Coast (2005) s04e02 Episode Script
Cap Gris Nez to Mont Saint-Michel
OLIVER: It's good to see ourseIves as others see us.
Twenty miIes or so over there, is Dover.
This is the view of our coast from France.
OLIVER: We're in northern France, one smaII step from Britain, one giant Ieap in Ianguage and cuIture.
We're not on our isIand any more, this is mainIand Europe.
NiggIy neighbours we may be, but there's an unbreakabIe bond between our coasts.
Our shared story is written into the Iandscape, and it runs in our bIood from Norman Conquest to the D-day Iiberation.
A narrow stretch of sea can't separate us.
Now we're foIIowing the threads that tug us time and again across the ChanneI.
And here to meet our French neighbours, are the usuaI famiIiar faces.
OLIVER: Mark Horton discovers why it was French stone that buiIt EngIand's first castIes.
(LAUGHS) That's compIeteIy exhausting.
OLIVER: AIice Roberts is trying to make a good impression.
ROBERTS: It's stiII nerve-wracking.
OLIVER: Miranda Krestovnikoff is throwing some Iight on the private Iife of bats.
On a voyage of discovery to an underwater wonderIand, Nick Crane is on the French ChanneI IsIands.
I had no idea that there was such a huge Iandmass Iurking beneath the waves.
OLIVER: And Dick Strawbridge expIores a secret map that saved D-day from sinking in the sand.
The oId haIf-track is getting through there, aII right.
This is our coast and beyond.
OLIVER: We've crossed the EngIish ChanneI, heading for Mont-Saint-MicheI.
Our French odyssey begins at Cap Griz Nez, or the Grey Nose, where France is within sniffing distance of EngIand.
Standing on this spot, I'm fuII of anticipation for our journey aIong the French coast.
But others have come here to Iook back at our coast with conquest in mind.
In 1803, NapoIeon eyed up the south coast for invasion, but was heId back by the RoyaI Navy.
NearIy 140 years Iater, it was HitIer who was headed off by the RoyaI Air Force.
But there are traces of his tyranny Ieft behind.
The footprints of the German army are stiII deepIy embedded aIong this shore.
But what I find intriguing is that this WorId War II bunker is buiIt on top of a much earIier fort, a fort that was put here by Henry VIII.
OLIVER: The earthworks of defensive ditches and mounds stiII dominate HitIer's bunkers.
Henry VIII's fort was buiIt in 1546, but its shape stiII scars the Iandscape a quarter of a miIe across from ditch to ditch.
Not that there's much Ieft of the waIIs buiIt into these earthworks.
DanieI Leunens, who's written a history of this coast, is showing me one tantaIising gIimpse.
OLIVER: Right, fantastic.
So, this is 16th-century masonry.
That's right, yes.
And this is the entrance of some rooms where were stored a Iot of things, gunpowder and beer.
-Beer? -Much more beer than wine, anyway.
Right.
How very EngIish.
OLIVER: In Henry VIII's day, this was EngIand, a Iast toehoId on the continent.
Nearby CaIais was at the heart of an EngIish encIave, a remnant of the former territory in northern France, and the fort, inspired by a cutting-edge ItaIian design, was intended to boIster the position.
Henry cIearIy pIanned to stay.
He was even going to buiId a new port around the Cap.
To defend this harbour, he needed a fort.
But the harbour shouId never be made.
So they buiIt the defences, but they didn't get round to buiIding the thing the defences were here to defend.
-(LAUGHS) That's right, yeah.
-Right.
OLIVER: The EngIish cIung on to this coast for another 12 years, before being finaIIy booted back across the ChanneI.
One more spat in a barney that's rumbIed on aIong this shore between battIing sibIings either side of the sea.
Connections between Britain and France are the story of this coast, Iinks across the sea that we'II expIore aIong our journey.
OLIVER: As weII as cIashing, we've been comfortabIe coming together, too.
In the 1920's, London's smart set wouId think nothing of hopping on a pIane to fIy directIy to the fashionabIe resort of Le Touquet.
There's a Iot about this coastIine to make us feeI at home.
And at the bracing seaside town of AuIt, the weather isn't the onIy thing we've got in common.
Nick is getting to grips with foreign terrain, which feeIs strangeIy famiIiar.
Think of a coastaI Iandmark that symboIises Britain.
We write songs about them, we treat them as one of our nationaI icons.
But think again, weIcome to the white cIiffs of France.
CRANE: I don't know if bIuebirds fIy over these white cIiffs, but they do stretch for aImost 150 miIes.
These certainIy Iook famiIiar, but is the simiIarity more than skin deep? I'm meeting geoIogist Rory Mortimore.
He's a man who can teII if this chaIk has the same fingerprint as the EngIish cIiffs.
StrangeIy though, it's not the chaIk itseIf we're Iooking at, but what's imbedded in it.
MORTIMORE: You see these bIack noduIes? CRANE: Yeah.
These are Iumps of fIint, and this fIint has actuaIIy formed around animaI burrows into the seabed.
-Okay.
-But what is fantastic about the way the fIint forms, is that it's unique at every IeveI in the chaIk.
MORTIMORE: So, at this IeveI you'II see they are tubuIar.
CRANE: Is that one there? MORTIMORE: It is indeed.
CRANE: That's the outside of a tube there.
And when you foIIow this across the whoIe of the EngIish ChanneI area where the chaIk is present, you can identify this Iayer because of its tubuIar fIint.
MORTIMORE: And this sampIe is of the tubuIar fIint -which was coIIected on the IsIe of ight -CRANE: Isn't that amazing! So your bit of tubuIar fIint from southern EngIand -matches up this bit of tubuIar fIint here.
-It does indeed, matches perfectIy.
CRANE: Which means the chaIk on both sides of the ChanneI was Iaid down at the same time.
In fact, it's stiII there under the sea.
For miIIions of years, we were aII part of the same Iandmass.
There was no EngIand or France, and certainIy no ChanneI.
MORTIMORE: If you were here, say 600,000 years ago, you'd have been abIe to waIk on chaIk downIand aII the way from here to EngIand.
-AII the way across there.
-AII the way across the ChanneI.
The chaIk downs ran from here, unduIating aII across the South Downs.
-Yeah.
-And how was the ChanneI formed? By a catacIysmic geoIogicaI event, Nick, a very spectacuIar event.
What we caII a mega-fIood.
CRANE: That mega-fIood started as a trickIe through a chaIk ridge that spanned the ChanneI.
This ridge was hoIding back a coIossaI Iake, fed by meIt water from gIaciers across northern Europe, and soon to become the North Sea.
When the chaIk gave way, it was catastrophic.
MORTIMORE: It must have been a very extraordinary event, a very dramatic event, and wouId have happened in a very short space of time.
That wouId have isoIated Britain from Europe for the very first time.
And how deep is the ChanneI now? WeII, the ChanneI is surprisingIy shaIIow.
This point it's perhaps 30 metres deep.
If you were to imagine taking something Iike St PauI's CathedraI, put it on the fIoor of the EngIish ChanneI here, most of it wouId be sticking out.
It's a very shaIIow sea.
CRANE: Our shores might be separated by the sea, but we share the same probIem.
Erosion.
Dover's cIiffs are crumbIing, but because of the way the tides course through the ChanneI, the situation here is even worse.
AImost haIf a metre a year of coast is Iost to the sea.
In the town of AuIt, they've been battIing it for centuries.
And this photograph was taken just a few decades ago.
The buiIding on the Ieft here is that cream buiIding down there, and here is a very beautifuI, crazy goIf course.
But just Iook at this.
This is where the goIf course was.
CRANE: You can't actuaIIy fight this sort of erosion.
So, in AuIt, they've stopped trying.
Instead of buiIding more sea defences, they're going to buiId a new town, or rather, an extension to the existing one, 400 metres inIand.
The primaI forces that carved out the ChanneI are aIso eating at the coast.
We can't stop it.
So, Iike the French, we'II have to Iearn to Iive with it.
OLIVER: Just as the eIementaI forces batter this coast, they can aIso be strangeIy upIifting.
In Dieppe, they positiveIy reveI in the brisk sea breezes.
(TINKLING) And they ceIebrate them with coIourfuI paper and steeI, canvas and string.
(HIRRING) The city's kite festivaI happens every two years, and thousands turn up to join in.
WhiIe most are happy to keep their feet on the ground, others Iook to their kites for a thriII, a jump-start even.
My name is Pierre Cardineaud.
I'm the worId champion kite jumper.
CARDINEAUD: You are a bird for a few seconds.
83 metres is the worId record.
And over 9 metres in height.
If there is not enough wind to do a big jump, you can do freestyIe, for exampIe two or three twists.
It's not to fIy, reaIIy, it is a IittIe fIy on the jump.
Like a fish in the sky, or Iike a bird who is going to just a smaII jump.
Twenty, thirty metres Iater, Iand, poof! That is what I Iove.
OLIVER: The French know a thing or two about revoIutions.
And this coast started one that spread around the gIobe.
Amateur artist AIice Roberts has packed her paints, heading for Etretat, to expIore how this shoreIine made a Iasting impression on the worId of art.
The pIace I'm Iooking for is just down here.
Even though I've never been here before, I feeI Iike I know this particuIar spot in Normandy very weII, from paintings I studied back in schooI.
And this is what I've been Iooking for.
ROBERTS: La Porte d'AvaI.
It's been described as an eIephant dunking its trunk in the sea.
It's one of the most photographed sites in France, and one of the most painted.
And it's this painting that's brought me here.
CIiffs of Etretat, 1883, by CIaude Monet, the father of Impressionism.
Impressionist painting was a revoIutionary way of capturing coIour and Iight on canvas, and it aII started here, on this coastIine, around 135 years ago.
ROBERTS: UnIike many artists of the day, the Impressionists shunned the comfort of the studio and worked outdoors to experience the eIements.
Photography was becoming popuIar, but these artists were trying to capture Iight in a different way, experimenting with oiI painting.
I want to see what it is about Normandy that inspired the Impressionists, and I'm hoping British artist Rob Perry can heIp me.
For the Iast 15 years, Rob's been coming to France to paint.
-Hi, AIice, nice to meet you.
-How are you? ROBERTS: He's going to give me a hands-on introduction to Impressionism, but we've got to hurry.
PERRY: Okay, Iet's go for it.
ROBERTS: It's Iate in the afternoon with the dayIight fading fast.
Monet worked in the moment with nature's changing moods.
He'd cope in aII conditions, maybe even nursing a coId Iike me.
Setting up our easeIs outside, this is exactIy how the Impressionists painted, isn't it? ExactIy, yes.
They were abIe to do it, of course, because of the invention of the tube for oiI paints.
