We woke up and then breakfasted at the buffet again. There was another good spread with full English & continental. Completely stuffed we packed our overnight things up and waited for the announcement that we could return to the car deck. As the ferry wasn’t overly busy we were soon off, through passport control and heading through Belgium into France.
Approach to Le Blockhaus.
Our first port of call was Le Blockhaus d’Eperlecques which is a huge Nazi concrete bunker near Watten and St Omer. There was a good sized car park so parking was easy. The Blockhaus also referred to as the “Watten bunker” was built in 1943 by NAZI Germany. 200,000 tons of concrete and 20,000 tons of steel were required to build the facility. 
Designed to hold 100 V-2 ballistic missiles and capable of launching 36 per day! The V-2 rocket was one of several innovative long-range weapons developed by the Germans after the failure of the Luftwaffe to strike a decisive blow against Britain. It was a revolutionary weapon – the world's first operational SRBM – that had been developed in a secret programme begun in 1936. The 12.5-ton missile, standing 14 metres (46 ft) high on its launch pad, was fuelled primarily by liquid oxygen (LOX) and methyl alcohol.
It was never completed thanks in part as a result of the repeated bombing by the British and United States air forces as part of Operation Crossbow against the German V-weapons programme. The attacks caused substantial damage and rendered the bunker unusable for its original purpose. Part of the bunker was subsequently completed for use as a liquid oxygen factory. It was captured by Allied forces at the start of September 1944, though its true purpose was not discovered by the Allies until after the war. V-2s were instead launched from mobile batteries which were far less vulnerable to aerial attacks. Today, the bunker is preserved as part of a privately owned museum that presents the history of the site and the German V-weapons programme.. It was very impressive and almost looked like something out of a sci-fi movie – the villain’s lair (which indeed it was!) Despite being bombed it’s amazing how strong the structure still is. Moving inside the building itself was amazing. It was hard to comprehend the scale and size as we looked up & up. Moving back outside there was also the ramp that launched the V-1 rockets. My dad used to fly alongside the v-1 and using the wing of his Mustang tip the wing of the V-1 to push it off course and into a dive and on other occasions shoot them down, a safer alternative. This museum cost 10 Euros each and was well worth the money.
Next we headed to La Coupole some 9 miles south-southeast from the less developed Blockhaus d'Eperlecques V-2 launch installation in the same area.
It was again built by Nazi Germany between 1943 and 1944 to serve as a launch base for V-2 rockets directed against London and southern England, and is the earliest known precursor to modern underground missile silos still in existence. Constructed in the side of a disused chalk quarry, the most prominent feature of the complex is an immense concrete dome, to which its modern name refers. It was built above a network of tunnels housing storage areas, launch facilities and crew quarters. Again this facility was designed to store a large stockpile of V-2s, warheads and fuel and was intended to launch V-2s on an industrial scale. Dozens of missiles a day were to be fuelled, prepared and launched in rapid sequence against London and southern England. Repeated heavy bombing by Allied forces during Operation Crossbow, the Germans were unable to complete the construction works and the complex never entered service. It was captured by the Allies in September 1944, partially demolished on the orders of Winston Churchill to prevent its reuse as a military base, and then abandoned. It remained derelict until the mid-1990s. In 1997 it opened to the public for the first time, as a museum. Exhibits in the tunnels and under the dome tell the story of the German occupation of France during World War II, the V-weapons and the history of space exploration.
Again entrance fee was 10euros but we didn’t opt for the extra 7.5euro per adult for the planetarium section. Again parking the motorhome was easy as there was a good sized car park and not many cars there. Staff in both places we visited also spoke good English and info was in English as well.
Time now was about 4pm, so our next decision was where to stop for the night. After looking in our Vicarious Book, All the Aires France ( I also use on my android tablet, Motorhome Parking, Aires and Park4Night apps) I had intended on stopping at an aire in Montreuil sur mer some 30/40 minutes down the road. We decided that we should try and get some miles in and be nearer to our next point of interest. So we opted to drive for some 3 hours and get to an aire that we had seen at La Mailleraye sur Seine. We arrived at 7pm to find that a fete was on and the main access road to the aire was closed due to the festival. A couple of minor roads also led to the aire but looked tight for getting down. There was a campsite just nearby but we decided to travel on to Fecamp and the free aire. After a further 30 minute drive, we arrived both very tired and hungry. We ended up parking Monty in the main part of the aire, a car park to be quite honest as the 10 bay section was full in front of the harbour. Well there were spaces but some of the foreign motorhomes had naughtily parked taking two bays. There were some bays to the side of the dedicated motorhome parking section but we decided not to risk parking there in case we got told off for not using the dedicated spaces. The aire seemed pretty full by 9pm. There was a toilet on the aire but it had been blocked by paper and was out of action. We spotted just round the corner a McDonalds, as we were tired and just wanted a quick meal we decided our first nights meal was a McDonalds!
Approach to Aire @ Fecamp.
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