9th June 2024

Early in the year, we received the sad news that Mike Eaton had passed away. A celebration of his life was scheduled in France for early June. We wanted to attend, as did John and Carol. We travelled to France via the Channel Tunnel and stopped at Le Bec-Hellouin, which is near Rouen and approximately halfway to Linda’s location. We stayed here for a couple of nights, visiting the village for a meal. In the village, we decided to sit outside at the restaurant for lunch but hastily moved inside when the heavens opened. I also enjoyed some new walks in the area that I had not done before.

There were some interesting aircraft flying overhead, as it was around the 80th anniversary of D-Day, and several old planes were taking to the skies. I have an image of the G-BRKC Auster J/1 Autocrat flying over the campsite. This plane was a 1940s British single-engined three-seat high-wing touring monoplane built by Auster Aircraft Limited in Rearsby, Leicestershire. Numerous other old aircraft were flying, though none were posing for photographs.

Afterwards, we continued down to Arçais to camp in the local campsite. Here, we joined John and Carol, who were our neighbours for the next few days.

We joined them on various walks in the Marais, admiring the fauna and flora. John was very disappointed with the fauna; there were virtually no dragonflies around, and the dykes in the Marais were a disappointing brown colour from mud. The clear, weed-filled waters appeared non-existent. This was blamed on the heavy rainfall during the winter and spring.

The evening before the Celebration of the Life of Mike, we met up at Linda house for Pizza. The local Pizza shop was doing a roaring trade.

The next day many friends got up to speak about Mike, from his early days at university and through the jobs he had and the people he influenced. The speaches were in English and French, these were transalted by an English woman who was bilingual.