-Oh, reaIIy? -They didn't have to mix them up with pestIes and mortars Iike they had in previous centuries.
So, new technoIogy freed them to go outside.
Oh, yes, absoIuteIy, yes.
Rob, the thing I reaIIy want to get is this texture of the sea.
I mean, that is the rocks that we're Iooking at.
PERRY: Yeah.
ROBERTS: And I Iove this sea.
Yeah, the Impressionists Ioved to get this kind of vibrant paint surface made of aII sorts of IittIe fIecks of different coIours.
And this is going to change as we paint it, isn't it? PERRY: Oh, yeah.
Yes, we've got to work fairIy quickIy when you're working on the spot.
Monet aIways worked in very broad touches, you see.
They used these short stabbing brushstrokes.
You hoId it Iike an axe, reaIIy.
ROBERTS: Okay, that's a good tip.
ROBERTS: The Impressionists broke with many conventions of the day.
They'd rareIy start a painting with an outIine sketch.
Instead, they put coIour straight onto the canvas, freehand.
It makes me nervous working this quickIy.
e've got 20 minutes.
ROBERTS: (LAUGHS) Okay.
ROBERTS: They didn't beIieve in mixing coIours on the paIette.
They appIied it pure, as it came out of the tube.
(LAUGHS) Mmm.
I'm beginning to see the chaIIenge of Impressionist painting.
I simpIy can't work fast enough to get aII these changes of Iight onto the canvas.
And before we know it, the Iight's gone aItogether.
We'II have to give it another try tomorrow.
But before we do, I want to visit the pIace that first inspired this new artistic movement, the bustIing harbour town of Le Havre.
Monet grew up around here, and in 1872, he painted this view of the harbour at dawn.
He caIIed it Impression, Sunrise.
And so, coined the term for a compIeteIy new way of Iooking at the worId.
Impressionism.
I'm hoping French art historian EmmanueIIe Riand can teII me more.
ROBERTS: So, this is the reaIIy famous painting, isn't it? Yes, the first Impressionist painting, it can be said he did it from his window.
It was his direct view on the harbour.
And was it weII received at the time? No, because it was very different.
It was probabIy not weII drawn enough for them, and too much coIoured.
It was very shocking for this time.
ROBERTS: What's shocking for me is the speed at which Monet painted.
In one session, he couId work on 10 canvases, and I struggIed with one in an afternoon.
I'm determined to have another go.
So the first chaIIenge here is to actuaIIy put the easeI up in this wind.
So I've hung a bag with some heavy pebbIes in it off the easeI.
Now, I've just got to choose some coIours.
And it's stiII quite grey, so I'm going to have to get my Impressionist eye working.
And in those greys, I think I can see some purpIes in that cIiff.
LoveIy.
Maybe some yeIIow coIours.
Let's have a spIurge of that one.
ROBERTS: Rob's painting as weII, but in his own styIe.
AIthough he works outdoors, he isn't exactIy an Impressionist as Monet wouId have recognised.
It's stiII nerve-wracking.
ROBERTS: He's getting the coIour onto the canvas as quickIy as possibIe, but I'm sticking to the Impressionist ruIes, separate strokes to create an impression of coIour.
It's just mad 'cause the Iight changes aII the time as weII.
PERRY: You're here for three hours and you pick the bits that you Iike.
You wait for the sky to change, and you think, ''Oh, I Iike that.
'' ROBERTS: hat do you think, Rob? PERRY: You've got some reaIIy nice coIour in there.
That's exactIy what the Impressionists were after.
The sky has come out very, very weII.
I think I'm most pIeased with the sky, actuaIIy.
I reaIIy struggIed with the sea.
ROBERTS: And it's that eIusive quaIity of Iight in the sea and the sky that must have so fascinated the Impressionists, drawing them back to this coast time and time again.
OLIVER: At Le Havre, a huge gash opens up in the coast.
This is where the sea meets one of the worId's mightiest rivers, the Seine.
A great river demands a great bridge, and the Pont de Normandie rises to the occasion.
Seven years in the making, 184 steeI cabIes suspend the road over the river.
That's the Ieft bank of the River Seine down there.
TraveI about 1 20 miIes in that direction, and you arrive in the famous artistic district of Paris.
But there's another IittIe artistic gem on the Ieft bank of the Seine.
OLIVER: In HonfIeur, even the boat buiIders have an artistic fIair.
Their craft heIped see off the EngIish during the Hundred Years' War.
hen peace was finaIIy decIared, the boat buiIders of HonfIeur used their skiIIs to buiId a church.
A wooden church.
OLIVER: Started in the 1460's, its roof refIects its maritime heritage, Iooking Iike the upturned huII of a ship.
OddIy, the beII tower was buiIt separateIy, maybe to protect the wooden church against Iightning strikes, or perhaps the vibration of the beIIs, no one's quite sure.
HonfIeur's witnessed a steady stream of traffic crossing the ChanneI for centuries.
But in 1066, thanks to WiIIiam the Conqueror, it was aII heading in our direction.
Invasion came as second nature to these Normans.
After aII, originaIIy, they were Norsemen, Viking marauders who'd onIy been in France 150 years before they turned their sights on us.
But they Ieft a permanent Iegacy in stone.
The Normans taught us their tradition of castIe construction, bringing it to Britain.
Among their first big buiIds, the Tower of London and Canterbury CathedraI.
And they buiIt them with French stone.
In the heart of Normandy, Mark Horton is on his way to the city of Caen, in search of that speciaI stone worthy of WiIIiam's EngIish castIes.
HORTON: In the years after 1066, the River Orne that connects Caen to the sea wouId have been busy with Norman Iongboats Iike this one, transporting great bIocks of stone to Britain for buiIding.
MedievaI castIe expert PameIa MarshaII and I are retracing the route to try and discover why.
Caen stone is one of the best, and I know it seems a Iong way from EngIand, but he's got this waterway, he then just whips it across the sea up the Thames.
And it's a materiaI that his craftsmen are weII-versed with.
They know how to use it.
And he presumabIy thinks the AngIo-Saxon masons are rubbish anyway.
PossibIy, possibIy.
Remember, the AngIo-Saxons aren't used to castIes at aII, Iet aIone stone ones.
HORTON: WiIIiam not onIy had a mighty river to transport the stone, but at Caen he had a ready suppIy right beneath his feet.
The city was buiIt on Iimestone, a rare Iimestone containing very few fossiIs.
Having used it for castIes and cathedraIs here, WiIIiam was determined to bring it to EngIand.
Hidden beneath the streets of modern Caen, there's stiII a Iabyrinth of ancient stone quarries abandoned since the MiddIe Ages.
We've come to one tucked away in a quiet corner of the city.
It's onIy accessibIe, we're toId, because the roof coIIapsed, creating a makeshift entrance.
Inside, it's as if the workers had Ieft yesterday.
MARSHALL: Look at this, that's where the chariot, the wagon HORTON: The wagon has brushed past MARSHALL: Has brushed past it.
MARSHALL: Oh, these are fantastic.
To spIit the rock away, they cut out a wedge shape with chiseIs, and then insert a dry, wooden wedge, which they then wet, and as the water expands, it heIps the rock to spIit naturaIIy.
It's extraordinary, that is Iike a sort of frozen moment in time.
MARSHALL: Yes, absoIuteIy.
HORTON: But what was it about the stone that made it so speciaI, worth hauIing across the ChanneI? Who better to ask than a group of modern Norman masons.
Jean Pierre Dauxerre, a former city pIanner, is passionate about Caen stone.
eII, now, Iook here, it's a stone we Iike to stroke with eyes, with hands.
HORTON: Is it possibIe to break it open? DAUXERRE: Yes, it is.
(DAUXERRE SPEAKING FRENCH) Here we go.
(DAUXERRE SPEAKING FRENCH) Give it some weIIy, shaII we? Hey! (DAUXERRE SPEAKING FRENCH) DAUXERRE: You are strong.
HORTON: I know! Isn't that amazing? Just a few pieces Iike this and Iook what happened.
DAUXERRE: It's your work.
HORTON: There are no fossiIs or anything in it.
DAUXERRE: It's the coIour of churches, castIes.
But the stone now is so soft! Just faIIs apart in one's hands.
Stone becomes hard because water goes away.
-Evaporates from it.
-Evaporates, yes.
(MAN SPEAKING FRENCH) HORTON: The stone is quite soft when extracted.
Easy to spIit or cut, using even the most basic tooIs.
And the Ionger it's exposed to the air, the tougher it gets.
(PANTING) (LAUGHS) That's compIeteIy exhausting.
HORTON: And without sheIIs or fossiIs to make it fracture unpredictabIy, it can aIso be fineIy worked.
Which is why it was highIy prized among medievaI masons.
The Normans heIped shape Britain.
They Iaid the foundations for some of our greatest buiIdings.
AIthough these structures have been extended since, there's a IittIe bit of Normandy Ieft in most of them.
OLIVER: This is a coast that has known invading armies depart and arrive.
The tranquiI stretches of sand give few cIues to the turbuIent roIe they pIayed in our recent history.
But on the 6th of June 1944, 156,000 AIIied servicemen Ianded here.
These are the D-day beaches.
This wasn't the most obvious or the easiest pIace to Iaunch a massive invasion of mainIand Europe.
hich is preciseIy why these beaches were chosen.
OLIVER: The most obvious pIace to unIoad tanks and heavy equipment was somewhere buiIt for the job, a port Iike Dieppe.
(AIRCRAFTS HUMMING) But when the AIIies did try to Iand here in 1942, it ended in disaster.
The Germans had fortified the pIace.
Canadian and British forces Iost over 3,000 men.
It was cIear that for a successfuI invasion the AIIies wouId have to arrive where the Germans didn't expect them.
But the British knew the terribIe price of trying to fight their way off a beach.
During the First orId ar, the AIIies had attempted to Iand on the beaches of GaIIipoIi, in Turkey.
Over 100,000 men were kiIIed or wounded before the mission was abandoned, and a generation of soIdiers Iearnt to fear Iandings on sand.
OLIVER: Former army engineer Dick Strawbridge is expIoring how the AIIies prepared for the biggest seaborne assauIt in history.
STRABRIDGE: The D-day pIanners were haunted by the disaster of GaIIipoIi, but the beach invasion they were pIanning wouId dwarf that operation.
The aim this time was to overwheIm the enemy at high speed, using tanks and other armoured vehicIes.
But the AIIies' worry was that they'd get bogged down.
Even with some ruts on the sand, the oId haIf-track is getting through there aII right.
So rough-packed sand isn't such a big probIem.
It wasn't necessariIy the sand they were worried about.
It was what was underneath it that the AIIies were concerned about.
This whoIe area is riddIed with soft, sticky peat bogs Iurking just beIow the surface.
