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21st April 2009 - St Malo
A good turnout of more than 20 members enjoyed our first outing of the year at St Malo old town. Despite many of us having left home in glorious sunshine, St Malo greeted us with fog and a cold breeze off the sea that stayed with us for most of the day.
Despite this, the visit began with a tour around the walls of the old town  led, as always, by Christine and, again as always, her knowledge of the history allied to the many interesting little stories really brought the tour alive - even for those who had 'done' the walls many times before.
When the tour came to an end at lunchtime, most of us were not only ready to eat but were also ready for a warm up. The creperie arranged by Françoise was, therefore, very welcome.
Well fed and watered, the members then hit the streets to do their own thing - some to shop, some to admire the historic architecture and some to simply 'mooch around'.
I am sure that, despite the weather, a very good day was had by all and our thanks to Christine and Françoise for their work in organising it.
Next stop Jersey on 11th May.
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11th May - Jersey
A bright and early start for the first crossing from Granville to St Helier. An uneventful journey got us to Jersey for shortly after 9.00 am english time. Members were free to 'do their own thing' with some choosing to take advantage of the shopping facilities while others explored the island by bus and yet more decided to rent a car and follow their noses.
The day on Jersey ended with some of us meeting  representatives of a Jersey based association that links with la Manche - a useful opportunity to do some networking with pleasant people.
We regathered at the port for the 6.00 pm return ferry and the less said about the crossing the better. Suffice it to say that it took about half an hour longer than normal and the manufacturers of the sick bags must have been clappng their hands.
Nonetheless, we were al agreed that it had been a really good day and our thanks go to the organisers,Christine Bisson and Françoise Bonnet.
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22nd June
Gouville sur Mer was the venue for an excursion on horse-drawn carriages to see the mussel and oyster beds.
40 of us met on a beautiful day and waited for a short time for the two ca rriages to arrive, each drawn by three Normandy cobs. We were then all taken onto the beach and into the sea where the "drivers" had fun trying to get the horses to give us all a bath in seawater! They then explained how the mussels and oysters were raised, followed by a degustation, the oysters washed down with white wine. Christine Chaney's excellent translation was much appreciated by the non-French speakers. 
The trotting horses then took us slowly back to the processing sheds where we were shown the procedures for preparing the oysters and mussels for market.
Françoise Bonnet, who had organised the trip, then hosted us all to tea and cakes in her wonderful garden.
Many thanks are due to Françoise for her hospitality.
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26th July
Twenty eight members and friends assembled on Sunday 26th July at the idyllically situated Salle des Fêtes at La Baleine for the annual ‘Bring a Plate’ party. We were blessed with the weather and were able to sit outside on a balmy evening to enjoy our aperitifs.
Inside the Salle looked very festive with the brightly decorated tables but one’s eye was taken with the magnificent array of food. Our lady members (and, possibly, some gentlemen) have been hiding their culinary talents and it has been suggested that we should include cookery demonstrations in our future programme. We all tucked into the wonderful food and had a most convivial and relaxing evening with all the best ingredients, good food, good company and good repartee.
We reluctantly left the Salle to journey home as the evening light was at its most beautiful, having enjoyed a splendid evening.
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20th August
A good crowd showed up for the walk from Tessy sur Vire to La Chapelle sur Vire, 23 walking and 2 cycling, Christine Bisson and her 5 ½ year old grand daughter, Alice.
Having had trepidations about the weather when I saw the grey morning at 7am , I was so pleased when the sun finally greeted us at our rendez-vous  point. It was a rather leisurely walk with one or two hillocks to climb, but nothing too much and little Alice really managed well on her bike.
The rain caught up with us literally 5 minutes before arriving at La Chapelle, so a few of us took shelter in the church and others just headed for the restaurant where they had a well deserved drink while waiting for everyone to gather.
 The lunch at “L’Auberge de la Chapelle” was lovely with a warm fish pâté with cider sauce to start with. Poulet fermier to follow, cheese and salad and finally a lovely chocolate cake and “crème anglaise”.
A few decided to be driven back to Tessy, but 16 courageous walkers took the path back to where the cars were parked. Lovely afternoon weather with a slight breeze and sun. Perfect! All in all we walked 11 kilometers .
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10th September
It was fine, sunny, but very windy, when we all met at the restaurant "Au Trou Normande" near St Croix Hague in the northern Cotentin . We all enjoyed the Menu du Jour - very good value at 11 euros for a four-course meal, including wine or cider.
 Our "convoy" then went off to the Ludiver Planetarium at Flottmanville-Hague where we spent the first hour looking around their very interesting permanent exhibition. The wall-mounted displays and videos included, amongst other things, descriptions of our solar system, the greater universe and the geology and meteorology of our own planet Earth.
We were all then ushered into the Planetarium itself where two young French astronomers guided us around the night skies, in French, of course. Their explanations were superb as they had the ability to bring everything down to the "layman's" level and our hour-long stay passed too quickly.
I have no hesitation in recommending the visit to children and anyone else, who has an interest in the world and space around us!
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10th-11th October, Bagnoles de l'Orne
Our weekend was very successful and « la météo » was very good to us.
We all met up at “Le Manoir de Lys” just at the outskirts of Bagnoles de l’Orne at midday on Saturday for a gourmet lunch. The menu was based totally on a mushroom theme, even the dessert, which proved a great talking point!
 At 3pm, we set off into La Forêt des Andaines with our guide, but we were less than lucky in finding any mushrooms – would you believe it, it hasn’t rained enough! In Normandy ! Anyhow, we did find the odd inedible one and the guide amused us with a few anecdotes. Lin Fry actually found ONE chanterelle, but that was it. However, it was lovely to walk in this forest, which was magic!
We checked into the hotel around 6pm and then met up for drinks before dinner. The evening meal was good, although not as refined as lunch.  Afterwards, a few of us wandered over to the Casino, but, sadly, no-one broke the bank. On Sunday the tourist train took us around Bagnoles, which is a lovely spa town and, after lunch, we all met up in Domfront, where Christine  guided us through the history of the place. We also visited a charming Norman church, Notre Dame sur l'Eau. The final touch of our weekend was a visit to the Domfront Cooperative, where we were told everything you need to know about Calvados, Pommeau etc. We tasted a few samples and, of course, walked away with a few bottles each.
Our sincere thanks go to Christine Bisson yet again for her excellent research and organisation and also to Christine Chaney for translating for the non-French speakers among us.
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