Sundays are always a good day for a long drive in Europe. The trucks are not allowed to drive so we are one of the slowest vehicles on the freeway. This allows me to set the cruise control and enjoy long stretches with a coffee in my hand while everyone passes us by. Today we covered about 200 miles and ended up at a campground smack in the middle of Sword Beach in Normandy.
Sword Beach was one of the 5 main landing beaches for the Normandy Invasion in WWII. The troops that landed here were nearly entirely British, though a small contingent of French Marine Commandos landed very close to the location of our campground. Unlike Omaha Beach (the beach depicted in Saving Private Ryan), the landing here was accomplished with very low casualties. The problems for the British came later as they attempted to reach Caen about 10 kilometers inland.
We took it pretty easy when we arrived. The campground we are staying in has been largely converted to small cottages. People rent the camping space by the year and bring in small 300 to 400 sq ft. cottages that they place on the spot. When we checked in we were shown to a spot between 3 of these cottages. One of our neighbors was cleaning a large bag of mussels they had procured somewhere. Ton struck up a conversation in hand signals and Franglish, and before we know it we were gifted a small bowl of them along with instructions on how to prepare them. Ton steamed them for our evening snack and they were delicious. It is these small interactions that make these trips special.
