Stunning St Aubin Sur Mer
- Raff
- Jul 19, 2019
- 4 min read
After our experience at Le Crotoy, we were both desperate for some tranquility and a place to regroup before we headed west again.
We first visited St Aubin in 2009 in our first motorhome, Bertha, so when we decided to return, we knew what we were expecting.
The town is small but extremely beautiful, with local life centred around the small cafe where locals come to enjoy a coffee, overlooking the beach which goes on as far as the eye can see. Fishing is the town's main industry and the aire for motorhomes is within the boat yard, so you are parked nestled between fishing boats, lobster pots and tractors, sandwiched between the beach and rolling countryside.
It is well off the main road (main road being the dead end quiet track which leads to St Aubin Sur Mer) so when the evening comes, it is absolutely silent, apart from the sound of the waves on the beach.
We faced on to a field of stately brown cows who quietly grazed without a care in the world, but we (including Audrey, who wondered what the hell they were!) watched as they munched their way around the front of the motorhome.
On our first day, we walked for 3 miles, in search of a hedge of beautiful blue hydrangeas that I had seen as we were driving to the town.
"'I'm sure it's just around the next corner" I said to John as we trudged on in the heat! Eventually, as we were about to give up and head back, we approached the hedge, which was as beautiful as I had remembered, just not as close by as I had thought!
St Aubin turned out to be a fantastic base for visiting the attractive surrounding villages and towns during our stay.
It was here where we really appreciated the advantage of having our own car. Whereas before, we would have had to have moved the motorhome several times to visit each location (none were accessible via public transport or were close enough to cycle to) we were able to jump in the car, armed with our picnic and spend a few hours in some wonderful places.
Our first trip was to St Valerie En Caux, a town which we have previously attempted to stay at in the motorhome, but was not able to because it was full. Reversing back along the winding narrow track with a massive drop in to the harbour, at night, was not fun but we were keen to return!
There are lots of shops, bars and restaurants wrapped around the quaint harbour with pebble beaches and cliffs, not too dissimilar from ours in East Sussex. We walked around the town and stopped for lunch at a restaurant. We then headed back via Luneray to stock up on some items for the fridge and cupboards. We are shopping at either Carrefour and Lidl as they seem to offer the best value.
Prices are around one quarter more expensive than the UK and diesel is averaging around 1.60 euros, more than we're used to back in the UK
We feel that the quality of produce in France is of a higher standard, particularly meat and fresh vegetables so we are happy to pay the higher prices.
Veules les Roses was the highlight of our day trips and I will return with my "proper" camera at some point in the near future.
We packed a picnic of Keto quiche lorraine with salad, John's homemade chocolate chip cookies made with almond flour along with two keep cups of freshly made coffee. We found a nice spot in the park and enjoyed lunch in the sunshine. The scent of the broom all around the park was delightful.
We were then ready to explore this stunning little town, famous for its roses, which are everywhere. Every house has an amazing floral display, typically rambling pink roses over fences, walls or climbing up flint faced cottages with hollyhocks at every corner.
There is a suggested route to explore the village and we were soon following other tourists as we made our way through this picture perfect place. None of my pictures have really done it justice but it was one of the highlights of the trip so far, especially for plant lovers such as ourselves!
It was in Veules Les Roses where we also met a kind and friendly couple who were visiting in their motorhome from Northern Ireland.
We spoke on the beach for a while about holidays, France and how they were getting back home next week. We have not encountered many UK vans on our travels, that is yet to come when the schools in England break up for the holidays.
We enjoyed the rest of our time at St Aubin by reading, walking on the beach and watching the sunset each evening.
We visited the war memorial and the commonwealth graves in the town which was a sobering occasion, such sad loss of human life.
Although we could have stayed longer, we wanted to head down to Honfleur in good time so we packed Maurice up and headed to the service point. We dumped our waste tanks and filled up with 100 litres of fresh water and then headed off to our spiritual home to celebrate my birthday!
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