The best starting point for a visit to Carentan is Grandcamp, but it’s possible to do it from St Vaast if you don’t hang around.

If coming from St Vaast, be ready to leave the moment the lock gates open around HW-2 1/2 and make sure you maintain a reasonable speed travelling down the east side of the Cotentin, even if it means using the engine. Once off the Baie du Grand Vey, locate the red and white C1 buoy and then steer about 210º to find the beginning of the marked channel.

The challenge is to get sufficiently far up the Canal de Carentan before the ebb becomes embarrassingly strong and you find your progress slowing as the water runs out beneath you. It’s a long haul up the canal and if you don’t fancy motoring flat out with less than 1.5m under the keel then maybe this trip isn’t for you. But for those who find shallow waters a challenge rather than a nightmare there’s an agreeable tension as you peer ahead for the final bend where the water is shallowest and a satisfactory feeling of achievement on negotiating it and entering the lock into the marina. Roughly speaking, you should expect to arrive at the C1 buoy after a couple of hours and Carentan 1 1/2 hours later. Alternatively, do the sensible thing and lock out of St Vaast on the previous tide, starting earlier to arrive at C1 an hour or two before HW.

Though badly damaged in WWII, Carentan itself is an attractive town with grey stone buildings and steeply pitched slate roofs typical of certain parts of France, plus an interesting church in a hotchpotch of styles. The marina is in a pretty tree-lined basin at the head of the canal, visitors on K pontoon.

So far as eating is concerned, the last time we were there the town was “closed”, this being Sunday evening in the French provinces. However we did eventually find a tiny family-run restaurant, for which the term unpretentious would be too grand, where we had an exceptionally tasty meal of steak hachée followed by crêpes normandes flambéed with Calvados all for next to nothing. Unfortunately we’ve forgotten the name...

If you don’t mind drying out then there is an attractive alternative to Carentan at Isigny-sur-Mer accessible from the opposite corner of the Baie du Grand Vey. We haven’t been there, so for detailed advice on access refer to other authorities.

© 2008 Yachtpilot