Sometime in the early ’90s, our neighbours, the Swifts, built a house at Kairon Plage, near Granville in Normandy. We visited them there in our caravan and it soon became a very pleasurable routine. We would take the caravan over druing the February half-term, leave it behind their house and then return for each of the school holidays, usually taking it out into wider France but always spending some time with them, on site. We became attached to the area and started to think about buying somewhere. This was not as easy as it might seem. For instance, Estate Agents would not tell you where a house was, for fear that you would do a deal behind their back. When you asked for a visit they would not be available until after the end of your holiday, etc.. This went on for many years by which time house prices had almost doubled …
Eventually Maggie decided that this must be resolved. I was sent over the week before the October half-term in 2005 with instructions to tee up all the necessary visits in time for her arrival. “We are going to buy a house this time!” she said. At the first agents I approached I fell lucky: “You must speak to Monsieur Gary” they said. Gary was English and totally practical. He printed off details of 20 houses and gave directions for locating them. As you might expect, a drive-by got rid of most of them but there was one I could not find. With a little more help I discovered it and immediately knew it was right.
The end of the lane 
The driveway 
The barn 
The house from the west 
and from the east 
and the view!
In lower Normandy, midway between Granville, on the coast, and Villedieu-les-Poêles, it is at the end of a single track lane, a kilometre from the main road and a mile or so from the village of Champrépus – a village consisting of a church, a bar, and a zoo.
The joy of the location is that it can be reached well within a day, with only an hour or two of driving in France. Ferries run from Poole, Portsmouth or Newhaven, to St Malo, Cherbourg, Caen (Ouistreham), Le Havre or Dieppe.
The French road networks are very good and, outside of large cities, generally lightly trafficked. The motorway from Caen gives a journey time from Ouistreham of a little over an hour. From Cherbourg it’s an hour and a half even when using the ‘D’ routes (Departmental, think B roads) and much more pleasant, if you can travel that way.
Peter Robert Turnill, third and youngest son of Joan, b 1/5/1947, m 19/10/1971
Little more than a shed! The picture shows it in 1982 shortly before we demolished it. The house to the left was built by Joan and occupies half the plot they bought in 1952. They had about 2/3 of an acre of ground.
Margaret Ianthe ? ? Hanson, first child of Derwent & Margaret, b ??/??/1942, m ????? d ??/??/2008? Ellen holds Ianthe – taken 1/3/43
Richard Brian Turnill, first child of Joan & Victor, b 23/10/1942, d 12/1/1961. Douglas must have got lost somewhere.
They certainly did …
Derwent George Cooper Hanson was their 3rd child, born 8/9/1918, and thus just 21 at the start of the war. Died ??/??/??
Margaret Williams, born ??????,
