Wish You Were Here: La Suisse Normande, France

September 4, 2012 at 5:15 PM | by thatjohn | Comments (0)

Bonjour from the banks of the river Orne, in the area of Normandy called "La Suisse Normande"—Swiss Normandy—on account of the hills, where autumn is setting in.

This is World War II, Band of Brothers country, and unusually for France there's not a whole lot of ancient history to see, mainly because the Allies bombed and shelled the crap out of it before the D-Day Normandy Landings and in the rest of the Liberation of France.

We're staying in a delightfully ramshackle house owned by some friends, nestled above a bend in the river, with otters and kingfishers and little water voles scurrying around as you kayak between the lily pads.

During the days, we're exploring the countryside on foot and en voiture, taking in the incredible beaches of the Normandy Landings, the Bayeux Tapestry, and continually realising that there are entire villages completely destroyed during the war, where not a single building was left standing.

At night, we're retiring to a lovely spot in front of a roaring fire to take the early autumn damp out of the air, with a glass of local cider (the hard stuff, naturally) or a little thimble of the local apple liquor Calvados (the harder stuff, naturally) and, TV-less, a good book or two.

It's a lovely spot, and we wish you were here.

[Images: John Walton for Jaunted]

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