April 28 - Beuvon-en-Auge - visit to the seaside

 

Little church next to Chez Claire

Today we had a nice breakfast at our guesthouse, Chez Claire. Claire, is a hard-working mother of three who runs the guesthouse and her restaurant by herself. The bread was homemade as were the yogurts and the jams. Her family also made the apple juice. 

  She recommended that we take a trip today to the seaside, so we took her advice and went to the towns of Cabourg and Houlgate which are side-by-side, separated by the River Dives.

 

  Both have huge, tidal sandy beaches and home from La Belle Epoch, from around 1870-1900. They are a bit reminiscent of the mansions of Newport, but French style. It was very windy walking the promenades of both towns, but we did. We walked by the Grand Hotel in Cabourg and then the wind and chill made us leave and walk up the main shopping street.

     We drove to Houlgate where it was still windy, but it had warmed up a bit. We parked on the outskirts of town and walked a good deal of Roland Garros Promenade and gazed at more impressive Belle Epoch mansions.

  As always, we wonder at how many working class people it took to support the few rich ones.

    We watched windsurfers in Houlgate for quite some time.

    We walked into town and had a light lunch which was delicious - a scallop veloute soup. It was unlike any we'd ever had. Not heavy, but smooth. With some French bread, it made a great lunch.

    We drove back through some very secondary (tertiary) roads with big hedgerows and by some huge estates of horses. This area is known for its horses. Claire, our landlady, has a horse (not here) and her eldest son will work with horses when he finishes school.

 

Beuvron-en-Auge village

 We walked through the little village, bought some bread, looked at some horses just outside of town and also bought some rhubarb sparkling drink to try from a man just across the street here.

Rhubarb sparkling water

   We ate at Claire's restaurant. To keep it simple, she does not change her menu. Mark had an andouille quiche and Barbara had a vegetable quiche. The quiches are very light and, with a salad, it made for a nice dinner. Maybe tomorrow we will try one of her desserts.