I did not have a good night's sleep... When I got into bed, I realised that the sheet and duvet cover were 100% polyester, which literally made my skin crawl. In the end, I had to put on my cotton dressing gown, and it took me ages to fall asleep, the events of the day playing on my mind.
At about 11:00pm, I was wide awake, and it took me ages to fall back asleep. At 3:00am, I heard a car outside, and it sounded like it had stopped at our caravan... I went to investigate, but all was quiet. During the evening, we'd had a constant procession of people walking past the caravan - on their way to the clubhouse, probably - and this had unnerved me a little! The documentary hadn't helped!
When Sophie woke me at 5:30am, I felt very bleary, but I was looking forward to our two-berth cabin on the ferry, where we could at least have a nap if needed. We both showered, dressed and packed up the car, and we were ready to go by 6:15am. We both agreed that we wouldn't have been able to stay here longer than one night, as the bedrooms, as opposed to the living areas, were cramped and there wasn't a lot of space at all!
Sophie walked to the bins to dispose of our rubbish and recycling, and as I drove to meet her, I heard an ominous noise, like a flat tyre scraping on the ground. My immediate thought was that we damaged a wheel yesterday on the terrible roads, and when I reached Sophie, I asked her to check the tyres. I was convinced one of them was flat. Thankfully, they were fine, and the noise turned out to be the background "white" noise Sophie plays on her phone at night to help her sleep, as it was still connected to the car's system! Phew! The relief was enormous!
We had a very easy and pleasant journey to the ferry terminal in Portsmouth, and the sun was shining from a clear blue sky. We checked in and made our way to a long queue of cars to wait to board. Ahead of us was the "Guillaume de Normandie" ferry, our home for the next six hours.
After boarding, we found our cabin on the 9th level and had breakfast - pots of granola and yoghurt and pains au chocolat. Sophie had made a flask of coffee, but there was a kettle, coffee, tea and milk in our cabin, as well as a shower, loo and another bunk that was still folded up. We had everything we needed!
It was a little surreal when the ferry left at 8:00am, and we sat watching BBC news with Charlie and Naga! I wanted to go up and see us leave the port, so we carried on up to the sundeck, on level 10. It was lovely up here, and we could see Portsmouth receding in the distance.
From the sundeck, we explored the ferry, taking note of the bar and two restaurants where people were busy having breakfast. The ferry was very quiet, and there were plenty of seats available. At 9:00am, the shop opened, and I bought a notebook and a newspaper, and we splashed out on a bottle of Aperol.
We returned to our cabin, and Sophie watched the last half hour of Saturday Morning Kitchen while I had a much-needed nap on the bunk. When I woke up, she was watching the King's Birthday celebrations in London!
Back to Normandy
We had a lovely crossing, and played cards in an empty area near an upmarket restaurant with a small beer apiece. There was a loud quiz going on in the bar, and we didn't fancy sitting with that in the background. We had polished off the last of the sausage rolls in the cabin and made another coffee, so that had satisfied our appetites for lunch. Sophie was hugely impressed with the crossing and the ferry itself, so maybe we will do this again if we visit Normandy, as we think it saved us about 200 miles in driving. It may be a different matter in the winter, though, if the weather is rough!
At 3:00pm French time, we were coming into Caen (or Ouistreham), and at one point, it looked like we were going to dock on a beach!
We stood outside to watch and then made our way back down to the car deck. I was a little apprehensive about driving around Caen because it's a busy city and the traffic in the past has always been frenetic! We hadn't passed through French passport control yet, and we queued for about half an hour after we disembarked. Next to us was a van transporting a high-end sports car; we had seen one of the drivers near our cabin, and he smelled of delicious aftershave! We watched as he was asked to pull over after passport control, and the gendarmes swarmed all over the van. Inside, we caught a glimpse of what looked like a red Ferrari!
