Thursday 10th April Arromanches to La Suze sur Sarthe

We bid a fond farewell to Arromanches, a truly special place and the last we shall see of the coast for sometime. Bayeaux is just around the corner but we decide to forsake the tapestries and try and get some southern miles under our belt. We have numerous other places marked out that we want to see before we hit our next ‘fixed’ destination – La Suze sur Sarthe. But somehow we both manage to convince ourselves it’s Easter weekend (its really very much not) and it’s truly essential that we get a good spot on the La Suze aire before they all get taken with what will surely by the Easter rush.

So, all our well laid plans go out of the window and Valerie kicks up her heels and we zoom all the way to La Suze. Woops. And yay. We nearly treated ourselves to a circuit around the Le Mans track, but at the last minute decided against it – Valerie probably not being the vehicle of choice… will Noush ever get to go????

We arrive at La Suze and our concerns are borne out. There is a marquee up in the main parking area of the Aire and slightly limited parking around the corner is all that is left. We roll in quite happily and park on the grass a little further away from the other vans to try and get some privacy. The reason they have avoided the grassy area swiftly becomes apparent as we promptly sink. Some deft driving from Jon gets us out of the mud and we decide to stay anyway – it’s baking, it’ll be dry by the time we leave! Logic always wins with us.

The van enclave all seem a bit cliquey and peculiar – why ask Noush if the aire is full, do you not have eyes you stupid anglais?? Got eyes enough to stare at everyone though. Weird.  Slightly odd and very ancient people park next to us and in the three days we were there we swear they didn’t leave the van once. Weird. But no matter.

The reason for the marquee is made clear by Monsieur Local Gendarme who has come round to check  that everyone is behaving. It turns out that it is the 57^th Moto Rally of the Sarthe this weekend. Sure enough big zoomy bikes, race vans and even bikes with side cars start turning up to stay at the adjacent campsite. What a way to celebrate Easter! (Ahem).

Not so very good for the poor Campers who tore off the corner of their bumper on the exit gate of the aire. Audience and everything. We feel your pain L Stupid gate.

We go for a wander round town to re-acquaint ourselves with familiar sites and happy memories (and to stop Norm barking at EVERY bike) and have a lovely drink outside the Hotel St Louis in the last of the evening sun. Tomorrow will hopefully bring more sun, more fishing, more relaxation. And less barking.

The rest of the weekend is scorching and wonderful, the rally takes place, we do some fishing and everything is about as relaxed and happy as life can be. Even Norm has chilled out, but Sunday comes and La Fleche beckons.

So. We will be leaving La Suze, leaving Aire Mayor, leaving Johnny Cash and Sylvian at the Bar de France, but what happy days.