A day to remember .......

Oh my, where do I begin. Maybe leaving our totally free Aire this morning in the pouring rain, checking the map for Arramanches - the base for Mulberry Harbour close to the beaches Sword, Juno and Gold. We arrived and got rugged up - it was blowing a hooley and was bitterly, bitterly cold. Even the dog was having second thoughts. All I can say is it strikes you immediately - the scale of it, the genius of the planning - the utter bravery of the men who did this. One feels very small and very humbled to stand there. The concrete monoliths standing still 75 years later in the dark, cold sea. The men whose lives ended there and then - from here you look down on Arramanches - how did the townsfolk feel, what did they experience. All I can say is I felt grateful, full of emotion but mostly grateful. Grateful for all those who gave their lives so we may live. A bus load of young people arrived towards the end of our visit and I wondered if the impact would be the same as those of our generation and before? I don’t know. But I am so glad we visited. We packed up and moved on - we need to go inland now to make our way down through France to Le Mans. As it is our 36th Wedding Anniversary today, we felt moved to ’dine out’ - well we stopped at Conde Noireau (once owned by a British noble from Caister in Norfolk - (every day’s a school day folks!). Found a great little Bistro and had a nice meal washed down with a rather lovely beer. Well I had the beer and Alan had water as he is the nominated driver 😍 The owner spoilt Tom and treated him to a lush bowl of water which he dutifully drank - every last drop. What a star! We decided to head for Poitiers over the next day or so but wanted to break the journey - found a super site just outside of Conde Noireau - by a lake. Just idyllic. Again. no charge, except for any water we may need. Now, this brings me to the subject of water. When you ‘Wild Camp’ you are totally reliant on all onboard facilities - therefore, gas, leisure battery and water are really important. You don’t really want to be carrying lots of water at any one time, due to the weight and the affect that has on your petrol consumption. However, one does need to wash dishes, wash and shower so you do need a certain amount. Our stock had depleted over the last day or so, there are machines at FOC Aires that supply fresh water - they operate on a couple of euro and you get 10 minutes worth of fresh water. So you fix your hose to the outlet, pays your money and bingo - sorted. Well, the truth is Al has not had a good time with these water outlets - he seems to part with his euros but nothing comes out. Anyway, twice today he has lost his euros and got no water so, this afternoon when we rocked up here, he was feeling somewhat optimistic that all would be well. We pull up, euros in hand - you will see from the picture there is a tap outlet on both sides of the water stand - he fixes the water pipe to the stand, puts his money in and starts to bemoan the fact the water isn’t appearing. All of a sudden - whoosh out comes the water in plentiful supply - wrong side. So he hurriedly takes the fixing from the ‘no water’ side to the side gushing with his precious water - now as I watch this from the van - I suddenly spy a tap above the water spout and innocently ask if this said tap could not be utilised to hold on to the water until the said hose is attached - hilariously my beloved does just that and ‘behold’ water stops, being held in transition. But dear reader, not before he is well and truly soaked from trying to attach the hose to a fully running water spout. As I laughed, he tried to look cross - didn’t last long. Oh my days, what a wonderful day - we are now fully loaded - with water AND wine - happy anniversary darling. It is indeed an honour to walk through life with you .....................