Une Excursion en Normandie

Watermill on River Aure, Bayeux

So today Allison and I decided to go to Bayeux and the surrounding sites (well, I decided I was going and invited Allison).

I made us a timed Itinerary for the day which, naturally, got largely ignored before we even set off. We were supposed to be leaving at around 9:30am, but didn't actually leave until about 10:15am! We were only 45 mins later leaving than planned though... only.

It was just over an hours drive there and we had to rush as the late leaving meant that we were only just going to get to the Bayeux Tapestry Museum before reception closed for lunch at 11:45am.

Bayeux Day Trip Itinerary

There is a large free car park at Parc d'Ornano in Bayeux, just a few minutes walk from most of the main attractions. We pulled up in Parc d'Ornano car park at 11:40am so had to walk quite quickly to get to the Tapestry museum by 11:45am, but we made it!

Because we had arrived so late, the exibition part of the Tapestry museum was closed for lunch and we had to go back later for that. We were able to wander around the Tapestry though.

More on the Tapestry Museum here...

When we got kicked out of the Tapestry Museum at 12pm, we thought we'd walk over to Bayeux Cathedral, have a quick wander around and get lunch, and then be back over to see the exibition at 2pm when it re-opened after lunch.

More on Bayeux Cathedral here...

However, we spent much longer in the Cathedral than planned and didn't actually find anywhere for lunch until close to 2pm, by which point most places had stopped serving or were closed.

We found somewhere opposite the Cathedral called 'La Pomme d'Aure' which looked like a nice little Café.

Quiche Lorraine in Bayeux

We were looking at the menu outside the door when the owner came out and asked us (in French) 'do you want quiche lorraine, croque monseiur or [insert 2 other similar options here]?' and then sat us up to a table. We were a bit confused as she'd only said a few things but we had just been looking at a complete menu on the wall... She brought us out mini menus with 4 choices.

At this point we were starving, so just both ordered Quiche Lorraine with chips and salad. Allison had no idea what a Quiche was but she said it sounded good when I described it so she ordered it too.

When discussing this later with Fran, she told me that we probably had missed lunch (they apparently expect everyone to be sat in the restaurant by 12:15pm, to have ordered by 12:30pm and to stay there until 1:50pm when they have to go back to work...) and that they could only do some simple 'reheat' style things because the cook had likely gone home. It would explain why the town seemed completely desserted! Very strange, especially for a Saturday!

The Poppy Shop, Bayeux

After lunch, we went back to the Tapestry museum to finish looking at the Exhibition. We had planned for this to only take 15-30 mins but then realised that we were there in time for the 3:15pm showing of the 16min English film which delayed us.

Near the Tapestry and Cathedral, there was a lovely little shop called the Poppy shop (which we would have gone into if it was open) and it had a watermill behind it on the River Aure. Very pretty.

I think we finally left that part of Bayeux at about 3:45pm and arrived at the Musée de la Bataille du Normandie (Normandy Battle Museum) just before 4pm. We'd had enough of Museums by this point though so decided to skip it and walk straight over to the British Military Cemetery instead (which is pretty much just across the road.

Information about the River Aure in Bayeux

More on the British Military Museum to follow...

It was probably around 4:30pm when we were back in the car and ready to head over to Colleville-sur-Mer (the town next to Omaha Beach). We decided to skip Omaha Beach museum as it was last entry at 5:15pm and we wanted to go to the American Military Cemetery.

It took a little longer to get to Omaha Beach than expected, and at the time we didn't realise that the American Military Cemetery closed so early (at just 5pm) or even that it had a set closing time (the British one I'm pretty sure you can just walk into any time) so unfortunately we ended up arriving at the American Military Cemetery at about 5:15pm, 15 mins after it had closed.

More on Omaha Beach to follow...

We pulled over and debated whether it was worth trying to go somewhere else. We'd just missed the last entry time for the Omaha Beach museum, so Allison looked up the closing time of the German Cemetery on her phone. Turned out that this closes at 5:30pm, and being a 15 minute drive away in La Cambe, we weren't going to make it.

Me at the watermill, River Aure, Bayeux

I'd not done much research about Pointe du Hoc (a rocky cliff that a few hundred Allied soldiers scaled so that they could take over the German fort at the top) but as it was on the way back, thought perhaps it was worth driving past and having a look at if possible.

