Right down the bottom of the Cotentin peninsula before you head round the corner to Brittany lies a small town called Granville.

I’ve got fond memories of Granville as I came here on several French trips with my school when I was about 10 or so. As a kid I remember one of the not so cultural highlights of these week long trips to a French youth hostel with your school friends was being able to buy packets of small French fireworks from the local tabac and using them to blow up soft drink cans on the beach without getting caught by Mr Hignell the French teacher!

As an adult though you can really appreciate the laid back vibe of this town. We found a great parking place for motorhomes right up on the rock overlooking the harbour – Aire de camping car Granville – where for just 10e you can stay for 24 hours and soak in the sights. It’s then just a 10 minute stroll down the hill into the town centre and the Plage du plat Gousset overlooked by the imposing century old casino building. 

After a quick lunch of local Moules and frites from one of the many classy French bistros lining the streets around the town centre, it was time for what was, for me at least, the highlight of this town – the beach!

I love a good beach, with miles of sand, beautiful clean water, and rocks and rock pools to keep the kids interested. But low tides on this beach mean that the sea retreats so far out it takes at least 10 minutes to walk to it from the esplanade. But the residents of Granville have a clever solution to this problem – la piscine de la mer! Back in the 60s, some genius decided to build a concrete swimming pool amongst the rock pools, which is completely submerged at high tide, but when the water retreats you are left with a fantastic swimming pool filled with fresh sea water (complete with fish and seaweed!) which slowly heats up in the searing French summer sun! So you can swim in a barnacle covered pool without the sting of chlorine and avoiding having to trek out and find the surf!

This is one of three of these kinds of sea swimming pools locally, with the other two being located in Donville-les-bains and Saint-Pair-Sur-Mer, all well worth a visit.

When we had all had as much beach fun as we could handle, a quick cafe and a cake in one of the towns fantastic cafes gave us enough energy to trek back up to the Haute-Ville where our camper awaited.