Saturday 26 March

A peaceful night in a lovely setting and we'd have stayed longer but the weather forecast is not good and we think €10.50 a night is a bit of a rip-off. So after breakfast used the service point and headed out. We're continuing our journey north making Caen our aiming point, there being a good choice of aires, our only worry being that as it is Easter weekend all the locals would be out as well as “foreigners” starting their spring breaks.

Taking a more or less straight run, only the road numbers changing, it was a pleasant drive on the relatively quiet “N” (Nationale) and “D” (Departement) roads despite being plagued all day by rain showers. It occurred to us that this would make a pleasant, if slower, alternative route down to Spain rather than batting down the main roads. As always when lunchtime came around, despite there having been plenty of opportunities before, there was nowhere suitable to stop. However persistence paid off and eventually we found a picnic spot which was fine and had plenty of room for Jamie to run round.

The afternoon was much of the same although we now had to decide where to stop, bearing in mind our earlier thoughts. Caen was not particularly suitable so we programmed in the aire at Bayeux, not having tried it before and knowing our friends Malcolm & Cathryn had stopped there earlier – or maybe were still there? But they weren't, and neither was the aire – we found the service point but the car-park highlighted by the Aires book was no longer available to motorhomes. And we weren't the only ones looking!

With Terry's knowledge of the area, although with a little trepidation because the weather was looking a bit ominous for a seaside stop, we headed to the coast at Courselles. Unfortunately there was some kind of event on and the small aire was full; well there was a space but another van was overhanging it, making it unusable for us. Then checking the book, we remembered a tiny aire behind a shopping precinct in the village of Hermanville-sur-Mer which we had used before and the book said usually had space. Nothing ventured, nothing gained and with several alternatives still in mind TomTom was instructed and took us straight there – well he would have done if Terry had listened properly to the instructions........ (We've currently got John Cleese doing the vocals). Joy of joys, there were still four spaces left although due to the markings only two were usable and, despite being warned that there was a festival in the adjacent community centre tonight and it might be difficult to sleep, we settled in. Shortly after another van pulled in beside us and that ws that, although we're sure nobody would have objected to over-spilling into the car bays.

Teatime came and went but it was 9.00 p.m. before there were any signs of life, then as they were setting up a BBQ the heavens opened. Didn't seem to deter them though and rather than a festival it looked more like a community party, which didn't really get going until 10.30. Having planned to stay here 2 nights (we like free!) we weren't too bothered about the noise and didn't retire until well past 1.00 p.m. Got good books! We think it went on until about 3.00 a.m. but we were not disturbed, well no more than Terry's usual nightly perambulations anyway.