Trip to La Noe Poulain, Normandy, France - 8-15 July 2025

We have stayed in Lower Normandy many times over the years, so this year we booked a gite in La Noe Poulain in Upper Normandy for a week in July, only a two hour drive from the Port of Dieppe using the D-roads.

Our home for the week at the beautiful Gite de la Pelcoterie	Boat trip from Honfleur along the River Seine with Bateau Aventura	A lighthouse by the side of the harbour at Honfleur
Approaching the lock gates	Queuing alongside another vessel as the lock gates open	Pont de Normandie looms in the distance
Sailing under the Pont de Normandie	A man working high up on the suspension cables of the bridge!	On board the Bateau Aventura
Wild horses grazing on the riverbank	Swans on the riverbank and swimming in the water	Returning to Honfleur back under the Pont de Normandie

Back at Honfleur Harbour for a riverside lunch

The French composer, Erik Satie (1866-1925) lived in this beautiful 'colombage' building in Honfleur, denoted by a red 'Maisons des Illustres' plaque		We also saw this lighthouse on a roundabout en route!

An equatorial zoo in Honfleur with butterflies and birds flying freely amid tropical vegetation, at a constant temperature of 25-28 degrees centigrade.

Whilst in France we met our friends Tim and Laura, who live in Normandy. Stage 6 of the Tour de France was from Bayeux to Vire in Normandy, not far from where they live, so we all travelled to Barenton to watch the Tour whizz by!

Claude Monet, the renowned French artist, lived at Giverny from 1883 until his death in 1926, when it was passed to his son Michel. On his death, he bequeathed it to the Academie des Beaux-Arts, under whose care it has since remained, opening to the public in 1980. The Gardens are open to visitors for 7 months of the year and around 500,000 people visit each year.

Le Grand Bunker, known as The Atlantic Wall Museum, is located inside the former German headquarters which acted as fire control for the batteries covering the entrance of the Orne river and the canal connecting Caen to the sea. The 17-meter-high concrete tower, consisting of five floors, has been fully restored to make it look like it was on 6 June 1944. Below is a photo of what it looked like in 1941, followed by a photo of what it looks like now, after restoration and a cross-section image of the interior of the building.

	Chris climbed this ladder to get up to the roof to take the next two photos from the top!

What an amazing trip! We drove 730 miles in all, visited some lovely places and met up with our friends Tim & Laura in France