Cherbourg Ferme le Lundi

Harbourside view towards Cherbourg

This afternoon I had to take Aurianne for a walk to make sure that she had a long nap. As she needed to sleep for about 2 hours, I thought that it would be worth actually doing something/going somewhere so decided to walk to Cité de la Mer as I've yet to visit the biggest (only) attraction in Cherbourg.

We set off at 1:30pm, and Aurianne was asleep before I'd even done the buggy straps up! It's about a 40 minute walk to Cité de la Mer and so as I needed to be back for 4:45pm, I'd get just over 1.5hours to explore the exhibitions (which I anticipated would be plenty of time, but if not I could always go again).

Irish Ferries, Ferry is called 'Oscar Wilde'

I arrived at Cité de la Mer and thought 'hmm, not many cars in the car park, it must be a quiet day today'. But when I got to the doors I realised it was shut. It doesn't even shut every Monday, just random Mondays between November and May. The annual schedule makes no sense.

Cité de la Me

I was pretty annoyed - we'd walked much further than I would have liked to, for absolutely no reason!

As I didn't want to completely waste the trip, I wandered around on that side of the harbour for a while. I came across a memorial for fishermen lost at sea which was quite interesting.

After about 20 minutes of wandering, I started to head back in the direction of home thinking I could sit in a café and eat cake in town. However, when I got into town, I realised that it was largely desserted. This is because it was Monday.

Absurd opening times of Cité de la Mer

People in Cherbourg (and across France for that matter) refuse to work more than 35 hours a week, and insist on having two days off.

As the town centre is retail area, many people actually want to go shopping on Saturdays when they're home from their office jobs etc. Therefore, most shops and cafés will close on Monday to make up for this 'lost day off'.

It is very annoying.

View out to sea

Memorial for Fishermen lost at Sea

This meant that I couldn't sit in a café and get cake because there weren't many open! Instead, I went to the Petit Jean street bakery and bought myself a Cherbourgeois and a Pepité au Chocolat (which Marc had yesterday - there's also the option of 'Pepititée' or something, which is the same thing but with a chocolate topping too).

By this point it was about 3:15, but Aurianne was still asleep (she clearly needed it) so I went home via Parc Liais and sat on a bench eating my chocolatey goodness.

I got back home at around 3:45pm and then had to sit in the foyer waiting for Aurianne to wake up, which she finally did at about 4:05pm! A very long nap for Aurianne, and very tired legs for me!

Harbourside view

Cherbourgeois
(wasn't as good as last time)

Pepité au Chocolat
(sweet bread with chocolate chips, and folded into
three with Creme Patisserie in the middle. Yum.)

Cimetière Militaire Britannique de Bayeux

Bayeux War Cemetery Centrepiece

We arrived at the British Military Cemetery (also known as the Bayeux War Cemetery) at about 4pm (only 2 hours later than planned!). I think it may have been much nicer to go at this time though as the sun was starting to set, and there were less people around.

Opposite the Cemetery, there is a big memorial monument, called the 'Bayeux Memorial' which has the names of over 1,800 Commonwealth soldiers who have no known graves written on it, and the words "We, once conquered by William, have now set free the Conqueror’s native land." in Latin.

View of part of the cemetery from the gates

I was a little worried that the Cemetery would have a closing time and that we wouldn't be able to get in (like the American and German cemeteries do) but this cemetery can be accessed at any time which I think is much better.

In this Cemetery there are not only the graves of the Commonwealth soldiers, but also over 450 Nazi German graves, 25 Polish, 7 Russian, 3 French, 2 Czech and 2 Italian graves. Wikipedia tells me that there are 18 Commonwealth Cemeteries in Normandy containing 22,000 casualties of World War II, but than Bayeux is the largest.

Bayeux Memorial

It was a very calm place. Other than another couple, who almost left because they thought they couldn't get in through the gates, we were the only ones there.

It was very moving, particularly as on most graves, the age of the soldier is put on there, and on many there is a message from the family too, which is very sad as many of them are from parents and wives.

It was also especially nice to see the poppies everywhere that had been placed, especially on the large stone monument in the middle of the cemetery (apparently this is called a Centrepiece) and on the other stone monument called 'The Cross of Sacrifice'.

"A Soldier of the War
Known Unto God"

Some of the graves are unmarked and just say 'A Soldier in the War - Known unto God'. It's very sad, but at least all those who have no known grave have their names inscribed on the Bayeux Memorial.

There are also two stone buildings facing each other with the centrepiece monument in between. One gives information about the War and the soldiers who died, the other has a iron cupboard in the wall which houses a Visitors book and the grave record books in alphabetical order.

Cupboard in the stone building that
holds records and visitors book

We didn't spend very long there, perhaps 20-30 minutes, but it was very moving.

The Records book: All soldiers are listed in Alphabetical order,
with their rank and regiment, and family connections
where known, and then a grave reference

"The Cross of Sacrifice"
- Bayeux War Cemetery

View from the gates

The grave of a Sailor in the War, Unnamed.

Memorial for the soldiers who gave their lives for the liberation of Bayeux

Poppy wreaths left at the Cemetery