The channel and boat basin at Carteret in Normandy

Our internet connection just came back from the dead, so I probably should post this as quickly as I can. I was in the middle of putting the post together when I realized I couldn't save it to Blogger. No internet connection. I tried an Android tablet, but the result was the same. Then it occurred me to check the telephone. No dial tone. Now it has all come back, but it's as slow as molasses running uphill.

Here are a few more May 2005 photos that I took on a trip up to Carteret in Normandy. The tide was really low (marée basse, or basse mer). The pattern in the mud or sand is pretty, as you'll see in the next couple of photos.

My friend Ginny in California, who grew up on what we call "the Jersey Shore" — the coast of New Jersey — recently left a comment about what it would be like to have such extreme differences between low tide and high tide. In New Jersey — note that it was Carterets, whose home was the Isle of Jersey, who named the 9state New Jersey back in the 1600s — the tides are about as they are in my native North Carolina, with a difference between mean low tide and mean high tide of only four to six feet.

This morning, before our internet conked out, I was reading a web page about the port at Carteret in France. It's called le port des Îles, because the islands of Jersey and Guernesey are just off the coast. I learned that the channel leading to the harbor at Carteret is open to boats for about 2½ hours before high tide until about 2½ hours after high tide (pleine mer). There's a published schedule. Today, for example, the port opens to boat traffic at about 7:30 a.m. and remains open until about 12:30 p.m. This evening it will be open from about 8:00 p.m. until about 1:00 a.m.

Here again is the channel leading into the boat basin at Carteret taken when the tide was higher (I took it in June 2004) You can see that it was a beautiful day. As I said, the difference in water level between high and low tide on this part of the Normandy coast is 25 to 35 feet, depending on the moon and the weather. Strong westerly winds can also push water up into the channel at Carteret.

And here it is again at low tide. This is what people on boats see as they navigate the channel up to the boat basin. By the way, there is also a town in New Jersey, USA, named Carteret (pop. 24,000). I've never been there, but I have been close. I don't know if it is as picturesque as the Normandy town of Carteret.

The good news right now is that our internet connection seems to be running normally again. I'm always so relieved when it comes back after just a short outage, and I don't have to call the phone company to ask what is going on and when it will be fixed. Anyway, this morning the phone was out too. But I could have called on a cell phone. I didn't have to.