Search the Community

Also found in 2014 France on Thomson's Travels ____________________________________________ Coutances is one of those places which we have passed through many times, but have never stopped in. The campsite, the municipal site, was situated in a wooded area next to the Sports facilities. If you search Google for 'Coutances Municipal Camping' it takes you to the offices in the Town Hall, so do what we did and search for "Les Vignettes, Coutances". We arrived at the campsite without fuss or fanfare, to find that the doors to the office were locked. . . However, before we could get irritated, a man appeared from around the side of the building and welcomed us with open arms. Electricity, we found by trial and error was only 5 Amps, so after resetting the trip a couple of times, we limited the power consumed, and spent an enjoyable evening drinking Merlot and watching M*A*S*H. on DVD. After the longest sleep I have ever, to my recollection, had, over 12 hours, then a hot shower in the site facilities and breakfast, we set off for town at about midday. The walk down through the municipal campsite lead through the towns impressive sports facilities, which boasted of 3 full sized football pitches, tennis courts, a 50metre swimming pool, skate park and exercise equipment (Take note England, this is a town of only 9,000 inhabitants!), to the lower part of the town, we walked up the old streets following an up hill course, until we reached the center of the town on top of the hill, where, in splendour, stood the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Coutances. A majestic building which dominates the skyline and which can be seen from miles around. The Cathedral is free to enter and the colours refracted on to the stone walls from the stained glass windows is beautiful to see. We wandered around the inside and out taking in the history of this wonderful building. We then walked back to the caravan, narrowly missing a number of bars and restaurants on our way. We explored the remains of the towns dilapidated and unkempt Roman aqueduct. After a quick beer we drove to the E. Leclerc to buy us a fish supper. The supermarkets here in France know how to put on a display when it comes to fish! Everything from Lobsters to prawns and cod to eels in fact, almost any type of fish you could possibly desire was on sale. Well, after much dillying and dallying we plumped for a lump of Morue (Cod) with a promise to be more adventurous next time.