Cap De La Hague to Siouville Hage

We returned to the coast to continue a long day of exploration, now on the west side of the Cotentin peninsula, from to Cap de la Hague, through Nez de Jobourg, to an aire at Siouville Hage.

Looking across the Bay of St. Michel to the next peninsula

Looking out toward the Channel Islands

One of them, Aldebaran IV; wait, no, possibly Guernsey or
Jersey

Back toward Cap de la Hague

Another of the Channel Islands

My bold attempt to get all of the Channel Islands in one
panorama; surprisingly, to us, they are much closer to France
than Britland, yet they are British

The nuclear waste processing plant that hovers over the area

Inland, more bocage

And a parapentiste near the Cap

The plage at Siouville Hage; huge, serving a truly one-horse
town; but with a another free aire

And the beach is accessible

Tollevast Funny Farm

We were so disappointed at not getting in to see the Chapelle St-Germain we knew that only seeing more Norman funny faces would cheer us up. So we drove 20 miles cross-country (one lane, holloway roads, construction and agricultural convoys, etc.) to see the 12th century Romanesque parish church at Tollevast. Funny faces inside and outside, in the nave and the chancel. It made things better. I'll just post the pix without comment.

Personal favorite

Chapelle St-Germain, Querqueville

On a hill in Querqueville, now seemingly a suburb of Cherbourg, is the oldest religious building in the Cotentin area, the Chapelle St-Germain, 10th century. It sits right next to the Querqueville parish church, but the chapel was locked up tight and there was no information at all about it. Alas. Disappointment.

Thus

A tower and narthex with three circular wings; slit windows;
this was an age when churches had to be redoubts, if not
fortresses

The tower

Construction material, sort of a herring-bone look?

At least the view across the top of the peninsula was great

Cherbourg And La Cite De La Mer

We drove on to Cherbourg, whose chief attraction for us was its La Cite de la Mer and the large Art Deco building, the Gare Maritime Transatlantique, that houses much of it. The building was originally a train station, whereby passengers, in the 1930s, could ride to Cherbourg and then board the Queen Mary or whatever vessel of their choosing. Despite our narrow interests, FWIW, Cherbourg has a large and historic harbor. It was among the chief goals of the Allies' Utah Beach and Cotentin Peninsula campaigns in WWII: to capture an intact port, especially one closer to Britain, for landing of heavy equipment but also which could become the European landfall for Operation PLUTO (Pipe Line Under The Ocean). The Allies knew they could never secure enough oil and gas in Europe to sustain their operations against the Germans, and thus--an engineering feat of the first order--they, chiefly the Brits, devised and secretly laid a pipeline from the UK to France. Under the Channel. It became operational in August, 1944, through Cherbourg, and eventually it carried on to the Rhine. Just FYI.

The Gare Maritime Transatlantique, back side view; a train station, a huge building

Further view, detail

Side view, getting more interesting

Main facade, yes, beautiful Art Deco

A bit of the interior

Ditto

Much of what La Cite de la Mer is about is exploration of the oceans; and, thus,
submarines; without paying the steep admission fee, we nonetheless got to see
several submarines and submersible exploration vessels

Thus

Including historic specimens

And France's original nuclear submarine, Le Redoubtable

Cherbourg harbor, where La Cite de la Mer is located

Thus, huge jetties with all sorts of fortresses

And thus

And thus, from the height and distance of Querqueville (next
post)