Little country roads in Normandy, a birthday, and lovely beaches

Drive a minute south of Berneval toward Dieppe and you're here in this field on a narrow road, hay fields running down to the sea.

Turn around and here's what's on the other side of the road!

Turn back again and ... watch out!

I love these signs with exclamation points!

And this one:  Share the Road!

Normandy is known for its production of flax, from which linen is made. In the photo below you see a field of golden flax which has just been cut. (Look hard to see windmills in the distance. In French they are éoliennes.)

This flax will lie flat here until it's harvested in November. By then it will be all gray and black, and, I imagine, pretty nasty-looking.  That's because the woody stem and the inner pith will have rotted away. Only then can the linen fibers be retrieved.

Here's what the linen fields look like before they're cut down:

I don't know what the grain is in the photo below. Could it be oats?

Just as I had my camera out to take a picture of these fields, look who we passed! 

Here's a very old farm, still functioning:

You can tell that this farmer is not poor; check out his fancy house!

A few days ago, when Lucette and her granddaughters were still here, we drove to Criel-sur-Mer, between Berneval and Le Tréport, to celebrate Lucette's birthday at a seaside restaurant.

Down at the beach, the sun had just set when we finished dinner.

The beaches here have tiny houses that you can rent by the month. 

You can't sleep in these houses, but you can change clothes here and get out of the sun, stash your towels and beach chairs.

Everybody ran down to the water.

Back in Berneval that evening, there was little light left. But we had to go down for a little more beach time.

I think Lucette had a fine birthday.

Jump ahead to yesterday, back in Dieppe. After checking out a very fine art exhibit in the castle, Marie and I went to the beach, in search of a beer.

Here, too, are those little beach houses:

Bring your own chair:

"Read on the beach," it says. Lire a la Plage. This is like a little library. Take a book, leave a book, or just take a book for a while and read it here.