Mont Saint-Michel to Le Havre – By Motorcycle

Mont Saint-Michel to Le Havre – By Motorcycle

Well, morning folks. Uh, yeah, Rick. It’s a nice sunny day, isn’t it? We’re going to have an absolute blast today. Um, we’ve got sun, obviously. You know, it’s not raining or anything like that. We don’t need our waterproof coats, but there’s 32 in the shade. It is. Yeah. Bit disappointing. It looks like we’re going to be in wet weather all day, but um perhaps not as uh perhaps not as uh as wet as where are we? Perhaps not as wet as yesterday, but it’s going to be constant. So, uh so all day it’s going to be uh pretty drizzly, I think. And toward the end of the day, we should see a little bit of sun. But we’re going to Laav today and we’re going to play it by ear, I guess, and go to Omaha Beach. It’s on the way, isn’t it? And see if we can see a little bit more at Omaha Beach. rather than just sort of shooting off like we did yesterday. So, that’s the plan. First of all, we’re going to climb up this rock. Apparently, there’s an old church at the top. Yeah. Mount San Michelle. That’s quite a, isn’t it? Michelle. That’s my name in French. Chimney gone. Really? Is a bit, isn’t it? Is the Is the Pope being uh to me that there’s a there’s a major fire going on there. That doesn’t look uh like it should look. Yeah. Yeah, I don’t think Oh, it is a chimney fire. Flames coming out of it. Yeah. Uh yeah, we’re looking at a chimney fire. You can actually see flames licking out the top. Yeah. Are we sure we want to go up there? Oh dear. Place is on fire. Yeah. Did you see that flame? Yeah. That’s definitely not right. They need they needed a chimney sweep sooner rather than later. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Applause] Heat. [Applause] [Music] Heat. [Music] [Music] [Applause] Heat. [Music] [Applause] Heat. [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Um, we’ve uh had a quick walk, haven’t we? Uh, and we’ve decided it’s not really raining now. It’s kind of just drizzle, but it’s a bit miserable looking, isn’t it? And uh they’re all cobbles and they’re a little bit slippy, weren’t they? So, we decided we take the steps down and uh and exit. But I don’t think I’d come in the summer cuz this is the end of March and the weather’s not great and the people in front of us now are flooding, flooding on here. So, um, yeah, we got here in time really. There weren’t that many people here. So, um, we’re going to head back, get on the bikes, and, uh, hopefully head to Omaha Beach. We’re kind of expecting wet weather, but we’re not going to go on the motorway this time. Neither of us enjoyed that yesterday. So, uh, so we’ll uh we’ll avoid that. But it was an hour saved yesterday, and it was an hour well saved. Oh, yeah. We got food. Yeah. Had a great meal, didn’t we? Um we had a great meal. We were in um both had duck, didn’t we? Medium rare bit of duck, plum sauce. But both of us looked at it when we turned up, did we? We were a bit hungry like we hadn’t eaten all day. And this little alikart menu turned up with a little plate with a slither of slither of duck on a little bit of potato whatever it was. And uh yeah, I could have eaten four of them, but so I made up for it at breakfast this morning. And now I think Rick’s regretting not doing what I did for breakfast cuz he’s getting hungry again. Now tell highly recommend. Um couldn’t be friendlier people. And it’s uh it’s right here. Yeah, it’s right here um in the so it’s like gated. So when you go to uh go to Mont San Michelle, you have to come through here. No public transport and come through, but if you’re in a hotel here, there is car parks outside and if you walk in, you can get a free bus service. It’s only a couple of kilometers down to the last 400 m or so you’ve got to walk. Heat up here. Heat up here. Heat. Heat. Heat up here. [Music] Got to be careful. There’s a lot of diesel on [Music] here. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat up here. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat up here. Heat up here. Heat up here. Heat up here. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat up [Music] [Music] here. Well, we had some palm fricks and we had uh a lovely espresso coffee and uh it was actually quite pricey compared to yesterday’s lunch, but anyway, it’s fine. Um and we’re only 5 miles away, so that’s where we filled up yesterday. [Music] Well, this is a lot better than it was yesterday when we arrived. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] see how bad this is. Look. So, welcome to Omaha Beach. this on D-Day, which is the uh 6th of June um 1944, all the Allied forces along this coastline, I think there was five or six beaches, somebody will correct me, I should know, I know. Um this being Omaha, where the Americans landed, ma mainly Americans landed here. So there were a lot of casualties. 3,600 in just a few hours. 