Hordes of people clinging to various vantage points looking at what looks like a ship blowing off thousands of gallons of water for some reason or another.<\/p>\n I had to go and check that out. Maybe it was a shipwreck or something (I’d seen a ship on the horizon in the dark last night); The Marit\u00e9<\/em> might not have been at home (she’s been gone for a few days now) but lots of other people were there on her quayside.<\/p>\n Some kind of military vehicle display I reckon. So cancel the baguette<\/em> I nipped down to the fritkot<\/em> for a bag of chips and threw all of my plans into the air.<\/p>\n Probably about 20 wartime vehicles all told, of all shapes, sizes and descriptions. Tanks, jeeps, lorries and motorcycles, and so I had a good wander around.<\/p>\n Quite a lot of stuff that I would have happily taken home in a heartbeat. Designed to fold to fit into a parachute supply container, these were used by paratroopers and resistance fighters all over Occupied Europe.<\/p>\n A brilliant idea, but the Villiers 98cc two-stroke engine was hopelessly underpowered for the rough terrain and many were abandoned by the paratroopers as an unnecessary encumbrance once the War opened out. <\/p>\n Naturally, this part of France, not too far from the D-Day beaches, would be where you might expect the odd one or two to surface every now and again. It had cleared off, so it can’t have been a shipwreck, but nevertheless I had a superb view of the Iles de Chausey<\/em> and so I gave the new zoom lens a run-out. <\/p>\n And the verdict? Not as good as I would have liked, but I’ve had much worse than this. And it IS<\/strong> automatic focus. I was over there where that black triangle was the other day, and you can see one of the boats that go to the Iles de Chausey<\/em> in the bay next to it.<\/p>\n To the left of centre are the lock gates for the commercial port. It’s a tidal basin so when the tide is going out they close the gates so that the water stays in and the big ships like Pluto<\/em> and Victress<\/em> can stay afloat.![\"ship](\"http:\/\/www.lesguis.com\/images\/1707\/1707070.jpg\")
<\/a>But what the …! What’s going on here?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n<\/a>But I didn’t get too far down the hill though. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n<\/a>Some kind of military vehicle display it was indeed.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n<\/a>But pride of place anywhere, anyhow and on any occasion has to go to the magnificent Welbike.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n<\/a>From there I wandered off down the quayside and onto the harbour mole to see if I could see anything that was going on where that ship might have been.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n<\/a>But it did occur to me that I’ve not taken a photograph of the port of Granville from this vantage point yet.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n