April 29, another day at the seaside

Today we had another nice breakfast at Chez Claire's with homemade bread, yogurt and jams. 

Beuvron-en-Auge

We got a nice early start and headed toward Plage de la Redoubte on Claire's recommendation for a quiet beach. It is just outside Merville-Franceville-Plage and on the Orne Estuary. We walked about 800 meters to the beach, hoping for a picnic spot, but it was windy and no place to sit, so we walked around and heard many birds, but could only identify a few via Merlin and descriptions. It is a place where 3 different plovers nest and is a protected area.

It is called Redoubte Beach because of all the bunkers left there from WWII, also called redoubts. Grim reminders abound in this area.

From there, we drove into the nearby town, Merville-Franceville-Plage, a long name for a small seaside town which we liked very much. We walked along the promenade; the wind calmed down as the day went on and more and more families showed up to enjoy the beach. As tide was out, the beach was very, very wide. 

We had our picnic there - the usual - baguette, cheese, tomato, pate, oranges. This time we added a sparking rhubarb water made across the street from our guesthouse. (We bought another bottle today to take with us tomorrow)

After sitting there quite a while, we had a coffee and tea and the drove to the outskirts of Cabourg where we stopped yesterday, but were driven away by the cold and the wind.

We walked the promenade; today the beach had a lot more people as the weather was sunny and warm. There were walkers and bikers on the promenade. We watched kitesurfers and saw 4 sulky drivers and horses trotting by the water's edge which was very cool. We could envision spending time in Cabourg in the future.

Chez Claire's

Then - back to our guesthouse, Chez Claire. But, we left our key in our room as we'd done every day. But, today is Claire's day to close the cafe and she was busy taking two of her children to lessons- piano, violin, tennis. So - it was locked. We tried email, but knew she'd be unlikely to check it. Barbara tried putting in the one number we had to What's App and to call it - no avail. (We think it was the centralized number for the Chambres d'Hotes) After sitting in the car for 45 minutes, we decided we'd go into the village and eat, although we weren't hungry. But, then we saw a number on her sign. Barbara called that, and lo and behold!, Claire answered. She told us that there was an unlocked door around back. Whew! So, we got in and we had our left-overs from today's picnic sitting in the lovely front garden here. We'd have waited a long time if we'd have had to wait for Claire to get home.