A Wanderful Life

Ten months? How can ten months have passed since our last trip to the Atlantic seacoast in Mimizan, France?

We detoured away from the logical and time saving straight-down-the-middle path from North to South as we drove from Normandy to the Midi-Pyrenees and veered off for a last look at the ocean for awhile. The peaks of the Pyrenees were soon to be a daily part of our view and we both loved the dramatic crashing waves of the Atlantic seaside.

Arriving mid-afternoon, we went straight to the beach which was a mere block and a half walk from our hotel. The sky was glorious, the beach was almost deserted, and the waves were crashing beautifully onto the beach.
 

 
The weather was equally beautiful the following morning as Mark headed to the windy beachfront to have a quick Tai Chi session on the beach and say goodbye to the seaside for awhile.
 
***NOTE*** I have re-edited this article, removed the link to YouTube, and have reloaded all of the photos in a new slideshow that is larger, cleaner, and much more crisp! The quality of the digital images in the YouTube slideshow was very disappointing, so I think that I shall limit my usage of that site to the occasional video upload. I would rather not present work to the world that is almost right instead of genuinely good. So in that vein of maintaining quality control, I have spent the last 2 full days researching and testing various programs before I was happy with this one. Thanks for bearing with me during the fine-tuning process.
 

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It was late in the afternoon and the appearing-then-disappearing sunlight streamed through each intersection in sporadic bursts. The two main streets of the Haute Ville section of Granville are lined with beautiful old stone houses, many dating back to a period between the 15th to 17th Centuries.
 

 
The upper portion of the town is surrounded by an ancient fortified wall from the 15th Century and is perched high atop a hillside overlooking the latter portions of Granville built on reclaimed seafront.
 

 

 
This part of Normandy hugs the curving coastline and has some of the loveliest towns in all of northern France. Granville has much to recommend it both historically and visually and can easily be visited on a one-day outing.
 

 

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This may be the Normandy coast of France and yes, I know that our temperatures here are a few degrees warmer than they are at our friend Polly’s house 35 minutes inland from here. But the below zero temps we’re having are a shock to the body!!!
 

 

 

 

Each and every puddle in the road that is left over from last week’s rains is frozen solid and the pond at the end of the lane looks like a small skating rink.
 

 
We kept the walk with the dogs briefer than usual because every intake of breath was a bit painful. As you can see in the photos above, I was bundled to the eyeballs and underneath that heavy wool coat, long wool scarf, wool hat, and lined leather gloves that are visible, I had on lots of layers — leggings, a thick pair of baggy track pants, a long-sleeve thermal shirt, a turtleneck, a long-sleeve cashmere sweater. I was still freezing and my face ached!

Mark seemed fine as he wrangled with the spaniels, but he did admit that his face was feeling icy.
 

 
I can’t even imagine sailing on a day that was so cold, but the sun was bright, the skies were clear, and this man with the red sailboat was dressed in waterproof sports clothing and he decided to give it a go. Unfortunately, the boat seems to have been hit by a wave and shoved onto the beach a bit too far up the beach from the preferred destination. So, after making certain that the small boat was firmly wedged against the sand and it wouldn’t float way, the sailor gave up and walked down the beach to get his truck and boat-trailer.
 

 
Ah well — back to the sofa with a blanket around my legs while I edit photos!

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We’re back in Brehal, St. Martin de Brehal to be specific — right on the coast in Normandy. Having arrived back on one of the Brittany Ferries a few days ago, we’re happily re-ensconced at the beach. We love this beach house and it may be blustery and rain-battered most winter days, but we wouldn’t trade it for the world.
 

 

The picture above was the weather outside my window on the ship on the day that we sailed back — and nothing has changed. Winters in Normandy are wet, wet, wet!

So is it any wonder that I was more than willing to push this button and go back inside whilst on the ship?
 

