BARFLEUR TO QUETTEHOU - 11.34 MILES
We left the hotel and walked back to the harbour and turned right along the harbour wall next to the Rue Alfred Rossel. At 0.14 miles where the road went right we turned left along a path keeping to the harbour wall. It emerges at the other end at 0.25 miles on the Rue du Pont Salley where there is a beach and a view back across Barfleur harbour - see photo below. We turned left along it.
The next road on the right is the Rue du Lavoir (wash house road) and we went a short way down it to look into a church on the left, the Notre Dame de Postel. The inside is dedicated to Mary Magdalene Postel (photo below), born Julie Françoise-Catherine at Barfleur on 28 November 1756 and who died in Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte on 16 July1846. During the Revolution, she helped hunted priests to escape to England and organized clandestine Masses. When calm was restored she worked to help the poor and founded in 1807, the Congregation of the Sisters of the Christian Schools of Mercy. The congregation moved successively to Octeville-Avenel, Valognes and Tamerville before finding in 1832 in the old Benedictine abbey of Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte, dating from the eleventh century, its final home, which the sisters rebuilt. Beatified in 1908, canonized on 24 May 1925. Source https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie-Madeleine_Postel
We returned to the Rue du Pont Salley and turned right and took the next road to the left, the Rue Julie Postel a narrow lane with some attractive cottages. After ignoring a right fork onto the Rue du 24 Juin 1944 we ended up at the harbour shore at 0.61 miles with a view across to the church - see two photos below.
Above is the view looking back to where we had started the walk. We walked along the shore and reached the other end of the Rue du 24 Juin 1944 (the date of the towns liberation from the German occupation) and the beginning of the sea wall that protects the entrance to the harbour. We were able to walk along the sea wall nearly to the end and enjoyed the lovely view of the harbour and boats coming in and out. By the time we had returned to the road we had done a leisurely 0.98 miles and it was time to get a move on. We only needed to walk down the road a short way as there was a footpath on the left called La Sambiere which led us to a coast path. At 1.25 miles the path led to a car park at the end of the Rue de Reville. We continued following the coast path.
View back towards the Barfleur harbour entrance and the church.
At 1.67 miles after going along a sandy beach and around a rocky outcrop into the sea we arrived at another car park at the end of the Rue de la Cote des Vikings a reference to those who not only raided this coast but settled on it. The coastal footpath continued along this wild coast. At 2.34 miles and after another three beaches we passed the end of another road coming to the coast. We continued along the coast path towards the next headland where there is a view out to the Tour du Moulard which sits on an off-shore rocky island exposed at low tide - see photo below. This is not the original, that was swept away in a storm in February 1995, it had to be rebuilt in 1997 after a fund raising campaign. Source - http://www.decouvrir-montfarville.fr/montfarville_aujourdhui_chemin_balise7a.html
After rounding the Pointe de Landemer we went right and joined a little road called Rue du Cap serving properties nestling in the shelter of the bay of Landemer. This took us at 3.02 miles to a cross roads with the D1 where we turned left along this larger road down to the bay. At 3.14 miles we turned off left onto a rough road which followed the coast initially and then turned inland shortly after which at 3.48 miles there was a narrow vehicular track on the left which took us back to the coast and continued next to sandy beaches.
We started seeing a lot of these large signs demarcating the route to Saint Michel.
At 3.98 miles we reached the coastal end of the Route du Hommet from which a rough road called Chemin de la Loge followed the coast serving a number of beach side properties. At 4.26 miles our route took us right away from the coast along a vehicular track which after feeding grass to sheep and donkeys took us to a cross roads with a tarmac road called Chemin de la Saline at 4.61 miles where we turned left along it. We turned right off this narrow road at 5.00 miles following a signposted vehicular track which became a narrow tarmac road and took us through a hamlet arriving at 5.13 miles at a larger road (D10) where we turned right. After a left hand bend and at some large farm buildings we branched left along a more minor tarmac road. At 5.32 miles at a cross roads of tracks we went straight on along a rough track which took us at 5.51 miles to another tarmac road (D168) where we turned right along it with the spire of the church of Reville visible ahead. At a T-junction at 5.74 miles near a cemetery we turned left and headed towards Reville now close at hand. At a fork in the road at 5.93 miles we went left and then immediately right (signposted Camping Municipal) along the Rue des Ecoliers (Scholars Road). After a bend we turned right at another T-junction and walked towards the church ahead, forking left to pass to the left of the church and ended up at a car parking area serving the centre of the village at 6.10 miles. Lunch was now on our minds and we turned right along the road ahead (signposted Barfleur 7) heading for the centre of the village. Here we found the Bar Estaminet, an alimentation and a boulangerie - patisserie.
