Life's a beach

I know that I have now been away ten times this year. However, those of you that follow my blog will know that we have had several trips away this year that have were not really for the purpose of enjoying ourselves. Holidaywise we had a four night break in Kent and the New Forest in May, one week in Ireland last month and then three days in France last week. Our other seven trips have been to three family birthdays, two funerals, one trip down to Sussex to bring my mother up to Cheshire and another trip down to Sussex, to do some sorting out and cleaning at my Mother's bungalow, in preparation for selling it.

Our days of lying on a Mediterranean or even a Caribbean beach have gone, but we have visited several beaches over the last few weeks. The only beach that we saw whilst in County Clare, Ireland last month was Lahinch.


Last Sunday we stayed the night in the Southsea area of Portsmouth, and we managed to go for a walk along the sea front at Southsea, before going out for a meal in the evening.


On Monday morning we travelled by ferry to Cherbourg in France. That afternoon, on our way from Cherbourg to Trouville-sur-Mer, we stopped off at some of the D Day beaches. Omaha with its American memorial was the most impressive of the three that we saw.


Then we went on to see the British beaches - Gold, where the remains of the Mulberry Harbour can still be seen if you enlarge the photograph below


and Juno, which was actually the Canadian beach.


All the D Day beaches were wide, empty and golden with the waves rolling in and it was not difficult to imagine the scene on D Day, 6 June 1944. We missed the American beach, Utah and the British beach, Sword. However, the next day we walked along the promenade at Trouville

and then walked over the bridge to Deauville, where we also walked along the beach.