Our day trip to Rouen by train was brilliant and very easy. Our main destination was St Valéry-en-Caux where Michael’s father was taken prisoner in June 1940. Having researched the regimental records, we identified the actual street where the Royal Norfolks surrendered, and by serendipity visited a former abbey the day it held an exhibition of St Valery photographs before and after the war. We chanced on the local historian (an engineer at the local nuclear power station) and shall be returning for 12 June next year, the 70th anniversary of the three day battle that filled the local war cemetery. St Valery is charming and unpretentious, with some lovely houses, a wonderful market and the warmest welcome (in perfect English) of anywhere we visited. Our next proper port was Honfleur, with a brief stay back in Fécamp on the way. Honfleur will be familiar to many, a tourist magnet, in August every inch of the harbour side is packed with restaurants emitting a rumble of conversation from midday to midnight. The hubbub is added to by itinerant musicians who seem only to know 3 tunes; we don’t mind if we never hear Guantanamera again. If you don’t have a holding tank, plan your drinking as the loo/shower block is over the quay, through an alley, across a square, down another alley and across the town car-park to blessed relief. The option of tying up against a wall on the Eastern side of the outer basin, close to the double bridges is outside the old town but quieter, cooler, nearer the loo but not as pretty. The climb to Notre Dame de Grâce chapel is delightful where there are great views over the town and up the Seine towards the Pont Normandie. At midday, in addition to the normal carillon, one of the electrically-bashed bells actually swings to chime! If you like impressionists, visit the Eugène Boudin gallery. On Wednesday evenings a huge tacky market appears along the quay and beyond. For us, the timing of the bridge and lock to leave Honfleur appeared perfect for our next passage. We calculated that the Seine flood would be feasible one hour before HW. The lock entrance is at right angles to the river, as we exited on a calm day, we could see and therefore anticipate the line of the flood – and a whirlpool - yet the power was so great Snow Goose lurched through 90o to starboard, the tiller wrenched from D’s hand. We made better speed than we had hoped but it was nearly 2 hours before we crossed back to the South side of the channel and set sail in lumpy water towards Ouistreham. Despite early fears, once the tide turned, our speed over the ground was >7 knots (luckily we only had the No 2 as black clouds brought a stiff F6-7 for about 20 mins) so we arrived in Ouistreham in good time for the last lock. We did not try the shallow (and full) waiting pontoon but simply drifted whilst eating a (very) late lunch. There was no need to hang about in the marina so we motored straight on up the canal, although the sight of Pegasus Bridge at least a mile ahead of us lifting and closing at around 4 pm nearly caused us to turn back. A quick phone call to the marina assured us that it would open again at 4.30. From then on the remaining 2 bridges opened as we reached them. High spots in Caen were the bus trip to Falaise through delightful Normandy villages and of course exploring Duke Will’s birthplace and much restored castle. On Friday evenings Caen has a genuine craft market beside the yacht basin; stall holders demonstrate their skills as they mind their stalls - wire spectacle frames in the shape of bicycles, hand-painted china, rag dolls, stuffed snails …. A brilliant jazz band started up at 5.30 and was still going at 10.30 when we returned from a good (but expensive) meal in the old quarter. At the far end of the market was a free salsa class where about 30 couples of varying experience reinforced the air of conviviality. The huge Sunday morning market (also beside the basin) sells everything and is very colourful. We were accosted there as long lost friends by an Englishman who has set up an English micro-brewery nearby; perhaps he was that friendly to everyone but we didn’t buy any of his beer. The canal at 08.30 on a summer day is calm and full of wildlife – and Dee Caffari’s ‘Aviva’. Dodging Eastwards again, it was easy to go with the tide to enter Deauville. We moored in the inner basin rather than turning into the new marina to avoid fiddling with more locks and were closer to the Deauville Yacht Club who offer a very warm welcome. A 40 euro deposit for the loo entry card was tricky when we came to leave (before the harbour master opened up) as by that time our heads were blocked solid (still are) and ‘bucket and chuck it’ in the middle of Deauville is not quite the done thing. Deauville has two racecourses, La Touque is an easy walk, world class polo (mostly Argentinians with some French, Italian and Brits) is wonderful spectator sport; it starts as the horse racing finishes and is free for early heats. Clairefontaine is a long walk or short bus ride, is very pretty and more casual. We added a bus trip to the Pegasus Bridge Museum, enjoyed the beaches, explored Trouville’s amazing fish market and ate well. D even managed to resist the Parisian designer shops. Our final port, St Vaast seems to have dolled itself up quite a bit since we visited a couple of years ago. Yachty clothes shops, galleries and the restaurants had all changed their names and gone up market, although some were still patronised by the locals. We had been lucky that the few windy days occurred when we wanted to explore on land, however the forecast was bad so we cut short our stay by a day and headed home on Bank Holiday Monday, leaving St Vaast with a PYRA fleet that had raced there on Saturday (including Eye-to-Eye). We set off with main and poled out No 1 as they gathered for their start, changed to the spinnaker off Barfleur but just before the wind dropped completely. We probably confused the racing fleet by being first to switch on the iron genny for what proved to be nearly 10 hours of book reading en route to the 8 o’clock bridge. A gentle finish to the holiday. With just over 400 miles covered in 24 days, we didn’t stretch ourselves but with a couple of new ports visited, several old friends caught up with and new friends made, Normandy proved an ideal choice for a thoroughly relaxing cruise.

Diana & Michael Gill – ‘Snow Goose