Well we’re back after a lovely week en vacances dans un gîte in the Normandy countryside in France. It was very quiet and peaceful, we could just about see one neighbour’s house over in another field. The weather was very hot though, too hot for us really as neither of us are sunbathers. We prefer sitting in the shade reading or doing crochet (me) or dozing (him) !
happily crocheting on first da
I bought a crocheted hat on the ferry over and so the first thing I did when we arrived was to crochet some flowers on the side to make it my own.
two little crochet flowers
It’s very cool and comfy to wear and only 12 euros from the Ferry boutique. The flowes are crocheted in lilac, cream and brown as the hat is a coffee and cream colour.
As well as drinking lots of café noir and eating yummy crêpes we visited the D Day landing sites and also the Bayeux Tapestry Museum which was very interesting to view. It’s almost two feet in height and 230 feet long and is displayed in a long glass cabinet at head height. You are given a hand held recorded commentary to listen to as you walk along past it and the scenes are numbered so you can look at what the numbered recording is referring to all the time.
I remarked to my husband that it looked more like embroidery than tapestry to me and so was interested to see a reference later to the fact that is actually embroidered linen not tapestry! It’s a really clever piece of work and depicts the lead up to, and the actual Battle of Hastings in 1066. Sadly we were not allowed to photograph it although I did buy a paper replica to bring home – just got to figure out how to display it now!
On our last day we went swimming on Omaha Beach on the northern coast. On the way to the beach café we passed these rather charming French beach huts – not at all like English ones. From out of one of them came the oldest couple I have ever seen in swimming gear! She hobbled down with a stick in one hand and a beach chair in the other then went back to help the old man down and into the sea. They didn’t swim but stood there waist height just taking in the scenery! – there’s dedication in ‘taking the waters’ eh? I love to swim in the sea but not sure I’ll still be making that kind of effort in my 90s!
French Beach Huts
Well I’m off to Handmade Monday now to catch up on the blogs I’ve missed whilst away. There was hardly any signal during our holiday which meant very limited internet time! Hope everyone is enjoying the summer wherever you are. x
