Day 33: Granville the Grey

This morning was a gloomy and grey one and we woke up late in our cute little 1 bedroom flat in old town Granville. We headed out for a stroll of the neighbourhood. It's the old fort part of town, built as a series of walled ramparts and tall sheer walls on the peninsula of Granville. It's a charming and character filled area, with turrets on some buildings; intricate stone lintels and sills to the cute homes; and a large stone gate entrance with an old draw bridge. The views from here are spectacular, looking back over the port in the bay as well as over town proper. On the sea side however the views are even more grand. The tall sea walls rise out of the rocks and beach below quite dramatically. 

 

 

It's very blustery as were high above the sea and there's a misty drizzle around so we head back into the narrow streets and laneways of old town and before heading down into the central village. 

 

 

We pop into the tourist office to work out the best way to get to Mont Saint Michel, which is about 50km south. Unfortunately our late rise today meant we missed the first and only bus to for the day, and the next train leaving for there is at 3pm which wouldn't leave us a great deal of time there to do much. After exploring all the options, train, bus, taxi even cycling, we decide to leave Mont Saint Michel for Sunday. 

 

 

 

Pepito for breakie

We stroll the quiet streets of town. There's an air of excitement around as the Tour de France is starting tomorrow and coming through town. All the shop windows have little yellow, green and polka dot jerseys, as well as loads of bike related decorations up. The streets are lined with bunting and there's people get things ready for the big day. That being said it's a small town so it's still not exactly buzzing with activity.

After doing some groceries (trying to save some money as it's getting to the end of the trip) we head back to the flat and sort out our plans for the next three days. 

 

 

Plans sorted we head out to explore the town. Unfortunately the weather has turned further for the worse and the drizzle is now proper rain. We push on however, wandering the streets and head down to the beachside where the small casino is. It's a cute old building on the beach. Apparently Granville is the Monaco of the north. I don't see it frankly.

It's a shame about the weather, looks like it would be a pretty town in the sun. The beach too looks ok with its long rows of white beach huts and wife promenade. Feels something like what you see on tv of beaches in southern England. Makes sense I guess as we're on the Brittany side of Normandy. Jersey and Guernsey are not too far offshore either.

 

 

We stroll up the hills and bends along the route the race will pass through tomorrow before heading into the garden estate of Christian Dior and his family. He grew up here in Granville and the family home and gardens of the large seaside estate have been turned into a public museum. Visiting the museum it's ok but not as interesting as both Simone and I were thinking it would be. It more was a showcase of some of the fashion house Dior's dresses and accessories through the years. Would have been better if it offered more insight into Christian Dior himself and how things came to be, how he worked and a few more behind the scenes things. Nonetheless it was a nice time killer out of the rain and the gardens were worth the visit alone. Really beautiful. 

 

 

We headed back into the centre of town where we had some crepes for lunch, I had a Nutella one, sim banana. You can't get crepes in Australia like the ones here in France. Not sure why that is as they don't seem too difficult.

We tried to push on exploring but the weather eventually broke us, and my cheap €4 Venetian umbrella, so we headed back to the house for a rest. 

I think I slept for two hours in the end. Sim used that time to wash and dry her hair and at 7:30 we headed out along the port front to get some dinner. We perused all the menus, loads of seafood fare on the menu as you can imagine being a seaside town, but it proved more difficult for sim. Luckily we settled on a place and the waiter was quite accommodating tailoring a menu for sim.

After a miserable day of soggy weather we headed back to the flat on rue Saint Michel to escape the cold and wet. Let's hope tomorrow is a bit better weather wise. 

mat + sim