3,600 casualties and 770 soldiers were killed. So if you look out over the beach here, it’s very shallow water and a very short beach and very little cover. So there was a little shingle bank and a concrete uh sort of wall. I’m not sure if it’s the same one that’s still that’s there right now, but there was a concrete wall, but obviously there was massive firepower up on the high ground behind us. So, the German forces rained down on the US forces, but ultimately they uh what they were victorious. They got through here and there is a low point here, you see, um to get up between the hills there, which is the way we drove in. But this is Omaha Beach and we’re going to try and get some more. There’s Sword. There’s a few more beaches further along as we head towards La Hav. Hope you enjoy the drone [Music] footage. Heat up [Music] here. [Music] [Applause] Yeah. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Well, that’s Omaha Beach. Let’s go and have a look at Gold Beach. [Music] [Music] So what a difference a day makes. Look at this old Jeep. He’s been driving up and down. [Music] [Music] [Music] Heat up here. You know, sometimes I turn the camera on and I’m just too late. Oh, we came this way yesterday, didn’t we? [Music] yesterday. Didn’t we go around one of them or go around? Oh, let’s try and go round. That’s the only problem with this. Which way you going to go then? Hey, this way. It’s okay. Yeah. Heat. Heat. Heat. Okay. So, welcome to Gold Beach. So, on the 6th of June 1944, the British troops came ashore here on Gold Beach. Now this this this landing area the whole of this beach is 8 km or 5 miles in length. Okay. But fortunately the British troops only lost it’s still too many but 350 people died on that day. On that day landing on this beach 350 people died. thousand casualties, but they came ashore, a lot of them in our uh the swimming tanks and quite a few of them sank coming in cuz they had like a a big skirt on the side, an inflated skirt and they had problems when they than when they were coming in. So, a few of them did sink. However, they were they were needed to come in advance of the foot soldiers, okay, to protect them. So the soldiers came in behind them to protect them as they came onto the beaches. So this is the gold beach. This is where the British landed. Didn’t lose as many as the Americans. Fortunately, the Americans on Omaha Beach lost far more people. But uh yeah, three 350 died on this beach. British. And uh that was D-Day. This is Gold Beach. So that was Gold Beach. Nowhere near as much uh punk ceremony as the the US um yeah the US beach at Omaha, but I think the British have got the uh memorial up here and uh this where the cemetery is. So anyway, that’s where it took me first. So we looped back, had a look at the beach, you got to see the Malbury Harbor. But now look at that. I’m on 8,600 miles. So about 630 600 Yeah, 630 mi since I left home. Bit more maybe. But the time is now 6:00 p.m. and we just looked if we take the fun route, you know, taking back roads, no motorways, no nothing. It’s going to take us over 2 hours, 2 and 1 half hours. So, we’re looking at half 8 getting there in the dark again. So, I said, “Look, we got a choice. What do you want to do?” I mean, it’s look looks like it’s getting dark now, but it’s not. The sun’s just behind the cloud. Um, and you could see that he was like, “No, let’s just get there.” So, I think it’s going to take us about an hour less. We’re going to get on the motorway. Uh, it’s only about 70 miles, something like that. And they, uh, yeah, the motorway is not far from here. So, I don’t know if you can see it up on the horizon there. You got the French and Union Jack. You got the French flag and the Union Jack flag. Um, that’s the memorial for the uh fallen British soldiers. But there you go. That’s Omaha Beach and Gold Beach. We were just saying there that uh God, it’s hot. We were sat in the sun. Um but the wind started just picking up slightly and it’s because it’s coming off the sea. Suddenly the temperature dropped and actually the air temperature is only 12 1/2° now and it’s felt really warm today. But now when you’re moving along in the wind at sort of there we are 40 50 mph dropping down to 20. Um yeah, you can feel the cold. So we are wrapped up. We’ll be all right. No windproof suit on now though. That always helps. [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat up [Music] here. [Music] Yeah. Heat. [Music] [Music] Right. So, I was a it’s a little room for tonight and uh it’s a little motel, but we are paying £43 for this. That’ll do. Beds are a bit close. Beds are a bit close. We would be all right, wouldn’t we? When we wake the birds and see the sun side, our fears are done. All the good times just begun. Oh, we know what we have. Let’s hold on tight. Found what we’re looking for in life. [Music]

Today is part 3 of our trip around Normandy – France. Mont Saint-Michel to Le Havre. What a great day!