The Normandy {Look Around}

The Normandie by Albert Sebille

There was once The Normandy (Le Normandie), one powerful ship named after one gorgeous area in northwestern France and designed to bravely face the Atlantic and History - but not the raging fire that burnt it down in ominous 1942 . There is now the peaceful land of our Normandy, our safe haven we like to turn to on windy days (for hubby) and on sunny days (for me and the little ones) - sometimes the two combined in one blessed day!

The days in the French Normandy region are spent in lazy and harmonious fashion by the entire family as we learn our new life (there are four of us now after all)... So a slow motion morning would typically include - right after the bottle flurry, that is - freshly squeezed pomelo juice to be drunk right away if you want to get all the useful vitamins in, plump croissants and home-made raspberry jam... Meanwhile, we talk away with a bit of Bossa Electro in the background and the occasional cry from one of the babies.

Barneville-Carteret beach

The peak of the morning is definitely the closest local market and I would advise you to head for Les Pieux, for example, where you can lay your hands on fresh produce, from fragrant pont l'evêque cheese or tasty camembert to 100% pure apple juice made with locally grown apples; the final roundup is for the shellfish - you cannot be in France and not eat oysters from Saint Vaast, another shrine around the corner - crabs and lobsters that will be laid on our table for dinner.

On the way to the Nez de Jobourg

On our way back to the mobile-home, our very own ship firmly anchored on the windy beach, we stop to admire villages of stone houses and well-kept gardens teeming with plants and flowers - irises among them, tall and fragile in their pale colors. After all, Normandy enjoys a pretty wet weather, especially in the Fall and Winter, that favors its luscious nature.

The inevitable stop by the beach is the perfect occasion  to get our hands dirty in the sand as we build and destroy castles laughing with our children while making plans for the rest of the day.

If you enjoy too this type of recreational day, deeply rooted in slow rhythm and in the quest for a renewed emotional and sensorial balance, the right place for you is the Siouville beach or the Barneville-Carteret stretch of sand, right in front of the boulevard Maritime. On these beaches, the horizons will absorb your every trouble and enable you to make a pause. 

A. Pause.

And if you know how to be grateful to your surroundings for such a beautiful day, the doors of the Hôtel and Restaurant des Isles will open wide just for you: sit down at the Tortuga café and order a warm cocoa or tea to regain your senses after so much natural beauty.

Now that you are restored, look in the distance and focus on that dot far away at sea: wait, isn't that The Normandie in all its past liner glory?

Credits: 

1 - Albert Sebille

2 + 3 + 4 - TheDaydreamerDiary