Plage de Fécamp

If you had told me in March that I would spend 52 days within the confines of the walled garden around our cottage and Noreen's house I couldn't have imagined what that would feel like.  If I had spent some time imagining, I would have thought not leaving home for 8 weeks would feel harder that it did.  But it was the last few weeks of homeschooling, and I had a lot of work to do, and I found a lot of joy in Noreen's beautiful garden, watching all the spring blossoms appear and wither with new ones constantly taking their place.  I loved watching the robins build their nest and hop around the ground so close to me with a fearless joie de vivre.  But even with all these joys I was really happy for a change of scenery last week.  

Our first views of Fécamp on Normandy's upper coast were filled with the vivid colors of sea, sky, houses, and boats.  It was also a very blustery day as Winnie-the-Pooh would say.  The wind made it feel chilly, but of course the kids still wanted to get their feet wet.

Maybe it was just the strong winds that day, but the waves were so much bigger than the softly lapping waves of Alabama's Gulf Coast.  Waves taller than James were crashing into the shore, pulling hundreds of rocks with them as the water flowed back out to the sea.  Between the wind, the waves, and the clattering of rolling rocks it was hard to hear anything else.

 This view is my favorite.

In the opposite direction of the lighthouse white cliffs tower over the rocky beach.  Throwing rocks in the ocean was J's favorite beach occupation.

K.J. filmed some waves crashing into the shore but had to make a run for it at one point.

It was a great start to our trip.