Vodafone have let us down again. We found that when we arrived we had no internet so it was another 2 hours out of my life trying (eventually successfully) to get them to fix it. Then we discovered that the 'unlimited internet' we bought is only unlimited within the UK, and has a 25Gb limit elsewhere. Nowhere on our contract summary and never mentioned in the shop even when we said many times it was for European travel, but mentioned on the website in the small print. Why I fell for Vodafone again after the last trip I don't know. Aside from it not being mentioned, it may be enough anyway. We can't remember what our deal was last time so don't know if 25 Gb will be enough or not. I note 3's unlimited data deal is capped at 20Gb, so we'll see how we go.
Anyhoo, once that was done it was lunchtime and time for the trip to really begin. We walked into Dieppe, a lovely French port town that just happened to also be the scene of a disastrous large-scale raid by Canadians, British commandoes and US rangers on 19th August 1942. (See After the Battle Vol 5.) And as part of the Atlantic wall we didn't have to go far for a bunker:
Behind our park-up site
It's a lovely town on the mouth of the Seine, with a marina and inner basin. It is surrounded by white cliffs of the same geologic origins as those we saw across the way at Newhaven. Of course, while they give a nice backdrop to photos they were also perfect defensive positions for the Germans.
Masks were not much in evidence
There's now a small museum to the cock-up that was the raid. It may have taught valuable lessons for landings in Italy and France again, but it was a disaster by any other measure.
The beach where most of the Canadians fought and died, and the cliffs from where German defenders could rain down hell
This bunker has a commanding view, though I suspect it was built after the raid
The Canadian Memorial, with the chateau overlooking it
But Dieppe has more history than that. The chateau has a small museum too, and a wonderful view.
(The swimming/spa complex just below the chateau is located where a famous old Casino was. It was badly damaged during the raid.)
The last of the old town gates.
We then walked down the (stony) beach and back to the park-up.
The other park-up site was jam-packed. Mind you, so was ours by the time we came to leave.
Apparently there's a big kite festival once a year in Dieppe. There were just a few up today.
Late afternoon we drove further down the coast, past some other areas related to the raid and on to a lovely village, Vueles Les Roses. We're camped up on the cliffs and of course there are more bunkers - but no photos!
We had dinner out but it clouded over so we headed back and did our blogs for you. The sacrifices we make!
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