Mont St Michel to the Somme

Thursday 28^th April

Spock at Serre Cemetery

Leave Mont St Michel early as the plan is to visit one or perhaps two of Spock’s relative’s graves at the Somme.  Due to a programing error Sheila was taking us the long way, we didn’t mind in the slightest, it is such a joy to drive through such beautiful countryside.  We go through Honfleur which is a lovely harbour town in Normandy.  It is situated at the mouth of the River Seine and is a sea and river port.  We passed over the Le Pont du Normandie Bridge which is one of the longest suspension bridges in the world and  it was massive a massive bridge.  As we drove we could see Normandy’s white cliffs which mirror the ones that we saw on the English coast of Dover and they looked spectacular as the day was so clear, a stark contrast to the day we saw the white cliffs of Dover!

Himself at Thomas Gordon Summers grave

We found Thomas Gordon Summers grave in Serra, he was Spock’s paternal  great uncle.  It was quiet emotive as he was only 21 when he died, so young and so far away from home.  The grave sites were beautifully kept.  It was about 1530 and we decided to go on further to locate the other gravesite which was in Wimereux, near Boulogne.  We found John McLure’s grave site, Spock’s maternal great uncle, he was 32 when he died.  

Himself  at John McLures grave

We passed through about a dozen tolls in our 11 hour drive and some of the experiences encountered where amusing.   On one occasion we got in the wrong lane at the toll and realised that we couldn’t get through so had to go back.  Out I jump and have to attempt to tell the french lady in the car behind that we needed to reverse, the only problem was that she had a line of cars building up behind her.  What a dilemma  - with a bit of toing and froing the mission was accomplished, we had a good laugh about it.

The other one worth mentioning was when I had to get out and pay the toll via machine.  That was fine the machine accepted the money without  a glitch, but it didn’t give me a ticket which we needed to get the automated gate to open.  This proved to be another dilemma for me.  I pushed all the buttons to no avail, meanwhile himself was in the car laughing at the given situation.  I finally found a button that looked like it may mean assistance, so I push this and a French lady responded.  I had no idea what to say to the women, I tried in broken English to explain to her that the machine didn’t give me a ticket.  No she didn’t understand that.  I tried several times and in the end I resorted to saying “Help” and she must have had pity on me and she said “OK” and then the barrier went up without the ticket and I made a run for the car!

We ended up doing about 900kms today, a far effort and quiet a bit of fun.  I am getting much better with my navigational skills, I think Sheila has a bit of competition.

We headed back to Saint Valery – Sur-Somme for the night where we had another evening of fine French cuisine.    The menu was in French, of course and as it should be in France.  Himself took the soft option and shrugged when the waitress came to get his order and pointed to a three course menu and indicated that she should choose for him.  I decided to brave it and chose very successfully.  It was possibly the nicest meal that I have ever had, I was very pleased that I had showered and changed for the occasion as it was very swish indeed.