We set off next morning towards St Malo, diverting off the main road to the small attractive village of Saint Suliac, on the Rance estuary but above the barrage so more like a large lake. After a stroll around and picking up some useful tourist information in their small tourist bureau in the mairie, we re-joined the now very busy main road (being a Saturday), and drove around the edge of St Malo to reach the coast at Rothéneuf, where there were some old sculptures carved on the rocks. Having paid €2.50 each to enter, we just about managed to negotiate the very uneven and rather hazardous paths trying to work out the weather worn shapes of faces, birds and animals.


We continued along the coast to another headland, where we parked by the roadside with several other motorhomes, and walked to the Pointe du Grouin with lovely views over the sea with the Îles Chausey on the horizon. After a pleasant sunny afternoon, we drove to Cancale passing many sheds on the seashore selling oysters, and pulled in to the small aire at St Benoît-des-Ondes for the night.


The next morning we spotted lots of cars parked on the beach as we reached Hirel, so we parked up to visit a vide grenier (car boot sale), but it was mostly the same overpriced tat as we find at home. At Le Vivier-s-Mer we turned inland to visit Mont Dol, and walked up to the hilltop windmill and monument with good views across to Le Mont-St-Michel. After stopping at a Super U for fuel, (closed but luckily our Nationwide debit card worked ok at the automatic pump - must remember to fill up before Sundays!), we continued inland, heading for a nature park marked on the map but we couldn't find it so continued along country lanes through various plain rural villages, passing a pond with model boat enthusiasts, before reaching Pontorson and the busy road to Le Mont-St-Michel, with lots of tourist attractions and coaches, to park for the night with many other motorhomes on the tidal flats (now closed) - luckily high tides weren't forecast.


Le Mont-St-Michel is probably one of the most visited places in France, but by the evening most of the tourists had left, so we walked up the narrow streets to the abey, returning to the van as the floodlighting was turned on when we thought it looks most impressive.

After a dry night, it was time for a longer drive east across Normandy, so we stayed on main roads calling in at Villedieu-les-Poêles which only has a couple of copperware showrooms left - I seem to remember the main road was lined with gift shops back in the 1970's - and headed across rolling farmland to Condé-s- Noireau, and a diversion to the Roche d'Oêtre, overlooking a wooded gorge in the Normandie Suisse region, now with a large new visitor centre, but still unfenced rock edges. From there we continued to Vimoutier and another free aire for the night near the creamery, where Le President Camembert cheese is made (24 hours a day unfortunately). There were several dairy themed statues in the town.

We took the main road north to Lisieux, and a minor road to the west of the river to Pont-l'Eveque, and followed the signs to  Honfleur, another popular tourist destination where we found a space in the (daytime only) motorhome parking area next to the busy aire on the harbour. We joined the crowds walking around the old port, and then found some quieter back streets with many very old timbered houses. After lunch, we drove along to the Pont de Tancarville toll bridge, crossing the Seine further upriver than the much higher and newer Pont de Normandie, and up to the coast at Fécamp, where the aire next to the warehouses on the harbour didn't look too inviting, so we continued along the coast to the small resort of St-Pierre-en-Port, where we found a campsite on the clifftop above the white chalk cliffs. The next morning we continued east along the coast road, passing several aires in the small seaside towns. The one at St Valery-en-Caux is very popular but we didn't like the very narrow unguarded access road along the harbour wall below the cliffs, and it was full anyway with vans packed in very close together - sometimes we would rather pay more for some green space on a campsite.

We stopped for lunch on the almost deserted promenade at Dieppe. In previous years like most Brits we had driven straight away from the town when arriving by ferry, but it reminded us of Southsea with its large green on the sea front and lively shopping area, and is probably a lot more attractive on a warm summer's day. You could still get the Plat du Jour for €7.20 in some harbourside cafés! Heading inland we cut across country to the valley of the Somme and through a string of  villages and commuter towns to Amiens.