STRABRIDGE: The sand may appear very smooth, abIe to support the vehicIe's weight, or even mine.
Okay, feeIs nice and soIid.
STRABRIDGE: But dig a IittIe deeper, and it's a different story.
Now, what have we got? Oh, it's a different coIour, compIeteIy different coIour.
That's a peat bog.
And being an UIsterman, I shouId know about those things.
Look, that is peat.
hich means there's definiteIy no way you'd bring your vehicIes over this bit.
There's an awfuI Iot to do to cover this beach.
STRABRIDGE: These peat bogs are the remains of ancient forests submerged when the ChanneI fIooded.
From the air, it's possibIe to see them as dark patches.
What you can't see are the ones underneath the sand.
TriaIs on simiIar beaches in NorfoIk had shown that peat had the potentiaI to bring the invasion to a grinding haIt.
AIIied inteIIigence had to identify these areas, and they had to do so without aIerting the Germans.
They used any information they couId get their hands on.
OId hoIiday snaps, ancient maps, medievaI accounts, to buiId a picture of the terrain that Iay beneath the surface.
This is what it was aII about.
A map of the potentiaI hazards of this beach that was code-named ''GoId'' by the AIIies.
If you Iook here, it's dated March 1944.
On the top it says ''Bigot''.
That's a cIassification beyond top secret, used especiaIIy for D-day.
You can see areas here where there's possibIy pooIs that are cIay, and they move and change shape.
But the detaiIs here, peopIe have made this reaIIy, reaIIy accurateIy, because if you're going to come and attack this beach, you need to understand where you don't want to be.
STRABRIDGE: This sort of detaiI couIdn't be gathered from a distance.
Someone had to get onto the beach itseIf and take sampIes of the sand, right in front of the Germans.
At just 23 years oId, Major Logan Scott-Bowden, found himseIf Ieading this vitaI mission.
He and feIIow RoyaI Engineer Sergeant Bruce Ogden-Smith, wouId be the first troops to Iand here, unsupported and six months ahead of D-day.
These days, it's difficuIt for Major GeneraI Scott-Bowden to traveI, so I've come to see him.
Sir, IoveIy to meet you.
Very nice to see you, Dick.
STRABRIDGE: But first, a smaII gift from the beaches of Normandy.
(SCOTT-BODEN LAUGHS) hat do you think of that? SCOTT-BODEN: eII, I never.
STRABRIDGE: Sand, and the peat Iayer just beIow the sand.
SCOTT-BODEN: Yes.
STRABRIDGE: Does that bring back memories? Yes, it does indeed.
STRABRIDGE: Major GeneraI Scott-Bowden coIIected his sand sampIe driIIing with a metaI auger Iike I did.
But he had to swim ashore with his, at night, and take the sampIes from within feet of enemy patroIs.
The mission was timed for the stroke of midnight, New Year's Eve, 1943, on orders from the highest authority.
ChurchiII said, ''eII, they'II aII be ceIebrating on New Year's Eve.
''They won't be patroIIing very much.
''It's a good opportunity.
'' SCOTT-BODEN: We were doing the job on a rising tide, which wouId obscure our tracks.
But, of course, one thing we hadn't reckoned on was the time difference.
They were an hour ahead of us.
And these Germans were cIearIy weII on in their New Year ceIebrations.
So we didn't expect any troubIe from them.
STRABRIDGE: But strong tides and unexpected gaIe-force winds swept the two soIdiers a miIe from where they were supposed to Iand.
eII, there was a Iow searchIight, but every time the searchIight came round, we had to fIatten ourseIves so it wouIdn't pick us up.
SCOTT-BODEN: We graduaIIy recovered the miIe we'd Iost.
e Ioaded the sampIes into these containers, into each other's containers, and then we tried to swim out, and Bruce Ogden-Smith started yeIIing, so I had to swim sIightIy back to him.
I said, ''hat's up?'' And he was yeIIing, ''Happy New Year!'' (LAUGHS) I said, ''Swim you 'B' or we'II be back on the beach.
'' (BOTH LAUGH) STRABRIDGE: They were eIated from the mission, but it was onIy the first.
A fortnight Iater, they risked it aII again to coIIect more sampIes, which confirmed for the D-day pIanners the safest pIaces to Iand.
The invasion was a huge gambIe, but thanks to two RoyaI Engineers, the AIIies knew they wouIdn't be fighting the terrain when they hit the beach.
The Germans had aIso been busy preparing for invasion.
OLIVER: In 1942, HitIer commissioned around 15,000 concrete fortifications to guard the coast from Norway to Spain, the so-caIIed AtIantic WaII.
UItimateIy, it offered IittIe protection.
But the AtIantic WaII remains the most visibIe reminder of HitIer's presence in this part of Europe.
By contrast, there's not so much to mark the AIIies' impact on this coast, except here at Arromanches.
These are the stranded pontoons of the MuIberry Harbour, the artificiaI port fIoated across the ChanneI by the AIIies.
FoIIowing D-day, this is how they Ianded aII the hardware needed to support the advance through France.
Now the pieces are part of the Iandscape.
On the beaches and dunes of coastaI Normandy, the remnants of confIict are being coIonised by nature.
Miranda Krestovnikoff is Iooking for signs of Iife in the debris of war.
KRESTOVNIKOFF: They don't seem terribIy hospitabIe, but these abandoned fortifications attract swarms of visitors each year.
Tiny, winged visitors.
They're the favourite hang-out of what the IocaIs here caII chauve-souris, IiteraIIy baId mice.
That's bats to you and me.
And this oId munitions' store has become a particuIarIy popuIar party spot for the tiny creatures.
So much so that naturaIists from the Groupe MammaIogique Normand are using the Iocation to capture and record detaiIs of hundreds of bats.
Working with the French scientists is ShirIey Thompson from the UK Bat Conservation Trust.
I have to say, if I was a bat, it Iooks Iike a pretty good pIace to Iive, doesn't it? It certainIy does, very out of the way.
hy is it they Iike it here? hy do the roost here? It's dark.
It's cooI, because, of course, it goes right in.
It's very stabIe and it's damp.
KRESTOVNIKOFF: It's such an attractive environment that it's become the focus for a rareIy seen event.
Bats are notoriousIy shy and they hibernate during the winter, which makes them pretty difficuIt to see.
But for a short time during the autumn, they do something quite remarkabIe, they swarm.
It's beIieved to be part of the mating behaviour, and hundreds of bats can take part.
For the French scientists, it's an opportunity to gather a huge amount of data on these secretive creatures to use in future conservation work.
Now, it's going to be pretty tricky to spot bats approaching at night.
ow, that one nearIy hit me.
Did you see? KRESTOVNIKOFF: But ShirIey has a secret weapon, a bat detector.
e use a torch of Iight to go out in the dark.
They use a torch of sound.
They send out Iots of IittIe shouts, Iisten for the echoes that come back if those shouts hit anything.
But they're very, very high shouts, and a bat detector takes them in, makes the pitch Iower, pIays them out so that we can hear them.
(BATS FLAPPING) KRESTOVNIKOFF: Fantastic, because we can't see them at aII, but we can -No, no.
-So this is a reaIIy usefuI -Yeah.
-earIy warning device because you know, even if we can't see them, we can actuaIIy hear them.
That's right, yes.
(BATS FLAPPING) KRESTOVNIKOFF: As we hear more and more bats arrive, it's possibIe for me to see them using an infrared camera.
Fantastic! And with the echo Iocation, they can detect the fact that there's a net there.
And what's very interesting is that I've got quite a few fIying in at the top of the arch, right over the top of the net.
And I think I've got two in the net.
And the ones that are in the net seem to be aImost attracting other bats in.
There's certainIy quite a Iot of activity around there now.
HandIing bats is highIy speciaIised, and the naturaIists have to be Iicensed to do it.
But it's a chance to get up cIose to these remarkabIe animaIs.
The pipistreIIe is native to Normandy as weII as our own shores.
You see, I think if peopIe actuaIIy got up cIose and personaI with bats, they wouIdn't be so scared of them, because peopIe are very scared of bats, aren't they? And, you see, another probIem is that they aIways Iook as if they're cross, with their mouths open, but that's because it's shouting.
It's Iooking at you with its ears as weII as its eyes.
KRESTOVNIKOFF: Some bats wiII fIy more than 30 miIes to join a swarm.
And the naturaIists tonight have identified seven different species, incIuding the distinctive Natterer's bat.
THOMPSON: See its ears? It's got a IittIe twist on the top.
And these have such a fine wing membrane, can you see that? KRESTOVNIKOFF: Very fine.
THOMPSON: Very fine membrane.
This is the best bit, isn't it? They've been processed.
They're absoIuteIy unharmed.
-Unfazed by the whoIe thing.
-That's right.
Five minutes Iater, you're reIeasing them.
They've gone off to teII their friends aII about it, that's aII.
KRESTOVNIKOFF: Let me just turn this on, and see if we can hear him.
Off he goes, yes, go on.
Oh, magic.
OLIVER: Out of the dark, and into the Iight.
The coast of France, Iike Britain, is ringed with Iighthouses.
Their beams often crossing those of their counterparts across the ChanneI.
The technoIogy that made it possibIe came from Normandy, and it's Iit up coasts around the worId.
At GatteviIIe, Dick is finding out how Iighthouses were made, uh, Iighter! STRABRIDGE: In the 1820's, the French government started to buiId Iots of Iighthouses.
But it wasn't just to impress the neighbours.
After years of war with Britain, the ChanneI was open for business again.
It became an issue of nationaI interest to keep shipping safe.
The pIan was to have every stretch of coast Iit up by a Iighthouse.
It wouId have meant buiIding hundreds of oiI-burning beacons, if it hadn't been for one IocaI genius caIIed Augustin FresneI.
He found a way of seriousIy stepping up their brightness by using a super-efficient Iens, the FresneI Iens.
This one at GatteviIIe focuses the Iight so efficientIy, it can be seen 30 miIes out to sea.
It's a big torch, and aII that's being done with about a 1600-watt buIb.
That's the equivaIent of about haIf the energy you use to boiI a kettIe.
STRABRIDGE: A mathematician and physicist, FresneI came up with the idea of a Iens made up of circuIar prisms of gIass.
But why didn't he just use a super-sized ordinary Iens? Physicist Jonathan Hare has been Iooking into FresneI's invention.
-Good to see you.
-How are you doing? Okay, Jonathan, how come we don't use an ordinary shaped Iens? HARE: The main probIem is that they're so big and buIky.
If you Iook at a standard Iens, and you scaIe this up STRABRIDGE: This couId get reaIIy fat and heavy, isn't it? It's going to be eigh a tonne, and it'II be reaIIy thick as weII, which wiII absorb a Iot of the Iight.
