A little more war history and cider

A shorter day today with a slow start as we chatted over breakfast with a French couple who were also staying. They had chosen to stay as she had recently discovered a whakapapa connection with the chateau. Our visit to the D Day Experience was interesting but a little underwhelming for the cost. We experienced a simulation of being paratrooper on a C47 plane during the D day operation. After a briefing from our CO we climbed into a plane and took off, bumping and shuddering as flak shook and rattled the plane. It was very noisy. Unfortunately we took a fatal hit and crash landed in flames. There were 'windows' (tv screens) on the side of the plane and we could see other planes being shot down. It wasnt really that realistic of course but a good way to get a very minor feel for what happened. There was also a 3D cinema experience that told the story of D day.
Another disappointment today as we had planned to go on a tour of a cidery. Despite the website saying that although the tour was in French they provided resources for English tofollow along when we arrived there was only one other couple wanting to go on the farm tour who were Irish and the person said she did not speak enough english to do the tour for us. In perfectly good english she invited us to taste the cider and also the calvados. So that was another thing crossed off, tasting calvados. I didn't like it at all, but it was quite warming on a cold day. Other than that we just drove up the coast to a couple of nice harbours, visited a church and meandered our way through some very narrow roads through the countryside. Interesting that there are few fences. Much farmland just has a shallow ditch beside the road

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