Fun France, Fun Friends

After feasting on French cuisine, we have had a super dose of “friendship food”.  First with Sissel and Einar: these are fun cool Norwegians whom we met on the island of Laesso, Denmark in August last year. Some years back they sailed their boat transatlantic, going clockwise around the North Atlantic, with two children ages 16 and 11.  They have a second home in Normandy, and now we were lucky enough to meet up with them in Dives-Guillaume, even though we had a shortened sailing trip this year. 

They treated us to tours of Normandy, taking us to the charming Honfleur, to the Normandy Beaches, and even a “pilgrimage” to the Chateau du Breuil – a maker of superb Calvados.

So we feasted on fun and friendship…..and of course continued to refuel daily with Haute Cuisine!

After bidding adieu to Sissel and Einar, we sailed to Fecamp. And here we had one of those rare lovely things, a huge happy coincidence. Our friend Sue McMillan from San Diego, whom we first met in St Thomas Virgin Islands, had seen our blog and now sent us an email: she was working in France, and would be starting a week’s assignment in Boulogne: were we going to be anywhere near?  Yes we certainly were! 

So we made rendezvous with Sue in Dieppe, and had a fun time with her in this lovely old port town. We toasted her absent husband, Dewey, whom we Skyped in St Thomas, and congratulated him on their marriage just ten days ago! 

Even though it rained a lot, this did not stop Sue and us from following local gleaned intelligence about……what else? ...enjoying the best local restaurants!

Berthed In St Vaast - and what a charming old Normandy harbour town it is! Here we enjoyed a fine new marina in the heart of town, surrounded outside the harbour with ancients oyster beds!

Sissel and Einar in love at Honfleur!

Surely riding his bike down this classic tree-lined lane is an old Frenchman, with bunches of onions hanging from his handlebars, and with a black beret atop his head?

The beauty of the Normandy coastline stands in harsh contrast.....

....to the monuments above the beaches to so many brave Americans...

...and British and Allied soldiers.

From the cemetery, the provocative and somber view looking East from Omaha Beach.

Sissel and Einar's second home is centre, behind the tree, and just two minutes from.....

....the impressive promenade at Cabourg.

Arriving at Dieppe, when about three miles off, we saw a few strange things in the sky over the waterfront....and then within a minute there were fifty, then a hundred! What the devil.....? Then as we got close we could see that they were kites: and soon we discovered that at Dieppe was a huge International Kite Festival, with 37 countries attending!

Sue photographed us on the waterfront at Dieppe, in between rain showers.

Sue snaps a selfie, dining at the Restaurant du Port, Dieppe.

So we now are full of French food and wine, and have new fond memories of friends already made but now encountered in new places.  This fun and friendship fits our need perfectly, to live by our motto “Spread Joy”.

Best, Nancy and John

Normandy Gourmandy

Here we are in Honfleur, and why do we look so happy? Well, of course we just ate a gourmet lunch !




Warning! Do not continue unless you have already eaten!
The State of California has determined that if you are in any way hungry or thirsty it is dangerous to consume this blog and you may suffer irreparable psychological damage. 

If you approach the average French person from Normandy and ask in English “What is the most famous thing about Normandy” you may well get a blank stare - many of them don't speak English.  But if you ask it in French with an English accent, he will instantly reply “Bien sur, c’est Guillaume Le Conquerant!”   (“Of course, it’s William The Conqueror!”)

The best thing, however, about cruising Normandy is the food and wine:  the bounty of land and sea, not forgetting the apple liqueur Calvados. 

We must first rave about the oysters, undoubtedly the finest we have ever tasted!  

                           

The huge flat beaches coupled with a 25 foot tide range make St Vaast a perfect land/seascape for the French to farm oysters by the millions. These Froggies are quite good oyster farmers – they have been doing it a long time - and take the oysters from the seabed and place them on platforms so that at high tide they are covered, and ..........

 

.........as the tide goes out they then uncover and sit in the air.

This makes the French oyster very plump and yummy!

Next comes the wine, and Muscadet wine is not expensive and goes very well with oysters.......

 ....and so you can dine like kings for the price of fish and chips!

Then there are the Pates, 

the pastries and confectioneries, 

Chocolate sculpted into every fanciful icon of art deco,

the sausages and charcuterie,

and of course, the hundreds of different cheeses. 

All this is superbly complimented by the baguettes, the olives, and every type of vegetable imaginable.