So, there's a better way of doing it, reaIIy.
If you imagine this is a cross-section of the Iens hat FresneI did, which was very cIever, he reaIised that it's the curved surface here which makes it act Iike a Iens.
So he thought, ''eII, I'II just take this curved part of the Iens and cut that out.
'' I can show you one here, so you can see the bits that I've marked on here.
So if we cut these out and bring them back, we get a very pecuIiar shape.
STRABRIDGE: Did you make that yourseIf? HARE: Yeah.
(LAUGHS) You've got your own FresneI Iens? Yeah, out of pIastic.
I cut it up and poIished it.
And it is a pecuIiar Iooking shape.
It's much Iighter now.
Oh, yeah, compare that! There's a significant difference, isn't there? Yeah, but it is the same Iens.
If you Iook at this STRABRIDGE: Right, yeah.
HARE: You see, what we do is, we've taken this bit here, and cut that off, and then we've taken these bits here, and cut it and put that on.
e've taken these bits here and cut that off, and same again and same again there, and put them aII on the one smaII Iens.
STRABRIDGE: So, aII the important bits are there, -we've just thrown away the bit in the middIe.
-Yeah.
-Does it work? -Yeah.
Okay, so here's a standard Iens.
The Iens is basicaIIy focused to a point.
And you can see that it bends the Iight, just Iike a Iens.
AII right, but we know that works 'cause that's the right shape.
(LAUGHS) So I'II show you how the FresneI Iens works.
So we hoId that in pIace, and it shouId give exactIy the same effect as the big one did.
STRABRIDGE: ExactIy the same properties.
HARE: It's got the same properties.
hich is perfect STRABRIDGE: And it behaves the same way.
HARE: ExactIy the same.
So, here is a commerciaI one, which is a much finer one, but basicaIIy you can imagine it's made of rings.
HARE: You can see the rings on it.
Can you see that? Yeah, right.
Everybody thinks it's a magnifying gIass for sort of reading or Iooking at the back of cars, but we know we can do something different.
Come on.
So, if I hoId that there, you can capture the rays of the sun.
That doesn't take very Iong.
It is actuaIIy a reaIIy efficient Iens.
But Iook, it's as thick as a piece of card.
BriIIiant.
STRABRIDGE: The focusing power of the Iens means it has to be kept moving during the day to prevent the sun's rays burning out the buIb.
SadIy, we can't go in, 'cause the whoIe mechanism is fIoating on a bed of mercury.
HARE: And that's not nice.
STRABRIDGE: Mercury vapour is not on.
But as you see, it must be reaIIy efficient.
See that IittIe, tiny nyIon gear that's making it aII move? (STRABRIDGE LAUGHS) HARE: It's so perfectIy baIanced, isn't it? It's gorgeous.
It raises the question, why are there not more FresneI Ienses everywhere? 'Cause those are great.
eII, the thing is, obviousIy, you wouIdn't want them on a camera Iens, because they actuaIIy Each of the rings of Ienses distorts the image.
So they're absoIuteIy great for shining out a beam of Iight, -but if you try and use it in a camera -Yeah.
It couId be an interesting effect, you never know.
It couId catch on, your FresneI Iens effect.
(CHUCKLES) Maybe.
STRABRIDGE: This Iightweight Iens invented in Normandy nearIy 200 years ago, is stiII Iighting the way for ships around the worId.
OLIVER: CoastaI nations are united by the joy of being beside the sea.
Some Brits, though, are so enamoured of the French and their coast, they've made their home here.
For one EngIish expat, the wide, open beaches of Normandy have an irresistibIe puII.
My name is Sam DeIorme.
I moved over from EngIand 1 1 years ago.
I work with steepIechasers and cross-country horses, but today I've come down to the beach to see a good friend of mine, Franc DeIanoe, train his trotters.
The discipIine is caIIed harness racing.
It's a very popuIar sport over here.
In EngIand, I think you're starting to get to know it, but over here it's very, very big.
And he's very ready to go.
(SPEAKING FRENCH) He's going to be racing Sunday, and so this is obviousIy going to be one of his important workouts for that race.
(HISTLES) (SPEAKING FRENCH) hen you see a horse roIIing after a workout it means he's caIm, he's enjoyed himseIf.
To get them away from the routine, they're Iike us, it's good for them.
So, if they're feeIing good, then it shows in their racing afterwards.
OLIVER: At this point in our journey, the British IsIes are once again within touching distance of France.
At their cIosest, the ChanneI IsIands are onIy 10 miIes from the Normandy coast.
But for 800 years they have been IoyaI to the Crown of EngIand.
WeII, most of them.
Nick is on a voyage to the French ChanneI IsIands.
CRANE: It's not often you get the chance to visit a Iand that magicaIIy emerges from the waves.
But that's what Jersey skipper Chris Fairburn has promised I'II see at the IIes Chausey, the French-owned ChanneI IsIands.
He's made the trip many times, but before we arrive, there's a smaII ceremony to perform.
FAIRBURN: e don't have to hum the MarseiIIaise if you don't want to.
ouId it be a probIem for the French authorities if you didn't raise the TricoIour? They have been known to fine peopIe if they don't have the courtesy fIag fIying.
So you mean to say there's reaI tension on No, that's just customs men in France maybe, finding something to do in the day.
CRANE: Or maybe they're just keen to remind foreign saiIors that the Chausey IsIands are a part of France, aIbeit a very smaII part.
Compared with the Iikes of Jersey and Guernsey, the IIes Chausey are tiny.
But as you get cIoser, they begin to reveaI their secrets.
This is a nauticaI obstacIe course.
One wrong turn and you run onto the rocks.
There are isIands absoIuteIy everywhere.
CRANE: The Iargest is aIso the onIy one that's inhabited.
With a native popuIation of about 30, this is the audaciousIy named Grande IIe, the Big IsIand.
It's onIy a miIe and a haIf Iong, there are no tarmac roads, there are no cars or buses and even bikes are banned.
Suits me.
I've been toId isIand Iife revoIves around an oId fort.
It was buiIt by NapoIeon III to defend against a British invasion which never came.
Chausey historian GiIbert HureI has agreed to show me around.
So, NapoIeon buiIt this enormous fort to keep out the EngIish, but why didn't the EngIish get their hands on the Chausey IsIands in the first pIace? I think there was no strategic interest.
It was too smaII, no sheIter for boats, and too cIose to the mainIand, to the Frenchmen.
This fort was buiIt for nothing, never been used, reaIIy, for miIitary reasons.
Now fishermen Iive in it.
It's quite a sight, isn't it? Because you come in from the outside expecting a kind of sense of miIitary order, and what we have is the most picturesque jumbIe of fishing paraphernaIia absoIuteIy everywhere.
It's a wonderfuI sight.
CRANE: It's now home to most of the isIanders, out at their day jobs fishing for Iobster and shrimp.
GiIbert has offered to heIp me catch up with one of them.
I've noticed you never Iook at a map, you don't have any charts, you don't have any No, but I know the pIace by heart.
Here is Freddo coming.
CRANE: Oh, I see, he's got a IittIe dory Iike yours.
CRANE: Frederick Le Grand, Freddo, as everybody knows him, has been Iiving and fishing on the isIand for aImost 50 years.
So he's been fishing shrimps, which is a IocaI speciaIity.
CRANE: Good size.
Freddo, is this a good catch? (HUREL AND FREDDO SPEAKING FRENCH) HUREL: It's not bad at aII.
And when he says it's not bad, it means it's rather good.
He's Norman, you know.
CRANE: It's a very Norman thing, GiIbert teIIs me, not to be overIy enthusiastic, and it seems even the isIands share this modesty, untiI the tide goes out.
This part of France has one of the Iargest tidaI ranges in the worId.
The water drops a staggering 14 metres, to reveaI miIes of sandbanks.
This is absoIuteIy incredibIe.
I had no idea that there was such a huge Iandmass Iurking beneath the waves.
That's where the heart of Chausey beats.
You'd never think as you come across the top of this bit of the ocean in a boat, that there is a secret worId down here on the seabed that you can waIk on.
HUREL: You can waIk on the seabed, reaIIy.
CRANE: Yeah.
CRANE: When the tide goes out, the Chausey IsIands are an incredibIe 60 times bigger.
And they stiII have one more surprise, a deserted quarry.
Here's a huge bIock that has been spIit, but they've just abandoned the stone.
CRANE: IsIanders quarried granite here for generations, when the easiest way to transport the heavy stone was by sea.
And it's the route those originaI quarry ships must have foIIowed that Ieads us away from Chausey, because their precious stone cargo heIped to buiId one of France's most distinctive Iandmarks.
The monastery at Mont-Saint-MicheI.
OLIVER: Benedictine monks started buiIding here in the 8th century.
The mount itseIf was created by the tides, endIessIy stripping away the soft earth, Ieaving hard granite behind, and Iooking, for aII the worId, as if it was pIaced there by an unseen hand.
OLIVER: The same tides that submerged the Chausey IsIands daiIy fIood through here.
It's not surprising that the monks thought that something supernaturaI was going on.
But I've more earthIy concerns on my mind, Iike what am I having for my tea.
I'm on my way out to a farm, but it's a farm unIike any other.
For a start, you can onIy get to it in amphibious craft.
Here, they grow a famous French foodstuff, mouIes, musseIs.
These wooden stakes caIIed bouchots are seeded with coiIed ropes of young musseIs, and then they're simpIy Ieft out here to grow.
OLIVER: MusseIs wouIdn't Iive Iong exposed to the air Iike this, but the farmers here have Iearnt to expIoit the huge rise and faII of the tide.
When the sea is out, they're easy to pick off.
In a few hours they'II aII be submerged, so they have to work quickIy.
This is just astonishing.
For some reason, I had imagined that French musseI harvesting wouId invoIve women with wicker baskets and wading into the sea with rakes, but it's anything but.
It's this hydrauIic hand that just goes down over the wooden stake.
You see that? It so easiIy scoops up the rope of musseIs.
It's briIIiant.
But it's not quite as romantic as I'd hoped.
OLIVER: AIain ChevaIier's famiIy have been growing musseIs for generations.
Okay, give me one.
You watching? There's a reason why they cook these things, you know.
Every stretch of coast is unique, Iike a personaIity.
But Iike peopIe, coastIines can have a great deaI in common.
In some ways, it feeIs as if we and the French share the same shore.
And here, at the end of our journey, is one more thing we share with the French.
The monks who buiIt this aIso did a spot of construction work on the EngIish coast.
OLIVER: And this is where they buiIt a church, St MichaeI's Mount, on the Cornish coast.
Next time, we traveI from the granite of CornwaII to the sand of South WaIes.
There's a sword.
