From the port to the gite

Remember...

• Drive on the right. They nearly always do!
• Traffic lights often jump from red to green
• Pull right up to the lights - and watch the baby traffic lights on the post next to drivers window
• A blinking amber means you can go, but so can all the others - so be careful!
• Roundabouts. Turn right into them. But traffic entering a roundabout that has traffic lights has right of way over those already on it. You have to stop to let them come onto the roundabout when their lights go green!
• Roads often have 2 numbers, they may be an N road and an E road for a bit.

And where are we? Please click here for a map!

From Caen

The nearest port to us is Caen - about 50 km. You dock at Ouistreham and get straight onto the ring road round Caen. Follow it round - you are heading initially for Cherbourg/Rennes (not Paris/Liseux), then Rennes but very soon there is turn off for Vire.

From Le Havre

Head for Caen (about 75 km) - tricky if it's dark and raining, lots of underpasses. There are 3 tollgates between le Havre and Caen taking a few euros each. usually the gate on the right takes cash.

From Cherbourg

It's about 120km (80 miles) to our gite, mostly fast and empty roads.

When you come off the ship at Cherbourg they take you in a big sweep round to the left. As you leave the port area you reach a roundabout. You do not turn right to go into Cherbourg itself. If you need petrol go round to the ESSO garage first. Otherwise ...

Go for Lo

... go straight over this roundabout for Caen/St Lo. St Lo is the sign to watch for because it splits after half an hour and we don't want to follow the Caen signs then.

So. You now go along a causeway by the sea, there's another roundabout and turn for...Caen/St Lo. You are on the N13/E3. It is the E3 you are following, however!

Once through Tourlaville (which is really part of Cherbourg) you go up a long hill to the top.

At the roundabout there you can go straight over and after a few hundred metres turn into Auchan. A big cheap supermarket with other shops and a cafe. Not a bad place to stock up with provisions for your first day.

Or you round to the 3rd exit (that's left) and head off for St Lo. Go past the turnings for Valognes, Ste Maire Eglise (where the WW2 parachutist hung from the church tower). You're 50km from Cherbourg now. Turn for St Lo.

Don't veer til Vire!

Notice Vire-sur-this and That-sur-Vire and other types of Vire! You want VIRE! As I write this they are beginning to join up various sections of new motorway but basically - follow signs for Vire.

From Vire to our gite

After about 40km you get to a last roundabout, turn right and drop down and up into Vire itself. You go past the trading estates and superstores. Watch the lanes here, they seem to want you in the right lane, then the left lane - all for going straight on up the hill.

Then over the main roundabout in the center of Vire. Straight over the roundabout, down the hill, through the lights and out of town on the D577 for 10 km (6 miles).

Not much left

Down and up three times - the last time is up and then up again. Look for the sign to Chateau Chaulieu and the village of Chaulieu and...

... turn left on the D39. After 3km (2 miles) you reach a crossroads...
... turn left (your second nearest Bar/Tabac/Boulangerie) on the D498 for 1km (0.7 miles). Then ...
... turn left at the Chateau sign after 1 km.

All the while you've been following signs for Chateau Chaulieu. You'll see the Chateau on your left after a kilometre, and we're a kilometre further on. You come to a hamlet (Bernard lives here on the left and we're just across the little valley), the road swings right - look over to your left and there's our cottage. The road then swings left in a semicircle, you go along 20 metres and you turn left down our drive.

Right?

Or...

... as you drop out of Vire, at the bottom of the hill about 250m after the lights, turn left. There is a signpost for Maisoncelles up on the wall. It's only 50m, then right.

Keep going til you reach Maisoncelles la Jourdan. Go through the village and after about 1km turn right after the Monkey Puzzle tree (it's in the garden of the house with all the farm machinery on your right). The French call it the Monkeys Distress tree. Then go over the little crossroads (where the rubbish bags are put on Wednesday night) and keep going til you see the cottage.

You'll arrive from behind our cottage, so it wont be easily visible as it is set back on the right. You should notice the sign 'Le Bisson' and see our neighbours farm first, then the drive that drops to our cottage. If you drive past our cottage you swing left and then go right in a semicircle. If you look right and can see our gite - you've just passed it - across the little valley! If you see a sign for Les Mesleries (our neighbours in front - Bernard) or even see the Chateau, you've gone well past it.

If you come at night there isn't a lot more I can do short of daubing the cottage in luminous paint. A good map (try multimap.com) and these instructions will get you there. Be sure to get to the road with the Chateau on it and you'll be alright.

Incidentally

When returning to Cherbourg don't follow the Car signs for the ferry. For some unknown reason they take you into the left of the town and you have to go right across Cherbourg. It's busy enough at the best of times, but at ferry time - and it may be rush hour too...

Follow the Truck signs instead. It'll take you in exactly the same way that you came out. Far quicker.