In the early summer of 1972, the Parents went on their first holiday after having children – I was not quite 4. I assume we we were left with my Mother’s parents – I don’t remember this, but do remember them going to Amsterdam the next year.
The trip started with a Hovercraft over the channel – a very 70s thing, although Wikipedia tells me that the services continued until 2000, when they were replaced by Seacats. You can see from the pictures that there are actually 2 companies offering the service – HoverLloyd and SeaSpeed – I remember that when we went to France as a family a few years later, the company was HoverSpeed, so they obviously merged at some point.
The bulk of the photos are from Chartres and Arromanches – site of Gold Beach on D-Day. One of their hotels is right under the Tancarville Bridge over the Seine – somewhere we’ve driven over on many occasions on the way from or to the port at Le Havre. We’ve also been to Chartres several times and Arromanches once, so it’s really interesting to see how things have changed (or not) in the last 40 years.
