This is our last blog as we will be leaving France on Sunday 1st August for our ferry back to the Uk (where did the 3 months go!!!!!!)

We are in the Picardy area of northern France and are in the department of the Somme.

The first pictures of the sea front are of the village next to us called Le Crotoy - a small fishing village in the Somme Bay.

The other pictures were taken on the Somme battlefield in various locations. Some of the pictures show the original trenches though obviously not as deep as they would have been in 1916 in the first world war.

The large memorial is at Thiepval and commemorates more than 72,000 british and south african men who fell on the Somme between 1st July 1915 and March 1918 and who have no known grave. This is the site of the bloodiest battle in British army history on July 1st 1916 when 20,000 men of the british army were killed in one day.

The picture of the large crater was a land mine which was reported to have been heard in London.

The picture of the steam train was the one we took to take us to St Valery sur Somme which was about an hours ride away which is on the opposite side of the bay to where we are stopping.

Thank you everyone who has followed us and we hope you have enjoyed the blogs.

See you soon

Anne and Howard

Wehave now travelled another 200 miles north to Normandy and we are just outside the coastal town of Honfleur (the weather is 15 degrees cooler here).

The first pictures are of the harbour at Honfleur a very pretty fishing village. Honfleur is on the opposite side of the river Seine to Le Harve.

The other pictures are of the Grand Bunker at Ouistreham just outside Caen. This bunker was a control tower for the German defence of the Atlantic Wall in the 2nd world war. The 52ft high concrete tower has been fully restored to make it look like it was on 6th June 1944. From the top looking through the range finder you have aview over the channel of a 25 mile radius. The picture of Howard standing in the landing craft was the original restored craft which was used in the film Saving Private Ryan.

The other pictures are at Pegasus Bridge and is the museum dedicated the the British 6th Airbourne Division who took the bridge on the night of 5th/6th June 1944 the day before D-Day.

It was also the scene of the Longest Day.

The glider is a replica of the type used for the landing on this night.

We are now in Saumur which is in the Loire Valley a place we visited last year but did not have enough time to explore fully.

The first pictures are of the chateau taken from our campsite and the night time pictures were taken at 11.30pm on Bastille day/night.

The other two pictures are of mushrooms at the mushroom museum where we learnt there are over 250,000 varieties of mushrooms throughout the world. Saumur is the main producer in France of the button mushroom.

The remaining pictures are of a Troglodyte village which dates back to the 17th century but there were people still living in it up to the turn of the 20th century. The houses are carved out of soft sand stone in the rock face and this particular village was a farm which had outbuildings of grain store, animal shelters and the all important wine cellars where they produced there own wines.

The pictures are from the Vendee area, while we were stopping at La Tranche sur Mer. The first two pictures are of Fort Boyard a napoleonic fort approx 12 miles out at sea (2.5 hour boat trip) it was later used as a prison in the 18 hundreds and is last use was for the filming of the tv game show crystal maze. The other pictures are of La Rochelle where the boat trip started from. Our camp site was 60 km frpm La Rochelle.

All the above pictures are from the Arcachon Bassin while we were stopping at Andernos les Bains which is on the Atlantic coast. The first pictures are of Howard sitting on the beach at 9.30pm while we watched the sunset. The next set of pictures are of the Dune Du Pilat - the dune is 105metres high, 2.7km long and 500 metres wide. It is calculated that there is 60 million cubic metres of sand in the dune. We climbed up the 150 steps and it was then a further 10mins walk on the sand to get to the very top. Due to the wind changes it can move 20ft either way each year and it has been reported a couple of houses already buried at the botom of the dune. The other two pictures are of the lighthouse at Cap Ferret which is 52 metres high and we climbed up 255 steps to get to the viewing platform.

These are the final pictures from the Dordogne area as we have now arrived in thre Loire and have not been able to update the blog for a couple of weeks but everything seems ok again now with the wifi. The first pictures are of the chateau milandes the former residence of a famous american ccoloured singer and dancer called Josephine Baker who made her fortune in France in the music halls during the 1930's. She also supported the french resistance during the second world war as she was able to hide information in her music scores. She was given the Legion d'honneur medal in 1961 for her service to the resistance.The picture of Anne with the harris hawk was a a bird of prey show at the chateau.
The other pictures are of us sitting outside the caravan at 11 o clock at night enjoying yet another glass of wine, the swimming pool at the site, and a view across the dordogne river near our pitch, and the last picture is of Beynac taken from our boat trip on the river.

Hi everyone sorry about the delay wifi probs. The pictures are of La Roque st Christophe in the Vezere valley .It was a troglodyte fort and town .The prehistoric and historic site is a unique complex because of its size 1km long over five levels including more than 100 rock shelters,towers 300 ft above the vezere river.It is a uneco site and is classified as an historic monument