Sophie expertly directed me out of Ouistreham and into busy, bustling Caen. I followed her directions easily and very soon we were out of the city and bowling along the autoroute towards Le Mont St Michel. We took the A84, and it was lovely and quiet. I settled nicely into my stride on the autoroute, driving at about 120km an hour.
Our host for the night, Maxime, messaged us to say he would meet us at the house, and we groaned a little. He then said he was holding a birthday party at the ranch, but didn't specify if it was for an adult or child... we began to feel a little worried!
Once off the autoroute, we headed for the village of Brécy and a Super U supermarket and petrol station. This was a real bonus as we filled up with fuel and then did a quick shop to get us through this evening. We didn't fancy going back out for a meal, and we weren't even sure if there was a restaurant nearby! We bought the lovely salads we enjoy, tabbouleh, milk and water as well as a bottle of Camargue rosé called Pink Flamingo, in honour of Panda!
A Western experience in France!
It was a short journey to Les Cresnays, which was at the end of a single-track road. We were met with a closed gate and lots of warnings about dogs loose on the property. Sophie messaged Maxime again, and he came to meet us dressed as a cowboy. We parked outside the house, and I was astonished to see horses wandering about freely!
He unlocked the door for us and spoke great English. Outside, a child's birthday party was in progress, but this had finished by the time we emerged again to unpack the car. The house was attached to Maxime's property, where he lived with his family. At the back of the two houses, we could see sheep, chickens and a pig. Maxime said he had 91 animals to feed every day!
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| Our part of the house is on the right with the brown door |
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| The rear of the property and the seating area |
Inside, the house was stuffed with Western and cowboy items, including saddles, cowboy hats, a guitar, a rifle over the fireplace and various signs and notices about the Wild West. It was so bizarre, even though we had seen the photos and been expecting it!
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| The beautiful dining table "Don't put anything hot on it!" |
Sophie and I had a bedroom each, with a duvet cover that looked like Western leather. Neither of us had a wardrobe or chest of drawers, so I was glad we were only staying one night! I did like the huge bathroom, though, with a freestanding bath and a lovely walk-in shower. Breakfast was provided, and we were told we had to strip the beds, clean the bathroom and hoover before leaving the next day... phew!
It was warm outside, but we had no fans, so we made sure we opened the bedroom windows and aired the rooms. We attempted to sit outside for a little while, but there were a few flies about, and it felt hot in the sunshine. Neither of us could get the wifi to work, and Maxime had given us some excuse about the local farmer cutting the wire. This meant no Netflix either!
I have to admit to both of us feeling a little homesick and miserable this evening, probably because we were tired. We opened the wine, which was delicious, and played cards, but I could tell we were both a little quiet. I was worried about a problem that had arisen at work, and we both missed home.
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| An episode of Panda with this would have been perfect! |
After a couple of games of cards, where Sophie thrashed me, we prepared dinner and then enjoyed a chocolate fondant afterwards with squirty cream. It was then that we noticed the back door had no key... Sophie messaged Maxime again, and while we were waiting for him to reply, we had a walk around the ranch. The guard dogs (three of them) eyed us warily from their enclosure and barked at us, and we watched a pig scratch his bum on a piece of wood. The gate was firmly closed, so what if we had wanted to go out for a meal?
Maxime messaged us and said that the key was lost (it had been taken away by a guest), but not to worry, as the dogs would patrol the property and look after us... It wasn't really the answer we'd been hoping for! We had detected a faint odour of weed downstairs, and we both thought that Maxime was a fan of the wacky baccy!
We spent a fruitless hour trying to connect to the wifi and Netflix with Sophie's phone, and Maxime and his family returned from an evening out. He spoke to us about the key and then asked if he could let the dogs out. We weren't intending to go anywhere, so they were let out and free to roam about the property. Sophie looked out of the front door at one of them, and he came right up to the window and barked and growled at us! We had to draw the curtain in the end!
At an early hour, we retired to bed, the open door downstairs making both of us feel a little vulnerable. I just hoped I would be able to sleep as tomorrow we were facing a long drive to Bergerac!
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