Well, if we’re honest, my first impressions of SNCF’s Transport Express Régional (TER) weren’t great. The morning of our planned trip to Paris, I woke up to an email (in French of course) from SNCF advising me that owing to our train taking a diversionary route, we would have to take a rail replacement bus to the next station.
Having based ourselves in the south-west corner of Normandy for our holiday, we were able to explore plenty of the region, with the occasionally foray into Brittany. Whilst these day trips were all thoroughly enjoyable, none were really long enough or in-depth enough to justify their own blog posts and so this post covers seven extra places to explore whilst in Normandy
On the 14th October 1852 the new, permanent, terminus of the Great Northern Railway opened next to what is now the Euston Road. Replacing a temporary station nearby, London King’s Cross was born and just over 170 years later the station continues to serve millions of rail passengers each year
Caen, the capital of Calvados and the second largest urban area in Normandie, is famous for being the historic seat of the Dukes of Normandie, including William the Conqueror, as well as being the centre of the Battle of Caen during the liberation of France in WW2.
Just a couple of weeks after we’d booked our tickets to and from France with P&O Ferries, the news broke of them sacking hundreds of workers and suspending all services, pending inspection from UK authorities. Unfortunately, with non-refundable tickets, we were stuck with our choice and watched with anger, frustration and concern as chaos once again struck the Port of Dover.
Having had a great couple of days exploring La Rochelle and Nantes, it was time to head back to the UK, with a short 90-minute flight on Ryanair to Stansted.
Flights & Times 