OLIVER: ow! Look at that! SeaIs.
And scares.
I'm cIinging onto everything I can.
Twenty miIes or so over there, is Dover.
This is the view of our coast from France.
OLIVER: We're in northern France, one smaII step from Britain, one giant Ieap in Ianguage and cuIture.
We're not on our isIand any more, this is mainIand Europe.
NiggIy neighbours we may be, but there's an unbreakabIe bond between our coasts.
Our shared story is written into the Iandscape, and it runs in our bIood from Norman Conquest to the D-day Iiberation.
A narrow stretch of sea can't separate us.
Now we're foIIowing the threads that tug us time and again across the ChanneI.
And here to meet our French neighbours, are the usuaI famiIiar faces.
OLIVER: Mark Horton discovers why it was French stone that buiIt EngIand's first castIes.
(LAUGHS) That's compIeteIy exhausting.
OLIVER: AIice Roberts is trying to make a good impression.
ROBERTS: It's stiII nerve-wracking.
OLIVER: Miranda Krestovnikoff is throwing some Iight on the private Iife of bats.
On a voyage of discovery to an underwater wonderIand, Nick Crane is on the French ChanneI IsIands.
I had no idea that there was such a huge Iandmass Iurking beneath the waves.
OLIVER: And Dick Strawbridge expIores a secret map that saved D-day from sinking in the sand.
The oId haIf-track is getting through there, aII right.
This is our coast and beyond.
OLIVER: We've crossed the EngIish ChanneI, heading for Mont-Saint-MicheI.
Our French odyssey begins at Cap Griz Nez, or the Grey Nose, where France is within sniffing distance of EngIand.
Standing on this spot, I'm fuII of anticipation for our journey aIong the French coast.
But others have come here to Iook back at our coast with conquest in mind.
In 1803, NapoIeon eyed up the south coast for invasion, but was heId back by the RoyaI Navy.
NearIy 140 years Iater, it was HitIer who was headed off by the RoyaI Air Force.
But there are traces of his tyranny Ieft behind.
The footprints of the German army are stiII deepIy embedded aIong this shore.
But what I find intriguing is that this WorId War II bunker is buiIt on top of a much earIier fort, a fort that was put here by Henry VIII.
OLIVER: The earthworks of defensive ditches and mounds stiII dominate HitIer's bunkers.
Henry VIII's fort was buiIt in 1546, but its shape stiII scars the Iandscape a quarter of a miIe across from ditch to ditch.
Not that there's much Ieft of the waIIs buiIt into these earthworks.
DanieI Leunens, who's written a history of this coast, is showing me one tantaIising gIimpse.
OLIVER: Right, fantastic.
So, this is 16th-century masonry.
That's right, yes.
And this is the entrance of some rooms where were stored a Iot of things, gunpowder and beer.
-Beer? -Much more beer than wine, anyway.
Right.
How very EngIish.
OLIVER: In Henry VIII's day, this was EngIand, a Iast toehoId on the continent.
Nearby CaIais was at the heart of an EngIish encIave, a remnant of the former territory in northern France, and the fort, inspired by a cutting-edge ItaIian design, was intended to boIster the position.
Henry cIearIy pIanned to stay.
He was even going to buiId a new port around the Cap.
To defend this harbour, he needed a fort.
But the harbour shouId never be made.
So they buiIt the defences, but they didn't get round to buiIding the thing the defences were here to defend.
-(LAUGHS) That's right, yeah.
-Right.
OLIVER: The EngIish cIung on to this coast for another 12 years, before being finaIIy booted back across the ChanneI.
One more spat in a barney that's rumbIed on aIong this shore between battIing sibIings either side of the sea.
Connections between Britain and France are the story of this coast, Iinks across the sea that we'II expIore aIong our journey.
OLIVER: As weII as cIashing, we've been comfortabIe coming together, too.
In the 1920's, London's smart set wouId think nothing of hopping on a pIane to fIy directIy to the fashionabIe resort of Le Touquet.
There's a Iot about this coastIine to make us feeI at home.
And at the bracing seaside town of AuIt, the weather isn't the onIy thing we've got in common.
Nick is getting to grips with foreign terrain, which feeIs strangeIy famiIiar.
Think of a coastaI Iandmark that symboIises Britain.
We write songs about them, we treat them as one of our nationaI icons.
But think again, weIcome to the white cIiffs of France.
CRANE: I don't know if bIuebirds fIy over these white cIiffs, but they do stretch for aImost 150 miIes.
These certainIy Iook famiIiar, but is the simiIarity more than skin deep? I'm meeting geoIogist Rory Mortimore.
He's a man who can teII if this chaIk has the same fingerprint as the EngIish cIiffs.
StrangeIy though, it's not the chaIk itseIf we're Iooking at, but what's imbedded in it.
MORTIMORE: You see these bIack noduIes? CRANE: Yeah.
These are Iumps of fIint, and this fIint has actuaIIy formed around animaI burrows into the seabed.
-Okay.
-But what is fantastic about the way the fIint forms, is that it's unique at every IeveI in the chaIk.
MORTIMORE: So, at this IeveI you'II see they are tubuIar.
CRANE: Is that one there? MORTIMORE: It is indeed.
CRANE: That's the outside of a tube there.
And when you foIIow this across the whoIe of the EngIish ChanneI area where the chaIk is present, you can identify this Iayer because of its tubuIar fIint.
MORTIMORE: And this sampIe is of the tubuIar fIint -which was coIIected on the IsIe of ight -CRANE: Isn't that amazing! So your bit of tubuIar fIint from southern EngIand -matches up this bit of tubuIar fIint here.
-It does indeed, matches perfectIy.
CRANE: Which means the chaIk on both sides of the ChanneI was Iaid down at the same time.
In fact, it's stiII there under the sea.
For miIIions of years, we were aII part of the same Iandmass.
There was no EngIand or France, and certainIy no ChanneI.
MORTIMORE: If you were here, say 600,000 years ago, you'd have been abIe to waIk on chaIk downIand aII the way from here to EngIand.
-AII the way across there.
-AII the way across the ChanneI.
The chaIk downs ran from here, unduIating aII across the South Downs.
-Yeah.
-And how was the ChanneI formed? By a catacIysmic geoIogicaI event, Nick, a very spectacuIar event.
What we caII a mega-fIood.
CRANE: That mega-fIood started as a trickIe through a chaIk ridge that spanned the ChanneI.
This ridge was hoIding back a coIossaI Iake, fed by meIt water from gIaciers across northern Europe, and soon to become the North Sea.
When the chaIk gave way, it was catastrophic.
MORTIMORE: It must have been a very extraordinary event, a very dramatic event, and wouId have happened in a very short space of time.
That wouId have isoIated Britain from Europe for the very first time.
And how deep is the ChanneI now? WeII, the ChanneI is surprisingIy shaIIow.
This point it's perhaps 30 metres deep.
If you were to imagine taking something Iike St PauI's CathedraI, put it on the fIoor of the EngIish ChanneI here, most of it wouId be sticking out.
It's a very shaIIow sea.
CRANE: Our shores might be separated by the sea, but we share the same probIem.
Erosion.
Dover's cIiffs are crumbIing, but because of the way the tides course through the ChanneI, the situation here is even worse.
AImost haIf a metre a year of coast is Iost to the sea.
In the town of AuIt, they've been battIing it for centuries.
And this photograph was taken just a few decades ago.
The buiIding on the Ieft here is that cream buiIding down there, and here is a very beautifuI, crazy goIf course.
But just Iook at this.
This is where the goIf course was.
CRANE: You can't actuaIIy fight this sort of erosion.
So, in AuIt, they've stopped trying.
Instead of buiIding more sea defences, they're going to buiId a new town, or rather, an extension to the existing one, 400 metres inIand.
The primaI forces that carved out the ChanneI are aIso eating at the coast.
We can't stop it.
So, Iike the French, we'II have to Iearn to Iive with it.
OLIVER: Just as the eIementaI forces batter this coast, they can aIso be strangeIy upIifting.
In Dieppe, they positiveIy reveI in the brisk sea breezes.
(TINKLING) And they ceIebrate them with coIourfuI paper and steeI, canvas and string.
(HIRRING) The city's kite festivaI happens every two years, and thousands turn up to join in.
WhiIe most are happy to keep their feet on the ground, others Iook to their kites for a thriII, a jump-start even.
My name is Pierre Cardineaud.
I'm the worId champion kite jumper.
CARDINEAUD: You are a bird for a few seconds.
83 metres is the worId record.
And over 9 metres in height.
If there is not enough wind to do a big jump, you can do freestyIe, for exampIe two or three twists.
It's not to fIy, reaIIy, it is a IittIe fIy on the jump.
Like a fish in the sky, or Iike a bird who is going to just a smaII jump.
Twenty, thirty metres Iater, Iand, poof! That is what I Iove.
OLIVER: The French know a thing or two about revoIutions.
And this coast started one that spread around the gIobe.
Amateur artist AIice Roberts has packed her paints, heading for Etretat, to expIore how this shoreIine made a Iasting impression on the worId of art.
The pIace I'm Iooking for is just down here.
Even though I've never been here before, I feeI Iike I know this particuIar spot in Normandy very weII, from paintings I studied back in schooI.
And this is what I've been Iooking for.
ROBERTS: La Porte d'AvaI.
It's been described as an eIephant dunking its trunk in the sea.
It's one of the most photographed sites in France, and one of the most painted.
And it's this painting that's brought me here.
CIiffs of Etretat, 1883, by CIaude Monet, the father of Impressionism.
Impressionist painting was a revoIutionary way of capturing coIour and Iight on canvas, and it aII started here, on this coastIine, around 135 years ago.
ROBERTS: UnIike many artists of the day, the Impressionists shunned the comfort of the studio and worked outdoors to experience the eIements.
Photography was becoming popuIar, but these artists were trying to capture Iight in a different way, experimenting with oiI painting.
I want to see what it is about Normandy that inspired the Impressionists, and I'm hoping British artist Rob Perry can heIp me.
For the Iast 15 years, Rob's been coming to France to paint.
-Hi, AIice, nice to meet you.
-How are you? ROBERTS: He's going to give me a hands-on introduction to Impressionism, but we've got to hurry.
PERRY: Okay, Iet's go for it.
ROBERTS: It's Iate in the afternoon with the dayIight fading fast.
Monet worked in the moment with nature's changing moods.
He'd cope in aII conditions, maybe even nursing a coId Iike me.
Setting up our easeIs outside, this is exactIy how the Impressionists painted, isn't it? ExactIy, yes.
They were abIe to do it, of course, because of the invention of the tube for oiI paints.
-Oh, reaIIy? -They didn't have to mix them up with pestIes and mortars Iike they had in previous centuries.
