WE took advantage of the extra week of school holidays to leave the Shire looking for sun, adventure and cheap supermarket booze to see us through the long, cold winter months.

We eventually reached Normandy, although I have to report back that the roads leading south were most unpleasant.

Something called a Smart Motorway is allegedly being built down much of the M1 between Leeds and the south coast. The absence of anyone actually working suggests the motorway is so clever it's building its own improvements.

We arrived in France and wasted no time in dragging the children around the nearest D-Day museum. The baby wanted dog tags from the gift shop which seemed a bit tasteless, but was slightly better than the bullet on a chain she was also eyeing up. I've tried hard to find links between the Dales and the Normandy Landings and have been partially successful.

First we have HMS Wensleydale - a British destroyer that like others was named after the country's foxhunts. The ship escorted Americans across the channel towards Omaha Beach. For more info visit hmswensleydaleco.uk - a fantastic site produced by Hawes amateur historian Dave Allen.

I've failed to find the names of Dales men who fought on the beaches, but I have claimed Major Ian English who retired to Preston-under-Scar as one of our own. He was one of only 24 officers to receive three Military Crosses during the Second World War.

He was at the back at Dunkirk, the front at Normandy, injured at least twice and captured by the enemy. He then walked 500 miles through German lines to get back to his own side after being freed. In his retirement in the Dales, he liked beekeeping and ornithology.

Finally, we have the legend that is Stan Hollis, who was from Middlesbrough but the Green Howards Museum in Richmond is home to his Victoria Cross.

In one day the soldier rushed one German pillbox, then dealt with a second, taking 26 prisoners. He then cleared a nearby enemy trench, before leading an unsuccessful attack on an enemy position. After learning that two of his men had been left behind, he went back and took the position all on his own. It was Stan's heroics that I remembered when the kids demanded to go swimming 30 seconds after we got back from a day of arduous sightseeing.