Isigny Sur Mer

At six o' clock this morning the birds found their voices, tuning up for the morning chorus. As their performance concluded the sound of the cuckoo could be heard, stepping in for the finale. After yesterday's beautiful sunny day, temperature 24c we couldn't believe the change in the weather this morning. Grey skies and a cool breeze. We certainly have been lucky with the weather this trip. Apart from a cold spell when we were near Bordeaux and a little rain, we've enjoyed some lovely sunshine. Before we left this morning John took the opportunity with plenty of water to hand to wash Marge. What are you doing? You're a dirty girl Marge. Can't have you arriving home looking grubby. 

Today's first job was shopping. We needed to buy more wine, cheese, pate. French sausages and some other goodies to take home to share with friends and family. In total we now have forty bottles of assorted wine, which we could barely fit into Marge. The cheapest bottle of red wine available in the supermarket worked out at £1.36 a bottle! But Angela's tastes have improved over the years since we used to buy large plastic bottles of cooking wine to carry on our bikes. She likes a little drop of Bordeaux now. When we stayed at the aire on the Loire the annoying drunk Englishman and his wife said they would take back more wine than the allowance. Angela explained they'd probably be stopped at customs, as the vans tend to be. I'll tell them I took a lot of wine out with me from England. Who takes wine from England to France? He didn't seem to like it when Angela told him that wouldn't convince them. What an idiot! The shopping and packing away took a very long time and it was lunchtime before we set off properly. Our drive along country roads passing intense purple wild orchids growing alongside on the verge.

Shortly after leaving we stopped at a picnic area and ate a very quick lunch as we had a way to travel. Our destination was Omaha beach on the Normandy coast. The road junction on the approach was a little bit confusing and we pulled Marge over to the left-hand side of the road. I like men in uniform. Behave Marge. Luckily the three gendarmes were already occupied with another driver. Right Marge, enough of that, drive on the right please, don't draw attention to us. The stop at Omaha beach turned out to be no good.

The wind was blowing strongly on shore. A coach from Switzerland turfed its passengers out into a mix of salty sea spray and sand. They probably didn't envisage such weather for their tour of the Normandy beaches.

Backtracking we returned to Isigny Sur Mer a place we know from cycling, memorable for it's large cheese factory. The little aire is situated beside the tidal creek. Right on cue just after we arrived the sun broke through the dark clouds and the rain stopped.

We were able to walk around the town, buying a Opinel mushroom foraging knife for John from the fishing tackle shop. The town suffered badly during the second world war and there are many references to this on information boards around the town.

We also discovered Walt Disney's family and ancestors actually came from this town and that the original family name was Deisigny though they left town in 1066, arriving in England along with William the Conqueror, so the link is very distant.

We are very close to Cherbourg now and are looking forward to making our way slowly up the coast over the next two days. Hopefully the weather will settle tomorrow, as we'd like to cycle out once more before we go home.

What on earth this ever was we will just have to guess at, possibly the remains of a strange factory clock?