Coastal drive

[Slomo_uk]

I am thinking about driving down on the Tuesday and doing a sort of coastal route like below? Anyone else done similar? Any recommendations appreciated

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/dir/50.9381802,1.811...

[Slomo_uk]

Thinking about stopping overnight in Caen?

[RemaL]

it's only 300 miles so unless your going for the Driving like miss daisy or sight seeing it's not going to take you to long to do that.

[LFB531]

Loads of stuff to see North/West of Caen especially with all the 70 year celebrations next month. Push westwards to Granville and then back to Le Mans via Fougeres.

Nice road trip at that time of year if the sun comes out!

[OvalOwl]

If you are into the 70 years then also think about the 100 years and take in the WW I cemetery at Etaples.

[Truckosaurus]

LFB531 said:

...Push westwards to Granville ...

The main route to Le Mans is close to the coast anyway, so not much of a detour to the Normandy Beaches or to WW1 sites of interest. I suspect several other LMers will be doing similar.

[//j17]

OvalOwl said:

If you are into the 70 years then also think about the 100 years and take in the WW I cemetery at Etaples.

Quite a few WW1 cemeteries to pick from - http://www.greatwar.co.uk/places/french-flanders-c...

If anyone's going inland rather than coast can 'recommend' the Neuville-Saint-Vaast German cemetery near Arras. Seeing 45,000 people's final resting place starts to give you an idea of the scale of WW1.

[OvalOwl]

There are dozens of cemeteries around Arras alone. The large British one there is the Faubourg-d'Amiens Cemetery which has 2,647 graves but a further 35,000 men with no known grave are commemorated on the memorial there.

If you want to add a little focus to your WW I commemoration, go to the CWGC site here http://www.cwgc.org/ and do a search for War Dead using names from your nearest war memorial. There are particular graves among the 10,816 graves at Etaples and elsewhere en-route to Le Mans that I shall be visiting.

There is a small section of the communal cemetery at Le Mans West (about 3 km north of the Cathedral) with 149 graves from WW I and II.