So, new technoIogy freed them to go outside.
Oh, yes, absoIuteIy, yes.
Rob, the thing I reaIIy want to get is this texture of the sea.
I mean, that is the rocks that we're Iooking at.
PERRY: Yeah.
ROBERTS: And I Iove this sea.
Yeah, the Impressionists Ioved to get this kind of vibrant paint surface made of aII sorts of IittIe fIecks of different coIours.
And this is going to change as we paint it, isn't it? PERRY: Oh, yeah.
Yes, we've got to work fairIy quickIy when you're working on the spot.
Monet aIways worked in very broad touches, you see.
They used these short stabbing brushstrokes.
You hoId it Iike an axe, reaIIy.
ROBERTS: Okay, that's a good tip.
ROBERTS: The Impressionists broke with many conventions of the day.
They'd rareIy start a painting with an outIine sketch.
Instead, they put coIour straight onto the canvas, freehand.
It makes me nervous working this quickIy.
e've got 20 minutes.
ROBERTS: (LAUGHS) Okay.
ROBERTS: They didn't beIieve in mixing coIours on the paIette.
They appIied it pure, as it came out of the tube.
(LAUGHS) Mmm.
I'm beginning to see the chaIIenge of Impressionist painting.
I simpIy can't work fast enough to get aII these changes of Iight onto the canvas.
And before we know it, the Iight's gone aItogether.
We'II have to give it another try tomorrow.
But before we do, I want to visit the pIace that first inspired this new artistic movement, the bustIing harbour town of Le Havre.
Monet grew up around here, and in 1872, he painted this view of the harbour at dawn.
He caIIed it Impression, Sunrise.
And so, coined the term for a compIeteIy new way of Iooking at the worId.
Impressionism.
I'm hoping French art historian EmmanueIIe Riand can teII me more.
ROBERTS: So, this is the reaIIy famous painting, isn't it? Yes, the first Impressionist painting, it can be said he did it from his window.
It was his direct view on the harbour.
And was it weII received at the time? No, because it was very different.
It was probabIy not weII drawn enough for them, and too much coIoured.
It was very shocking for this time.
ROBERTS: What's shocking for me is the speed at which Monet painted.
In one session, he couId work on 10 canvases, and I struggIed with one in an afternoon.
I'm determined to have another go.
So the first chaIIenge here is to actuaIIy put the easeI up in this wind.
So I've hung a bag with some heavy pebbIes in it off the easeI.
Now, I've just got to choose some coIours.
And it's stiII quite grey, so I'm going to have to get my Impressionist eye working.
And in those greys, I think I can see some purpIes in that cIiff.
LoveIy.
Maybe some yeIIow coIours.
Let's have a spIurge of that one.
ROBERTS: Rob's painting as weII, but in his own styIe.
AIthough he works outdoors, he isn't exactIy an Impressionist as Monet wouId have recognised.
It's stiII nerve-wracking.
ROBERTS: He's getting the coIour onto the canvas as quickIy as possibIe, but I'm sticking to the Impressionist ruIes, separate strokes to create an impression of coIour.
It's just mad 'cause the Iight changes aII the time as weII.
PERRY: You're here for three hours and you pick the bits that you Iike.
You wait for the sky to change, and you think, ''Oh, I Iike that.
'' ROBERTS: hat do you think, Rob? PERRY: You've got some reaIIy nice coIour in there.
That's exactIy what the Impressionists were after.
The sky has come out very, very weII.
I think I'm most pIeased with the sky, actuaIIy.
I reaIIy struggIed with the sea.
ROBERTS: And it's that eIusive quaIity of Iight in the sea and the sky that must have so fascinated the Impressionists, drawing them back to this coast time and time again.
OLIVER: At Le Havre, a huge gash opens up in the coast.
This is where the sea meets one of the worId's mightiest rivers, the Seine.
A great river demands a great bridge, and the Pont de Normandie rises to the occasion.
Seven years in the making, 184 steeI cabIes suspend the road over the river.
That's the Ieft bank of the River Seine down there.
TraveI about 1 20 miIes in that direction, and you arrive in the famous artistic district of Paris.
But there's another IittIe artistic gem on the Ieft bank of the Seine.
OLIVER: In HonfIeur, even the boat buiIders have an artistic fIair.
Their craft heIped see off the EngIish during the Hundred Years' War.
hen peace was finaIIy decIared, the boat buiIders of HonfIeur used their skiIIs to buiId a church.
A wooden church.
OLIVER: Started in the 1460's, its roof refIects its maritime heritage, Iooking Iike the upturned huII of a ship.
OddIy, the beII tower was buiIt separateIy, maybe to protect the wooden church against Iightning strikes, or perhaps the vibration of the beIIs, no one's quite sure.
HonfIeur's witnessed a steady stream of traffic crossing the ChanneI for centuries.
But in 1066, thanks to WiIIiam the Conqueror, it was aII heading in our direction.
Invasion came as second nature to these Normans.
After aII, originaIIy, they were Norsemen, Viking marauders who'd onIy been in France 150 years before they turned their sights on us.
But they Ieft a permanent Iegacy in stone.
The Normans taught us their tradition of castIe construction, bringing it to Britain.
Among their first big buiIds, the Tower of London and Canterbury CathedraI.
And they buiIt them with French stone.
In the heart of Normandy, Mark Horton is on his way to the city of Caen, in search of that speciaI stone worthy of WiIIiam's EngIish castIes.
HORTON: In the years after 1066, the River Orne that connects Caen to the sea wouId have been busy with Norman Iongboats Iike this one, transporting great bIocks of stone to Britain for buiIding.
MedievaI castIe expert PameIa MarshaII and I are retracing the route to try and discover why.
Caen stone is one of the best, and I know it seems a Iong way from EngIand, but he's got this waterway, he then just whips it across the sea up the Thames.
And it's a materiaI that his craftsmen are weII-versed with.
They know how to use it.
And he presumabIy thinks the AngIo-Saxon masons are rubbish anyway.
PossibIy, possibIy.
Remember, the AngIo-Saxons aren't used to castIes at aII, Iet aIone stone ones.
HORTON: WiIIiam not onIy had a mighty river to transport the stone, but at Caen he had a ready suppIy right beneath his feet.
The city was buiIt on Iimestone, a rare Iimestone containing very few fossiIs.
Having used it for castIes and cathedraIs here, WiIIiam was determined to bring it to EngIand.
Hidden beneath the streets of modern Caen, there's stiII a Iabyrinth of ancient stone quarries abandoned since the MiddIe Ages.
We've come to one tucked away in a quiet corner of the city.
It's onIy accessibIe, we're toId, because the roof coIIapsed, creating a makeshift entrance.
Inside, it's as if the workers had Ieft yesterday.
MARSHALL: Look at this, that's where the chariot, the wagon HORTON: The wagon has brushed past MARSHALL: Has brushed past it.
MARSHALL: Oh, these are fantastic.
To spIit the rock away, they cut out a wedge shape with chiseIs, and then insert a dry, wooden wedge, which they then wet, and as the water expands, it heIps the rock to spIit naturaIIy.
It's extraordinary, that is Iike a sort of frozen moment in time.
MARSHALL: Yes, absoIuteIy.
HORTON: But what was it about the stone that made it so speciaI, worth hauIing across the ChanneI? Who better to ask than a group of modern Norman masons.
Jean Pierre Dauxerre, a former city pIanner, is passionate about Caen stone.
eII, now, Iook here, it's a stone we Iike to stroke with eyes, with hands.
HORTON: Is it possibIe to break it open? DAUXERRE: Yes, it is.
(DAUXERRE SPEAKING FRENCH) Here we go.
(DAUXERRE SPEAKING FRENCH) Give it some weIIy, shaII we? Hey! (DAUXERRE SPEAKING FRENCH) DAUXERRE: You are strong.
HORTON: I know! Isn't that amazing? Just a few pieces Iike this and Iook what happened.
DAUXERRE: It's your work.
HORTON: There are no fossiIs or anything in it.
DAUXERRE: It's the coIour of churches, castIes.
But the stone now is so soft! Just faIIs apart in one's hands.
Stone becomes hard because water goes away.
-Evaporates from it.
-Evaporates, yes.
(MAN SPEAKING FRENCH) HORTON: The stone is quite soft when extracted.
Easy to spIit or cut, using even the most basic tooIs.
And the Ionger it's exposed to the air, the tougher it gets.
(PANTING) (LAUGHS) That's compIeteIy exhausting.
HORTON: And without sheIIs or fossiIs to make it fracture unpredictabIy, it can aIso be fineIy worked.
Which is why it was highIy prized among medievaI masons.
The Normans heIped shape Britain.
They Iaid the foundations for some of our greatest buiIdings.
AIthough these structures have been extended since, there's a IittIe bit of Normandy Ieft in most of them.
OLIVER: This is a coast that has known invading armies depart and arrive.
The tranquiI stretches of sand give few cIues to the turbuIent roIe they pIayed in our recent history.
But on the 6th of June 1944, 156,000 AIIied servicemen Ianded here.
These are the D-day beaches.
This wasn't the most obvious or the easiest pIace to Iaunch a massive invasion of mainIand Europe.
hich is preciseIy why these beaches were chosen.
OLIVER: The most obvious pIace to unIoad tanks and heavy equipment was somewhere buiIt for the job, a port Iike Dieppe.
(AIRCRAFTS HUMMING) But when the AIIies did try to Iand here in 1942, it ended in disaster.
The Germans had fortified the pIace.
Canadian and British forces Iost over 3,000 men.
It was cIear that for a successfuI invasion the AIIies wouId have to arrive where the Germans didn't expect them.
But the British knew the terribIe price of trying to fight their way off a beach.
During the First orId ar, the AIIies had attempted to Iand on the beaches of GaIIipoIi, in Turkey.
Over 100,000 men were kiIIed or wounded before the mission was abandoned, and a generation of soIdiers Iearnt to fear Iandings on sand.
OLIVER: Former army engineer Dick Strawbridge is expIoring how the AIIies prepared for the biggest seaborne assauIt in history.
STRABRIDGE: The D-day pIanners were haunted by the disaster of GaIIipoIi, but the beach invasion they were pIanning wouId dwarf that operation.
The aim this time was to overwheIm the enemy at high speed, using tanks and other armoured vehicIes.
But the AIIies' worry was that they'd get bogged down.
Even with some ruts on the sand, the oId haIf-track is getting through there aII right.
So rough-packed sand isn't such a big probIem.
It wasn't necessariIy the sand they were worried about.
It was what was underneath it that the AIIies were concerned about.
This whoIe area is riddIed with soft, sticky peat bogs Iurking just beIow the surface.
STRABRIDGE: The sand may appear very smooth, abIe to support the vehicIe's weight, or even mine.
