Normandy

We left Brugge the next morning, and travelled south along the coast. It is a hugely populated coastline with numerous cities with multi storey hotels and appartments right next to the beaches. We drove in, out and around towns large and small which took a long time to cover a small distance. We found a couple of great spots to relax in the van, one in particlular where we spent a couple of hours at the end of the day, with an amazing view out over the ocean. We saw a crowd gathering at "Cap Gris-Nez" so followed them expecting something remarkable and found it was just a few lookouts over the ocean - rather dull for kiwis! We waited around till 8pm for the "dinner hour" and found a lovely restaurant in a quaint sea side village. We had thought we were doing quite well with French - until we looked at their menu. The phrase book helped a little and we managed to avoid the shell fish we saw our neighbours eating, and Anna's desert came out on fire (literally) and she had to wait for it to go out before eating it. Today we have spent in a similar fashion, driving along the coast, stopping in at some war monuments which are scattered along this area, especially around Dunkirk. The Germans left a lot of concrete behind! Today we found out what happens when you are in a supermarket when it closes for lunch. Especially when you don't understand (and so ignore) any closing announcements, oops! Tomorrow we are going to Monet's Garden.