Above: Part of Cherbourg’s breakwater barely visible from the shore.
Latin Mass
Staying with E on the military base, we had a hearty breakfast on site. When I talked about “café au lait” from the machine, he commented that I spoke French with no accent. But I don’t speak French!
We headed to the naval hospital chapel for mass. But it wasn’t just a Roman Catholic mass but a pre-Vatican II one in Latin.
I never realised that in the old liturgy, only the consecrated bread is given out to the congregation but not the wine. Only the priest takes the wine. The rationale, as I was told, was that the consecrated bread is the living (not dead) body of Christ and the blood would be in it.
A couple from the congregation invited us for lunch at their place. This was a nice alternative to a cocktail event for Bastille Day with the military, which I had been dreading as I don’t have proper attire and don’t speak French.
Lunch was lavish with canapes, delicious cantaloupe, chilli con carne, cheese board and finally dessert. It was accompanied by champagne and then red wine.
We finished eating around 1500 which is only a couple of hours away from dinner on some of my days!
Glass-making area
E took me out of Cherbourg slightly in the afternoon to an area that was famous for glass-making, called La Glacerie.
There’s a museum (Musée Connaissance du Cotentin) that’s opens on Sunday afternoons seasonally that tells of the history of the area, including glass-making.
The Royal Mirror Glass Factory operated in the area from 1667 under the reign of Louis XIV to its closure in 1830. The factory produced the 357 mirrors in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles.
While the glass-making part was interesting, the usual exhibits of clothing and farm tools were less so. But I did learn that the area is a significant producer of cider.
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- Musée Connaissance du Cotentin.
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- Cider-making area of the museum.
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- Cherbourg has an amazingly long breakwater. Photo of map depiction at the museum.
Waterfront area
From La Glacerie, I was taken to the city and the waterfront area. Stopping outside Cite de la Mer, I saw the huge retired nuclear submarine named Le Redoutable, which I will have to come visit properly from the inside later during my stay.
Cherbourg has an amazingly long breakwater, as shown in the photo above from the museum. It’s hard to capture on camera but is visible on the drive into Cherbourg and also from the waterfront. From Wikipedia:
It was begun in 1783, with its central harbour breakwater completed in 1853 – this was 3.64 km long, an average of 100 m wide at its base and an average of 12 m wide at its top, and sited 4 km from the coast. Three forts were added to its central wall in 1860. This and the two other breakwaters stretch for more than 6 km. The eastern opening into the harbour is 950 m wide and the western one 2.3 km wide. The harbour’s maximum depth is 13 m at low tide.
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- Le Redoutable nuclear submarine which I will visit properly later.
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- Part of Cherbourg’s breakwater barely visible from the shore.
DIY commences for me
From the waterfront, we backtracked inland to Valognes where I helped clean window frames in the attic in preparation for painting. Over the next few days, I would help a bit with the DIY as E had specially taken time off work to show me around.
As he’s off overseas with work soon for an extended period, it makes sense to have as much as possible done whenever time allows.
After such a big late lunch, we had some nuts for supper and I also had the last peach in the fridge.