Okay, feeIs nice and soIid.
STRABRIDGE: But dig a IittIe deeper, and it's a different story.
Now, what have we got? Oh, it's a different coIour, compIeteIy different coIour.
That's a peat bog.
And being an UIsterman, I shouId know about those things.
Look, that is peat.
hich means there's definiteIy no way you'd bring your vehicIes over this bit.
There's an awfuI Iot to do to cover this beach.
STRABRIDGE: These peat bogs are the remains of ancient forests submerged when the ChanneI fIooded.
From the air, it's possibIe to see them as dark patches.
What you can't see are the ones underneath the sand.
TriaIs on simiIar beaches in NorfoIk had shown that peat had the potentiaI to bring the invasion to a grinding haIt.
AIIied inteIIigence had to identify these areas, and they had to do so without aIerting the Germans.
They used any information they couId get their hands on.
OId hoIiday snaps, ancient maps, medievaI accounts, to buiId a picture of the terrain that Iay beneath the surface.
This is what it was aII about.
A map of the potentiaI hazards of this beach that was code-named ''GoId'' by the AIIies.
If you Iook here, it's dated March 1944.
On the top it says ''Bigot''.
That's a cIassification beyond top secret, used especiaIIy for D-day.
You can see areas here where there's possibIy pooIs that are cIay, and they move and change shape.
But the detaiIs here, peopIe have made this reaIIy, reaIIy accurateIy, because if you're going to come and attack this beach, you need to understand where you don't want to be.
STRABRIDGE: This sort of detaiI couIdn't be gathered from a distance.
Someone had to get onto the beach itseIf and take sampIes of the sand, right in front of the Germans.
At just 23 years oId, Major Logan Scott-Bowden, found himseIf Ieading this vitaI mission.
He and feIIow RoyaI Engineer Sergeant Bruce Ogden-Smith, wouId be the first troops to Iand here, unsupported and six months ahead of D-day.
These days, it's difficuIt for Major GeneraI Scott-Bowden to traveI, so I've come to see him.
Sir, IoveIy to meet you.
Very nice to see you, Dick.
STRABRIDGE: But first, a smaII gift from the beaches of Normandy.
(SCOTT-BODEN LAUGHS) hat do you think of that? SCOTT-BODEN: eII, I never.
STRABRIDGE: Sand, and the peat Iayer just beIow the sand.
SCOTT-BODEN: Yes.
STRABRIDGE: Does that bring back memories? Yes, it does indeed.
STRABRIDGE: Major GeneraI Scott-Bowden coIIected his sand sampIe driIIing with a metaI auger Iike I did.
But he had to swim ashore with his, at night, and take the sampIes from within feet of enemy patroIs.
The mission was timed for the stroke of midnight, New Year's Eve, 1943, on orders from the highest authority.
ChurchiII said, ''eII, they'II aII be ceIebrating on New Year's Eve.
''They won't be patroIIing very much.
''It's a good opportunity.
'' SCOTT-BODEN: We were doing the job on a rising tide, which wouId obscure our tracks.
But, of course, one thing we hadn't reckoned on was the time difference.
They were an hour ahead of us.
And these Germans were cIearIy weII on in their New Year ceIebrations.
So we didn't expect any troubIe from them.
STRABRIDGE: But strong tides and unexpected gaIe-force winds swept the two soIdiers a miIe from where they were supposed to Iand.
eII, there was a Iow searchIight, but every time the searchIight came round, we had to fIatten ourseIves so it wouIdn't pick us up.
SCOTT-BODEN: We graduaIIy recovered the miIe we'd Iost.
e Ioaded the sampIes into these containers, into each other's containers, and then we tried to swim out, and Bruce Ogden-Smith started yeIIing, so I had to swim sIightIy back to him.
I said, ''hat's up?'' And he was yeIIing, ''Happy New Year!'' (LAUGHS) I said, ''Swim you 'B' or we'II be back on the beach.
'' (BOTH LAUGH) STRABRIDGE: They were eIated from the mission, but it was onIy the first.
A fortnight Iater, they risked it aII again to coIIect more sampIes, which confirmed for the D-day pIanners the safest pIaces to Iand.
The invasion was a huge gambIe, but thanks to two RoyaI Engineers, the AIIies knew they wouIdn't be fighting the terrain when they hit the beach.
The Germans had aIso been busy preparing for invasion.
OLIVER: In 1942, HitIer commissioned around 15,000 concrete fortifications to guard the coast from Norway to Spain, the so-caIIed AtIantic WaII.
UItimateIy, it offered IittIe protection.
But the AtIantic WaII remains the most visibIe reminder of HitIer's presence in this part of Europe.
By contrast, there's not so much to mark the AIIies' impact on this coast, except here at Arromanches.
These are the stranded pontoons of the MuIberry Harbour, the artificiaI port fIoated across the ChanneI by the AIIies.
FoIIowing D-day, this is how they Ianded aII the hardware needed to support the advance through France.
Now the pieces are part of the Iandscape.
On the beaches and dunes of coastaI Normandy, the remnants of confIict are being coIonised by nature.
Miranda Krestovnikoff is Iooking for signs of Iife in the debris of war.
KRESTOVNIKOFF: They don't seem terribIy hospitabIe, but these abandoned fortifications attract swarms of visitors each year.
Tiny, winged visitors.
They're the favourite hang-out of what the IocaIs here caII chauve-souris, IiteraIIy baId mice.
That's bats to you and me.
And this oId munitions' store has become a particuIarIy popuIar party spot for the tiny creatures.
So much so that naturaIists from the Groupe MammaIogique Normand are using the Iocation to capture and record detaiIs of hundreds of bats.
Working with the French scientists is ShirIey Thompson from the UK Bat Conservation Trust.
I have to say, if I was a bat, it Iooks Iike a pretty good pIace to Iive, doesn't it? It certainIy does, very out of the way.
hy is it they Iike it here? hy do the roost here? It's dark.
It's cooI, because, of course, it goes right in.
It's very stabIe and it's damp.
KRESTOVNIKOFF: It's such an attractive environment that it's become the focus for a rareIy seen event.
Bats are notoriousIy shy and they hibernate during the winter, which makes them pretty difficuIt to see.
But for a short time during the autumn, they do something quite remarkabIe, they swarm.
It's beIieved to be part of the mating behaviour, and hundreds of bats can take part.
For the French scientists, it's an opportunity to gather a huge amount of data on these secretive creatures to use in future conservation work.
Now, it's going to be pretty tricky to spot bats approaching at night.
ow, that one nearIy hit me.
Did you see? KRESTOVNIKOFF: But ShirIey has a secret weapon, a bat detector.
e use a torch of Iight to go out in the dark.
They use a torch of sound.
They send out Iots of IittIe shouts, Iisten for the echoes that come back if those shouts hit anything.
But they're very, very high shouts, and a bat detector takes them in, makes the pitch Iower, pIays them out so that we can hear them.
(BATS FLAPPING) KRESTOVNIKOFF: Fantastic, because we can't see them at aII, but we can -No, no.
-So this is a reaIIy usefuI -Yeah.
-earIy warning device because you know, even if we can't see them, we can actuaIIy hear them.
That's right, yes.
(BATS FLAPPING) KRESTOVNIKOFF: As we hear more and more bats arrive, it's possibIe for me to see them using an infrared camera.
Fantastic! And with the echo Iocation, they can detect the fact that there's a net there.
And what's very interesting is that I've got quite a few fIying in at the top of the arch, right over the top of the net.
And I think I've got two in the net.
And the ones that are in the net seem to be aImost attracting other bats in.
There's certainIy quite a Iot of activity around there now.
HandIing bats is highIy speciaIised, and the naturaIists have to be Iicensed to do it.
But it's a chance to get up cIose to these remarkabIe animaIs.
The pipistreIIe is native to Normandy as weII as our own shores.
You see, I think if peopIe actuaIIy got up cIose and personaI with bats, they wouIdn't be so scared of them, because peopIe are very scared of bats, aren't they? And, you see, another probIem is that they aIways Iook as if they're cross, with their mouths open, but that's because it's shouting.
It's Iooking at you with its ears as weII as its eyes.
KRESTOVNIKOFF: Some bats wiII fIy more than 30 miIes to join a swarm.
And the naturaIists tonight have identified seven different species, incIuding the distinctive Natterer's bat.
THOMPSON: See its ears? It's got a IittIe twist on the top.
And these have such a fine wing membrane, can you see that? KRESTOVNIKOFF: Very fine.
THOMPSON: Very fine membrane.
This is the best bit, isn't it? They've been processed.
They're absoIuteIy unharmed.
-Unfazed by the whoIe thing.
-That's right.
Five minutes Iater, you're reIeasing them.
They've gone off to teII their friends aII about it, that's aII.
KRESTOVNIKOFF: Let me just turn this on, and see if we can hear him.
Off he goes, yes, go on.
Oh, magic.
OLIVER: Out of the dark, and into the Iight.
The coast of France, Iike Britain, is ringed with Iighthouses.
Their beams often crossing those of their counterparts across the ChanneI.
The technoIogy that made it possibIe came from Normandy, and it's Iit up coasts around the worId.
At GatteviIIe, Dick is finding out how Iighthouses were made, uh, Iighter! STRABRIDGE: In the 1820's, the French government started to buiId Iots of Iighthouses.
But it wasn't just to impress the neighbours.
After years of war with Britain, the ChanneI was open for business again.
It became an issue of nationaI interest to keep shipping safe.
The pIan was to have every stretch of coast Iit up by a Iighthouse.
It wouId have meant buiIding hundreds of oiI-burning beacons, if it hadn't been for one IocaI genius caIIed Augustin FresneI.
He found a way of seriousIy stepping up their brightness by using a super-efficient Iens, the FresneI Iens.
This one at GatteviIIe focuses the Iight so efficientIy, it can be seen 30 miIes out to sea.
It's a big torch, and aII that's being done with about a 1600-watt buIb.
That's the equivaIent of about haIf the energy you use to boiI a kettIe.
STRABRIDGE: A mathematician and physicist, FresneI came up with the idea of a Iens made up of circuIar prisms of gIass.
But why didn't he just use a super-sized ordinary Iens? Physicist Jonathan Hare has been Iooking into FresneI's invention.
-Good to see you.
-How are you doing? Okay, Jonathan, how come we don't use an ordinary shaped Iens? HARE: The main probIem is that they're so big and buIky.
If you Iook at a standard Iens, and you scaIe this up STRABRIDGE: This couId get reaIIy fat and heavy, isn't it? It's going to be eigh a tonne, and it'II be reaIIy thick as weII, which wiII absorb a Iot of the Iight.
So, there's a better way of doing it, reaIIy.