 

 
I had gone up on the decks to find out just where the lifeboats were on this ship. And after the shipwreck of the Costa Concordia last week off the coast of Italy, this picture below (which is not exposed correctly due to shadows) shows the FIRST THING that I looked at when we got into our cabin!
 

 
Keep coming back for a series of Photo Of The Day posts from quite a LOT of places we have travelled in the last 14 months. I’m doing edit-and-upload sessions to my various agencies and I continue to come across wonderful slices of life in various European cities that aren’t necessarily commercial or sales-worthy, but they might be funny or poignant or simply an interesting angle on the world.

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©Deborah Harmes and ©A Wanderful Life
Please respect the words and images on this page.
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The sign below is not something to glance quickly at and then ignore. If you happen to be in a car, you will be ignoring it at your peril!
 

 
This sign is on one of the main streets in St. Martin de Brehal on the Atlantic seacoast of France. It may have been a gloomy and chilly day when we took our walk last Saturday through this village in Normandy, but at least the rain wasn’t horizontal as it had been for the previous four weeks.

Here is what the street looks like with a restaurant and bar right on the corner as you approach the beach.
 

 
And this is the beach scene below. Walking on that beach is one thing, but trying to get a car out of the sand or potentially plunging into the high tide is another matter altogether!
 

 

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Most of you who follow this site know that I have been a professional photographer and journalist for most of my life. But an emerging talent needs to be introduced.

I bought Mark a slightly more user-friendly version of a Nikon camera than my big, heavy pro cameras when we left Australia and I told him what my university instructors in the journalism department told me decades ago — a good photo is dependent on the skills of the photographer, not on the cost of the camera or lens. And then you need to practice, practice, practice. We’ve been spending time as we travel fine-tuning his technique, his stance, what to include or not include in a picture, general lighting questions, etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When we were at the seaside at Mimizan on the Atlantic coast of France last week, Mark wanted to climb inside a canal that was practically empty since the tide had gone out. I politely said no thank you since I didn’t wish to (1) fret about getting my own two cameras and a camera bag safely down there and (2) worry about when the tide would come back in and fill the canal. I was right on both counts because (1) I was coughing too hard from a developing chest cold to have fabbo balance whilst scrambling over rocks and (2) no sooner had Mark finished taking his pictures than the sea began to slide back into that canal as I kept repeating, “Mark, the water is rising at the end of the canal!!!”

 

Enough from me — enjoy some of Mark’s moody mossy shots.

 

 

 

 

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The familiar elements were all there…

The surf shops were selling t-shirts, swimsuits, and surfboards with names that I knew — Rip Curl, Billabong, Cocoa Beach — and the stack of blow-up flotation rings waited for the wee folks to waft about on the waves.

 

The red flag was flying on the beach to warn of the unstable swimming conditions and young families were riding their bikes in formation.

 

 

 

But wait a minute — where were we??? Did that pink neon sign say La Croquandise??? And what does gaufres mean??? I found out later that it meant waffles! And being very European, we could have put some glacé (ice cream) on those waffles. Yum!

 

 

We weren’t in a seaside town on the Atlantic Ocean in Florida no matter how familiar it all seemed. We were in a seaside town on the Atlantic Ocean in France — in Mimizan to be specific. The colour palette was more gray than blue since it was coldish and overcast on and off for our two days — definitely jeans and a fleece jacket time instead of shorts.

The architecture was even similar to Florida’s beachside communities — high-rise apartments hugging the intercoastal canals and generic concrete-rendered houses with red tile roofs. We found a basic and rather old-fashioned hotel a mere one block from the roaring ocean which we could hear through our sliding glass balcony doors.

 

 

And speaking of the roaring ocean, our walks down there were rather brief because it was quite cold and windy!

 

 

Come back soon for more adventures as we wander and work our way around Europe!

COPYRIGHT
©Deborah Harmes and ©A Wanderful Life
Please respect the words and images on this page.
All rights reserved.