YOU CAEN BEAT IT
I’ve found a perfect European seaside town – with huge beaches, £14 magnums of rose and you can get there by ferry
Trouville-Sur-Mer has fancy cakes and beaches in abundance
LOUNGING on my bunk bed with a good book and chilled glass of French wine, I felt more smug than stressed while heading abroad for the May half term.
No, my mum friend and I, with my five-year-old son and her daughter, also five, were not on a cruise — we were making the six-hour ferry crossing from Portsmouth to Caen on France’s Normandy coast.
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We’d hardly taken this ferry to save time — our journey would have been half an hour shorter if we’d sailed to Calais then driven to our holiday rental near Caen.
But given the non-existent queues at the ferry port and the three hours spent reading a book in our cabin — with en-suite — it was certainly the right choice.
Add to that the surprisingly impressive on-board French restaurant, the children’s soft play for our little ones, the drawing competition, a cinema room and family- quiz session, and my son was more than a little put out when it was time to move to dry land.
Fortunately, he can be easily swayed with fancy cakes and beaches — which this part of the country has in abundance.
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We were staying just 50 minutes from the ferry port — at Caen — in Trouville-sur-Mer, a quaint seaside town popular with holidaymakers since the 1800s thanks to its huge sandy beach and fabulous cuisine.
But it has resolutely kept its quaint charm.
Yes, there’s a kids’ arcade but it’s tucked into the basement of the glamorous casino.
Yes, there’s crazy golf but it’s petite, just off the old-fashioned wooden boardwalk surrounded by grand 19th-century mansions.
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As with all parts of France, food and drink are kings.
This particular area is famous for its crepes, so we made it our mission to sample as many as possible — with chocolate, ice cream and seafood.
Forget glitzy Cannes and San Tropez, this hidden coastal gem is the real French star
The humble lemon-and-sugar will no longer get a look-in at my house on Shrove Tuesday.
Given its Channel-front location, the town is also very big on moules — we even spotted a pizza piled high with them.
Keen to assimilate with the locals, or possibly just excited about using shells as cutlery, even my son tucked into a bowl at one of the town’s best restaurants, Le Central, opposite the fish market.
I’m also keen to live like a local, so sampled as much of the local wine and Calvados brandy as possible, for shockingly low prices.
Supermarket shop was a joy
It was bittersweet to find magnums of quality rosé sold for €10 in a French supermarket, when the 750ml version costs £14 in my local shop back home.
In fact, the entire supermarket shop was a joy — even with our two young kids in tow.
They were especially into the patisseries — and I can’t blame them. The €3 cakes we bought wouldn’t look out of place in a top restaurant back in Britain.
We were spoilt for choice for groceries, thanks to the town’s twice-weekly street market taking place a few doors down from our holiday home.
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Everything from shucked oysters and giant tomatoes to the stinkiest cheese and hot coq-au-vin was on sale.
But I could not resist the chance to do some vintage shopping while in France.
Trouville-Sur-Mer has a few antique shops but I was more interested in the brocantes in the surrounding countryside — barns stuffed with everything from oil paintings to silver cutlery and old toys.
I picked up a set of ten vintage pink wine glasses for €40 while my son found a retro Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle for just €2.
Alongside the many commemorations at museums, cemeteries and memorial sites, there are also hundreds of activities taking place until October
Caroline McGuire
Of course, we are far from the only British tourists to have headed to this part of France this year — Normandy and its beaches have been heavily featured in the news recently as part of the D-Day anniversary celebrations.
June 6 marked 80 years since the D-Day landings — the start of the Battle of Normandy which helped to liberate France and Europe from the Nazis.
Alongside the many commemorations at museums, cemeteries and memorial sites in the area, there are also hundreds of activities taking place until October.
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Unlike our former Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, we weren’t in a rush to get back to the UK.
We reluctantly returned across the Channel to Portsmouth, somewhat heavier around the waist. But that’s what a holiday in France is all about.
GO: NORMANDY
GETTING THERE: Brittany Ferries operates from Portsmouth to Caen three times daily.
Fares start from £103 each way for a car plus two passengers, or from £148 each way for a car plus family of four.
See or call 0330 159 7000.
STAYING THERE: Four-bed townhouse in Trouville-sur-Mer with garden from £143per night in September. See .
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