And perhaps best of all, the process of acquisition is so much fun, with old fashioned markets in every town, and bakers and pastry shops, butchers and delicatessen, and every sort of temptation for the taste buds.

Vive La France Gastronomique!

Jean et Nancie Chevalier

Guernsey Revisited

Its entrance, more like a trapdoor than a harbor mouth, is not wide, only about thirty feet, and it is not deep – in fact to get in you need seven feet of a rising tide – but Beaucette Marina on Guernsey rewards those who dare to enter. 

We arrived at low tide at sunset, so had to wait a couple of hours until the tide came in and gave us the five feet we needed under our keel to get over the rocky entrance. Ricky the admirable harbor manager came out in his dory at dusk and I jumped in and he took me into the harbor  through his “trapdoor” and showed me the slip into which we would park. Then he ferried me back out and left us on the waiting mooring ball as night fell, and fall heavily it did! No light, just a pitch black night!

Out he came again at 9.45pm to tell us “There’s water enough to get your keel over the sill, just follow me in.”  And so we did.  Wow. This was quite tricky anyway, but in blackness and with the light out on the starboard side of the rock face entrance, we held our breath……and then we were in to the marina with its lights, and tied up securely in just a jiffy.

Only the next day did we watch boats entering in broad daylight and then laugh at our insanity!  By all means visit Beaucette Marina in your yacht: but don’t enter at just after low tide on a dark night!

We are thrilled with Beaucette and the welcome and the facilities, and we are happy to be in Guernsey again, with its cosmopolitan St Peter Port and beautiful coastline.  And so we will enjoy this spot before heading East to Normandy.

 Sunrise as we leave the Chichester River at 5:30am

The "Trapdoor" entrance into Beaucette Marina

The old fort at the North East corner of Guernsey

Myron and Julia with JFK: we passed many happy hours with these Limey Sailor friends whom we had met in Cherbourg

 Watch out! Here come the Energizer Bunny Ricky!  Always smiling and keen to help, Ricky makes a mean cup of tea and is the best marina manager we have ever met!

 St Peter Port's inner harbour

Colourful flowers and a pretty girl!......

....who looks happy especially when the food is on its way! 

Beaucette Yacht Harbour from the cliff top: island of Herm in the distance

Top left gives a low tide view of the "trapdoor" entrance, and center right is Adventuress tied alongside the floating pontoon

View from our anchorage behind Herm, staging our departure from The Channel Islands heading to Normandy, France

Best,

John and Nancy

Enjoying Chichester Harbour

The forecast for Friday 19 August showed a large low arriving in England, so we were motivated to leave our marina in Woodbridge and make some progress ahead of it.  

After a good sail on Tuesday 50 miles across the wide mouth of the Thames to Ramsgate, we rested there a day and then motored in light winds all the way to Brighton, which is a very useful but ugly concrete and glass marina. We left there at 5.45 am  and were safely inside Chichester Harbour by noon on Friday.  Up the Chichester river we found a splendid mooring off Itchenor, 50 yards from the floating dinghy dock and 100 yards walk to the Ship Inn.  This hostelry was inviting, cosy, and excellent value, so we gave the cook a holiday and ate dinner there three days in a row.  The harbour master ‘s office was friendly and efficient, and showed us the way to Tim’s Quarterdeck Café, which is a little jewel tucked away somewhat strangely in the yard of Southerly Yachts, which sadly are now out of business.  

On Sunday we enjoyed watching the racing dinghies from Itchenor Sailing Club hold a breezy regatta, and have loved the birds, swans and beautiful marshscapes around us.

While the wind has roared and rain has pelted down, we have had some interludes of mere clouds and even some sunshine.  In other words, we have enjoyed a fairly typical August holiday week in England!

 Leaving Tide Mill Marina, Woodbridge

 One of the black swans came to say goodbye!

 Heading down the Deben River at high tide.  The river partially dries out at low tide

 The beautiful Suffolk countryside along the Deben

 At the mouth of the Deben, Beach Huts are strangely popular!

 John dressed for the 65 degree weather!

 Nancy in the same temp!

 Crossing the Thames.  There are many hundreds of windmills!

 A view from our Thai restaurant of the Ramsgate Harbour

Ramsgate is a man made harbour built out from the cliffs in the 1700s and 1800s

 Leaving Ramsgate

 The beautiful white cliffs of Dover on the way to Brighton Marina

 Leaving Brighton Marina at 5:45am

 Itchenor..a dingy sailors' paradise

 A great pub with outstanding food!

On the Mooring at Itchenor

Best,

John and Nancy