Having two geriatric cats who seem to revel in getting either David or myself up in the night, I was disturbed at 3 am then jumped on at what seemed a very short time after sometime about 4am !,I gave up.. Lizzie got her tea at 4.40 ! we were off to Poole to catch the early Cat to Cherbourg. Its always a bit of a palaver getting my volvo backed into strange corners but uneventful on the whole and we had nice reclining seats as part of our offer so dozed to France in the fog!
Once we were on our way south on the N13 the weather cleared so we decided to drive down until we felt we had gone far enough to spend the after lunch hour meandering back up through the countryside to our evening destination the Hotel Ibis Cherbourg
The smell of hay wafting through the car window on a hot sunny afternoon reminds you France is a rural idyl.We had made our first call and after madame was satisfied none of her cats had stowed away with the Linens in the car ! arrived in Coutance for a late lunch in front of the Cathedral, always a favourite of ours. We had a relaxed feeling that we had made a good start and the pressure was off for the rest of the afternoon, just as well as I took the wrong road and missed our next call ! There was time for one more stop and by then we were fading it was 5.30 pm. and very warm. We found some lovely neural tickings in greys caramel and sage , a frame and a lovely little clothes dryer.
Coutance Cathedral view from our lunch spot
French markets are always a treat Valognes is on Thursday morning
Hotel Ibis on the outskirts of Cherbourg, such good value and you are sure of a clean room and a simple but excellent supper. They gave us a superb room so we had a relaxed shower and a Kir and watched the tennis before enjoying a long supper reviewing our day and all the inspiration and ideas these trips bring. We were needless to say exhausted , slept like logs and enjoyed a lovely buffet breakfast before driving to the ferry port.
