We went back to France for our summery holiday, after a slight aberration last year when we spent a few days in a caravan in Cornwall – any mention of that holiday now gets us both whistling the theme tune to Peter Kaye’s Phoenix Nights, given the quality of the evening entertainment the caravan park laid on…
We went back to a gite we’ve been to a couple of times before – it’s nice, it’s a good size for the two of us, it’s quiet, it’s very close to the local wine producer and it’s got very clear views of the night sky.
So here’s a few different sets:
Giverny
On the way down through France, we stopped off at Giverny to visit the Monet gardens – we’d been a couple of times about 15 years ago now and thought it time for another visit.
The last image is a little different – not taken at Giverny but fairly close by. Slightly inspired by the Bechers…
Fumel
These were taken in the town of Fumel, not far from where we were staying. I noticed these two weir systems as we went through the town and went back for a closer look. Some nice gritty black and white industrial stuff!
Sunsets and Stars
As I mentioned above, the gite gave us a really good view of the night sky and I had several opportunities to get out and take photos of the stars – we pretty much had an horizon-to-horizon view of the Milky Way. I wouldn’t have thought it possible, but by the end of the holiday I was starting to run out of ways to photograph the stars!
And as always, there was the odd good sunset. No lightning this year though.
Arromanches and Longues
At the end of the holiday, we stayed up on the Normandy coast, close to the D-Day beaches. It’s always worth a visit to Arromanches to look at the remains of the Mulberry Harbour, an amazing feat of engineering. We also visited the German gun emplacement at Longues-sur-Mer,
Odds and Sods
These are a few miscellaneous shots – a fantastic cheesboard from our first hotel, some from around the gite and the surrounding area, including the obligatory flowers and bees, some interesting art in Le Havre, and finally shots of HMS Victory and the new aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth in Portsmouth.