Deauville - 18 May 2022

Wednesday, 18 May 2022 - Deauville and Trouville via Père Magloire Calvados tasting

Last night we didn’t eat until about 8pm - outside - and then it started to rain! Some really good heavy stuff, but not for long.

Was too hot to even think about sleep until nearly morning! Well, for me!

We serviced Dave where we were staying, surprisingly our FX card worked for the €1 charge for water (and 20 minutes electricity if you needed it).

I was driving, drove about 10 minutes to an E LeClerc for food shopping - no - height restrictions of 2.7m - too low for us - gave up!

Drove for another 20 minutes and tried a Park4night place in Pont-I’Évèque - not sure mohos can park there, certainly no space today; so I drove directly to the Père Magloire Calvados Experience. We should have booked online, but couldn’t be guaranteed an English version, so just pitched up, as luck would have it - the next English ‘tour’ was in 20 minutes. Was €18 for the two of us. There were 4 other Danish people on the tour. It was a bit Disney like! Years ago when the children were young we did a brandy making tour, think it was Remy Matin - we both just remember the wonderful smells, also in Portugal for wine and port - proper smells. Today was very clinical - obviously designed to deal with coach loads of people at once. We walked through 7 different rooms, a little about the history of the region, the different varieties grown, the picking, washing and crushing, cider being produced from the first distillation, the oak casks and how if the grain affected the flavours. At the end we all tasted 5 different types of Calvados. They are all 40% proof. We did end up buying a bottle of XO, even though it was €49, and a bottle of cider for €6.

We left Dave in their carpark and walked into some of the town, picked up a baguette, then went to a Netto supermarket, purely because it was in walking distance, and we only need fresh fruit, vegetables, cheese, yogurt etc.

After lunch I drove to Deauville which took about 15 minutes. Bikes out to explore. Deauville and Trouville are twin seaside resorts divided by a bridge. Deauville is exclusive, expensive and brash - home to two racetracks and a high profile American film festive - hence the beach cabins with star’s names on them.

Decided I needed to go for a swim - first time in France this year. It didn’t look that inviting, a murky colour due to churned up sand. Had to walk out for ages, trying to avoid the bigger waves! Was ok, but I miss our beautiful clean, clear sea at home! The bonus was showers at the top of the beach to wash off the sand. To be honest, the shower temperature cooler than the sea, which wasn’t really cold enough to be refreshing! The pharmacy sign said it was 28° today. Thank goodness for high cloud cover is all I can say!

Masses and masses of shells, would have been in my element if I was still collecting them!

We rode all along the boardwalks, stopped off for an ice cream. €3 each for one scoop - Italian gelato it wasn’t!

Trouville is more down to earth! There is a 2km long sandy beach, lined with opulent villas, and has a laid-back feel.

The fish market in Trouville is famous. It began life as a wooden building in 1844 but in 1937 a lovely ‘poissonnerie’ or fish market was built in néo-norman style following an architectural competition to choose the final design. The fish market became a listed historic monument in 1991 but was decimated by a fire in 2006. It has now been re-built as an exact replica.

After walking through here, Tintin was on the hunt for moules!

The place we thought might be ok was closing at 7pm, suppose it’s only May! Found another place, and booked to go back tonight.

Update - went back for 8pm. To be honest - disappointing. Tintin had the moules mariniere and frites. He said he’d never had as many broken shells, and they just weren’t that great. The chips had probably been cooked multiple times and tasted oily. I don’t think I’ve ever had to put up with such a disgusting smell whilst eating! Meanwhile the only other things on the menu were galettes and crepes. I had a galette, quiet dry, needed salt to have any flavour, and a pet hate of mine, the egg white wasn’t white - was still translucent 🙁. I was also being a cheapskate, and didn’t want to spend €28 for a bottle of wine, so we had a bottle of cider instead. All in all, it’s a touristy place - albeit rather up market on the property front - but don’t feel the prices reflect the quality!

Feels like we’ve had a busy day, but only 9 miles cycling and about 7,500 steps.