Mileage 69 from Saint Georges to Villandry
Parking Co-ordinates 47.33935, 0.50732
Well, for once we stuck with our plan and arrived at the Villandry Aire around lunch time today - but for most of the time we were there the weather looked very iffy, so other than a couple of very brisk walks we didn't do much! However, some of the Brexit news and Mr Johnson's antics kept us quite entertained!!
Our walks took us out along the banks of the River Cher and as we went we watched lots of bird life and we spotted a rare red squirrel that dashed across our path. Additionally, signs of autumn were very evident with falling leaves and huge log piles being stored ready for winter fires.
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| The River Cher |
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| Chateau Villandry |
Wednesday 25th and Thursday 26th September 2019 ☂☂⛆⛆⛆☁☁⛆⛆⛆⛆
Mileage 175 from Villandry to Honfleur
Parking Co-ordinates 49.41943, 0.2415
We're getting closer!! On Wednesday we spent most of our day driving back to the Normandy Coast at Honfleur which sits right at the mouth of the mighty River Seine! As we went we passed through many miles of apple orchards where folks were very hard at work gathering in the fruit possibly to make either the famous Normandy Cider or maybe Calvados! Calvados is the much more potent of the two because it's distilled from either apple or pear cider to a strength of 40% proof, and it's production and history in this region goes back to at least 1553! So of course we treated ourselves to a bottle because we felt it would have been rude not to😀.
Unfortunately, while we were in Honfleur the rain only paused briefly but that allowed us a couple of hours to nip out for a stroll into the harbour and the very pretty old town!
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| As it is now on a rainy grey day |
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| And as it was in yesteryear! |
Friday 27th September 2019 ⛅⛅⛅⛅☂☂
Mileage 33 from Honfleur to Le Harve
Parking Co-ordinates 49.5048, 0.172
What a lot of rain we've had over the last few days - for most of the 3 months we've been in France we've hardly seen any but we've certainly made up for it now! However, this morning the sun was peeking out so while we had the opportunity we went for another quick stomp around Honfleur before setting off for an Aire that's only about 4 miles from Le Harve Port.
To get there we needed to cross the River Seine without enduring a very long drive, so to do this we coughed up our €3.20 to cross the Pont du Toncarville suspension bridge which has been offering such a service since 1959! However, it seems it didn't quite always offer a safe passage because in 1996 it was discovered that the cables had corroded and the shoulders were crumbling 😨😱 but these were later replaced so other than the gale force wind trying to blow us off we were quite safe!
Saturday 27th and Sunday 28th November 2019 ☂☂⛆⛆⛆⛆⛆☔☔and very windy
Mileage 200 from Le Harve in France - Ripley which is 'home'
Parking Co-ordinates 53.06426, -1.39653
On Saturday morning we boarded the ferry 'Etretat' which was one of Brittany Ferry's economy boats, however we found it to be quite comfortable, and because it was almost empty we had our pick of places to sit. The crossing took just over 5 hours and was one of the roughest we've experienced during our travels, but once we'd settled in our reclining seats the 'bobbing and dipping' were hardly noticeable - but the same couldn't quite be said when we tried to walk about!! As we walked along the length of the boats corridors we staggered so much we must have looked as we'd just fallen out of a night club, and John said when he went for a pee it would have been very easy for his aim to be misdirected 😂😂😂
But we had no room to complain at all because disembarkation was only delayed by a few mins, and our onward journey home was completed without any traffic hold ups or bad weather!
Then Sunday was spent catching up with some of our family. We'd tried hard to keep our return date a secret so when we arrived to see John's Mum, and his sister and her husband there was a huge welcome along with plenty of hugs and kisses! Then later we were reunited with our daughter Sarah, son-in-law Paul, Grandson Thomas, Son Adam and Grandson Jack and we were treated to a huge delicious Sunday roast, and the only thing that could have made it better would have been if the rest of our crew could have been there because missing were daughter-in-law Vicky and Grandson Max and also Son Ben, daughter-in-law Louise and Granddaughter Evelyn, but looking on the bright side we've still got those reunions to be excited about.
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| Evelyn |
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| Max on his first bike |
And Jack and Thomas on their first days of Autumn term
We're planning to stay here for 5 weeks now so we'll have lots of time to catch up with them all, and also to have a bit of a holiday from blogging.
Then after that we're off to Spain for at least some of the winter, but depending on what happens with the big fat mess that is 'Brexit' it just might have to come back a bit sooner that we'd like!!
See you soon 😗😗
Click here to see all our British Camping spots
and here to see all 145 of our French ones.
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