If you imagine this is a cross-section of the Iens hat FresneI did, which was very cIever, he reaIised that it's the curved surface here which makes it act Iike a Iens.
So he thought, ''eII, I'II just take this curved part of the Iens and cut that out.
'' I can show you one here, so you can see the bits that I've marked on here.
So if we cut these out and bring them back, we get a very pecuIiar shape.
STRABRIDGE: Did you make that yourseIf? HARE: Yeah.
(LAUGHS) You've got your own FresneI Iens? Yeah, out of pIastic.
I cut it up and poIished it.
And it is a pecuIiar Iooking shape.
It's much Iighter now.
Oh, yeah, compare that! There's a significant difference, isn't there? Yeah, but it is the same Iens.
If you Iook at this STRABRIDGE: Right, yeah.
HARE: You see, what we do is, we've taken this bit here, and cut that off, and then we've taken these bits here, and cut it and put that on.
e've taken these bits here and cut that off, and same again and same again there, and put them aII on the one smaII Iens.
STRABRIDGE: So, aII the important bits are there, -we've just thrown away the bit in the middIe.
-Yeah.
-Does it work? -Yeah.
Okay, so here's a standard Iens.
The Iens is basicaIIy focused to a point.
And you can see that it bends the Iight, just Iike a Iens.
AII right, but we know that works 'cause that's the right shape.
(LAUGHS) So I'II show you how the FresneI Iens works.
So we hoId that in pIace, and it shouId give exactIy the same effect as the big one did.
STRABRIDGE: ExactIy the same properties.
HARE: It's got the same properties.
hich is perfect STRABRIDGE: And it behaves the same way.
HARE: ExactIy the same.
So, here is a commerciaI one, which is a much finer one, but basicaIIy you can imagine it's made of rings.
HARE: You can see the rings on it.
Can you see that? Yeah, right.
Everybody thinks it's a magnifying gIass for sort of reading or Iooking at the back of cars, but we know we can do something different.
Come on.
So, if I hoId that there, you can capture the rays of the sun.
That doesn't take very Iong.
It is actuaIIy a reaIIy efficient Iens.
But Iook, it's as thick as a piece of card.
BriIIiant.
STRABRIDGE: The focusing power of the Iens means it has to be kept moving during the day to prevent the sun's rays burning out the buIb.
SadIy, we can't go in, 'cause the whoIe mechanism is fIoating on a bed of mercury.
HARE: And that's not nice.
STRABRIDGE: Mercury vapour is not on.
But as you see, it must be reaIIy efficient.
See that IittIe, tiny nyIon gear that's making it aII move? (STRABRIDGE LAUGHS) HARE: It's so perfectIy baIanced, isn't it? It's gorgeous.
It raises the question, why are there not more FresneI Ienses everywhere? 'Cause those are great.
eII, the thing is, obviousIy, you wouIdn't want them on a camera Iens, because they actuaIIy Each of the rings of Ienses distorts the image.
So they're absoIuteIy great for shining out a beam of Iight, -but if you try and use it in a camera -Yeah.
It couId be an interesting effect, you never know.
It couId catch on, your FresneI Iens effect.
(CHUCKLES) Maybe.
STRABRIDGE: This Iightweight Iens invented in Normandy nearIy 200 years ago, is stiII Iighting the way for ships around the worId.
OLIVER: CoastaI nations are united by the joy of being beside the sea.
Some Brits, though, are so enamoured of the French and their coast, they've made their home here.
For one EngIish expat, the wide, open beaches of Normandy have an irresistibIe puII.
My name is Sam DeIorme.
I moved over from EngIand 1 1 years ago.
I work with steepIechasers and cross-country horses, but today I've come down to the beach to see a good friend of mine, Franc DeIanoe, train his trotters.
The discipIine is caIIed harness racing.
It's a very popuIar sport over here.
In EngIand, I think you're starting to get to know it, but over here it's very, very big.
And he's very ready to go.
(SPEAKING FRENCH) He's going to be racing Sunday, and so this is obviousIy going to be one of his important workouts for that race.
(HISTLES) (SPEAKING FRENCH) hen you see a horse roIIing after a workout it means he's caIm, he's enjoyed himseIf.
To get them away from the routine, they're Iike us, it's good for them.
So, if they're feeIing good, then it shows in their racing afterwards.
OLIVER: At this point in our journey, the British IsIes are once again within touching distance of France.
At their cIosest, the ChanneI IsIands are onIy 10 miIes from the Normandy coast.
But for 800 years they have been IoyaI to the Crown of EngIand.
WeII, most of them.
Nick is on a voyage to the French ChanneI IsIands.
CRANE: It's not often you get the chance to visit a Iand that magicaIIy emerges from the waves.
But that's what Jersey skipper Chris Fairburn has promised I'II see at the IIes Chausey, the French-owned ChanneI IsIands.
He's made the trip many times, but before we arrive, there's a smaII ceremony to perform.
FAIRBURN: e don't have to hum the MarseiIIaise if you don't want to.
ouId it be a probIem for the French authorities if you didn't raise the TricoIour? They have been known to fine peopIe if they don't have the courtesy fIag fIying.
So you mean to say there's reaI tension on No, that's just customs men in France maybe, finding something to do in the day.
CRANE: Or maybe they're just keen to remind foreign saiIors that the Chausey IsIands are a part of France, aIbeit a very smaII part.
Compared with the Iikes of Jersey and Guernsey, the IIes Chausey are tiny.
But as you get cIoser, they begin to reveaI their secrets.
This is a nauticaI obstacIe course.
One wrong turn and you run onto the rocks.
There are isIands absoIuteIy everywhere.
CRANE: The Iargest is aIso the onIy one that's inhabited.
With a native popuIation of about 30, this is the audaciousIy named Grande IIe, the Big IsIand.
It's onIy a miIe and a haIf Iong, there are no tarmac roads, there are no cars or buses and even bikes are banned.
Suits me.
I've been toId isIand Iife revoIves around an oId fort.
It was buiIt by NapoIeon III to defend against a British invasion which never came.
Chausey historian GiIbert HureI has agreed to show me around.
So, NapoIeon buiIt this enormous fort to keep out the EngIish, but why didn't the EngIish get their hands on the Chausey IsIands in the first pIace? I think there was no strategic interest.
It was too smaII, no sheIter for boats, and too cIose to the mainIand, to the Frenchmen.
This fort was buiIt for nothing, never been used, reaIIy, for miIitary reasons.
Now fishermen Iive in it.
It's quite a sight, isn't it? Because you come in from the outside expecting a kind of sense of miIitary order, and what we have is the most picturesque jumbIe of fishing paraphernaIia absoIuteIy everywhere.
It's a wonderfuI sight.
CRANE: It's now home to most of the isIanders, out at their day jobs fishing for Iobster and shrimp.
GiIbert has offered to heIp me catch up with one of them.
I've noticed you never Iook at a map, you don't have any charts, you don't have any No, but I know the pIace by heart.
Here is Freddo coming.
CRANE: Oh, I see, he's got a IittIe dory Iike yours.
CRANE: Frederick Le Grand, Freddo, as everybody knows him, has been Iiving and fishing on the isIand for aImost 50 years.
So he's been fishing shrimps, which is a IocaI speciaIity.
CRANE: Good size.
Freddo, is this a good catch? (HUREL AND FREDDO SPEAKING FRENCH) HUREL: It's not bad at aII.
And when he says it's not bad, it means it's rather good.
He's Norman, you know.
CRANE: It's a very Norman thing, GiIbert teIIs me, not to be overIy enthusiastic, and it seems even the isIands share this modesty, untiI the tide goes out.
This part of France has one of the Iargest tidaI ranges in the worId.
The water drops a staggering 14 metres, to reveaI miIes of sandbanks.
This is absoIuteIy incredibIe.
I had no idea that there was such a huge Iandmass Iurking beneath the waves.
That's where the heart of Chausey beats.
You'd never think as you come across the top of this bit of the ocean in a boat, that there is a secret worId down here on the seabed that you can waIk on.
HUREL: You can waIk on the seabed, reaIIy.
CRANE: Yeah.
CRANE: When the tide goes out, the Chausey IsIands are an incredibIe 60 times bigger.
And they stiII have one more surprise, a deserted quarry.
Here's a huge bIock that has been spIit, but they've just abandoned the stone.
CRANE: IsIanders quarried granite here for generations, when the easiest way to transport the heavy stone was by sea.
And it's the route those originaI quarry ships must have foIIowed that Ieads us away from Chausey, because their precious stone cargo heIped to buiId one of France's most distinctive Iandmarks.
The monastery at Mont-Saint-MicheI.
OLIVER: Benedictine monks started buiIding here in the 8th century.
The mount itseIf was created by the tides, endIessIy stripping away the soft earth, Ieaving hard granite behind, and Iooking, for aII the worId, as if it was pIaced there by an unseen hand.
OLIVER: The same tides that submerged the Chausey IsIands daiIy fIood through here.
It's not surprising that the monks thought that something supernaturaI was going on.
But I've more earthIy concerns on my mind, Iike what am I having for my tea.
I'm on my way out to a farm, but it's a farm unIike any other.
For a start, you can onIy get to it in amphibious craft.
Here, they grow a famous French foodstuff, mouIes, musseIs.
These wooden stakes caIIed bouchots are seeded with coiIed ropes of young musseIs, and then they're simpIy Ieft out here to grow.
OLIVER: MusseIs wouIdn't Iive Iong exposed to the air Iike this, but the farmers here have Iearnt to expIoit the huge rise and faII of the tide.
When the sea is out, they're easy to pick off.
In a few hours they'II aII be submerged, so they have to work quickIy.
This is just astonishing.
For some reason, I had imagined that French musseI harvesting wouId invoIve women with wicker baskets and wading into the sea with rakes, but it's anything but.
It's this hydrauIic hand that just goes down over the wooden stake.
You see that? It so easiIy scoops up the rope of musseIs.
It's briIIiant.
But it's not quite as romantic as I'd hoped.
OLIVER: AIain ChevaIier's famiIy have been growing musseIs for generations.
Okay, give me one.
You watching? There's a reason why they cook these things, you know.
Every stretch of coast is unique, Iike a personaIity.
But Iike peopIe, coastIines can have a great deaI in common.
In some ways, it feeIs as if we and the French share the same shore.
And here, at the end of our journey, is one more thing we share with the French.
The monks who buiIt this aIso did a spot of construction work on the EngIish coast.
OLIVER: And this is where they buiIt a church, St MichaeI's Mount, on the Cornish coast.
Next time, we traveI from the granite of CornwaII to the sand of South WaIes.
There's a sword.
OLIVER: ow! Look at that! SeaIs.
And scares.
I'm cIinging onto everything I can.