Replenished we returned back along the road to the church and then continued straight on along the D1 - the Rue General de Gaulle, heading for St Vaast. At 6.49 miles at a road junction we followed the road around to the left and at 6.76 miles near the sea again and at a junction we followed the road around to the right still heading for St Vaast. Immediately there was a narrow road bridge crossing of the River La Saire near where it joins the sea. It rises in Mesnil-au-Val and reaches the sea after 31 kilometres. Its tributaries are the Querbe, Querbot, Fontaine des Saules and Butte. Immediately the other side of the creek we took a vehicular track on the left which took us to the coast and enabled us to follow the coastal sea wall with views across a vast sea of mud We were only one field away from the road we had previously left. We crossed a car park at the end of a track coming from that road at 7.14 miles. The road crept closer to the shoreline and soon we were following the sea wall at the top of a bank looking down onto the road. We were heading for St Vaast La Hougue that could be seen at the end of the bay ahead, a town twinned with Bridport in Dorset. As we approached the harbour walls there was an island off-shore - see the photo below. With an area of 29 hectares (72 acres) it is almost uninhabited although there is a museum and botanical garden there and 500 people are allowed to visit there each day by boat although it can be reached via a route across the oyster beds at low tide. There was a naval battle off-shore in 1692 between the French and the English. In 1720 it was used for quarantining plague victims from Marseille. On 10 December 1803 the 36-gun frigate HMS Shannon grounded on the island, her crew were captured. It was burned the next day by the crew from HMS Merlin to prevent her arms and stores being taken by the French. The building on the right in the picture below is a fort, another one designed by the engineer Benjamin de Coombes a student of the French fort builder Vauban,
At 8.50 miles we reached the walls protecting the harbour of St-Vaast-La-Hougue. The harbour was established in the 19th century and a jetty built between 1828 and 1845 followed by the quayside from 1846 to 1852. Breakwaters were built around the harbour in 1982 and two hydraulic gates installed to maintain the water level at high tide. It was the first harbour to be freed by the Allies on the 1944 D-Day invasion. See the photo below.
Like Barfleur it still has a fishing fleet.
Continuing along the quayside the front was getting more commercialised and the thought of a refreshment stop at one of the cafes came to mind and the Le Débarcadère (landing stage) was chosen at 8.79 miles. After that we followed the quayside in the direction of La Chapelle des Marins (see the photo below) It was beyond the harbour on the end of a promontory. It is all that remains of the old church of the town and was the choir. It was built in the 11th century. As the name suggested its contents relates to sailors who perished or were saved on this tricky coastline. A statue of the virgin is on top of it.
Above is a picture of a statue of Saint Vaast or Vedast (in the chapel) who was born in western France about 453 and died at and was buried at Arras where he had been their first Bishop. Many miracles have been attributed to him. The Chapelle and the adjoining war memorial are on the Place du General Leclerc and we left the area down the Rue de la Vielle Eglise (Old Church Road) went left around a corner and then joined a path along a sea wall called Impasse Lecordier at 9.04 miles. Further along we could look down on the road that goes to the fortified island of La Hougue visible in the distance in the photo below taken from the sea wall. Our route only took us along the sea wall as far as the last house on the right and just after it we jumped off the wall (now relatively low) crossed the road and set off along a coastal path on a flood embankment. 9.29 miles.
A track took us to a minor road called Chasse des Amours where we turned left along it, 9.56 miles. It led almost immediately to a T-Junction with the Rue d'Isamberville where we went left and then almost immediately forked left again still on the same road. Along this road were lots of premises specialising in oysters and mussels which were harvested at low tide out in the bay onto which they faced, At 9.82 miles we reached the junction with the Rue de Morsalines and continued on along it in the same direction. At 9.90 miles the buildings on our left ended and we had a lovely view across the oyster beds in the bay and lots of tractors were taking harvesters out to bring some in. The road went to the right but a coast path continued in front of some houses and then in front of yards where the cages the oysters are harvested in were stored and taken out along a track out into the bay. There followed another such property and another ramp down into bay at 10.11 miles and beyond that we were soon out into the countryside following the coast path. At 10.28 miles the path joined a road called Le Carvallon where a stream emptied into the bay and we followed it along the coast. At 10.43 miles the road turned inland and this was the point where we were to return to the following day,
We had decided to base ourselves for a few days in the town of Valognes because from there we could do several sections of the walk. So we walked to Quettehou and got a bus from there to Valognes. The road inland was a narrow lane called Chasse du Bourg, as it neared the edge of Quettehou ahead it forked at 10.88 miles and we took the left fork the Chemin des Ecoles. As we reached the school we bore right across the car park and between hedges along a path which took us anti-clockwise around the school through their car park and onto a main road (D1) at 11.06 miles where we went left heading into the town centre, At a road junction at 11.20 miles with the D14 to Montebourg on the left we went straight on down the main high street with all the shops and cafes, getting ice creams on the way. At 11.28 miles at another junction we went right in the direction of Barfleur and opposite the Mairie was the bus stop and shelter. The bus will come past on the other side and go a bit further down and turn around and come back again to this bus shelter. We took Maneo Bus No 13 from here to Valognes. See http://transports.manche.fr for timetables and route maps.
The statistics for this part of the day are 11.34 miles, 324 feet of climbing and 3 hours 48 minutes walking excluding stops.
To get from the bus station at Valognes to the Hotel - There is a new dedicated bus station just off the D974 the Voie de la Liberte (this was the route the allied troops came to liberate the town) go to it and turn right heading south east into the centre of town. On reaching a roundabout with a large central car park ahead turn right passing the recommended Bar des Voyageurs and turn left down the Rue Leopold Delisle to find the Hotel Restaurant L'Agriculture at No 18 Rue Leopold Delisle, 50700 Valognes +33 2 33 95 02 02 www.hotel-agriculture.com Valognes is known as the Versailles of Normandy because of all its water channels and it is well worth exploring so ensure you have a street map if you visit it. The hotel is good value and the restaurant serves good meals. One other place I would recommend eating for which you will need the street map is the Hotel-Restaurant Saint-Malo, 7 Rue Saint-Malo, 50700 Valognes +33 2 33 40 03 24 www.hotel-restaurant-saint-malo.com although book a table in advance as it is only a small place.
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