France to catch Le Tour
Featuring Myself and Gill
Wednesday 9th July 2025
11pm sailing from Portsmouth to Caen
Thursday
Awake super early, 06:45 dock, took an age to get out of the ferry terminal.
Drove West along the coast round, stopping for coffee and pastry luc sur mer on sword beach. Carried on to Arromanches les bains, walked from the car park down to the town, stunning location. More refreshments.
Drove towards Bayeux and parked under a tree in a lay-by and cycled (mtb) the 4 miles into Bayeux. Met Michael the German who tagged along!
Waited for the start of the tour.
After that walked around for a bit, stopped for a nice lunch by the waters edge.
Rode back and drove towards Bayeux Grandcamp Maisy, stopping at Omaha beach for an ice cream on the way.
Bit of a puzzle getting into the digs but lovely location overlooking Omaha beach.
This was our apartment; Appartement front mer proche omaha & utah beach
Very warm weather
Booked a table at the fish restaurant, literally 10m walk away, very busy, great food and good value, however some odd practices with the bread which got recycled to various tables!
Friday
Woke to a beautiful morning and took a stroll down to the bolongeurie for almond crossaints, had breakfast in the apartment and out by 10am.
Drove to Dinan to catch a glimpse of the tour, lovely medieval village and got a good spot of the tour coming through, nice to Geraint Thomas in the break.
Bumped into the Nobles, who I’d seen on the ferry, complete Le Tour nuts.
We than had a walk around and down the cobbled streets to the port, Gilly decided she wasn’t hungry around 2pm and stropped off, met at the car later and drove to Pontorson where we staying, luckily we were able to check in early.
This was our accommodation;
L’Orée du Mont proche du mont saint Michel
We both cycled to Mont St Michel which was about 6 miles each way, absolutely stunning location and stopped for an ice cream and drink.
Showered and ready for dinner.
Wandered into town, restaurants were really busy, found one where we waited outside until a table was ready, luckily it was for outstays it was still incredibly warm.
Food just okay.
Very warm in the room.
Saturday
Up reasonably early for 8am breakfast, coffee okay and plenty of freshly squeezed orange juice, bread and pastries. Tre Bien!
Got in the car and headed straight to St Meen Le Grand to catch the caravan and start. About an hours drive, they had laid on free car parks and we were there in plenty of time. It was only a small town and it was super busy.
The mission was for polka hats, socks and tee shirts. It was a real battle and had to be super quick and accurate with the catching, Gilly bless her blagged socks, hat and I managed to catch a few items, especially the really cool fdj hats which were really nice. People though wanted everything even if they had some merch already and it was getting rough out there!
It was really really hot and we moved to the parade village where there was the merch shop and the teams were being paraded to the crowds. I stop in the sun while Gilly went for some shade, after awhile I spotted the first aiders milling about and quickly realised that Gilly amongst many others was suffering from sunstroke and was being looked at after feeling really faint. Luckily after probably 30 minutes she started to feel better and we headed back to the car.
Drove back to Dinan for lunch and a quick mooch around the shops.
Got back to the digs for around 5pm for some chill time.
Drove to a nice restaurant down towards Mont St Michel, 4.5* on google. Very busy but got a table, pretty good meal, I had steak and Gill had a salad. Enjoyed the apple tartin for desert.
The plan was then to go on to see the sunset by MSM, however Gilly was feeling tired so I dropped her off at the digs and I drove back and parked as close as I could. Still meant a fair walk to the popular weir bridge, the sky was very colourful and the evening was very warm.
Got some hopefully nice pics.
Sunday
Our last day, left the accommodation around 9am, Christenne was an amazing host and our stay was faultless. Drove to Arromanches-les-Bains, quick mooch and coffee, then drove along the coast, stopped at a market, then onto carrefour for souvenirs.
From here we went to Pegasus Bridge and had a quick snack.
Got to the ferry for around 14:45 for our 16:30 sailing.
Conclusion: Great short break, France is lovely and the Tour is amazing!
