Looks lovely
Very lucky with the weather yesterday and today although it looks to have been decent in UK as well.
Did a nice tour of various places today, will put pics up later if not too stuffed!
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Today’s outing started with visits to local villages with Sunday markets going on. The nearest at Boissy Maugis was mostly local produce and also featured a display by local vintage tractor owners.
Then on to Remalard where we took coffee & pastries.
Nearby the HQ of Perche national park is at the fortified Manoir de Courboyer. A substantial lump with nice grounds including a couple of lakes so we took a circular walk there.
The on to La Chapelle Montligeon which is a small village but with a large Sanctuaire (monastery) and a fine large twin spired church set on the side of a hill, so visible for miles around. As we arrived the Sunday service had just ended so locals were pouring out surrounded by many brightly robbed priests. The bells here did have a beautiful deep tone, none of the harsh clanging we’d normally expect.
We did take our lunch by a pretty lake at the foot of the village.
Onwards to another town, Longny which had a pleasant centre and interesting building style.
Another charming village was Moutiers whose churchyard offered views for miles over the valley.
Back to base the out to dinner at La Perriere which was in a combination of Brocante and restaurant. We ate in a room called the chapel.
Great food though. Foie Gras (& ginger jelly), Veal and a full on MasterChef dessert with flowers & gold leaf attached!
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Moutiers and the restaurant both look lovely.
Didn’t realise there was more than one Moutiers in France. I’m quite familiar to this one as it’s the central town for quite a few of the more famous ski resorts in the French alps, including Meribel, Courcheval, Tignes and Val d’Isere: Google Maps
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A friend is on holiday in Italy and is sending photos of nine course tasting menus and sun-drenched beaches.
@murrayjohnson’s travels look beautiful.
Meanwhile Guy is in a North Sea port going
“heh, heh, he said Buttstraße. Butt. Straße.”
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And there’s a Moutier not from from me. Close to Alsace too as it happens 
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It’s would be remiss to visit Hamburg and not go to one of the most extreme bits of fascist gigantism ever conceived.
Flakturm IV was built by 2,400 forced labourers to withstand direct hits and is effectively impossible to demolish. In use it housed gun crews and 18,000 civilians during air raids.
I’ve visited before and it was grim as hell. I knew that since then it had been significantly jazzed up and greened up, but I had no idea that the new walkway around the side was open to the public.
The local tourist map doesn’t even acknowledge its existence.
FC St. Pauli? Yep, right there.
And the concrete megalith right next door that glowers over the whole north west of the city? Nope, nothing there, it’s just a really big green field.
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Making good progress, next stop Spandau.
I made this trip in the 80s, but overnight and through East Germany. It was a bit of a different proposition to the modern service.
Also
Yes, yes you do.
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It’s been like that here today.
A few pictures of the restaurant come antique shop we ate in on Sunday.
In house made Orange liqueur which was of interest to us Sloe Gin makers. Tasted delicious & very poky.
Then yesterday we set out from Perche & travelled the 90 miles or so NW to the coast, cross country without tolls.
The satnav took us via a few attractive Normandy towns & villages.
We stopped at one, Beuvron en Auge which was obviously maintained to within an inch of its life to maximise the tourist draw. There are still a good number of Americans who visit the region following in the footsteps of their fathers & grandfathers who were part of the allied effort moving East after D-Day in 1944. It had the feel of having been frozen in time (reminiscent of somewhere like Bourton on the Water) so was nice enough but not so interesting. What it did make clear was the very definite architectural style found all over Normandy of half timbered construction with the gaps often infilled with thin bricks at an angle. Indeed one of the places was being restored & we were watching the builder place the angled pieces set with what, I guess, was a lime mortar.
Also, elaborate roofs with dormer windows & overhanging gables.
We continued the last part of the journey to the coastal resort of Cabourg.
Between 1871 (end of the Franco Prussian War) and 1914 (WW1 starts) Europe generally was thriving. This golden age became known as La Belle Epoque. Advances were being made which lead to improved living standards and Aviation, improving railways, the ownership of private cars etc meant a more mobile population (or at least for some). The great & the good in France would de-camp from Paris up to the Normandy coast for the Summer months & return to the City in winter. It meant that resort towns such as Deauville, Trouville, Honfleur, Villers sur Mer, Cabourg & others expanded from being small fishing villages into holiday destinations often, it seems based around a large Casino & frequently horse racing tracks. Large villas were constructed in the Normandy style mentioned above but usually on a massive scale & often reflecting what was also happening in the UK with the Arts & Crafts movement. Artists came to the area; impressionists like Monet & Boudin, capturing the light, the towns, the fishing boats & seascapes.