We arrived at about 5:45pm in a car park. I wasn't sure exactly where Pointe du Hoc was from here, but we got out to have a look anyway. There was a big building (which we think was a museum, although it was closed), and then signed explaining how to get to the points of interest nearby. There were a few other cars arriving at the same time so we thought it wouldn't be a problem, but then realised when looking at one of the signs that the actual 'Pointe' was about a 30 min walk away and you couldn't drive any closer. After all the walking we'd done, (and considering how dark it was) we decided to just put this on the list for next time.

We're planning on going to the American Military Cemetery, Point du Hoc, and the German Military Cemetery, and maybe Omaha Beach museum and the Arromanches 360° (Circular Cinema) next week.

Où Sont Les Cours de Français?

In order to help me to improve my French (what's the point of moving to France if you're not going to learn the language...?), Fran has helped me to sign up for French lessons here.

The main French classes are run by an organisation called 'AVF' who are a bit like a PTA/WI style organisation who run activities and events in the local area. We went to sign up a couple of weeks ago and they were really disorganised. They had lots of tables all scattered around with no clear organisation. It took us around 10 minutes just to work out that we had to register with AVF before being able to sign up for classes and other activities, and then another 5 trying to work out which table was the registration table...

We finally got me all signed up for Thursday morning French class, and the lady at the table told us that she'd 'see me next week'.

One week later on a Thursday morning....

Off we go to find French classes! I got up really early and we left around 10 minutes extra to find this class as Fran wasn't sure exactly where it was. We walked about 15 mins to what seemed like a carpark with flats and small businesses around it and wandered up to a few of these buildings/tried doors etc. 

We wandered into a community centre style building, and a elderly daycare centre, and into what turned out to be residential flats, but couldn't find French class...

About 40 mins later, we decided to walk over to the AVF building (tiny little library style building with several 50+ clueless ladies). Fran went in to ask while I pushed the pram around outside (Aurianne was going to sleep). Apparently the conversation went something like this:

Fran: "Hi, I'm here with my au pair [points out of window at me] and we were told French classes started today at xyz building but we can't seem to find it."

Lady 1: "Oooh, french class? I don't know. Marie-Antoinette do you know about French class?"
Lady 2: "Hmm, no Marie-Christine (they're all called 'Marie-something', says Fran), I don't know about French classes. Perhaps Marie-Clare knows?"

Lady 3: "I don't know Marie-Christine or Marie-Antoinette, perhaps there's some paper somewhere that has some kind of useful information on i?"
*queue everyone blindly looking at bits of paper*
Lady 2: "Ah, no Marie Clare, I just can't find anything about it anywhere"
Fran: "Perhaps there's a phone number for the French teacher? Or perhaps you could just send me/cate an email when you find out?"
Lady 1: "Oh, no. I don't think we have a number. Marie-Antoinette, do you know about a number for a French teacher?"

... and on it went...

Fran managed to get pretty much no information out of them, but they did find out that classes were due to start the first week of October, so that was something at least!

While we were there Fran also asked if they would put up a notice on their website about an afternoon for au pairs to meet as I've yet to meet any. They were insistent that I would meet au pairs at French class and at all the social activities AVF runs which, by the way, I really had to come to, "here's another useless bit of paper which tells you what we've got going on, and on which days, but with absolutely no information about times or locations! If you wanted to find out more, there's no contact or website information either, so you'll just have to guess!" (I've been given 3 of these so far).

Fran tried to explain that as most of the social activities were likely held in the evenings, or run into school pick up/drop off times, that most au pairs would be working and therefore unable to attend. She also explained the logic that if you have 3 different French classes, and 6 au pairs, the chance that all of them would ever actually meet is quite unlikely as they may not all go to the same ones... They didn't understand this either, obviously.

A couple of days later, I had a phone call on my french phone from one of the ladies from AVF (Monique, I believe). I think she was trying to tell me about what day French classes started, and that they were with someone called Colette, however I'm not sure, as this phone call was all in French. I kept asking her if she could please speak a little slower, but she just kept speaking at the same speed, but a little louder/clearer instead. 

Also, in my opinion, it's a little stupid to call people in French to give them vital information about a French class that they were probably attending because they didn't understand French... No? Just me?