelm Richter and played a crucial role during the first decisive weeks of the Battle of Normandy. You can read more about the bunker on the museums website here (link).
So there we go. A lot of ground covered in four days and many wide-ranging sights were enjoyed.
Whilst we were pleased to drag out the museum visit longer than we expected, we still had some hours to waste until our overnight ferry. A humongous shopping centre passed the time providing us with dinner and a look around a few shops, trying my upmost to successful tell Mikayla she does not need a Harry Potter book in French!
Thanks for reading,
Chris
How Not 2 Life 