Coco Chanel came & borrowed the simple look of local fishermen, the striped jerseys etc & in 1913 set up a boutique in Deauville selling to wealthy visitors.
Cabourg was developed from the mid 19C onwards around a series of concentric semi-circular roads with radial streets heading out from the casino & what became the Grand Hotel. But it still works well & is a charming place with a beautiful beach & a boardwalk.
Of course, the railway companies would suggest all kinds of inducements to get people there in the 1870’s
We walked around the town admiring the large villas & went through the very impressive foyer of the Grand Hotel before making our way to the Villa du Temps Retrouve. This is a museum dedicated to La Belle Epoque and Marcel Proust’s descriptions of the time & people in his sprawling work À la recherche du temps perdu (In search of lost time).
Grand Hotel, Cabourg
Town Centre & huge villas
Villa du Temps Retrouve
Lovely staircase inside.
While Proust was describing the places & people with nostalgia for what was lost, a contemporary French writer, Jules Verne was writing some of the earliest Science Fiction, describing journeys around the world, under the seas & into space. The museum was also running a fascinating exhibition about Verne. I liked this model of the Nautilus (with plans) and a drawing of the recovery of a space craft alongside pictures of recovering a returned Apollo space capsule taken some 100 years later.
We moved on to Blonville sur Mer where our Airbnb place is & went out for a walk on the beach at nearby Deauville in the evening.
Harbour
Beachfront villas
Beach Cabins on Les Planches, the 1920’s boardwalk
They’d just had a festival of American Film in Deauville which I guess may have accounted for this on the beach.
Today, across the river to Deauville’s older, cosier sibling Trouville which is lovely. Pics later.
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Visited Deauville about 15 years ago, very nice if rather spendy few days, I recall sitting in one of the beachfront restaurants one afternoon watching various members of retired French wealth with fabulously ott bowls of seafood
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Fantastic !
Today to the Neue Nationalgalerei by Mies van der Rohe.
We haven’t been since the refurbishment (David Chipperfield 2012-2021). Both the building and the exhibition of the standing collection were fantastic.
Also bought a true-sized cap from JustFitteds
Once we’d established that it wasn’t just a question of picking a design and that size was a major issue then I got banished to the back of the shop where they keep all the ridiculous stuff in a cardboard box.
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Signing off with the Harry Potter wizard’s sorting hat ca. 1000 BC.
One of four that are known about, inscribed with astronomical formulae for correcting time with leap years / days across a 19 year cycle, or something.
Purchased from a dealer in 1996, held by the the Neues Museum - David Chipperfield’s big gig that got him the contract for the Neue Nationalgalerei.
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Just got home after a 500 mile trip back via the tunnel. Would’ve broken up the journey but stuff to do tomorrow. Makes us think again about the most efficient & cost effective way of doing such a trip. It’s great to be able to get about easily when abroad (although a hire car would suffice) It’s a 600 mile round trip from W Devon to Le Shuttle. Brittany ferries (Plymouth to Roscoff) always looks comparatively expensive but, despite the much lower cost of the shuttle, factoring in the ballache of getting there & back (+ fuel cost) ought to be more of a consideration.
Food for thought prior to the next European trip.
This one has been great and will put up more pics/details tomorrow if people don’t find it too tedious. Personally I really enjoy reading about & seeing pics of others’ travel experiences good or bad.
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Indeed we always use the ferry ( unless heading to the east side and Belgium)and if you’re doing a couple of trips a year the £75 membership gives you 30% off including cabins and 10% off food/drink etc on board. An absolute no brainer and friends can use it for 10% off booking. Feel free to DM me if you need a 10% if only making the one trip.
Worth considering Poole too as it’s often cheaper than Plymouth
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A compromise, if your destination is Normandy/Brittany, is Newhaven-Dieppe. Would knock off a decent chunk of motoring both sides. 
Plus I am sure Gill would love to hear some Air Scouts if she was in the vicinity 
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