Thursday 6th – Friday 7th June 2024
Thursday: La Ferrière-aux-Étangs:
We spent Thursday night on an aire at the small village of La Ferrière-aux-Étangs in the Orme Departement of Normandy. The aire had previously been a campsite, which has apparently been taken over by the local community and offers a free park-up. All the electricity points were taped-up. We had read that the water and electricity are 4 €, which was confirmed on-site, but when we visited, the borne was out of order and had a sign saying that it would be replaced “in a few weeks”. So no water at all then.
The village has a number of old properties and as a result of a bypass, has very little traffic.
Like other towns and villages in this area, there are some old photographs on display, but these are not WW2 images, they are older and mostly show the village, pre WW1.
The church has a tower which has large stones as a part of its construction that have various inscriptions. Many are dated from the early 17th century. I wondered if they were a part of an original church which had been reconstructed, but one of the photographs from the early 20th century clearly shows these stones. They might be grave markers, but it is difficult to know.
We enjoyed a walk up a steep hill behind the aire, called Le Mont Brûlé where the route to the top has the stations of the cross along the path. There is a shrine and small garden at the top.
We carried on beyond this to emerge at the top of some cliffs, looking down on a flooded quarry.
…and a fine view:
Returning down to the village, we wandered around the lake:
Friday: Falaise:
We had an early(ish) start, worried that if there was some event happening in Falaise over the weekend, we might not get a space on the chateau car-park, which is also a motorhome stopover. After a diversion to the local Lidl for supplies, we arrived to find the car park busy, but we were able to park-up when a couple of other motorhomes moved on. We have stayed here before, the last time in December 2023 on our way to Spain. There are no services, but it seems to be a reliable place with nearly level hardstanding, right next to the town centre.
Clearly some event is being planned. Most of the shops have some sort of decoration in the windows, showing cartoon American G.I.s and welcoming messages, many in English, celebrating the 80th anniversary of D-Day.
There were many information boards which recounted the horrors for the local population when the town was liberated, with the loss of many French lives and the devastation on the town infrastructure. Several showed photographs of the area around Saint Gervais’ church:
Falaise played a large part in the battle of Normandy and this area is where more than 100,000 German troops were captured in what is known as the “Falaise Pocket”.
An impressive scale model of the state of the town immediately after the liberation, is in the church of Saint Gervais:
Despite the damage caused during the war, there are some very old buildings in the town, not least, William the Conqueror’s castle:
…and some of the town defensive walls:
This is the final blog of this trip as we are on the ferry back to Portsmouth, with an early start in the morning. We have had a wonderful time, despite having some poor weather as well as good. Brittany and Normandy are amazing places to visit, with an abundance of beautiful scenery and historic places to explore.
We need to make our way home now for a rest and a bit of normality. It is quite possible that we will be back, but for now it is goodnight from beneath the ramparts of William the Conqueror’s castle, Falaise, Calvados, Normandy.
"See-u-Later" 