Travels in a Campervan: st jean le thomas

Sunday, 14 July 2019

Saint-Jean-le-Thomas - one of our favourite places in Normandy

Thursday 11 July 2019

Nido’s parked up at the aire in Saint-Jean-le-Thomas. It’s at the bottom of the Cotentin Peninsula, with a huge, shallow bay that completely empties at low tide. Across the bay is the iconic Mont-Saint-Michel, a place we’ve visited a couple of times. We’ve stayed on this aire before and it’s one of our favourites.

We made a fast passage to here this morning, a journey of about 3.5 hours. We’d made the decision to head home early, for no other reason than we’ve seen all the places we wanted to and have a bunch of things we want to do at home. We live on the beautiful island of Anglesey - Ynys Môn - in a house we love within a quiet village, with lovely neighbours. We have the garden to tend to and plan the next stage of its development and it’s summer, so there’s plenty of sea swimming right on our doorstep. We’re looking forward to getting back with the ‘Silver Slashers’ working in a team of volunteers each Friday to improve and maintain the footpaths and coastal path on the island. Cathy is also involved with the local botany group, hunting out and recording rare plants. I’m also become much more involved with the Anglesey Lowland Search and Rescue team - Môn-SAR - a fulfilling role helping find vulnerable missing people. My neighbour has also just bought a road bike, so I now have a ‘roadie’ to go out for spins with; we plan to train over the year and complete next year’s Tour de Môn. So, as much as we love France, we’re looking forward to getting home. We’ve enjoyed this trip, seen some fabulous places and done some great things, like kayaking through the Verdon Gorge and wildcamping on the summit of Col du Lautaret at 2058m, surrounded by sheep and their guard dogs. But it’s being back at the coast that we love the most - we’re ‘Coasties’! So I think future trips will be spur of the moment bookings, particularly if the summer at home’s not great, and then it’ll be to more explore Normandy, Brittany, the Vendée and the Charente Maritime regions more.

Despite a cooler forecast, today was hot again and it was in the low 30s when we arrived here. A quick set up and we were again heading down to the beach. The tide was almost in so we had a quick swim. The sea was very warm (it’s a shallow bay) but a bit ‘muddy’ and with large rocks so difficult to find our feet. We had a bit of a wallow in the shallow water then helped each other out like a pair of oldies (as we probably now are!). Back at the van for a brew and a shower, we again donned our best clothes - jeans, a loose Moroccan top and leather moccasins (ex-RN tropical footwear) for me! - and walked back to the beach to the Le Jardin des Dunes restaurant, overlooking the bay and with a great view of Mont-Saint-Michel. We had probably the best moules-frîtes we’ve ever had, simple and friendly service, with a pudding (cheese for me) in a lovely relaxed atmosphere with families around us enjoying their food and the evening. If you come to this part of Normandy, I’d highly recommend the aire and the restaurant; there’s also an adjacent municipal campsite right on the beach.

Tomorrow we have another long run to a wild camping spot on the beach, before our final run into Calais on Saturday, with our tunnel crossing rebooked for 0720 on Sunday morning.

Mont Saint Michel across the bay

View from our restaurant table

Wednesday, 15 October 2014

Day 12 - Le Coudray Macouard to St Jean Le Thomas

Tuesday 14 October 2014

It was quite chilly in the night and very quiet, although we heard owls as we drifted off to sleep and Cathy says she heard the hunt in the local fields early in the morning. We woke to cool, clear skies with a lovely autumnal mist. As we packed up the sun shone through the misty trees - it looked lovely. There was a free fresh water tap, so we topped up our tank and spare bottles and drove off.

We'd decided to return to the coast for our last few days. The Loire countryside is lovely and we passed lots of vineyards and local wine producers. We pulled off the main road on the way into a small village where I bought a baguette and a slice of egg custard for Cathy. We found a large parking spot between a farm and a forest of sweet chestnut trees and joined the French workmen who had pulled over for the compulsory long lunch 'hour'. Fed and watered, we carried on and arrived at the Aire in St Jean Le Thomas at about 1430. We visited here a few days back to fill up with water and liked the spot. We had the Aire all to ourselves, which sat above the municipal campsite, which itself is right on the beach. The village overlooks the huge expanse of shallow water surrounded by sand dunes and salt marshes, with Mont St Michel clearly visible in the distance.

It was very still and sunny, so once set up we walked through the campsite and on to the beach. The tide was out, revealing a huge expanse of sands, some of which was quicksand, plus ribbons of dark clay. We walked barefoot for about two miles, towards Mont St Michel, then returned via the dunes and the beach. It was very quiet and peaceful and we pretty much had the beach to ourselves, although Cathy said she wished her glasses were a stronger prescription when I pointed out the man walking naked further down towards the sea! Back at the van, we sat out in the strong sunshine with a cup of tea. Cathy gave the van a good 'uck-out' and we both showered (not together - there isn't room!); we were a bit smoky (some would say well preserved) after our impromptu wood fire last night! We were both hungry and the plan was to walk into the village to get something to eat - surely somewhere would be open - how wrong we were! Every restaurant, bistro and cafe was closed. The hotel with its restaurant and bistro would normally have been open, but they'd closed for this week only to go on holiday. On our empty-stomached walk back to the van we discussed what we could eat. In the end I concocted a meal of chickpea dahl (from a tin someone left in the van) and cooked rice which I fried with shallots, garlic, chorizo and some egg - very strange but filling all the same. Still, there's a Boulangerie in the village so at least we'll be OK for breakfast.